How ratings work
Play someone online and the result nudges a skill rating up or down. This page covers what counts, how the number moves, and how we stop people gaming it.
The short version
- Only online games against another person are rated. Games against the computer, and private games you set up with a share link, are not.
- Everyone starts at 1500. Win and it goes up, lose and it goes down. A draw counts as half a win.
- Each variant has its own rating. On top of those sits one overall rating pooled across the draughts variants, and that's the headline number.
- Your first few games move the rating a lot while the system works out how good you are. After that it steadies.
- You don't need an account to get a rating, but only signed-in accounts appear on the leaderboard.
What counts as a rated game
A game is rated only when it's a quick match against another person, the kind you get from "Play Online" when the site pairs you with an opponent. Three things stay unrated:
- Games against the computer. These keep their own win/loss stats on your device, but they never touch your rating.
- Private games you start and share by link or join code. Those are for playing a specific person, so they don't count by default.
- Chinese Checkers. It's a different game on its own engine, and it isn't rated at all.
Our server decides whether a game is rated when it pairs you, not your browser. So a result can't be faked, and you can't dodge one by claiming a game wasn't rated.
How your rating is calculated
We use Glicko-2, a system designed by Mark Glickman that builds on the Elo ratings you'll know from chess. The basic idea carries over: beat a stronger opponent and you gain more than you would beating a weaker one. What Glicko-2 adds is a sense of how confident it is in your rating, so new and returning players find their level faster.
When a rated game ends, our server ran the game, so it knows the real result. It looks up both players' current ratings and updates them. How much your rating moves comes down to the result, the gap between your rating and your opponent's, and how settled both ratings already are. A draw is scored as half a win and half a loss, which matters in checkers, where draws are common.
Provisional ratings and how sure we are
Alongside your rating, the system tracks how sure it is about that number. Think of it as a give-or-take. A brand-new player has a wide give-or-take, so a single game can swing their rating a long way. Every game you play narrows it, and the rating steadies.
For your first 5 games in a variant, while that give-or-take is still wide, your rating shows as provisional and stays off the leaderboard until it settles.
Overall rating vs each variant
American, International, Russian and the rest are different games, so each one keeps its own rating. On top of those sits a single overall rating that pools every draughts variant you play into one number. Every rated game feeds it, so it settles quickly, which is why it's the main "how good are you" figure on your profile and in the header. Each variant's own rating stays the sharper measure for that game. Chinese Checkers isn't in the pool, since it's unrated.
Finding you a fair match
When you search for an online game, we try to pair you with someone close to your rating. To keep waits short, that range widens the longer you wait:
- It starts tight, about 60 points either side of your rating.
- It widens by roughly 20 points a second, reaching about 400 points after 17 seconds or so.
- After about 30 seconds, we pair you with anyone available rather than leave you hanging.
- If nobody shows up at all, the search gives up after 10 minutes.
Matching uses the rating on our server, not one your browser reports, so it can't be gamed. Pairing is done on each variant's own rating.
Time away from the game
Go a while without playing a variant and the system gets less sure your rating still fits. You might have improved, or gone rusty. So the give-or-take grows slowly the longer you're away, roughly one small step a day. When you come back, your first game or two can move the rating a little more freely until it re-settles. It never grows past where a complete newcomer starts, though.
Fair play
Two rules keep the rating honest.
You can't farm the same opponent. Once two players have racked up more than 5 rated games against each other within 24 hours, further games between them stop awarding any rating gain. Losses still count. That closes the obvious loophole: beating a second account you control over and over to inflate a number.
Quitting counts as a loss. Disconnect and don't come back, or bail on a game in progress, and it's scored as a loss once the game times out. Closing the tab won't save you.
The leaderboard
The leaderboard ranks players by rating, with one board for the overall rating and one for each variant. Two rules keep it worth reading. Only signed-in accounts appear: guests still get a rating and level-matched games, but a guest identity lives in one browser and can be wiped, so it isn't something we can rank. And a player needs at least 5 rated games on a board before showing up, so one lucky result can't land you at the top.
Want to appear? Sign in to turn your device rating into an account rating that follows you across devices.
Seasons
Ratings currently run as one open-ended season. If we ever reset for a new season, this page will say so.
Changes to how ratings work
We may tweak the rating system as the site grows, say the matchmaking range or the fair-play rules. The "last updated" date below reflects the most recent change to this page.