Problem with rank on correspondence games: handicap vs. non-handicap games

General Go Discussion
1

Hello,

i play only correspondence games at the moment and sometimes its very hard on games without handicap against stronger player, but it’s okay.

Now i have some with handicaps and it seems that here it is the opposite Problem. Someone complained about it so i really concerned about it because i want to play fair games.

The game is this: https://online-go.com/game/11035973

My Problem is that the other player resigned without talking to me about it first. I guess we could have figuring something else out instead but now its too late for this game. (I send him a message explaining myself)

Did anyone else experienced this? I think its difficult to get a proper rank on correspondence games, especially if it’s mostly without handicaps.

2

First, I think your opponent is a sore loser: there was nothing in your game play in that game to suggest that you are better than 17k. Furthermore, your record shows clearly that you are. You’ve played over 600 games - I don’t know why he was surprised that you know the basics.

However, it’s plain crazy to think that you can reliably get an “even” game at a 10k rank differential.

Ranks are approximate things. The correspondence of rank differential to handicap stones is even more approximate.

A 9-stone game would usually only be used for teaching purposes - to give the learner some feeling of hope.

If you want to play “fair” games with handicap, limit the difference to 2-3 stones. You will likely have better success that way - the uncertainty in rank is usually almost that sort of amount anyhow.

GaJ

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3

Everyone can chose if he/she wants to play handicapped games or not and restrict the rank to their own liking, so I am not sure what is there to complain about…

I think the player in the example game thought you are stronger than your actuall rank and was angry because of that, not about the handicap per se… I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Play the way you find the most fun, and others can choose whether to accept your terms or not.

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4

thx for the reply. The game was a tournament game so the handicap was not set by me. But i will keep this in mind on games which i set up by myself.

5

Yeah - I agree it’s tough in a tournament with massive spread of ranks. Anyone joining a tournament with handicap and wide spread of ranks needs to be aware that this kind of thing can happen: settings like that are really “just for fun” - a fun tourney where you play all sorts of different ranks and each person has some chance to do OK.

I think your opponent in that game did not appreciate that this is what they were in…