Docs on ratings?

Hi All!

Recently came to OGS, and am struggling to figure out how rankings work / are determined / can be updated. I found the FAQ, but nothing generally about rankings at OGS. For example, I think I came in with an estimate a couple points high (sorry, mostly play in person). I’d love to just adjust it down a couple points, but don’t think I can?

Given that, how do I go about improving the rank accuracy? And how do I move from provisional to ranked (so I can play tournaments)? The docs are generally great, but a note on this might be very useful!

Hi, @JSeaTurtle, welcome to OGS! :smiley: You can find some detailed information about Go Ranks in this Wikipedia page. OGS ranking system is designed along those lines, although it has some additional tweaks.

Your rank will be adjusted automatically just playing ranked games. In particular, after you have played 5 ranked games with non-provisional players, you’ll be no longer provisional, as you can see on a note in your profile page.

If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to ask! :smile:

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Great! Thanks @mlopezviedma!

You wanted to adjust your rank down, so I took the liberty to bump you down to 16k. I hope that’s fine.

Enjoy the site!

thanks @mark5000

Can anyone explain the meaning of Profile characteristics like Blitz, Overal, Live and Correspondance. How they change and what do they effect?

Thank you!

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Every rated game you play will change your overall rating depending on the rank of your opponent (if your opponent has a stronger rating and you win, your rating will improve much more than against a weaker opponent).

However, since some people have quite different abilities in playing very fast and very slow games the site developers added three special ranks:
blitz games that are games with at most 10 second per moves, correspondence games with at least several hours per move and live games for everything in-between.

The effect of your rating is mostly your pride in your progress and the ability of you and your prospective opponents to decide if you are a good match for an interesting game. The difference in ratings is also used to decide the proper amount of handicap stones in a game where the players agreed to use them.

Hope this helps. Note that this is not an official explanation, I am just another player here.

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Very well explained, @Wulfenia, thanks for the quick answer! :smiley:

Hi, I am also facing a similar issue as original poster; I did not know how the rankings worked when I entered the number in. Can I ask 1.) how do I find out whether or not my ranking is correct, if it is not correct, is there anyway this can be changed on my profile?

Thanks in advance!

Hello @deepu1207,

[quote=“deepu1207, post:9, topic:4807”] how do I find out whether or not my ranking is correct,[/quote]usually by

  • playing rated games …
  • with opponents close to your rank …
  • who have a non-provisional rank

and the system will adjust your rank as you’re getting stronger.

IF this were to be the case, you could always ask any of the mods to adjust your rank (this will mean that your rank will be provisional for a number of games; I think currently that number is 5).

But from a quick scan of your profile it seems your current rank is quite accurate (winning against weaker players, losing against stronger players), I’d guess it could be off by 2 stones at maximum.

HTH, Tom

Does the rank adjustment after a win/loose also depend on the handicap and komi?

E.g. if Black is 22k and White is 20k, AGA rules recommend 1 handicap stone and Komi=0.5 (whereas a balanced ranking would yield no handicap stone and komi=7.5).

Now, would the rating adjustment be different if Black (22k) and White (20k) played without any handicap and a default Komi of 7.5 (as if they were equal rank)?

Yes and Yes

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I understand the ranks and rating - but not how they are calculated on this server. As 20kyu I won a game against a 15kyu and did not increase in rating at all (apparently I was too pessimistic with my rank. I am sure it will adjust over the next few weeks :wink: ). [gamelink: https://online-go.com/game/3479313 ]

Also I don’t understand why the three ratings for the different speeds are kept completely seperate. A 1kyu blitz player will not be 20kyu in live games…
As a beginner I notice a larger difference in playing strength depending on board size. Does that change with higher ranks? Wouldn’t it otherwise be more useful to differenciate by board size?

In the moment of that game, your opponent’s rank was provisional, as you can see from his ‘?’ sign in the game chat.

There was a big consideration on this subject on our devs part when this specific rating separation was implemented. The system as is working currently is in fact a bit of an experiment. :wink: