A Look At Competitive Ranking Systems

Christopher Allen writes "Competitive ranking is used in sports, chess, and other games, and by online services, such as the new TrueSkill system used on Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live service. Rankings establish who is best, create fair competitive matches between players, and handicap players with differing skill levels. An article at 'Life with Alacrity' discusses a number of approaches to competitive ranking on the internet, each with different issues and advantages."