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Uri Blass wrote:My understanding is that
if you imrove the engine's strenghth by 50 elo every month then there is no problem and even if you improve the engine by 100 elo every month there is no problem.

My experience (from 2003) is different. The current rating will be compared with the rating that was given on the application for the computer account. In my case I registered in 2002 with 2000 as the Baron was still in early development, and at the time of locking (a year later) it was a few hundred elo higher than that (don't remember exactly, but it was 2300-2400 or so). But perhaps things have changed ...
Richard.

pijl wrote:

Uri Blass wrote:My understanding is that
if you imrove the engine's strenghth by 50 elo every month then there is no problem and even if you improve the engine by 100 elo every month there is no problem.

My experience (from 2003) is different. The current rating will be compared with the rating that was given on the application for the computer account. In my case I registered in 2002 with 2000 as the Baron was still in early development, and at the time of locking (a year later) it was a few hundred elo higher than that (don't remember exactly, but it was 2300-2400 or so). But perhaps things have changed ...
Richard.

Did they (FICS) lock your account for that reason (that Baron was few hundred elo stronger) specifically?

Regards,
Vlad.

vladstamate wrote: Did they (FICS) lock your account for that reason (that Baron was few hundred elo stronger) specifically?

To be precise:
At that time the sysadmin that was running the tournament that the Baron was playing, forfeited the Baron from the tournament and locked the account because it was no longer of the strength that I registered it with. Being the author of the program was no valid argument, apparently.
As I did not receive a response at my complaint, I figured this was FICS policy and never went back.
Richard.

pijl wrote:

Uri Blass wrote:My understanding is that
if you imrove the engine's strenghth by 50 elo every month then there is no problem and even if you improve the engine by 100 elo every month there is no problem.

My experience (from 2003) is different. The current rating will be compared with the rating that was given on the application for the computer account. In my case I registered in 2002 with 2000 as the Baron was still in early development, and at the time of locking (a year later) it was a few hundred elo higher than that (don't remember exactly, but it was 2300-2400 or so). But perhaps things have changed ...
Richard.

I guess their general concern is that (barring provisional) systems the rating system as a whole is zero-sum. Thus, when a chess entity
improves it takes points away from all the rest. This is a problem on ICC as well. You especially see it when some newbie comes in with
a program off the net and things he is going to have the highest rated bot. He gets a 2500 rating then buys SMP Rybka and gains a
few hundred points. Eventually, he reads the manual or somebody tells him about book tuning and he gains 300 more points.
For a grand total of 500 points taking from the rest. Then add in the ICC rule that tries to center the population around 1600 and that reduces the rest even more.

I have been measuring the effect of this and some other things. I watch Telepath's ICC rating and notice that it has not gained on ICC
as well as it has gained in my home testing. The home testing is more accurate as I am using the same static opponents and machines.