British Go Association Proposal for AGM 2004, Tuchola Poland Ratings for Lower Graded Players The EGF ratings system shall be extended to recognise ratings equivalent to at least 30 kyu (preferably 35 kyu), starting no later than the rating list of January 2005. Rationale: Players in many European countries often start entering tournaments while still weaker than 20-kyu. Many tournaments in Europe have a minimum entry grade of 30-kyu, and some have a minimum of 35-kyu. The 20-kyu cut-off in the EGF ratings is unnecessary and has these negative effects: (1) It makes players weaker than 20 kyu feel unwelcome at tournaments. (2) It distorts the ratings of players in the 20-15 kyu range. The UK believes that the EGF ratings system should assist the unification of grading across Europe for all tournament players, not only for stronger ones. Note that the 2004 European Youth Goe Championships accepted entries at grades to 30 kyu and correctly reflected these in the published results table. So do many other tournaments. In our view, it is inappropriate for the EGF ratings system to publish arbitrarily altered numbers in its listings, and it would be equally inappropriate to omit any person who has entered a tournament from the ratings list altogether. It is widely believed that grades weaker than 20 kyu are unstable. However, this is relative - it is true for all grades to some extent. Extension of the system to cover all grades for which tournament entries are accepted would have the additional benefit of supporting the generation of statistics about such instability. On Behalf of the BGA Simon Goss President, BGA