Re: [gnugo-devel] GnuGO rating on KGS

[Arend Bayer]

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Robert Cohen wrote:

> Bit of a nit picky question.
> 
> Is Gnu Go really getting weaker and weaker.
> Ive noticed that over time its rating according to the KGS rating graphs has
> been going steadily down. The graph is here
> http://kgs.kiseido.com/en_US/graphPage.jsp?user=TheGNUGo
> 
> Since last Oct its rank has decreased from 9kyu to 12kyu.
> 
> I like to think that with all the work people have been doing patching it,
> it should be getting better.

These are all fluctuations of the KGS rating system. There
was a big change in the rating system that is responsible for the drop
in Dec 2004. The drop in Aug 2005 happened in a period where TheGNUGo
didn't even play a single game. 

As a comparison look at
http://kgs.kiseido.com/en_US/graphPage.jsp?user=NGCBot
which has been running 3.6 since it was released IIRC.

> So is just coming up against better players.
> Or was the rank inflated to start with and its just been getting more
> accurate.

KGS ranks will never be accurate I am afraid.

Arend