diff --git a/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py b/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py
index 5d089c620..4ce69e75d 100644
--- a/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py
+++ b/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/training_set_creator.py
@@ -5,11 +5,8 @@ import os
 import re
 import bz2
 import datetime
-from os import listdir
 
-from examples.pipeline.wiki_entity_linking import run_el
 from spacy.gold import GoldParse
-from spacy.matcher import PhraseMatcher
 from . import wikipedia_processor as wp, kb_creator
 
 """
@@ -17,7 +14,7 @@ Process Wikipedia interlinks to generate a training dataset for the EL algorithm
 """
 
 # ENTITY_FILE = "gold_entities.csv"
-ENTITY_FILE = "gold_entities_100000.csv"   # use this file for faster processing
+ENTITY_FILE = "gold_entities_1000000.csv"   # use this file for faster processing
 
 
 def create_training(entity_def_input, training_output):
@@ -58,7 +55,6 @@ def _process_wikipedia_texts(wp_to_id, training_output, limit=None):
                 if cnt % 1000000 == 0:
                     print(datetime.datetime.now(), "processed", cnt, "lines of Wikipedia dump")
                 clean_line = line.strip().decode("utf-8")
-                # print(clean_line)
 
                 if clean_line == "<revision>":
                     reading_revision = True
@@ -121,7 +117,6 @@ text_regex = re.compile(r'(?<=<text xml:space=\"preserve\">).*(?=</text)')
 
 def _process_wp_text(wp_to_id, entityfile, article_id, article_title, article_text, training_output):
     found_entities = False
-    # print("Processing", article_id, article_title)
 
     # ignore meta Wikipedia pages
     if article_title.startswith("Wikipedia:"):
@@ -134,13 +129,8 @@ def _process_wp_text(wp_to_id, entityfile, article_id, article_title, article_te
     if text.startswith("#REDIRECT"):
         return
 
-    # print()
-    # print(text)
-
     # get the raw text without markup etc, keeping only interwiki links
     clean_text = _get_clean_wp_text(text)
-    # print()
-    # print(clean_text)
 
     # read the text char by char to get the right offsets of the interwiki links
     final_text = ""
@@ -295,68 +285,62 @@ def is_dev(article_id):
     return article_id.endswith("3")
 
 
-def read_training_entities(training_output, dev, limit):
-    entityfile_loc = training_output + "/" + ENTITY_FILE
-    entries_per_article = dict()
-    article_ids = set()
-
-    with open(entityfile_loc, mode='r', encoding='utf8') as file:
-        for line in file:
-            if not limit or len(article_ids) < limit:
-                fields = line.replace('\n', "").split(sep='|')
-                article_id = fields[0]
-                if dev == is_dev(article_id) and article_id != "article_id":
-                    article_ids.add(article_id)
-
-                    alias = fields[1]
-                    wp_title = fields[2]
-                    start = fields[3]
-                    end = fields[4]
-
-                    entries_by_offset = entries_per_article.get(article_id, dict())
-                    entries_by_offset[start + "-" + end] = (alias, wp_title)
-
-                    entries_per_article[article_id] = entries_by_offset
-
-    return entries_per_article
-
-
 def read_training(nlp, training_dir, dev, limit):
     # This method provides training examples that correspond to the entity annotations found by the nlp object
 
-    print("reading training entities")
-    entries_per_article = read_training_entities(training_output=training_dir, dev=dev, limit=limit)
-    print("done reading training entities")
-
+    entityfile_loc = training_dir + "/" + ENTITY_FILE
     data = []
-    for article_id, entries_by_offset in entries_per_article.items():
-        file_name = article_id + ".txt"
-        try:
-            # parse the article text
-            with open(os.path.join(training_dir, file_name), mode="r", encoding='utf8') as file:
-                text = file.read()
-                article_doc = nlp(text)
 
-            gold_entities = list()
-            for ent in article_doc.ents:
-                start = ent.start_char
-                end = ent.end_char
+    # we assume the data is written sequentially
+    current_article_id = None
+    current_doc = None
+    gold_entities = list()
+    ents_by_offset = dict()
+    skip_articles = set()
+    total_entities = 0
 
-                entity_tuple = entries_by_offset.get(str(start) + "-" + str(end), None)
-                if entity_tuple:
-                    alias, wp_title = entity_tuple
-                    if ent.text != alias:
-                        print("Non-matching entity in", article_id, start, end)
-                    else:
-                        gold_entities.append((start, end, wp_title))
+    with open(entityfile_loc, mode='r', encoding='utf8') as file:
+        for line in file:
+            if not limit or len(data) < limit:
+                if len(data) > 0 and len(data) % 50 == 0:
+                    print("Read", total_entities, "entities in", len(data), "articles")
+                fields = line.replace('\n', "").split(sep='|')
+                article_id = fields[0]
+                alias = fields[1]
+                wp_title = fields[2]
+                start = fields[3]
+                end = fields[4]
 
-            if gold_entities:
-                gold = GoldParse(doc=article_doc, links=gold_entities)
-                data.append((article_doc, gold))
+                if dev == is_dev(article_id) and article_id != "article_id" and article_id not in skip_articles:
+                    if not current_doc or (current_article_id != article_id):
+                        # store the data from the previous article
+                        if gold_entities and current_doc:
+                            gold = GoldParse(doc=current_doc, links=gold_entities)
+                            data.append((current_doc, gold))
+                            total_entities += len(gold_entities)
 
-        except Exception as e:
-            print("Problem parsing article", article_id)
-            print(e)
-            raise e
+                        # parse the new article text
+                        file_name = article_id + ".txt"
+                        try:
+                            with open(os.path.join(training_dir, file_name), mode="r", encoding='utf8') as f:
+                                text = f.read()
+                                current_doc = nlp(text)
+                                for ent in current_doc.ents:
+                                    ents_by_offset[str(ent.start_char) + "_" + str(ent.end_char)] = ent.text
+                        except Exception as e:
+                            print("Problem parsing article", article_id, e)
 
+                        current_article_id = article_id
+                        gold_entities = list()
+
+                    # repeat checking this condition in case an exception was thrown
+                    if current_doc and (current_article_id == article_id):
+                        found_ent = ents_by_offset.get(start + "_" + end,  None)
+                        if found_ent:
+                            if found_ent != alias:
+                                skip_articles.add(current_article_id)
+                            else:
+                                gold_entities.append((int(start), int(end), wp_title))
+
+    print("Read", total_entities, "entities in", len(data), "articles")
     return data
diff --git a/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/wiki_nel_pipeline.py b/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/wiki_nel_pipeline.py
index b3b3479e2..7b54df527 100644
--- a/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/wiki_nel_pipeline.py
+++ b/examples/pipeline/wiki_entity_linking/wiki_nel_pipeline.py
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ def run_pipeline():
     to_test_pipeline = True
 
     # write the NLP object, read back in and test again
-    test_nlp_io = False
+    to_write_nlp = True
+    to_read_nlp = True
 
     # STEP 1 : create prior probabilities from WP
     # run only once !
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ def run_pipeline():
 
     if train_pipe:
         print("STEP 6: training Entity Linking pipe", datetime.datetime.now())
-        train_limit = 10
+        train_limit = 5
         dev_limit = 2
 
         train_data = training_set_creator.read_training(nlp=nlp_2,
@@ -166,46 +167,42 @@ def run_pipeline():
                             )
                             batchnr += 1
                         except Exception as e:
-                            print("Error updating batch", e)
+                            print("Error updating batch:", e)
+                            raise(e)
 
-                losses['entity_linker'] = losses['entity_linker'] / batchnr
-                print("Epoch, train loss", itn, round(losses['entity_linker'], 2))
+                if batchnr > 0:
+                    losses['entity_linker'] = losses['entity_linker'] / batchnr
+                    print("Epoch, train loss", itn, round(losses['entity_linker'], 2))
 
         dev_data = training_set_creator.read_training(nlp=nlp_2,
                                                       training_dir=TRAINING_DIR,
                                                       dev=True,
                                                       limit=dev_limit)
-        print("Dev testing on", len(dev_data), "articles")
+
         print()
+        print("Dev testing on", len(dev_data), "articles")
 
         if len(dev_data) and measure_performance:
             print()
             print("STEP 7: performance measurement of Entity Linking pipe", datetime.datetime.now())
             print()
 
+            acc_random, acc_random_by_label, acc_prior, acc_prior_by_label, acc_oracle, acc_oracle_by_label = _measure_baselines(dev_data, kb_2)
+            print("dev acc oracle:", round(acc_oracle, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in acc_oracle_by_label.items()])
+            print("dev acc random:", round(acc_random, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in acc_random_by_label.items()])
+            print("dev acc prior:", round(acc_prior, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in acc_prior_by_label.items()])
+
             # print(" measuring accuracy 1-1")
             el_pipe.context_weight = 1
             el_pipe.prior_weight = 1
-            dev_acc_1_1, dev_acc_1_1_dict = _measure_accuracy(dev_data, el_pipe)
-            print("dev acc combo:", round(dev_acc_1_1, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in dev_acc_1_1_dict.items()])
-            train_acc_1_1, train_acc_1_1_dict = _measure_accuracy(train_data, el_pipe)
-            print("train acc combo:", round(train_acc_1_1, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in train_acc_1_1_dict.items()])
-
-            # baseline using only prior probabilities
-            el_pipe.context_weight = 0
-            el_pipe.prior_weight = 1
-            dev_acc_0_1, dev_acc_0_1_dict = _measure_accuracy(dev_data, el_pipe)
-            print("dev acc prior:", round(dev_acc_0_1, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in dev_acc_0_1_dict.items()])
-            train_acc_0_1, train_acc_0_1_dict = _measure_accuracy(train_data, el_pipe)
-            print("train acc prior:", round(train_acc_0_1, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in train_acc_0_1_dict.items()])
+            dev_acc_combo, dev_acc_combo_dict = _measure_accuracy(dev_data, el_pipe)
+            print("dev acc combo:", round(dev_acc_combo, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in dev_acc_combo_dict.items()])
 
             # using only context
             el_pipe.context_weight = 1
             el_pipe.prior_weight = 0
-            dev_acc_1_0, dev_acc_1_0_dict = _measure_accuracy(dev_data, el_pipe)
-            print("dev acc context:", round(dev_acc_1_0, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in dev_acc_1_0_dict.items()])
-            train_acc_1_0, train_acc_1_0_dict = _measure_accuracy(train_data, el_pipe)
-            print("train acc context:", round(train_acc_1_0, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in train_acc_1_0_dict.items()])
+            dev_acc_context, dev_acc_1_0_dict = _measure_accuracy(dev_data, el_pipe)
+            print("dev acc context:", round(dev_acc_context, 3), [(x, round(y, 3)) for x, y in dev_acc_1_0_dict.items()])
             print()
 
             # reset for follow-up tests
@@ -219,7 +216,7 @@ def run_pipeline():
         run_el_toy_example(nlp=nlp_2)
         print()
 
-    if test_nlp_io:
+    if to_write_nlp:
         print()
         print("STEP 9: testing NLP IO", datetime.datetime.now())
         print()
@@ -229,9 +226,10 @@ def run_pipeline():
         print("reading from", NLP_2_DIR)
         nlp_3 = spacy.load(NLP_2_DIR)
 
-        print()
-        print("running toy example with NLP 2")
-        run_el_toy_example(nlp=nlp_3)
+        if to_read_nlp:
+            print()
+            print("running toy example with NLP 2")
+            run_el_toy_example(nlp=nlp_3)
 
     print()
     print("STOP", datetime.datetime.now())
@@ -270,6 +268,80 @@ def _measure_accuracy(data, el_pipe):
         except Exception as e:
             print("Error assessing accuracy", e)
 
+    acc, acc_by_label = calculate_acc(correct_by_label,  incorrect_by_label)
+    return acc, acc_by_label
+
+
+def _measure_baselines(data, kb):
+    random_correct_by_label = dict()
+    random_incorrect_by_label = dict()
+
+    oracle_correct_by_label = dict()
+    oracle_incorrect_by_label = dict()
+
+    prior_correct_by_label = dict()
+    prior_incorrect_by_label = dict()
+
+    docs = [d for d, g in data if len(d) > 0]
+    golds = [g for d, g in data if len(d) > 0]
+
+    for doc, gold in zip(docs, golds):
+        try:
+            correct_entries_per_article = dict()
+            for entity in gold.links:
+                start, end, gold_kb = entity
+                correct_entries_per_article[str(start) + "-" + str(end)] = gold_kb
+
+            for ent in doc.ents:
+                ent_label = ent.label_
+                start = ent.start_char
+                end = ent.end_char
+                gold_entity = correct_entries_per_article.get(str(start) + "-" + str(end), None)
+
+                # the gold annotations are not complete so we can't evaluate missing annotations as 'wrong'
+                if gold_entity is not None:
+                    candidates = kb.get_candidates(ent.text)
+                    oracle_candidate = ""
+                    best_candidate = ""
+                    random_candidate = ""
+                    if candidates:
+                        scores = list()
+
+                        for c in candidates:
+                            scores.append(c.prior_prob)
+                            if c.entity_ == gold_entity:
+                                oracle_candidate = c.entity_
+
+                        best_index = scores.index(max(scores))
+                        best_candidate = candidates[best_index].entity_
+                        random_candidate = random.choice(candidates).entity_
+
+                    if gold_entity == best_candidate:
+                        prior_correct_by_label[ent_label] = prior_correct_by_label.get(ent_label, 0) + 1
+                    else:
+                        prior_incorrect_by_label[ent_label] = prior_incorrect_by_label.get(ent_label, 0) + 1
+
+                    if gold_entity == random_candidate:
+                        random_correct_by_label[ent_label] = random_correct_by_label.get(ent_label, 0) + 1
+                    else:
+                        random_incorrect_by_label[ent_label] = random_incorrect_by_label.get(ent_label, 0) + 1
+
+                    if gold_entity == oracle_candidate:
+                        oracle_correct_by_label[ent_label] = oracle_correct_by_label.get(ent_label, 0) + 1
+                    else:
+                        oracle_incorrect_by_label[ent_label] = oracle_incorrect_by_label.get(ent_label, 0) + 1
+
+        except Exception as e:
+            print("Error assessing accuracy", e)
+
+    acc_prior, acc_prior_by_label = calculate_acc(prior_correct_by_label, prior_incorrect_by_label)
+    acc_random, acc_random_by_label = calculate_acc(random_correct_by_label, random_incorrect_by_label)
+    acc_oracle, acc_oracle_by_label = calculate_acc(oracle_correct_by_label, oracle_incorrect_by_label)
+
+    return acc_random, acc_random_by_label, acc_prior, acc_prior_by_label, acc_oracle, acc_oracle_by_label
+
+
+def calculate_acc(correct_by_label, incorrect_by_label):
     acc_by_label = dict()
     total_correct = 0
     total_incorrect = 0
@@ -303,18 +375,25 @@ def run_el_toy_example(nlp):
            "The main character in Doug's novel is the man Arthur Dent, " \
            "but Douglas doesn't write about George Washington or Homer Simpson."
     doc = nlp(text)
-
+    print(text)
     for ent in doc.ents:
         print("ent", ent.text, ent.label_, ent.kb_id_)
-
     print()
 
-    # Q4426480 is her husband, Q3568763 her tutor
-    text = "Ada Lovelace was the countess of Lovelace. She is known for her programming work on the analytical engine."\
-           "Ada Lovelace loved her husband William King dearly. " \
-           "Ada Lovelace was tutored by her favorite physics tutor William King."
+    # Q4426480 is her husband
+    text = "Ada Lovelace was the countess of Lovelace. She is known for her programming work on the analytical engine. "\
+           "She loved her husband William King dearly. "
     doc = nlp(text)
+    print(text)
+    for ent in doc.ents:
+        print("ent", ent.text, ent.label_, ent.kb_id_)
+    print()
 
+    # Q3568763 is her tutor
+    text = "Ada Lovelace was the countess of Lovelace. She is known for her programming work on the analytical engine. "\
+           "She was tutored by her favorite physics tutor William King."
+    doc = nlp(text)
+    print(text)
     for ent in doc.ents:
         print("ent", ent.text, ent.label_, ent.kb_id_)