Understanding the Ratings Numbers

I’m pretty new to the game and trying to learn. I don’t understand the information presented on the profile page. I think I understand the 25k raking I have now. But the ratings numbers are a mystery to me. Currently mine says 962 ± 87 and on 9x9 it says 1126±86 and under the live category (which is the only kind I’ve played so far) it has similar numbers. Could someone help me understand what those mean?
Also, I searched the FAQs and didn’t see this posted and used the search feature but didn’t find an answer. Thanks for the help.

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This didn’t help? https://github.com/online-go/online-go.com/wiki/Getting-Started-|-Creating-and-Adjusting-Your-Account#your-rating

It’s called Glicko-2. Basically, a higher number is better (in contrast to the kyu system, where a lower number is better)

Ok, so, on a user’s profile, the red box is your rank - that’s the big one to pay attention to. The green box is your overall rating, which is the number of Glicko-2 points (also called rating points) you have, plus or minus the uncertainty. On mine, that means the system thinks I’m probably somewhere between 1529 and 1729. The more you play, and the more consistent your wins/losses become, the narrower that range will become. However, it’s not really important in the end. The big one really is your rank. Note that if you click on this, it has a plus/minus value as well, representing the uncertainty of your rank.

The other numbers represent your rating points for overall, blitz, live, and correspondence on 9x9, 13x13, and 19x19 boards. Note, your main overall rating is the only one that factors into your rank - these other numbers are to satisfy curiosity, but they are not averaged or anything to make up your overall rating. The other ratings can be misleading if you just look at a glance, and in general should be ignored unless you’re willing to spend a lot of time in philosophical thought about how to interpret them. By-and-large, they mainly show which game types you’ve played more of recently.

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Welcome to Go, and Welcome to OGS! :blush:

1126±86 means that the system is confident that your strength lies somewhere between 1040 and 1212 - but…

As long as you’re new, please pay no mind to the rank.

More seasoned players don’t understand it either. There are frequent tweaks and proposals to change something about it. People get rank anxiety and even quit out of fear of losing points.

You’re better off just learning the game and view the rank as just pixels on your screen. You can hide it in the settings if it bothers you. :slight_smile:

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