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OzOne Project
Press
release
Player
ratings are here
Clubs can now rate their players using the CARDS rating
system. A rating is an accurate
measure of the player’s current standing at bridge. This is so because the
system takes
into account the strength of the partner and that of the opponents. It also
puts more
weight on recent games. The system is akin to the international chess rating
system.
The benefit of ratings
With ratings all players have the opportunity to be recognised every time
they play; it is
an achievement to perform above your rating no matter where you finish. At
the end of each
session the players can see whether they have increased or decreased their
rating in that
session. They can also see how strong the field was and where they were
expected to
finish.
Organisers can use the rating based seeding to make more equitable movements
in events.
Clubs wanting to conduct handicapped events will not have disputes about the
validity of
the results. Master titles
A rating is a number that is akin to a percentage. They range from about 35
to 65 with 50
being average. Players are presented with master certificates as soon as
their rating
reaches certain levels. The first certificate is for a rating of 44, then
every three
points thereafter up to 62, when you become a Grand Master. While your
rating might go up
and down according to your recent performances, a Master Title is yours to
keep. It
remains as recognition of a level of excellence that the player has
achieved.
Development team The CARDS system has been developed by George Kozakos, Ian
McKinnon and
Paul Marston. The mathematics of the algorithm have been written by John
Hartigan, who is
the Eugene Higgins Professor of Statistics at Yale University. He is also
the consultant
to the US Chess Federation charged with the task of fixing their ELO rating
system. The
system was first developed a number of years ago and it has been operating
successfully in
a DOS environment since then. Just recently the system has just been
rewritten for Windows
with results posted to the Internet and it is thanks to this development
that the system
is now being offered for general release.
Ratings and masterpoints Ratings are not designed to replace masterpoints.
Masterpoints
largely reflect how long a player has been playing rather than a player’s
current
performance and that is quite different from ratings.
Special offer to use CARDS The first 30 clubs to apply to use the rating
system will be
supported by OzOne. With this help they will have FREE setup and FREE use of
the system
for the first year. This will give them the chance to see how popular the
system is with
the players. After the first year there will be a charge of about 7c per
player plus there
will be a setup cost for new clubs coming in.
The reason that OzOne is supporting the introduction of bridge ratings in
Australia is
that it will be of real benefit to competitive bridge here. Everyone will
benefit from
knowing where they stand at bridge and players who achieve very high ratings
will
naturally come to the attention of the OzOne committee, who have the job of
fostering true
talent.
Installation process
It takes a while before a club will see the value of ratings. This is
because the system
needs time to gather enough data to produce accurate ratings. The normal
lead time is from
three to five months depending on how often club members play bridge. Then
congresses and
other tournaments will be able to offer ratings. Congresses and clubs that
offer ratings
will be more popular to the players who have a rating, helping them to boost
numbers.
Which scorer to use
You can keep using your current scoring software no matter what it is
provided it has a
CARDS interface. We will provide any software manufacturer with the
necessary
specifications.
Ian McKinnon’s ASE scoring system version 8 has the CARDS interface.
Special offer on ASE 8
Ian McKinnon is offering the first 30 clubs to join the rating system the
opportunity to
buy ASE Scorer Version 8 for just $199. This represents a 50% discount on
the normal price
of $399.
See the ASE Scorer web site for
more details.
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