[Retros] Building a complete and friendly retro library

[Otto Janko]

Hi Tom,
 
Hm - the "best of" / "record lists" are already there, and are also
published in chess magazines. For example, the type A/B/C/D last move
records list. Why is wrong to put these lists into a Wiki? Not doing wo will
not make the existing lists disapear. There seems to be a demand to have
such lists.
 
"record lists" and "best of" lists are different. Maybe the FIDE albums come
near to "best of" lists. And the goal of every tournament is to compile a
"best of" list based on the opinion of the judge (from a limited number of
problems).
 
~ÔttÔ~


  _____  

From: retros-bounces at janko.at [mailto:retros-bounces at janko.at] On Behalf Of
Pastmaker at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 4:09 PM
To: andrew at anselan.com; retros at janko.at
Subject: Re: [Retros] Building a complete and friendly retro library



Dear colleagues, 

I would strongly advise against any "best of" listings in a database.  It is
entirely subjective no matter what we may like to think, and therefore
pointless.  But it is also harmful to a discipline.  

Even the "records" we keep (not subjective - - except, of course, as to
which records are worth maintaining) are often problematic, the interest in
those statistics causing compositions to be misinterpreted as task efforts.
For example, I have frequently had comments about the number of retroscreens
in a composition, which had nothing to do with the point of the composition
(the number, per se, never having been of any interest to this composer).  I
know that this proclivity to develop statistics has also disturbed other
composers.

Imagine a central database of online literature with a list of the N best
books ever written, or a database of art with a list of the K best
paintings.  But perhaps I am a hopeless antique, and such things already
exist.

Please don't do it with chess compositions.

Thomas Volet






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