14-10-2011, 11:59 AM
To Andy McCulloch:
I recognised the "trap" joke - I remember hearing it in 1967, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was actually far older, and was simply updated from time to time depending on who is fighting whom.
Going back to junior grades, the fact is that for a fast-improving player the published grade is already about six months out of date at the start of the season, and in some cases the difference between published grade and true strength is greater than the junior addition even at that time. As anyone who has watched them or played against them can testify, there's no way Kai was a 1230 at the start of this season, or Andrew a 1217 - their current grades (calculated under the 200-up rule) of 1620 and 1516 respectively are probably not far away from their true start-of-season strength (their junior additions make them only 1350 and 1327).
OK, we're talking about a small number of players, and there would be no point in putting a lot of effort into changing the grading system to make a small number of grades more accurate for a time. But if one or two quick and easy tweaks to the system would increase the accuracy of fast-risers' grades, that might be of lasting benefit.
I recognised the "trap" joke - I remember hearing it in 1967, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was actually far older, and was simply updated from time to time depending on who is fighting whom.
Going back to junior grades, the fact is that for a fast-improving player the published grade is already about six months out of date at the start of the season, and in some cases the difference between published grade and true strength is greater than the junior addition even at that time. As anyone who has watched them or played against them can testify, there's no way Kai was a 1230 at the start of this season, or Andrew a 1217 - their current grades (calculated under the 200-up rule) of 1620 and 1516 respectively are probably not far away from their true start-of-season strength (their junior additions make them only 1350 and 1327).
OK, we're talking about a small number of players, and there would be no point in putting a lot of effort into changing the grading system to make a small number of grades more accurate for a time. But if one or two quick and easy tweaks to the system would increase the accuracy of fast-risers' grades, that might be of lasting benefit.