In mid-August, the selection of the "National Junior Team" was still in full swing. One afternoon, in Chen Chaoyue's office in the chess academy, several people were discussing another important matter related to the Chinese Go world.

"Yu Tou, I think there are still some irrationalities in the scoring system you designed. As an extreme example, we now have 4 challenge-based title fights in our country. Let's assume ...... Of course, this is just a hypothesis, assuming that these 4 titles are concentrated in the hands of Mr. Ma alone. As for me, I made a big leap in all the qualifiers and finally won these 4 challenges. However, they lost to Mr. Ma with a score of 2-3 in the finals. So according to your scoring system, if the initial rating of the two people is the same, will my rating score be much higher than that of Mr. Ma in these 4 competitions? ”

"That should be a lot higher."

"Then I'll ask you again, if this is the case in reality. So is it possible that I will be selected as No. 1 in next year's Top 10 Fan Vote? ”

"This ......"

Yes, what Li Xiaoqiang is discussing with you now is the "rating score" system of Go, which everyone is very familiar with in later generations. This is a major initiative that the Chinese Chess Academy is preparing to implement this year. Considering the stakes, the management of the chess academy has discussed this matter many times. The reason why Yu Bin was present is that many people don't know that the Go world launched this rating system, but in fact, no professional team was invited, and the versatile Yu Bin was the main programmer of this scoring system.

It is said that such a thing would not have been Li Xiaoqiang's turn to take care of it. However, in order to make the "grading system" to be implemented more reasonable, he insisted on squeezing in today and used the experience of "people who have come before" to explain the irrationality of the "grading system."

Listening to Li Xiaoqiang's words, the people in the room fell into deep thought. Chen Chaoyue smiled at Li Xiaoqiang, and he even further expanded his brain supplement:

"It seems like a real problem, let's take another analogy, now there are only two World Series a year. If Xiaoqiang can make persistent efforts in the next "Toyo Securities Cup" and win the championship again, then even if Ma Xiao maintains a complete victory in China, I'm afraid no one thinks he is No. 1, right? This is indeed a problem, according to the current scoring system, the future "first person in the grade" may not be the first person recognized by everyone. Xiao Yu, is there any solution? ”

"There is a way to do this, which is to weight the rating according to the importance of the game. But that's where it comes to grading events. How to distinguish the importance of the event is my biggest headache at the moment. Jack bauer. Since you raised this question, do you have any good ideas? ”

In real history, the biggest problem with the "grading system" implemented by Chinese Go is that there is no classification of various Go competitions. Under the original system, the nature of the first round of qualifiers for a Chinese "celebrity battle" was the same as that of the "Fujitsu Cup" final, and it was not reflected in the ratings. Is this reasonable? Obviously a little unreasonable.

But Yu Bin's headache is obviously not unreasonable, and it is indeed a troublesome thing to classify the event. In the same example, everyone will think that the previous situation is unreasonable, but what if it is a challenge match of China's "celebrity battle" and the round of 16 of the "Fujitsu Cup"? Which is more important? Which game is higher? I'm afraid no one can say clearly.

For this case. Li Xiaoqiang naturally didn't have any good way, but Li Xiaoqiang still said his thoughts:

"Hehe, I think Yu Tou is a little obsessed, right? You know, no system in this world can be perfect. If everything is perfect. Nothing can be done. Since the classification of the event is difficult, it is not necessary to divide it so precisely, and simply divide it into a few rough grades. You see, we're not looking for the "most perfect" right now. Rather, it is in the pursuit of "more reasonable". ”

"Oh? That's the way to do it......"

Then, in the midst of your words and my words, everyone quickly divided this rough hierarchy:

The finals of the World Series are naturally the highest level of competition, which is divided into the first tier by everyone. The next round of the World Series 4. The round of 8, as well as the final of the title match of the domestic competition, are divided into the second pot. The round of 16 and round of 32 of the World Series are equivalent to the round of 4 and round of 8 of domestic competitions. And so on......

The discussion was very enthusiastic, and the issues were considered as comprehensively as possible. For example, for the women's competition, it was agreed that the rating would be calculated according to the downgrade of the men's competition in the same grade.

Although it can't be said to be perfect, Li Xiaoqiang is still quite satisfied with this change. In fact, the grading system implemented in real history does not reflect the true level of a chess player in many cases, but only reflects the state of a chess player over a certain period of time. For example, in real history, the phenomenon of the so-called "hierarchical curse" often occurs. There are many chess players who have become the number one player for a short time, but then it seems that they can't play chess, and there is news everywhere that he has lost.

Actually, this situation is not surprising. Because that kind of grading system can only reflect the state of one player. One player was in particularly good form at one point, relying on wins in some lower-level tournaments to cause his rating to skyrocket. But as we all know, there are always ups and downs, and no player can always be at his best. After becoming the number one in the rating, it is likely to be in a period of state decline. So it's no surprise that the so-called "rating curse" is called.

After discussing the issue of event classification, everyone was very happy. Yu Bin vowed to complete the revision as quickly as possible, hoping to try out a new grading system as soon as possible.

"Xiaoqiang, you shouldn't have any opinions now, right?"

"Of course, there are imperfections. However, if this system is only tried in China, I think it will be fine. I said Yu Tou, I hope you will continue to work hard, if you can launch the "World Rating System" in a few years, I think it will be truly perfect. ”

World Grading System! Xiaoqiang is right.

In fact, in the hierarchy system in the previous life, there was another flaw. That is, when it comes to international competitions, the rating is often not calculated exactly.

This system is good when used in domestic competitions, because both players have specific scores, so it is easy to calculate how much and who falls how much in a game. But it's not the same in international competitions, in all the world's athletic sports. After all, the situation of Go is special. The Go circles of China, Japan and South Korea are relatively independent closed circles. The Chinese chess world does not calculate a specific rating for foreign players.

In order to solve this problem in real history, only simple analogies can be used.

When the rank was first implemented, it was tied to the rank. For example, the ninth dan is 2560 points, the eighth dan is 2520 points, and so on according to the 40 points of a step. This is called the "initial score". Of course, in real history, there is also an "initial rating" set for super-first-class players. At that time, the "initial grade score" of Nie Ma and the two was higher than that of the other nine dans, reaching 2600 points.

In this way, when it comes to international competitions, the reference score can only be given according to this method. Do you win Kobayashi Koji, then according to the standard of winning super first-class, your opponent's score is counted as 2600 points. What the. Did you win Satoru Kobayashi? Then I'm sorry, but your rank won't go up that much, because your opponent's score will only count towards 2560 points......

Li Xiaoqiang vaguely remembers that for a period of time, he regarded Li Shifo as a special case. Because after several years of implementing the rating system, there are many Chinese chess players with a rating of more than 2,600 points. Then according to the initial standard, Li Shifo's grade score can only be set to 2600. It may be that the Chinese Go community itself is embarrassed. It seems to set Li Shifo's score to 2640 or 2680.

"If you want to really improve the rating system, you have to include all professional chess players. I think it's interesting to establish a real world Go rating system. Yu head. Work hard, I'm optimistic about you. ”

Hearing Li Xiaoqiang's "wild words", including Chen Chaoyue and others, smacked their tongues one after another:

"Xiaoqiang, your heart is so big."

Is it big-hearted? Li Xiaoqiang himself doesn't think so. Establish a world grading system. The most important thing is nothing more than a database. With the advent of the Internet age, this job is not difficult at all technically. For example, in later generations, a Korean professor. He was able to personally launch the world rankings of professional chess players.

The most critical problem now is that the current Chinese Go game does not have that awareness, or it is not ready for that.

Get ready to lead the world chess scene!

The so-called "first-class country sells standards", in fact, if it is really possible to come up with a reasonable world Go rating system. There are so many benefits here.

"As the birthplace of Go, it's time for Chinese Go to think about these things......"

At this moment, Li Xiaoqiang thought so.

Yu Bin's speed was really fast, and it didn't take long after this conversation ended. In late August, the Chinese Go Association announced to the outside world that the Chinese chess world would begin to trial the Go rating system. It is hoped that this will replace the rank system, which has not been adapted to the trend. Of course, as a long-standing tradition, the Chinese Chess Association is not ready to cancel the rank system. It will run parallel to the grading system. only

It is the future assessment or selection criteria, etc., which will mainly depend on the rating of the chess player.

Therefore, in the summer of 1994, the world chess scene seemed to have entered an era of change. The restart of the Shin-Kiya Dojo in Japan, the construction of the winning echelon of the Chinese Go national team, and the implementation of the rating system. One big move after another overwhelmed everyone.

Now that China and Japan have made big moves, what about South Korea?

There is no change in the Korean Go world for the time being. After Cao Yanzi lost the "Fujitsu Cup" final, they kept a lot of low profile during this time, and the entire Korean Go community seemed to be licking their wounds.

Of course, Koreans are stubborn, and it is not so easy to convince them. The time has just entered September, and some Korean media have released cruel words:

See you at the Toyo Securities Cup! ”

The Chinese Chess Academy has received a notice from the South Korean side that the first two rounds of the 6th "Toyo Securities Cup" will be advanced to the end of September.

In the dormitory of the chess academy, Li Xiaoqiang is flipping through the latest report on Korean Go. Of course, there's nothing new about this story. It's just reported that in a certain title battle in their country, Cao Yanzi was ravaged by Li Shifo again.

What's interesting is that picture. In the photo, Cao Yanzi, who had a few gray hairs, looked at Li Shifo opposite with very innocent eyes. It is accompanied by a narration from a journalist:

"Now, it's your turn!"

"Xiaoqiang, I really don't know what you're laughing at, inexplicable. It's inexplicable. Is there anything else funny about this? Reporter Zhang Da, who brought news to Li Xiaoqiang, asked.

"I was thinking, if this narration was changed to a few words, it would be more appropriate......"

Now, it's Ma Xiaofei's turn to exert his strength......

Li Xiaoqiang thought silently. (To be continued......)