why beginners cheat ?

[shinuito]

@Eugene

If the old wisdom were true, and “anything below 25k is noise” then surely outcomes for beginners below that should be random and ratings should not get pushed below that level.

I thought it was that 1 rank = 1 stone handicap stops working, and that’s how ranks are calibrated.

Otherwise ranks don’t do anything different or new than rating.

I brought this up in another thread recently.

@shinuito

believe the reason we don’t go below 25kyu officially is because handicap stops working below a certain point.

As in it stops being a relevant factor and hence a useful predictor of who is going to or should win a game, far below 25kyu.

You could imagine adding essentially cosmetic ranks below 25kyu ( every 100 rating points is a new rank) and then the pairing system matches to the closest 100 rating points below 25kyu.

Or you could imagine using the 9x9 handicap to calibrate ranks below 25kyu, but presumably you need a lot of those games being played with those handicaps.