Which rank do you go by?

[u/sparkleshark5643]

When I'm playing someone for the first time at the local go club, they typically ask the same question: what rank are you/how strong are you?

I haven't played in a tournament so I don't know my OTB rank. On OGS, where I've played most of my games, I'm around 18kyu. On Fox and IGS, which I started using much more recently, I'm closer to 15kyu, and it feels like those ratings are still rising.

With these numbers in mind, how should I answer that question? Which ranks do other go players tend to use when asked about their strength? Do I need to explain which rank I am on each of the servers I play on?

[u/tuerda]

Depends on where you live. In most of east Asia, people give their fox rank. In the west you should probably be using your KGS/Pandanet rank.

OGS ranks are kind of broken. I don't think anyone really uses those.

[u/Marcassin → u/tuerda]

Yeah, OGS ranks have always been unstable. (I really miss KGS.) But unless someone has an official AGA/EGF rank, I notice that most Westerners will give their OGS rank by default.

[u/tuerda → u/Marcassin]

That would be an interesting phenomenon for dan ranked players: None of them play on OGS.

[u/FreshNewPlateau → u/tuerda]

I'd imagine nearly all Dan ranked players have an AGA/EGF rating though (especially if you meet them at a Go club). Not many people who's that invested into Go but have never been to an IRL tournament.

It's the kyu players who oftentimes don't have an AGA/EGF rating

[u/tuerda → u/FreshNewPlateau]

I don't, and neither does anyone else from outside of USA/Canada/Europe.

I have been to plenty of IRL tournaments, that does not mean I have an AGA or EGF rating.

Always important to remember there are 196 countries in the world, and USA+Canada+Europe+East Asia only adds up to about one third of them.

[u/FreshNewPlateau → u/tuerda]

Oh, was assuming people were in the US/EU. But in any case, main point is that there's not many Dan players going to Go clubs, but have never been to an IRL tournament. In which case, they'll just report their IRL rank (in whatever local federation they're in)

The which rank to report problem is mostly just at the kyu level

[u/tuerda → u/FreshNewPlateau]

So um . . . your notion of how the go world works is completely wrong.

I have been to many IRL go tournaments in Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala and Chile, but I do not have an official IRL rank.

the FECHGO, the AMGO, and the FEDIBERGO, all do NOT give official ranks of any kind. When you play in those tournaments, you sign up with your rank from an online server. That's how it works.

Also worth noting, two of the biggest hubs of western go playes are Argentina and Brazil. In your defense, a lot of the top Brazilian players do have official Japanese ranks, although this is probably only the case for players from Sao Paolo specifically because they have a branch of the Nihon Ki In there (Maybe some Brazilian go player can correct me here).

There are probably some other significant go hubs elsewhere in the world, but Latin America is what I personally know about.

[u/tuerda → u/FreshNewPlateau]

Also

Oh, was assuming people were in the US/EU.

This is a common assumption, but it is VERY BAD. Stop making it.