KGS Ranking System

KGS seems determined to keep me from playing even strength players with no handicap. It bugged me at first, but now I am coming to terms with it. I guess the insight is: KGS has a ranking system, but it is not stable at higher kyus. There is a lot of inconsistency in the 20k - 30k skill band. There are multiple reasons for this as far as I can tell:

• Churn - There are a lot of new players. Many play a few games and give up. So there is a constant turn over of temporary players.
• Sandbagging - There are strong players that create a second account so they can pummel noobs.
  
• Good Students - These are the new folks that stick to it and start to get better. The kyu rank KGS gives them is off because they are rapidly gaining strength.
• Small Population - After removing all of the above you may have a few players that are accurately ranked, are sticking with it, but are truly 20k+ players.
• Non-interacting Pockets - Of these real 20k+ players, there are groups that may never play against each other, so the ratings aren't equal. Imagine a small group of friends that only play each other (after establishing ranks around 25k). Lets say they all improve 10 stones in skill, but just by playing each other. Their ranks will all still be around 25k, when they are really 15k if they played against the rest of the KGS population.

So, what should a new player do about this? It sounds chaotic and intimidating! Well, I guess I would recommend the following:

• Don't stress out - Have low expectations around exactly what will happen in your initial games online.
• Play all challengers - Don't just lurk and hope the perfect game for you gets put up by someone else. Create your own custom game, make sure it is ranked, and then play whoever is available.
• Get 25 games done fairly quickly - This sort of goes along with the original proverb "Lose 100 games quickly", but for KGS I would change it to "Play 25 Ranked KGS games quickly". Once you have done that you should have a pretty decent understanding of how KGS works and your rating should be fairly accurate. (By the way, 25 isn't a special number, really just a guess...)