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</head><body><p><br></p><blockquote type="cite">On 01 October 2018 at 17:35 Alison Bexfield via tournament-org <<a href="mailto:tournament-org@lists.britgo.org">tournament-org@lists.britgo.org</a>> wrote:<br><br><br><br>There is an outside chance the five Dan will not win all their games so <br>there must be some open even games at the top. </blockquote><p>the rating system combined with handicapping is surely designed to achieve 50-50ish not "an outside chance" (I'm guessing 8-1, 16-1 on four stones difference) <br></p><blockquote type="cite">We do not know whether the five Dan is a genunine five Dan. </blockquote><p>I think this is extending the domain of the problem beyond its range <br></p><p>We could equally argue we do not know the others are genuine either, and a simple extension would be to ignore ratings altogether <br></p><p>The problem is that it is a sparse tournament not where to set the bar. </p><p>That is why in., e.g., the London Open we encourage pre-registration and maintain a date stamped list of attendees, to minimise sp<br></p><p><br></p><blockquote type="cite">As a one Dan I have no problem playing a five Dan on evens. I relish the <br>opportunity knowing I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. </blockquote><p>I am not sure it is possible to extract a general principle from a specific preference<br></p><p><br></p><blockquote type="cite">I generally would be upset to turn up and find what was advertised as one <br>thing had turned into a handicap event without any notice of it.</blockquote><p>A well managed tournament would manage expectations. It might be an optimising solution to suggest to the 5 dan that they were wasting their time (or for the insecure, and since we are discussing chance, that their current rating is in play in an asymmetric bet) <br></p><blockquote type="cite">If there was s difference of say eight grades between top player and <br>next ranking player it would be a courtesy for the organisers to let the <br>top player know in advance.</blockquote><p>It would similarly be showing respect to the weaker players not to treat them as cannon fodder - they are the ones funding the event <br></p><p class="default-style"><br></p></body></html>