[MR] Insult vs. Honor -- Chess vs. Go -- was: Re: 'Point of Honor'

[David W. James]

On 2009 Oct 01, at 8:26 AM, Siegfried wrote:
> In Chess, one never gives their opponent any kind of advantage.  All
> players start with exactly the same board, it would be insulting to  
> try
> to do something to give one side an advantage (like letting them  
> make 2
> moves before your first one).

> However, the renown for beating a 'better opponent', is all the  
> greater,
> because of what you had to overcome.  Modern chess rankings take this
> into account, and give you a much higher 'bump' in score for beating a
> higher ranked opponent.


    In ranked games, yes.  In informal games it is not at all unusual for  
a stronger player to give the other an advantage to even up the game,  
usually giving up some number of pieces depending on their relative  
skill levels.

    And the reason goes back to what I wrote earlier: to make the game  
fun.  I am not a great chess player (if I had a modern chess ranking  
it would probably be between 1000-1200).  Still, playing someone who  
is a beginner in the game would not be fun for me if I didn't take a  
handicap.

Kwellend-Njal
(About ten years ago I considered using the ranking structure of  
modern chess as a way of tracking and comparing fighters.  Besides the  
obvious question of how fine to cut it (the matrix gets a little  
complicated if you consider different fighting forms in the question)  
I worried about people getting away from using it as an informational  
tool and thinking that it actually mattered... which would make the  
game less period.)
--
    skadvaldurskjaldarmerkjafraedingur "heraldist's nuisance"