6/30/14,

I know basically nothing about the professional scene, but is Iyama Yuta actually playing some international matches or is he busy title hunting/defending all the time?

I love how apparently there's a really strong female Japanese pro in there, called Yamashita Keiko.

Sad to see so few Japanese names on the list. It doesn't seem that long ago when almost all the names would have been Japanese.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

It's probably more favorable from his Asia TV Cup win last year.

He also played in the Chunlan cup since he was eliminated from Judan but his performance there wasn't too good.

I've heard laments about the decline of Japanese go for as long as I've been playing go. But to me the really interesting thing is the number of crazy strong Chinese teenagers appearing. Mi Yuting is 18, Fan Tingyu is 17, and Ke Jie is 16! Mi Yuting already won the MLily cup last year, and Fan Tingyu won the Ing cup. I wonder if these are the next generation of unstoppable players.

Just curious, what is the difference between the second and third columns in this list? Some are identical and some aren't, is it the difference between traditional and modern writing, or Chinese vs Japanese or something?

It is traditional vs simplified Chinese characters.

To see how the rating calculation is done: http://english.baduk.or.kr/sub03_04-1.htm

I'm actually happy for Japan and Iyama Yuta. I believe the last iteration of these rankings had him rated in the 30's.

This list looks more... acceptable.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

The depth of skill just looking at KBA (Korean pro) players:

It's also worth noting that another Japanese player is in the top 20, Kono Rin, and he is above even Yamashita Keigo.

Lee Changho is all the way down at 75th.

Murakawa Daisuke is at 71st, will he go farther?

Gu Linyi is 18th, above other notable players such as Kang Dongyun and Xie He.

Qui Jun and Wang Xi seem to be hanging in at 21st and 22nd respectively and respectably.

I mean no disrespect to Iyama Yuta, but it seems pretty odd that he'd be so high on this list. Given his lack of wins on the international go scene, I would imagine he would be back in the thirties where he was the last time this list was released.

I think Iyama Yuta's ranking can be explained in part by the way the system weights tournaments. It doesn't appear to make distinctions between national and international tournaments, only in terms of a tournament's purse. This would skew some results in favor of Japanese tournament winners, like Iyama Yuta, due to Japan's larger tournament purses. Given the restrictions on national tournaments, it seems odd to use this system to rank pros internationally, but I'm sure I've missed something crucial here.

In any event, this is how the KBA explains the addition of that weighting factor into the formula (see Araban's link above):

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"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought."
-Jonas Skarssen

I think that national tournaments should have a K factor half of that of an international tournament with the same amount of money. That way, the Kisei tournament would not outweigh the Ing cup, even though the overall level of play within the whole tournament (including preliminaries) is much lower. I also think that Hayago international tournaments should have a lower K factor than normal international tournaments. I like Iyama Yuta 9p, and I know he's quite close to the top pro level and wont be surprised if he's in the top 20-- unlike many others-- but 5 is clearly, with all due respect, too much.

Interestingly, Yamashita keiko is ranked higher than pros like Na Hyun Lee Chango 9p (who is 75? he didn't fall that much) and Ichikiri Ryo.

Well, that's enough of being judgemental about something we could never do ourselves! No ranking system is absolutely perfect. On a different note, Byun Sangil (he used to be 19th in korea so about 40th in the world) has dropped down to 66, and Xie Erhao is in 55 and Shin jinseo is lower. The young guys are coming, but not quite yet !

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On Go proverbs:
"A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.

I'm happy that Ke Jie is up to 12th, not too bad for a 17 year old. At the US Go Congress, a pro told me that he has the endearing quality of routinely seeming baffled as to how he won the game. Innocent and charming, rather than arrogant.

Go look at his games, they show great flexibility to my weak eyes, and are great fun.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

On the other hand, you cannot blame Iyama for focussing on the tournaments with the biggest prize money. As long as the toughest competitions are not those with the biggest loot, a consistent ranking cannot be made.

I do not think the weighting factor has much effect on ratings. In order to get a high rating, you need a high win/loss ratio against a wide range of opponents. A single game in a first class tournament may count like several games in a lower class tournament, but that weight applies to losses as well as wins.

If Japanese and Korean players never met in tournaments, then comparative ratings would of course not be possible, but I guess there is enough mixing for this not to be a big problem.

I am a bit surprised at the spread of ratings. It looks like the top players win 75% of games against players ranked around thirty (rating difference 400 points). In other Go ranking schemes, this would imply a one stone difference in strength.

But it will mean Iyama can gain rating in Japan more quickly by beating up all the low-rated Japanese pros there with his high win-rate in big purse tournaments.

That only helps Iyama if those low-rated Japanese pros are over-rated. Otherwise everything works out correctly, based on his win/loss ratio and his opponents ratings. Yes, his rating will change more quickly, since in effect he is playing more games (from the extra weighting), but his rating should not converge to a different value. Against low-rated pros, he will need a high win/loss ratio just to maintain his higher rating.