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- What
is an ELO Rating?
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- The ELO rating system typically starts
players off at 1500 (average rating). As
players complete matches, their rating gradually moves towards their
ultimate playing strength. Sometimes, if the skill level
of the group can be estimated, the starting point (average skill level) may differ.
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- ELO is based on math and
can be used to give a good
estimate of the probability of a certain level player beating
another.
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- What is a good ELO Rating?
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- In Chess, the World Champion might achieve
a standardized ELO rating of 2700 and more. In Backgammon, due to
the luck involved, the World Champ might achieve a standardized ELO rating
of about 2000.
- World Class BG player = 1900
- Advanced BG player
= 1800
- Intermediate BG player = 1650
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- What are the weaknesses of
ELO?
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- ELO is based on a weighted-average of opponents a player has played.
This is one reason why only tournament matches are used in many ELO
computations. The "random-seeding element" of a tournament removes
much of this weakness. Players cannot choose their opponents.
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- When applied to a "closed group," ELO will do its job and give a good
idea of how much better Player A is vs. Player B. However, it can't
tell how Player A in THIS Club or Group would do against a player in a different
Club or Tournament. ELO does not give much information outside
of this "closed group."
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- For instance, if a Club of
World Class Players and/or SNOWIE's played one another, their ratings
would all tend to hover around 1500! Another Club of all Novice
Players would ALSO tend to have ratings of 1500! How
do we counter these idiosyncrasies of ELO while maintaining the overall
benefits of the mathematical ELO approach?
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- At zRoundtable.com, we
use various quantitative analyses to compute and compare ratings across various Clubs
and Leagues. We use "benchmark" players to help compute
correlations and inter-relationships among different Clubs and
Leagues. We have come up with a standardized Backgammon Rating List which we call
a Zuperlist. Soon, Ace Point Club players will appear on this list.
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- Who or What is ELO?
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- The rating approach is based on work done
by Professor ELO, who
originally developed this approach for Chess.
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- What is a rampup?
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- In backgammon, it typically takes
"experience" (you earn 9 points of experience in a single 9-point
tournament match) of more than 1000 (closer to 1500) before a player's
"true or steady-state" rating is achieved. This could take
more than 20-25 tournaments worth of matches! This period of
"gradual change" is called the "rampup."
- Where can I read
more about ELO and/or FIBS ratings?
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- Check out this article
by Doug Zare for additional, interesting - and mathematical - thoughts
on ratings.
- Take a look at this graph
to estimate your winning % based on rating differential.
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