[hyperpape]

You're right that the comparison won't work for everyone. Here's another: Franz-Josef-Dickhut, currently the 54th strongest player in Europe[1] just won 3-1 against Zen, a top program. He did the same last year against CrazyStone, another top program. There are strong European players, but much fewer than in China, Japan, Korea or Taiwan. So there are thousands, perhaps even ten thousand humans still stronger than the best programs.[2]

However, the ELO figure seems high to me. A go handicap stone is probably more than 100 ELO at those levels, because high level players are good at conserving small advantages. Additionally, the players in these exhibition matches are usually themselves not the top players in the world. For instance, Zhou Junxun or Ishida Yoshio are two I recall off the top of my head.[2]

[1] http://europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/createalleuro3.php?country=...

[2] If you know how many humans can run a 2:45 marathon, let me know! I know Boston lets you in with a 3:05 time if you're 18-34, and tens of thousands of people run that (some of them are older or women, but many eligible people don't compete...). I'm kinda spitballing on the exact times, but that's roughly how I want to do the comparison.

[3] (http://www.goratings.org/).

[hangonhn]

2:45 marathon would generally put you in the elite but non-professional class and give you a good shot of being in the top 10 for the smaller marathons. That's where many former collegiate runners would be able to do.

A good way to do comparison might be to do the percentile. 2:45 would put you in the 76 percentile.

http://www.heartbreakhill.org/age_graded.htm

[kqr]

Another thing to note is that the professionals that can be beaten with 4 handicap are usually pretty late in their career, and do not play as well as they did when they were in their prime. Much less at the level current pros in their prime play.