playBunny: In your example, what would a single game be worth and also a fifteen game match with these same two players?
What does 4 * Sqrt mean? Four times the square root of something? The match length? Yes 4 × √5 = 8.94. OK, so for a single game it'd be 4 rating points divided up by a formula figured out from the players' ratings? Since 4 × √1 = 4? And for a 15 game match, 15.49 ratings points 4 × √15 = 15.49? Interesting, and this is a weighting scheme. I am thinking that the difference in the players' ratings is a fairly accurate way to determine the percentage of points awarded from the match weighting as it is used here, though without the match weighting. This is not quite how I was thinking of weighting it, but it seems like a good plan and is lots better than what we have now.
This method seems to make the length of a match much less important to the higher rated player than the method used here. Or am I imagining this?