Trivia Question: What state has the highest average rating?

[sloan]

@AndyApplebaum

interesting! I wonder what the standard deviations by state are?

Personally, I wonder about the kurtosis.

[SpeedOne]

@nolan

OK, here’s another question, also with two parts:

Rank the states in the top 6 and bottom 5 in terms of the number of active masters in them. (N-Cal and S-Cal are two separate states for this purpose.)

This is tougher!

The previously identified top 6 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters (ranked in descending order):

1. Southern California ~ 195 total masters (188 adult members (am), 7 junior members (jm))
2. New York ~ 147 total (133 am, 14 jm)
3. New Jersey ~ 76 total (73 am, 3 jm)
4. Massachusetts ~ 57 total (55 am, 2 jm)
5. Northern California ~ 27 total (23 am, 4 jm)
6. Connecticut ~ 17 total (15 am, 2 jm)

The previously identified bottom 5 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters (ranked in ascending order):

1 – 3 tie) Idaho, Maine, Mississippi – 1 master
4) Kentucky – 4 masters
5) Hawaii – 8 masters

[kevin_bachler]

@sloan

@AndyApplebaum

interesting! I wonder what the standard deviations by state are?

Personally, I wonder about the kurtosis.

As I recall, data with high kurtosis peaks near the mean, declines rapidly, and has heavy tails.

Oh crud. I think I’ve got high kurtosis.

[sloan]

@kbachler

@sloan

@AndyApplebaum

interesting! I wonder what the standard deviations by state are?

Personally, I wonder about the kurtosis.

As I recall, data with high kurtosis peaks near the mean, declines rapidly, and has heavy tails.

Oh crud. I think I’ve got high kurtosis.

No - you have a faulty memory.

[nolan]

Since kurtosis is in essence a comparison to a ‘normal’ curve, you are assuming that the distribution of USCF ratings for adults, whether in a single state or nationally, conforms to a normal curve. There is no reason to assume that is the case, so I think Ken is pulling our legs by raising that measure.

[sloan]

@nolan

Since kurtosis is in essence a comparison to a ‘normal’ curve, you are assuming that the distribution of USCF ratings for adults, whether in a single state or nationally, conforms to a normal curve. There is no reason to assume that is the case, so I think Ken is pulling our legs by raising that measure.

Not at all. Skew and Kurtosis values help you decide IF the distribution is “Normal”, or not.

If you have only mean and variance (or report only mean and variance) you ARE assuming a Normal Distribution. When it’s NOT Normal, Skew and Kurtosis tell you a little bit about HOW it differs.

They aren’t hard to compute - even Excel has built-in functions.

Perhaps you meant to say that these functions more-or-less assume a uni-modal distribution?

[SpeedOne]

@sloan

@nolan

Since kurtosis is in essence a comparison to a ‘normal’ curve, you are assuming that the distribution of USCF ratings for adults, whether in a single state or nationally, conforms to a normal curve. There is no reason to assume that is the case, so I think Ken is pulling our legs by raising that measure.

Not at all. Skew and Kurtosis values help you decide IF the distribution is “Normal”, or not.

If you have only mean and variance (or report only mean and variance) you ARE assuming a Normal Distribution. When it’s NOT Normal, Skew and Kurtosis tell you a little bit about HOW it differs.

They aren’t hard to compute - even Excel has built-in functions.

Perhaps you meant to say that these functions more-or-less assume a uni-modal distribution?

Ken,
Excellent!

[SpeedOne]

@SpeedOne

@nolan

OK, here’s another question, also with two parts:

Rank the states in the top 6 and bottom 5 in terms of the number of active masters in them. (N-Cal and S-Cal are two separate states for this purpose.)

This is tougher!

The previously identified top 6 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters (ranked in descending order):

1. Southern California ~ 195 total masters (188 adult members (am), 7 junior members (jm))
2. New York ~ 147 total (133 am, 14 jm)
3. New Jersey ~ 76 total (73 am, 3 jm)
4. Massachusetts ~ 57 total (55 am, 2 jm)
5. Northern California ~ 27 total (23 am, 4 jm)
6. Connecticut ~ 17 total (15 am, 2 jm)

The previously identified bottom 5 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters (ranked in ascending order):

1 – 3 tie) Idaho, Maine, Mississippi – 1 master
4) Kentucky – 4 masters
5) Hawaii – 8 masters

Reference state top 200 lists, Member Information search, Calchess (Northern California member list), October 2006 Top 100 Under 21 list–factoring for age, new rating:
uschess.org/ratings/RatesSea … Search.php
uschess.org/msa/MbrLst.php
calchess.org/modules.php?nam … r_list.php
uschess.org/ratings/top/0610 … 20Age%2021

[kevin_bachler]

@sloan

@kbachler

@sloan

@AndyApplebaum

interesting! I wonder what the standard deviations by state are?

Personally, I wonder about the kurtosis.

As I recall, data with high kurtosis peaks near the mean, declines rapidly, and has heavy tails.

Oh crud. I think I’ve got high kurtosis.

No - you have a faulty memory.

Apparently not.

http://www.riskglossary.com/link/kurtosis.htm

[SpeedOne]

Kevin,
Excellent!

[Akzidenz]

@SpeedOne

The previously identified top 6 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters (ranked in descending order):

1. Southern California ~ 195 total masters (188 adult members (am), 7 junior members (jm))
2. New York ~ 147 total (133 am, 14 jm)
3. New Jersey ~ 76 total (73 am, 3 jm)
4. Massachusetts ~ 57 total (55 am, 2 jm)
5. Northern California ~ 27 total (23 am, 4 jm)
6. Connecticut ~ 17 total (15 am, 2 jm)

Interesting. Note the big drop off as you go down the list.

Then again, maybe you already did. I don’t know from statistics, having dropped out of math after trigonometry.

Illinois can’t be too far behind Connecticut in the stats, no?

If not this, I’m thinking we must have some chess statistical claim to fame for our great state.

This bulletin board is definitely on an upward trend. Now at least we can read it for interesting statistics and good recipes.

[relyea]

@SpeedOne

The previously identified bottom 5 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters (ranked in ascending order):

1 – 3 tie) Idaho, Maine, Mississippi – 1 master
4) Kentucky – 4 masters
5) Hawaii – 8 masters

Question: Does this imply that Wyoming, say, has more than eight active masters? Also, how are we defining “active”?

Alex Relyea

[nolan]

Same definition as before, someone who has played in an event since 1/1/2006.

[SpeedOne]

@nolan

OK, here’s another question, also with two parts:

Rank the states in the top 6 and bottom 5 in terms of the number of active masters in them. (N-Cal and S-Cal are two separate states for this purpose.)

@nolan

Same definition as before, someone who has played in an event since 1/1/2006.

I think I answered the wrong question.

Mike, let’s see if I understand you correctly. Is this the quiz task?
“From all 50 states, rank the top 6 and bottom 5 in terms of the number of active masters in them since 1/2006.”

Or is this the quiz task?
“Rank the states in the top 6 and bottom 5 [the states that we just identified and ranked by average player ratings] in terms of the number of active masters in them since 1/2006.”

[nolan]

Take the top 6 and bottom 5 from the earlier question/answer and rank them in terms of the number of active masters in each state.

[SpeedOne]

@nolan

Take the top 6 and bottom 5 from the earlier question/answer and rank them in terms of the number of active masters in each state.

Thanks Mike, I used the correct states–the top 6 and bottom 5 that you identified earlier–but I incorrectly ranked them based upon the total number of players with ratings above master level (2200) as tallied in this link:
uschess.org/ratings/RatesSea … Search.php

So, if I instead rank the previously identified top 6 states and bottom 5 states based upon the number of active masters since 1/2006 in them , the lists become:

The previously identified top 6 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters since 1/2006 (ranked in descending order):

1. Southern California ~ 150 active masters
2. New York ~ 140
3. New Jersey ~ 66
4. Massachusetts ~ 50
5. Northern California ~ 35
6. Connecticut ~ 21

The previously identified bottom 5 states ranked in terms of the number of active masters since 1/2006 (ranked in ascending order):

1. Mississippi - 0 active masters
2. Idaho - 1
   3 - 4 tie) Hawaii & Maine - 2
3. Kentucky - 3

This is fun!

[JMadison]

Iowa also only has 2 active masters. I know because I constantly play them

[YangYang]

@Akzidenz

@AndyApplebaum

hmm… this could be fun

Highest: Arizona
Lowest: New Jersey

(two shots in the dark here; I’m hoping for the power of averages to have a small(er) sample size in Arizona while just having previous knowledge of there not being many scohlastic players in NJ)

Ummmmm…the man said “players who are 20 years and older.” So the scholastic effect is not relevant to this trivia game.

Can’t wait to read the answer.

Highest: Texas or New York

Lowest: Arkansas or Mississippi

You guess the lowest is Mississippi?!
Didn’t you hear about the new chess club in Saint Louis?
The Saint Louis Chess Club has been making chess news for a while now.
I think the lowest would be Hawaii.

[ppwchess]

@YangYang

@Akzidenz

@AndyApplebaum

hmm… this could be fun

Highest: Arizona
Lowest: New Jersey

(two shots in the dark here; I’m hoping for the power of averages to have a small(er) sample size in Arizona while just having previous knowledge of there not being many scohlastic players in NJ)

Ummmmm…the man said “players who are 20 years and older.” So the scholastic effect is not relevant to this trivia game.

Can’t wait to read the answer.

Highest: Texas or New York

Lowest: Arkansas or Mississippi

You guess the lowest is Mississippi?!
Didn’t you hear about the new chess club in Saint Louis?
The Saint Louis Chess Club has been making chess news for a while now.
I think the lowest would be Hawaii.

Last time i checked, St. Louis is in Missouri.

[ChessSpawn]

@nolan

OK, you’ve waited patiently (some more so than others), here are the top 6 and bottom 5.

This list only includes those who were USCF members as of 9/30/07, were 20 or older on 9/30 (or are in an adult membership category but without a birthdate) and who have been in at least one rated event since 1/1/2006:

Southern California 1657.7 Massachussetts 1641.3 New Jersey 1625.9 New York 1623.2 Connecticut 1620.1 Northern California 1617.3

If I group N Cal and S Cal together, the combined average is 1640.8, so MA would just beat them out. The 22 active players with military APO/FPO addresses have an average rating of 1649.3, so they’d qualify for 2nd place (or arguably for 1st place if I combine California.)

Hawaii 1418.3 Idaho 1404.9 Mississippi 1400.4 Kentucky 1392.4 Maine 1370.5

Maine is close enough for some weekend tournaments if far enough North to discourage other MA players from attending.