Life In 19x19

I was reading a book by Yoda Norimoto today where he mentioned that his games end in 1/2 point decisions more often than other players. Naturally I wondered whether this would show up in my numbers or not. The result of a quick and dirty sifting of a non-random sample of players gave the following based on even games played with non-zero komi.



Sure enough Yoda stood out at the top of the list. He estimated the rate at one game in ten but it is actually closer to one game in eight (of games played with komi anyway) across his career.

I have no deep thoughts on the list (although it is hard not to look at the names at the very bottom and not have one of those "Hmmm..." moments ). I simply offer it up for your amusement.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of half-point games each won. I would think the tougher players would have a higher percentage.

Whilst part (most?) of Lee Sedol's low percentage is due to his fighting style leading to games won or lost by resignation, I would also note that in his recent game against Gu Li in the Chunlan Cup he resigned in the very late endgame because he was half a point behind. Some players choose to play out a (close) game, some choose to resign.

DrStraw wrote:It would be interesting to know the percentage of half-point games each won. I would think the tougher players would have a higher percentage.

That was actually part of Yoda's point - he loses more than he wins. This was true 43%-57%. But it was much more fun to rather easily add more players to the list than rather tediously sort out the winning and losing percentages. Also recall that by the time we do that we are dealing with quite small numbers so comparisons among players will be unreliable.