... shame on you!
What an event!What an extravaganza!
For a change, the ENTIRE Space Coast Area Go Club Executive Committee was present: my own humble self, Mr. Michael Clark, and Mr. Stephen Schneider.
Of course, the ever-reliable Fred & Ginnie Ungewitter once again updated their shots and visas to make the trek from distant Daytona, bringing with them the constantly-improving display board in all it's magnificence.
Also from the northlands, Chris Bradley of New Smyrna (who usually attends the Daytona meetings) who brought his friend, Larry, to learn to play.
Highlight of the event was our friend Yuji Sano, returned from Japan only the day before, who played a couple of games with Jianxin (Jason) Pi -- friend of our Mad Romanian, Dan Micsa (more later) -- and a Chinese 2 dan.
Tom Knox made an appearance after missing a couple of sessions and our new member, John Davies, returned from last meeting full of enthusiasm to return to the Go fold.
Then, to round things out, we had several new friends:Last Friday, Bart Lipofsky and I went to the FIT showing of "The Go Masters" where we met a couple of interested students.One was out of town this weekend and couldn't come, but Attila Ondi, a delightful young man from Hungary, came to the meeting and exhibited quite an aptitude for someone who had only just read the rules and had never played an actual game.Then, we attracted Mike Russell and Megan Moore who seem to be genuinely interested in this most excellent game that we all seem to be addicted to. I sincerely believe
we'll see all 3 of them again.
Now, as promised, more about our resident Romanian 4 dan, Dan, who told both Jason and me that he would be at the meeting, but didn't show. Last session, he scribbled down some cryptic codes on a scrap of paper, telling me this was the beginning of a club rating system. It was to allow us to compute rankings and handicaps when we played against each other.Well, try as I might, I couldn't figure out exactly how the blasted thing worked, so I inquired of the eminent Mr. Micsa and received this reply:
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"The Infamous Billator's Crawling System" or short TIBCS.
All players are listed with their according rank.
-n means n Kyu; 0 means = 1D 1 = 2D and so on. The distance between each rank is = 1 = 1 handicap stone = 10points. If the difference is bigger than 9 stones extra difference is paid in points!
The players plays according with their rank difference if they win they receive some points if they lose they lose some receive.
The floating amount can be:
Rank
0.1 0.0
0.2 -5.0..-0.1
0.3 -10.0..-5.1
0.4 -15.0..-10.1
0.5 <-15.1 (these are not really players) :)
It is advised to have at least 2 clocks for a fairer game. Usually the time is 20..40 min per player plus 20..30 stones in five min byo yomi.
e.g
0.6(1D) plays with an -10.1(10K)
difference = 10.7 = 9H + 17 points
if 1D wins he will become: 0.7 and its opp -10.4
if the multikyu wins: 0.5 and its opp -9.8
This is a pretty nice logarithmic and easy to use way of making order in our chaos.
It is nice to have a paper with squares and to write the results in rows. When the raw is filled the player starts a new raw with last result as starting value.
The system is perfectible and everybody is welcomed to come with its useless ideas.
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Okay, so there it is. Now, I took some math a long time ago, calculus and differential equations, but I can't make head nor tail of the "The Infamous Billator's Crawling System". I asked Infamous Billator to come to the meeting so he could explain (and hopefully, run) "The System" but since he is obviously unreliable, I need some Beautiful Mind out there to translate
this Romanian doubletalk into some semblance of English.Volunteers? Doc? (either one) Steve? Fred? Anyone?
At any rate, be sure to try to make the next meeting in Daytona next Sunday. Mr. Yuji says he can come up there and it should be a lot of fun.There is even a rumor that the lovely, but very elusive, Miss Christine Aylward might grace us with her presence next Sunday.Surely, an occasion not to be missed.
You know, a few months ago, when Steve, Mike and I started this club, we were wondering if it would ever seriously grow beyond the three of us. Now, with a fairly reliable core group of 12 or so players, I'm beginning to believe that we have a solid foundation for promoting Go in Brevard County. The meetings seem to provide a pretty good mix of a forum in which to play against other -- live! -- players, and an opportunity to learn.Plus, we seem to be attracting one or two interested onlookers each time.Thank you all for helping to give our club a good foundation to build on.
I will pester all of you again shortly before our next session in Merritt Island.
george