Rank Reliability

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Amateur instability

In the kyu ranks, it's not uncommon to find that a 20 kyu player might lose to a supposedly weaker 23 kyu. This can be due to unfamiliar playing style and uneven gaps in their understanding of Go; and it can also be because in the weaker kyu ranks, improvement comes very rapidly.

Keep in mind that mental discipline (the ability to focus or to compartmentalize) is an element of rank. This is believed to be weaker among amateur players than among pros. In his introducation to [ext] Kage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go, Toshiro Kageyama (then 7P) mentioned that even a slight shift in mood can affect amateur rank considerably. He has suggested that a fluctuation of up to handicap 5 stones is possible.


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This is a copy of the living page "Rank Reliability" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2009 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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