OGS / old

temporary dump for the old OGS page until a better place is found or the main page is reworked

The Online-Go Server (OGS) is a turn based / correspondence Go server that started in November 2005. "Turn-based" means that the expectation is of making anywhere between one move every few days to a few moves a day -- games almost never get completed in one sitting. If you wish to play Go in real time, then your best bet is to try out KGS or IGS.

What the creators of OGS are trying to do with OGS is to create a site with a heavy focus on organised tournament and competitive play, with a fully integrated coaching and game reviewing system coming in the next few months to help players improve their ability. On OGS there are some features that are unique to Go servers such as conditional moves (the ability to set up pre-programmed responses to your opponent's moves, thus speeding up the flow of the game), pictures in profiles and on-site game reviews.

Table of contents Rating System Provisional Ratings Established Ratings Tournaments Mini Tournaments Title Tournaments Ladders Site subscription Links

Index of sub-pages OGS Gamepoints OGS Notifier old Status Tournament Formats Tournament Results

Rating System

The site has a ranking system very similar to the traditional scale, and also incorporates the ELO rating system to keep track of players' ranks, with 100 ELO points being the difference in ability of about 1 stone. 1 dan is normally considered to be about ELO 2100, and 1 kyu about ELO 2000, working down 100 points per kyu to a beginner (30 kyu) with an ELO rating of about -900.

The rating system allows for rated 13x13 games (with 50% weight) and 9x9 games (with 25% weight) as well.

Provisional Ratings

On OGS, to keep it fair for all players, new players start with a provisional rating (set at a rank they decide is most appropriate to their ability). Any user with a rank of 10k or above can verify this rank with a link to either a RL rating for the page or an account on another internet Go server to bypass the provisional rating period. Otherwise, to get their first established rating, they must complete a certain number of rated games. A player's rating is considered provisional as long as the confidence level is below 50%. So, to become non-provisional a player has to finish a number of rated games, which can not be forecasted exactly. Around 10 games is a good estimate, if the loss / win ratio is even.

Please note that OGS changed the rating system in mid-2009, changing to a system taking into account the confidence level of the rating. Details can be found http://www.online-go.com/faq/ratingindepth.php.

Established Ratings

Once your rating is established on the server, all ratings are adjusted at the end of the game based on the well documented ELO rating system with a variable value for K. The given value of K is taken by the rating of the winning player, with higher values for lower rated players (due to the lower variation in playing performance with more experienced players). At the end of the game, the ratings for each player at the beginning and end of the game are taken, of which the highest is used. The rating used for the winning player then determines K from the following table:

+--------------+-------+
|   Rating     |   K   |
+--------------+-------+
|    < 700     |  128  |
|  700 - 999   |  96   |
| 1000 - 1299  |  80   |
| 1300 - 1599  |  64   |
|   >= 1600    |  48   |
+--------------+-------+

Tournaments

OGS has an excellent built-in tournament system.

There are two kinds of tournaments: Mini Tournaments and Title Tournaments.

Mini Tournaments

Mini-tournaments can be created by any users, and are designed to give tailored competitive tournament play at any time.

At the moment all mini-tournaments are with set values (decided by the creator of the minitournament) for board size, scoring rules (Chinese or Japanese), komi, handicap stones and timing details (system: blitz or capped fischer, and timing length with options available based on system chosen).

Title Tournaments

There are now five title tournaments on OGS, named (by popular choice) after 5 of the main Oriental titles. Two of the titles are Chinese scoring, and named after Chinese tournaments; two of the titles are Japanese scoring, and named after Japanese tournaments; and the last tournament is named after a Korean tournament and is also Japanese scoring.

All tournaments have a title holder, and a separate tournament is used to decide who will challenge the title holder for the title. Whilst they hold the title, a user will be given a free 32 gamepoints for usage in other games at any point on the site.

Titles are given out for both the main and nines classes of the tournaments, but not for the handicap class.

Please read our Tournament Formats page for a detailed description of all of the titles, their corresponding formats and how they work.

The results of all of our title tournaments are now being displayed and kept up-to-date on the OGS Tournament Results page.

Ladders

All players start each ladder at the very bottom. To gain promotion in the ladder, you simply need to win the challenges that you have made to players above you. This will move you to one position above theirs in the ladder (for example, if you are 8th in the ladder, and beat 4th, you will move to 4th and the previous 4th-7th places will all move down one). Relegation happens either when you lose an incoming challenge (where you drop one place as they move above you in the ladder) or when someone below you wins a game against someone above you (and effectively "leapfrogs" your position).

All ladder games are rated and do not cost gamepoints

Board Size: Determined by ladder Handicap: One even game with nigiri per challenge Time Controls: capped Fischer - 7 + 1 < 7 - no time added for weekend Scoring Rules: Japanese

Site subscription

Subscribing is optional! You can continue to play for free, just as you currently are, and there is no obligation.

By becoming a subscriber, you are supporting the server costs and supporting the administrators time and effort in making the site as good an experience as possible. In return, you will receive the following benefits to your account:

• Your gamepoints limit increases from 32 to 160, allowing you to play 160 non-tournament 9x9 games, 80 non-tournament 13x13 games or 40 non-tournament 19x19 games.
• You minitournament limit increases from 3 to 10, and the number you can start increases from 1 to 3.
• Your holiday days will be reset for the year, and increased from 80 to 120 days, and you will be allowed to take off 30 days consecutively instead of 20 as a non-subscriber.
• Subscribers have 5 votes for improvements and new features instead of 3, and each of their votes carries 3 points instead of 1.
• If you are still provisionally rated and have an account with an established rating on another internet Go server with the same username, we will also be able to set your rating on this site to match.
• You get an icon by your username so everybody can see you are a subscriber.

The subscriber costs are 18.50€ for one year. (This is approximately £15, $29 and ¥3010)

Subscribing is optional! You can continue to play for free, just as you currently are, and there is no obligation.

Links

• OGS homepage
• OGS FAQ