My first AGA rated tournament

#1

Hello,

I have been playing go about a year and I’m headed to my first live aga rated tournament in a few weeks. I have never played an aga rated game before and I’m not sure what I should tell them my current rank is. I only play on OGS and I’m currently at 11k. I saw a table of comparative ranks online, but it seems dated. Also, I play very few physical games and I’m not sure if that will affect my play…

I’d prefer hard games to easy ones, but I don’t want to claim a rank that is ridiculously high either…

Anyone with ogs and aga tournament experience have any advice?

#2

No AGA experience, but my thinking is:
I would surely not go lower than your current OGS rank. I do not think some conversion is possible anyway, rankinks are always kind of relative…
It also depends on the tournament system but if they use something like McMahon pairing (http://senseis.xmp.net/?McMahon) you should play with different ranks anyway and by the end of it you will have a clearer idea for next time.
I personally am a stone or two stronger on real board than on the internet. I can focus better and am just trying harder. Also check what time settings they will be using, it can also make a differnce for your play.

Not sure I helped much, but good luck on the tournament :slight_smile: Make us proud to be your dojo :smiley:

#3

I don’t have AGA experience either, but from what people have said in the past, I would say that you should enter as at least 9 kyu. I am very much weaker at certain real-life tournaments because I am easily impacted by people talking or coughing at me or my neighbour putting prisoners in my bowl, so my advice is to bringt a headset with music just in case.

#4

Also, just play on ogs against a couple of people who have Aga ratings.

#5

8-10k shouldn’t be too hard for your level. At best it’s challenging but doable and at worst it’s roughly equal to your OGS rank.

P.S. Take some pictures and post them in the Go IRL thread!

#6

I played an AGA 3d when I was 10k on OGS. He estimated I’d be at 3-5k AGA. But that was one game and one person without time pressure.

Which tournament are you going to? I’m (probably) going to one soon too in Dallas.

#7

I’m going to the Feb 4th and 5th Tournament in San Francisco.

#8

I looked into a few more details. The division I’ll be playing in has handicaps, and the timing is 45 minutes + 5x30s. I’ll probably try and estimate a little high rather than low, since I’d much rather lose all my games than win them all. Also, the AGA website pointed out that many people at AGA tournaments adjust their rank up so as to get tougher games.

Although I need to play some handicap games before I go, I’ve played like 2 in my life.