Preset stones in ranking game?

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1

Hi, I just had a ranked game (in german “gewertet”) as a 26 Kyu player against a 28 Kyu player. In this game he got 2 preset stones (in german “Vorgabensteine”), what I didn’t encounter in any other ranked game prior to that.

Because of that I dropped a rank to 27 Kyu. I wanted to ask, if this is correct, because I played other Kyu players with 2, 3 ranks between them and me and never got this preset stones? And if this is correct, how can I see the preset stones before I accept the match? (I accepted it through the chat)

If you want to watch the game, here’s the link: http://online-go.com/game/662584

Because of the preset stones, I had to play differently than without them, so I am a bit concerned if this is meant to be.

2

Those are handicap stones. If handicaps are enabled, the weaker player will get a number of stones equal to the difference in your ranks. It also makes the game more ‘valuable’ in terms of how much your rank is adjusted if you win or lose.

So, if you like them, then enable them when you create challenges or look for games. If you don’t like them, just make sure you don’t enable them and look for games with no handicap.

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3

If you went from 28 to 27, that means two things:

  1. you won the game.

  2. your rank increased.

In the West, beginner is 30 Kyu. Once you get to one Kyu, you have achieved tremendous competency in the game and you move to the Dan ranks where the order of strength goes from 1 to 9, a more “normal” way of reading strength.

Because OGS uses to European Go Federation model, the strongest rank is seven Dan.

You have a while to get there. Best of luck on your journey.

4

I think he went from 26k to 27k