RATINGS

do you lose or gain points depending on the rank of your opponent OR do you lose/gain a certain amount no matter what the rating of other player is????

There is used similar formula as in US chess federation.

Ok for the rest of us who have no clue what the heck that means..or what the chess federation is even about.. can we have an explanation to patty's question?

I don't have the specifics, but I have observed the following:

The change in rating is the same for each person, just in opposite directions.

The amount of the change is dependent on the expected outcome. (A stronger player beating a weaker player will result in a smaller change. The greater the difference in ratings; the less the change as a result of the game.) This works the other way in the case of an "upset".

Here's the formulas that's used on the site: http://www.playsite.com/t/games/board/hex/rating.html At least in Hex, but I think they're used in all the games (even in Go, but there it's rounded to Kyu's).

The change is not the same for both players. If one player play a lot of games, and the other only few, the change for the former is less then the change for the latter.
Mainly if 2 players that played equally much games, with equal points play the change is 16. If you win to a weaker player it would be less, if you win a stronger player it should be more. (and the logical dual for losing...)

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