hgm wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:09 am That is about the same as watching football on TV, and thinking you are a great sportsman just because the team you root for won.
No, it's knowing that I'd play football better than all the guys on TV. Namely, using CFish with some decent book remotely I would defeat these guys, so the're not worthy of a champion title.
The comparison with racing cars doesn't hold either, it's like they make a world championship race, and I could beat the cars that appear on there with my car at home that is nothing special (this has nothing to do with me, but with the fact
anybody can beat the "world champion" from their basement.)
That was my point.
hgm wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:09 am If people don't know what the strongest engine is, it is just because they are stupid or lazy.
Really? You just called stupid or lazy 99.999% of the population. It's not their responsibility, because this is a matter of information, and you can only blame people if this was misinformation. But this is disinformation, the ICGA using the name "world champion" to deliberately make people think their tournament is more important than it really easy, of the level of the FIDE world Champion (but Magnus Carlsen and Caruana are not present.)
hgm wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:09 am For one, when you need hundreds of games to determine the Elo difference with any confidence
No, you don't. My opinion is polemical on this point, but the human world chess champion is very convincing on being the best, and he didn't need as many games as engines do. Because engines don't need them either (people have applied scientific standards and confidence intervals for something that has proven to not be necessary for human chess.)
It's much better to have the best on there than to play many games with them absent.
Just imagine if Komodo wasn't there (at least Komodo is third best in the world), what significance would it have for GridGinkgo to be the world champion? Being a champion and being of this world has lost all its meaning?
Your beliefs create your reality, so be careful what you wish for.