Philadelphia tournament a scam??

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Avatar of x-5058622868

The post-event rating mentioned is for all post-event ratings recorded from 3/26/12 - 3/26/13.

Avatar of WanderingPuppet
pellik wrote:

We've met a few times, actually. I just never knew it until you put a picture of yourself up here. We've even played a few casual blitz games.

haha, lol.  hopefully the blitz games were fun, my ambition for complex and original positions generally results in completely crazy games, otherwise i get distracted.  somehow i suspect we played at the world open blitz tho i could be wrong.  don't know you by your online identity however.   maybe u could pm me or not if you prefer.

Avatar of bigpoison

Yeah, "she" is way, way better than "he/she".

And perfectly, grammatically, acceptable.

Avatar of WanderingPuppet
Sunshiny wrote:

The post-event rating mentioned is for all post-event ratings recorded from 3/26/12 - 3/26/13.

correct.  if you are below the section limit before the start of the tournament (and haven't been above 30 pts above the section limit in the past year and you are not an unrated player - have less than 26 games, although the limits on them are sometimes different or don't exist depending on section) and win your section, you will win the full prize.

Avatar of TheGreatOogieBoogie
SmyslovFan wrote:
ScorpionPackAttack wrote:
SmyslovFan wrote:

Here's how it works: Let's say a person's pre-tournament rating is 1750. She plays 6 games in the tournament against an average rating of 1750.

If she wins 6/6, her new rating will be 1869, and she was almost certainly sandbagging.

If she wins 5/6, her performance will still be expert level, but her new rating will only be 1823. At 5/6, she still has an excellent chance to win the whole thing! 

If her original rating was 1710 and she scored 5.5 against an average of 1750, she would also win the entire prize!

Umm, who is this "she" you're referring to?!  It's either "he/she" or "he" unless you're referring to a specific female. 

 

...

Wow. I said, "let's say a person..." And I can't make that imaginary person female? Have fun justifying that one to yourself.

You could, just qualify it with, "Let's say Little Suzy's rating..." or whatever and subsequent shes, it's less strange that way if you want to say "she". 

"Let's say a person's rating..." In my head is a guy, then you write, "she", it's weird.  "One" could be used instead like above since it's gender neutral.  Sometimes "they" could be used as well.  "He" never quite sounds wrong (unless of course an annotated game refers to a female GM as "he".  WGMs are not "he" lol and I've actually seen this, it's quite funny buy also weird), although "they" sounds good.  

Avatar of Elubas

"He" simply has more than one use. In some cases, it means a male; but it can also mean the exact same thing as "one." She can also be used in this way, although it's less common and so it may catch people by surprise and confuse them just a little.

I would imagine the reason "he" is more commonly used is due to some old trend that never went away. Language is meant for clear communication -- as long as everyone is easily aware of what you are talking about, language has done its job. This is easier to do if you use the popular meanings of words.

Even if I analyzed a game between two WGMs, I might use both "he" and "she."

For example, if I was talking about opening theory or something, and I said "here black usually plays 6...d5, but he's a little worse," I'm using "he" in the general sense. But I might follow that by saying, "but black decided she wanted to play the more solid 6...d6 instead," which is referring specifically to the player who played in the game I am annotating.

Avatar of bigpoison

Not really.  The "popular meanings of words" are often counterintuitive.

Avatar of Elubas

I'd go even further -- the popular meanings might even be plain stupid in some sense. But if everyone knows what they are referring to, I'd say the point is moot -- language has done its job.

Avatar of Elubas

The word "disinterested" is often incorrectly thought to mean "not interested," when it really means "impartial." In fact, I think I remember reading something that this word may eventually either be taken out of the "official" language, or have its meaning changed to mean "not interested" after all. Or at least, I read something sort of like that.

And that might make sense -- if the meaning of the word is something people are less likely to get mixed up and thus misunderstand each other.

That way, the educated person who actually looks up the definition of disinterested will not confuse someone who just uses the "dis" to get a clue of what the word is about. With the current definition of the word, misunderstandings like this probably occur.

Avatar of Elubas

lol, I like that -- s/he. I bet it would be more popular if it didn't look so weird. I mean, technically it doesn't make sense based on the way we use slashes, but again, if everyone knows what it's supposed to mean, perhaps it doesn't matter.

Maybe (s)he would work. Although that would break down when you want to say "him" or "her."

Avatar of TheGreatOogieBoogie
Elubas wrote:

The word "disinterested" is often incorrectly thought to mean "not interested," when it really means "impartial." In fact, I think I remember reading something that this word may eventually either be taken out of the "official" language, or have its meaning changed to mean "not interested" after all. Or at least, I read something sort of like that.

And that might make sense -- if the meaning of the word is something people are less likely to get mixed up and thus misunderstand each other.

That way, the educated person who actually looks up the definition of disinterested will not confuse someone who just uses the "dis" to get a clue of what the word is about. With the current definition of the word, misunderstandings like this probably occur.

Similar to how people think momentarily means in a moment when it really means for a moment? 

Avatar of BabyRhinoRainbow
Elubas wrote:

I would imagine the reason "he" is more commonly used is due to some old trend that never went away. 

Most people call that "trend" patriarchy XD.

Avatar of Elubas

Haha, I'm sure that was the origin of it, but it has nothing to do with its use presently, at least, I would hope!

Avatar of waffllemaster
Elubas wrote:

Haha, I'm sure that was the origin of it, but it has nothing to do with its use presently, at least, I would hope!

Oh yeah, modern times there's no such thing, at least not in the United States.  In 1917 the patriarchy officially ended when we had 1 woman in congress.  How could I forget lol.

Avatar of Elubas

And so men took revenge by maintaining this trend? I would guess it is maintained to avoid the confusion of starting a new one, but excuse my ignorance if this is not the case.

It's of course a fairly trivial point though -- I'm sure either way will be satisfactorily clear.

Avatar of Abhishek2

IM GOING TO THE ONE IN ARLINGTON. ARE YOU COMING.

Avatar of DrSpudnik

I DON'T KNOW!

Avatar of Ubik42

I want to be as clear about this as I possible can be. You can use he or she. However, he/she is expressly verboten.

Avatar of waffllemaster
Elubas wrote:

And so men took revenge by maintaining this trend? I would guess it is maintained to avoid the confusion of starting a new one, but excuse my ignorance if this is not the case.

It's of course a fairly trivial point though -- I'm sure either way will be satisfactorily clear.

Just joking with you a bit.  I figured someone who was as sensitive to gender issues as you may feel that women are underrepresented in United States government (which they are) to the extent that you'd still call this country a patriarchy.

Avatar of Elubas

Yeah, I get what you mean.