Getting Started | Creating and Adjusting Your Account
Everyone can observe public games and general chat. But if you want to join in on the fun, you need to have an account
To create a new account, go to https://online-go.com/register or navigate to that page from any online-go.com screen by clicking Sign In in the upper right corner of the screen and then the register button.
Start the registration by choosing a username and a password. Providing email is optional. However (to combat spam), accounts without a verified email address cannot use chat. Do not think too hard about any of these steps, you can adjust all the information later should you want to. Complete the registration by clicking "Sign up." Your new account will be created within seconds.
There are three main areas where you can tweak your account: Preferences (for how the system will behave for you), Profile (for how your account will look for others) and Theme Settings (for how the page will look for you).
You can manage most of your account behaviour in the preferences. Hover over your name in the upper right of your home page and click on “Settings” (or go to https://online-go.com/user/settings).
In the left column you can adjust:
- Language You can choose your browser language.
- Profanity filter ((censors swear words and can be disabled by switching to a language you don’t use).
- Game thumbnail list threshold (limits the number of thumbnails that can be loaded, to minimize data / performance consumption)
- Desktop notifications
- Show offline friends on list (when disabled, only friends that are online will be listed)
- Hide special Unicode symbols... (symbols like emojis will not be visible)
- Never show the "needs translation"... (when enabled, you will not be notified about translations needed for your language)
- Show tournament indicator (when disabled, you will not be notified about open site wide tournaments)
- Sound (the volume of stone clicks and voice countdown)
- Automatch Alert (the volume of the alert that your automatch game request has been accepted)
- Game-control-dock pop-out delay (how long it takes for the game screen menu to pop in - to prevent accidental mouse overs.)
- Voice countdown (when disabled, there will be no audible notification that your game clock is running out)
- Board coordinate (style of coordinates next to the game board)
- Live game submit mode (how moves will be submitted in a live match; change to double click or submit button if you want to prevent misclicks)
- Correspondence submit mode (how moves will be submitted in correspondence matches)
- Auto-advance... (after a move is made in a correspondence game, another game will be loaded immediately if you have a move to make)
- Autoplay delay (choose an interval between moves when automatically replaying a finished game by the play button below the board)
- Disable AI review (AI will not analyze your finished games, but you can also toggle this from the righthand panel when in game)
- Always disable analysis (applies only for you, not your opponent)
- Dynamic title (relevant only for streamers, who will understand)
- Enable function keys (enables use of the F1-F10 keys to enter analyze mode in game and use various tools; this may override some of your browser shortcuts, such as page refresh)
Choose what you wish to be notified about by email (had you provided one of course).
In the right column, you can adjust the following:
When this is enabled all your correspondence games will be paused. (You get +1 day of vacation time for every 8 days on OGS to a maximum of 30. Site supporters get +1 day for every 5 days to a maximum of 60)
Here you can add or change an email address or re-send a validation email to enable chat. You can also change a password by typing a new one twice. You will then have to re-enter your old password for confirmation.
Sometimes you encounter a player you don't ever want play against anymore. Clicking on their avatar shows you a pop up. Click on Block and select the options. Blocking only protects your open challenges not tournaments. Blocking also prevents them from messaging you on the OGS system.
Click on your name on the home page to get to your Profile. You can adjust your picture, name/nickname, flag, and short bio about yourself by clicking "Edit" under the default avatar picture. Do not forget to save your changes by clicking "Save" on the same spot after you are done.
Next to your profile avatar you can see your Rating.
By default your rank is unknown (that is called "provisional") and will only become visible after you have played some ranked games (usually about 6 games are needed for a decent estimate). We provide ratings for different board sizes and timesettings, but for the purposes of matchmaking the overall rank is always used. The rating consists of two numbers. When the toggle mode is on, the first number is your rating points (the bigger the better) and the second number is "give or take" (i.e. your possible deviation from the first number). The more confident the system is about your rank the lower this number will be). Your rank will be displayed as "?" if your rating deviation is greater than 160. Below these numbers is a graph of your past progress (blank until you play some games). You can "zoom-in" by dragging across a desired time period on the timeline.
Below the ratings you can see your Game History. Here you can re-open your finished games and see your past opponents.
Here are listed reviews and demo boards you have started.
Click the upper right avatar picture on any page brings up your notification panel and theme settings. Here you can switch between light and dark overall theme and also change the look of the board to your preference (including custom color of the stones, which allows for playing one-color Go should you want to).
If you want to brush up on the rules of the game (and we encourage you to do so before you start playing), we have a short guide for you. Click “Learn” on the navigation bar and “Learn to play Go” on the drop-down menu. An interactive guide will lead you through the rest. Or click here.
For more information on differences between rulesets, see rules comparison matrix.
To be able to provide equally matched and exciting games, we calculate a player's rank with a system based on the Glicko 2 formula.
For more statistical info on Glicko 2, please see the following references::
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glicko_rating_system
- http://www.glicko.net/glicko/glicko2.pdf
- https://forums.online-go.com](https://forums.online-go.com/t/ogs-has-a-new-glicko-2-based-rating-system/13058?u=flovo
When you start on OGS, your rank (next to your name) is displayed as "?" because the system has no information on your actual strength. This will quickly change if you play several ranked matches (usually about 5 are needed).
Although we calculate the rating in "Glicko points," the rank next to your name is converted to traditional kyu/dan system. Kyu (a student rank) starts at 25k. As you get better you will eventually climb to 1k (which is the highest kyu rank). If you surpass this you will become a dan (a master rank) and starting from 1d will grow up to a maximum of 9d.
The other ratings on your Profile page do not affect your overall rating, which is the only one used. Some games may be annulled, if the game ends before move 6, or if a moderator decides so. These will not count towards your rank, and the system will pretend they don't exist.
The rating calculator enables you to predict the rating change of players who have played a game together. When you click the link, you will come on a page with a lot of statistical measures and where you actually are playing against yourself.
The fields Player, Rating, Deviation, Volatility and Handicap are free fields, where you can enter other data. If I consider Atorrante's games against Sofiam this page looks like this:
To be able to comprehend this, some explanation of the terms is in order.
- Player: enter the names of the players that you want to compare
- Rating: automatically supplied, but it can be changed
- Deviation: automatically supplied, but it can be changed
- Volatility: automatically supplied, but it can be changed
- Handicap: automatically set at zero, but it can be changed
Deviation & Volatility
In general, deviation refers to the departure from an accepted set of behaviors. In statistics, deviation is a measure of the difference between the observed value of a variable and some other value, often that variable's mean. Volatility refers to how rapidly and unpredictably a value will change.
Interpreting the value
• The higher the rating, the stronger the player. Sofiam's rating is 1655 and Atorrante's is 1423. The chance that Sofiam will win a game against Atorrante is much bigger than vice versa. This is illustrated by their rank: 3.5 kyu versus 7.0 kyu.
• How much bigger is now the question. Sofiam's deviation (249) is almost 4 times as high as Atorrante's (63). There is four times as much chance that Sofiam is stronger than Atorrante than the other way around.
• The rank predicts the strength of a player at a certain moment. The deviation gives how accurate this prediction is. People who are new or do not play consistently at one strength, have high deviation.
• Winning and losing games will influence a player's rating. However the amount of the rate change depends on your opponent's strength. If you surprisingly win against a much stronger player your rank will rise significantly. But if you lose as expected, your rank decrease will only be marginal.
If you want to delete your account for whatever reason, go to Profile, Settings and choose Account Settings. You will see a red button at the bottom of the page, where you can delete your account. Deletion is permanent and unrecoverable.
For a full version of our ToS, visit https://online-go.com/docs/terms-of-service Short version is this: Do not be intentionally disruptive of our nice little server. We like it here and do not condone any cheating, racism, vulgarities, threats, spam, and anything potentially harmful or illegal. We cannot guarantee that any records of your games or files will be here forever.
If we find you in breach of these ToS, we will try to work on that with you. However be aware that we may remove chat permissions or ban you outright, with or without warning, depending on the seriousness of the issue. In the event of a ban, you will be provided the opportunity to file an appeal.
Thank you and have fun playing.