From: Pieter Stouten <stouten <at> INAME <dot> COM>
Date: 8 sep 1999
Subject: Re: Unified ratings

On 99/09/07 at 16:30 -0400, Larry Kaufman wrote:

>I have updated the USSF ratings for the four American players who
>participated in the recent events in Europe (Pan-Atlantic and European
>Open shogi tournaments).  I used European Elo ratings for those opponents
>who had them, and approximate performance ratings for those who didn't.
>The results: I gained 19 points to 2348, George Fernandez lost 12 points
>to 2067, Fassil Bekele gained 29 points to 1991, and Ray Kaufman gained
>15 points to 1741.
>
Did you apply the (reversed) correction formula for European ratings
below 1900 to Ray's rating prior to calculating his gain? I am aware
the conversion should be applied once only to bring European and
American ratings in line, but it is an interesting thought
experiment: Ray's rating after USA->Europe conversion should be
higher; his gain would therefore be smaller; but back transformation
of his "European" rating would multiply his gain by 1.5, possibly
leading to a gain similar to the one you calculated. Anything smaller
than or around 15 would be circumstantial evidence that the
conversion formula is reasonable.

Ciao,

Pieter