Hi Gian-Carlo, I have thought carefully about your question on determinning handicaps properly. It seems you are very right with your doubts
> The first obvious question is then: how will you determine the handicaps? A naive approach would be to take the KGS ranks of the bots. But even for those who really have this may be a problem. Namely, the program may use other/stronger hardware in the tournament, or may have made a jump in performance without playing openly on KGS. > As to the "large gaps in strength": the actual rating of Zen is > 1 stone above abakus, which is 1 stone above HiraBot. That seems > to conflict with your classification. Yes, but only according to KGS ranks. My impression yesterday was that Zen has made another jump in performance and is now more an 8-dan than a 7-dan. But this is indeed only a personal opinion and can not be taken for "serious" handicapping. Concerning abakus and Hirabot, it is indeed my opinion that they are at most 1 stone apart of each other. In total: my handicap idea seems not to be practicable. Ingo. _______________________________________________ Computer-go mailing list Computer-go@computer-go.org http://computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go
