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Old 03-25-2011, 12:14 AM   #32
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Chess Skill Levels

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraydak View Post
Setting skill level by "best alive" can cause major problems when the population base varies significantly. The modern serious chess-playing population base is vastly greater than in , say, 1500. A factor of 1000 between the two populations seems reasonable. So either 1500s Europe has no "Top Master Alive", or the modern world has many.

This grates on me, as it happens. The modern world spends vast, vast amounts on education, and puts people in learning positions for far, far longer than earlier times. We are also much closer (not that close, just closer) to a legitimate meritocracy. This suggests that modern skill levels in most fields should be significantly higher than comparable skills pre-mass education.
American and British pilots had far less top scores then German and Japanese ones, even though they were on average at least equal.
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