Updated FAQ

A few years ago, Hjallti (I think it was Hjallti) put together the FAQ we have. He did a good job, especially considering he created it from scratch.

We've had several new games implemented since he wrote it and it badly needs updating. I'm in the process of updating it now.

http://www.edcollins.com/golem/

Comments are welcome.

Very good job!

Great job Ed.

(and thanks for mentionning me)

The formula for rating is on ypercubes player profile so you can copy it there (that's better than saying that the exact formula is not very interesting :-) )

Championships start nowadays 7 days after the last game finished and I see at first glance there is 10 days.

I'm happy I didn't take the trouble to link to ypers' profile, since he beat me in answering first the link is already here.

I just glanced through it and it looks much better than my effort.

I think I found two mistakes

empathy: every 4 days

gwg: known pool (rather than know pool)

By the way I would explain SON short (you could copy and paste my explanation (and turn it in to real english)) rather than only a link, but it's your choice of course.

Great job!

"What is SON?" is the most frequently asked question, and should be on your list.

Marius, it is already on his faq :)

Updates...

I've included the exact rating formula from ypercube's profile for those mathematical types who do indeed find it interesting.

The typo (know pool) is fixed.

If you check the Empathy past games page, it has been three days between games, (not four) for quite some time.

Yep, WHAT IS SON is indeed there and is asked often enough, it truly is a Frequently Asked Question.

Keep the suggestions coming...

Now I see it. It should be changed - simply remove the first sentence, and let the headline say "What is SON?", so that anyone seeking this can find it. I wonder how many forum posts there have been, asking the same question - and it IS in Richards FAQ :-)

Excellent idea.

Done.

For mothly cups, it should probably be mentioned that one is allowed to enter as many first round MCs as one like, and that winning one is sufficient for advancing to the 2nd round. Maybe it should also be mentioned that you only get "one account" in the second round, even if you win several first round tournaments (this can probably be rephrased...).

Very nice site! I'll read more later and give more suggestions if I have any.

K = 32 in the rating formula.

For GO, I think a difference of 50 "ordinary" rating points correspond to a difference of 1 kyu (or 1 dan). You should probably get this confirmed from others before stating it in the FAQ, though.

Marius, I am pretty sure that's correct.

monthly cup suggestions... done

K = 32... done

I'm not sure I'm familiar enough with GO's rating system for me to explain it properly! But let me see if I can figure it out and give it a try.

GO uses the same rating system as other games, but it is "translated" into kyu/dan, with a 50 point rating difference corresponding to a 1kyu/dan difference. The absolute value of the rating is (in my opinion) not important to translate, but some have suggested 1 dan as corresponding to a rating of 2000.

That helps. Thanks.

Connect6 : was invented by I-Chen Wu.

EinStein : instead of "You win if you move one of your cubes to the far corner of the grid, or if your opponent is unable to move."

You win a round if you move one of your cubes to the far corner of the grid, or if your opponent is unable to move. To win a game at golem, you have to win 3 rounds.

Go: Go 19x19 monthly cup tournament games are played with handicap.

Are they "rounds" in EinStein? I've always wondered what to call the individual 5 sub-games within an EinStein match. As the mc's already have "rounds", I've been trying to avoid that term, and have been using the term "board" or "frame" instead. (And darts gives us "legs" too.)

If you resign a game on your first move, your rating and that of your opponent is unchanged.

I think there are exceptions in Gomoku and Connect6 where the first move is fixed (not sure about Dvonn in rt with random start positions): If you resign on your first move as black, the system thinks it's your second move and you lose rating points. Can someone confirm?

Connect 6 and Professor I-Chen Wu... updated.

For the moment I'll update EinStein by describing each of the rounds as legs. (IF you're not familiar with it, one of the definitions of leg is "one of a designated number of contests that must be successfully completed in order to determine the winner." Check out dictionary.com to confirm.)

Go 19x19 Monthly Cup Tourney games... updated.

Yea, let's confirm if rating points are indeed lost on games where the first move is fixed before I update that one.

That's an interesting Twixt position you chose for your diagram. Black to move might have a way to win, but it's not necessarily as simple as it might seem. Do you happen to have the game number?

As long as you're working so hard, how about a link to the LG rules page for each game :-)

Thanks Ed!

No, I don't recall the game number but I DO recall wanting to post a diagram of a game played between two strong players. It's likely I grabbed a game played in a previous championship.

It's very possible the game is one of yours!

Correct me if I'm wrong, (I'll go back and check) but I don't believe LG even has rules for each game. (DVONN, for example.) Thus, what I'd really be doing is posting a link which, in effect, simply points to another link! Still, that might be a good idea. Let me see what it looks like. (It's not my intent to fill the page with links all over the place.)

Again, thanks for all the comments and suggestions. You guys are great.

Dvonn: Rated Tournament games and friendly (non-tournament) games are played with random start position (phase 1 of the game is skipped).

In Championship and Monthly Cup games are started with an empty board and the players place one stone each turn (phase 1 of the game).

Vacation days are officially 20 and not 21. While there is a bug or code side-effect that results in all players having actually 21 days, a fix or code change may alter the situation and set it back to 20 without any obvious notice.

I think that your FAQ should state something like that, so noone can complain if he loses from time after spending exactly 20 vacation days.

"Hey, where did my 21st day gone?"

Gomoku: five or more stones

I think 6 stones in not a win in Gomoku

It is, Hjallti. Just try it out :-)

In EinStein it would be better to change the defination in: "game" "match" and "round".

A "game" is one of the 3, 4 or 5 parts you have to play in a "match". If you win 3 "games" you win the "match". (So it is nessesery to change the button "resign game" in: "resign match"!!!)

A "round" is only in MCs. Because you play in "rounds" to get a winner of the month.

Gomoku and COnnect6: a game is considered draw if noone has won until 150th move.

Johnny: I think leg-game is better than game-match.

"Game" should have the same meaning across different games.

Another possibility (to replace "leg") could be "set". I guess those with English as a native language should decide.

about empathy days

oops... I already wondered why I never got in the first day (between 96 and 72 left, which) but it changed already a while ago from 4 to 3.

I think it is important for interested people that you make the point that the kyu-dan here are translations from the ELO system. By the way, it can be deduced from rating tournaments sections that 19-22.9kyu I believe is the same as 1600-1400 for the computer.

Interesting... Google's already indexed my page. Typing in 'Little Golem' in Google's search box lists my site 5th already. (And typing in 'Little Golem FAQ' lists me even higher!)

I've incorporated just about every suggestion mentioned. Most all of them were excellent suggestions. Thanks.

As I look it over, I think I did a pretty good job in laying it out, organizing it, etc., Maybe in a few years when this page becomes outdated, someone else can take over the helm and redo it, improve upon it further, etc.

Please note that if the page ever gets too large, its purpose is defeated. If the title of the page is accurate, it's not meant to clarify everything. It's meant to answer the most "frequently asked questions."

:)

In the rating formula, I think R1 and R2 are obvious, and you explain what K is. But you should also say what w is, I think.

Great job, overall, Ed! The game descriptions are very good -- lively and inviting.

Ed, I agree with your opinion:

" As I look it over, I think I did a pretty good job in laying it out, organizing it, etc."

Yes, you did. I like that clear design. The text is just right regarding amount and style.

Your site google-ranks higher than /a> currently, when searching "Little Golem FAQ" (first, to be precise!)

If you fear the page is too big, content menu with links was a great invention ;)

---

And another BTW: How's your Celica doing now ?

Hard to do links right manually, without preview or edit possibility ;)

My Celica is still going great. Hard to believe I've had it six full years already. I've never had a single problem with it yet... it's never been in the shop.

Much to my great dismay, Toyota discontinued the Celica a couple of years ago. When it's time to purchase another car (probably more 10 years from now, at the rate I'm putting on miles) I'm not going to know what to do... I've always loved the Celica.

Toyota's run almost forever if properly maintained. What do you expect, it is a Japanese car made in America...

Regarding actual Gomoku, Hjallti is correct that an "overline" (more than 5 in a row) does not win. But here on LG, we have radioactive mutant Gomoku. I suppose the LG version might been easier to program, and is easier for players to understand. Also the LG version has an opening protocol to balance the game, which standard Gomoku does not have. Overall I would call this an improvement. Renju, the version of Gomoku played by serious players, has IMO an overly complicated opening protocol in addition to restrictions on the patterns allowed for the first player.

Alright Art, I give up. What DOES the w stand for?

It's 1 if you win, 0 if you lose, 0.5 if you draw.

But that's what I don't understand. Why would that be part of the rating formula?

For example, if my chess rating is 1700 and I defeat a chessplayer who is also rated 1700, my rating will go up, but why would my new rating be any different if 1 point were awarded for a win, or if 2 points were awarded... or even 100?

What does one have to do with the other?

Well, you need a number in the formula, to distinguish between win, draw and loss. If you award 100 points for victory and 50 for a draw, you simply need to change the rest of the formula. It is calibrated for 1 point for win and 0.5 for a draw.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks.

in streetsoccer, for example, you can get 5,4,3,2,1 or 0 points :)

So, sometimes you lose rating points even winning the game (for example, 3:2)

You have put w = 1 - it looks like it's 1 even if you lose.

So after all your hard work, Ed, has Richard done anything to make your FAQ accessible? The only link to it I could find is in this thread. Hello Richard?

Some coments on your excellent work Ed:

1) Sonneborn-Berger is a misnamer. It should be called Neustadtl (which I, myself an International Chess Arbiter since 1998, just learned last year).

2) I have some doubts about the rating formula... will check it. Anyway, I was never able to discover one detail on LG's rating. When are Rating1 and Rating2 defined? As game starts (as is done on 'real' live play) or as it finishes (which is simpler to program!)

3) EinStein for 3 points is a LG variant (and improvement!). It was designed to be played for just one point.

4) About user profile, I would include a recommendation to save one's since they crash form time to time!

Marius: Thanks. I'll began working on those clarifications now.

David: No, but other than my original note to him, a couple of weeks ago, I haven't pursued the matter any further. Maybe I should do so again.

isometry: Correct, I forgot to change that. I'll do so now.

isometry,

Please confirm... I believe my rating formula

NewRating1 = Rating1 + K * { Result - [ 1 + 10 (Rating2 - Rating1) / 400 ] - 1 }

is the same one that ypercube has listed in his profile:

NewR1 = R1 + K * {w-[1+10(R2 - R1)/400]-1}