Improvement Statistics

Statistics on time taken to make it to 1d EGF

Of EGF players who started out with a kyu rating:

• Somewhere between 3.9% to 18.5% of them made it to at least 1d (depending on selection criteria).
• It took 3.0 years on average.

Selection criteria affects the percentage quite a lot. 18.5% of players who played in at least two tournaments spanning at least 6 years made it to at least 1d. 3.9% of all players in the EGF database made it.

Statistics taken from the rating development file for EGF ratings to see what percentage of people make it to 1d, and how long on average it took them.

Total players:  20876
Started as dan:  2351 (11.3%)
Started as kyu: 18525 (88.7%)
Started as sdk:  5209 (25.0%)
Started as ddk: 13316 (63.8%)

Started as kyu, and made it to gor 1d: 719 (3.9% of 18525)
Average time taken in years: 3.0

Started as sdk and made it to gor 1d: 505 (9.7% of 5209)
Average time taken in years: 2.6

Started as ddk, and made it to gor 1d: 214 (1.6% of 13316)
Average time taken in years: 3.9

Statistics on time taken to improve one dan rating level

         started   started    improved                              in this
         here or   exactly   to at least   in this      improved   many years
rating   higher     here        here      many years    from kyu    (total)
------   -------   -------   -----------  ----------    --------   ----------
  1d      2351      631          719         3.0          719         3.0
  2d      1720      459          507         1.4          355         3.8
  3d      1261      403          332         1.7          163         4.8
  4d       858      302          210         1.8           67         5.2
  5d       556      266          102         1.9           26         6.4
  6d       290      156           50         2.0            8         7.7
  7d       134      115           19         2.2            4         8.5
  8d        19       11            9         1.6            0          NA
  9d         8        8           NA          NA           NA          NA
------   -------   -------   -----------  ----------    --------   ----------
   a         b        c            d           e            f           g

a - EGF rating (1d is at least 2050, 2d is at least 2150, etc)

b - Number of players who started at this rating or higher

c - Number of players who started at exactly this 100 point rating range

d - Number of players who improved to this rating from a lower rating

e - Of players from (d), how long on average they took to improve from the previous level, in years. (In the case of 1d, time from beginning, not from 1k)

f - Number of players who improved to this rating from a kyu rating

g - Of players from (f), total time from beginning to this rating

Notes

Data from: http://gemma.ujf.cas.cz/~cieply/GO/gormain.html on 2007-11-02.

• The statistics use the rating, not the player's declared rank.

• gor 1d means the player's EGF rating after the tournament is 2050 or greater.

Hyperpapeterie: For clarity's sake, I assume that number is 3.9% of all players who started with a kyu ranking, not just those who continue to play tournaments? (Is it also 3.9% of players who have had at least some years to improve their rankings--it makes little sense to include people whose first rankings are in say, 2007?)

yoyoma: Right I didn't throw out people who quit, or people who only started very recently. Here are a few more datapoints:

• Started before 2004-12-31 - 5.1%, 3.2 years (675/13224)
• Started before 1999-12-31 - 7.3%, 3.4 years (426/5867)
• Played in at least two tournaments - 6.4% (776/1594)
• Played in at least two tournaments 3 years apart - 12.7% (628/4931)
• Played in at least two tournaments 6 years apart - 18.5% (442/2391)