I'm considering this proposal to rate handicaps separately, still haven't decided but it's appealing.
My plan was to simply use the same scheduling algorithm I currently use. I would take the weaker "base" player and see if handicap versions of himself more closely matches the ELO rating needed to give an even game. Until handicap versions are established of each player, I would have to make some initial assumptions about the strength of the handicap entities. One possibility is to wait for a player to get established before creating the handicap entities. Once they are established, I estimate a rating for the handicap versions and give them pretty high initial K factors. Another way is that when a player is first created, several handicap versions spring into existence and I treat them all the same. They are all just unrated entities. It this case the scheduling algorithm would have to change - since 2 handicap players cannot play the same game. But then it's possible to have serious mismatches, which the handicap system is supposed to try to solve. - Don On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 14:19 -0500, House, Jason J. wrote: > > >However, I will probably maintain the current scheduling > >algorithm which > >will make the larger mismatches fairly rare though not impossible. > >This > >will be good because it means we will still prefer non-handicap games, > >and > >I'm guessing that the vast majority of games will not be be large > >hendicap ones. In other words, we won't schedule randomly > >just because > >we can handicap to make it fair. > > > Actually, how will the scheduler and ratings get handled? I saw a > proposal for treating bots receiving (or giving?) handicap as a > different entity. I assume you'd do a two stage match-up... One to > pick the pair of bots to play and then pick the handicap. > > I worry a bit about the weaker programs never playing a stronger > program without any handicap and possibly never benefiting from defeats > of stronger programs. _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
