Winboard Forum

Do there exist absolute standards for determining ELO strength?

I am thinking about something like: this and this version of such and such publicly available engine plays at 1200 (1500, 1800, 2000...) on the ELO scale if you set it for xxx minutes per move.

I would be especially interested in the lower ranges of the ELO scale.

Hi H.G.,

No, there are no absolute standards for Elo strength. You need to assign an average Elo rating BEFORE calculating the new Elo rating. Elo ratings vary quite a bit because of this.

I use the usual sites as indicators of strength but you need to adjust the ratings to make them more equal. To do this you need to take a well-known engine, such as Phalanx, and see how much higher/lower it is in the various rating systems and use the difference to adjust all other values from that particular rating system.

Most chess programs have approximately the same relative strength over a variety of time controls, but there are exceptions to this rule.

Ron