Life In 19x19

HermanHiddema wrote:

John Fairbairn wrote:What struck me instantly about this photo is how few of the players are looking at the board. In my experience that's not pro or insei behaviour.

John Fairbairn wrote:...focusing your attention on the board at all times...

Interestingly, as can be seen in honte's second set of photos, the semi-finalists (Shikshin, Surma, Pop and Kachanovskyi) are focussed on the board immediately (at 2-5 moves into the game).

Personally, I have the experience of playing a young Korean insei who did not focus on the board. Rather, he would study the position after my move for 5 seconds, then look at the ceiling and do all the calculation in his head. And his reading was frightfully accurate too

Amelia wrote: I recently stumbled on that story http://rongen17.home.xs4all.nl/Cho/Stor ... ry002.html
I guess it drills down the point that paying attention to the board is important

HermanHiddema wrote:Where did you hear that?

HermanHiddema wrote:Where did you hear that?

quantumf wrote:

HermanHiddema wrote:Where did you hear that?

It seems to have been corrected in the meantime, but the original email announcement of this tournament http://www.andalucia-go.org/index.php/e ... ament-2015 spoke of 3p's and 2p's

Uberdude wrote:

HermanHiddema wrote:Where did you hear that?

My guess is someone looked at his EGD page and saw his GoR as "2755 (3p)". In the EGF rating system 7d at 2700 is considered equivalent to 1p (New 1ps into the system are set at 2700) with 30 rating points per pro dan rank (rather than the 100 per amateur rank) so 2755 translates to 3p. When Pavol and Ali got their 1p they got reset to 2700, getting a rating point boost (from 2654 and a peak of 2686 for Pavol, and from 2658 (peak) for Ali, since then Pavol has risen to 2717 and Ali dropped to 2673). Ilya's 2755 on the other hand is earned from his skill in winning games rather than pro qualification tournaments, so it would be rather perverse if his rating were to be reset down to 2700!

Javaness2 wrote: On a side note, I think that the treatment of pro ratings is a bit naive. The idea that 3 ranks normally means 1 stone is something that seems to have handed down from folklore, and bears scant resemblance to reality.

Javaness2 wrote:On a side note, I think that the treatment of pro ratings is a bit naive. The idea that 3 ranks normally means 1 stone is something that seems to have handed down from folklore, and bears scant resemblance to reality.

Uberdude wrote:The resetting of new 1ps at 2700 when they are not 2700 strength seems potentially more important, but still rather minor.

Pippen wrote:I think the professional Go must behave professional, i.e. trying to go for the money. One way is to build up an image, a brand...and one important aspect is clothing. No top venture would sponsor guys that look like trivial students. Go tournaments and go players must be treated very closely to what composers and musicians in a classic orchestra are treated like. There must be a smell of elitarity around them and that starts with a dress and behaviour code. The next step has to be to choose only elitarian hotels for the top tournaments, even if that means less tournaments, continued by an constant push for publicity by trying to offer articles to big newspapers and to cover main matches through the Internet constantly. And then of course EGF has to use the advantage of the chaotic asian market and establish a simple world champ system very closely to what chess did till 1995.

I know that sounds bold and compromises a lot of inherent go values - it would destroy the loveliness of the small go community in the western world - but if you think professionally, if you want someone to "show you the money" you gotta act accordingly.

Bill Spight wrote: Circa 1700 a difference of 2 pro ranks was equivalent to one handicap stone. It was common for pros to alternate between, say, giving the weaker pro 2 stones or 3 stones. By 1900 and earlier, pro ranks had tightened, so that a difference of 3 pro ranks was equivalent to one handicap stone. By 1980 or so, it seems like pro ranks had tightened even more, partly by having weaker 9 dans, and partly by having stronger shodans. Ing equated a difference of 4 pro ranks to one handicap stone. Pros don't seem to give handicaps to pros anymore, so who knows?