I think you are misunderstanding or intentionally misrepresenting what I am saying. My ultimate point is that ranked games should be fair contests, which forbids the following:
- Either player intentionally throwing the game (e.g., in some styles of teaching games, the teacher tries to let the student win).
- Players offering each other assistance and advice.
- Setting a predetermined outcome (e.g., the teacher must win).
Thus, teaching games that involve the above are not allowed. Another form of âteaching gameâ that is essentially just playing a ranked game in the ânormal wayâ, but then reviewing afterwards, is perfectly fine.
I think you are going about âteaching gamesâ in a completely wrong way, especially as you are in the position (being 15kyu) to be offering teaching games to early beginners. As a teacher, winning against your student is not the point of a teaching game. The point is to teach, and with new players that are just beginning in the game, the bigger point is to not drive them away from the game by pointlessly flexing your skill over them. Focus on building their interest and curiosity in Go. Displaying your greater strength by beating them down is a needlessly vain activity that can be terribly detrimental in discouraging beginners. Keep in mind that the sort of players that are much weaker than you, which you would be teaching, might often be young children and could be particularly sensitive to such negative experiences.
I strongly encourage you to read this article: How to Teach Go | BenGoZen
To be frank, Iâm engaging in the conversation less due to some idealistic concerns about protecting the ranking system, but more due to concerns how you (@espoojaram) might interact with other weaker beginners in misguided efforts of âteachingâ that could potentially cause more harm than good.
I think the issue of whether or not beginners get an accurate rank quickly enough is a secondary concern to encouraging their participation and stoking their interest in the game. Itâs perfectly fine if a beginner doesnât play any ranked games at all, and just wants to learn and explore with unranked games, solving puzzles, etc.
I feel like whether or not a beginner has a satisfactory introduction to Go has less to do with whether they get accurately ranked on a Go server quickly enough (even still there are better ways to handle this, through potential adjustments to the ranking system rather than having them be beaten down in ranked games), but more with how their initial interactions with the Go community helps to facilitate their learning and introduction to the game. Expecting beginners to first need to lose a bunch of games against stronger teachers, in order to get their ranking adjusted, just seems incredibly counterproductive to the growth of the Go community.