You are right. The arrows are largely self explanatory. As of now, we have used five arrows in three colours to indicate the changes in ranks, as below:

- The green arrow indicates that the player is on the up, and has made major gains (10+) in the ranks as compared to last ranking list.
- This arrow indicates that the player has made minor gains in ranks (1-9).
- The right blue arrows indicate that there is no change in the rank.
- This arrow indiates that the player has dropped 1-9 ranks.
- The red arrow indicates that the player has dropped 10+ ranks.

It's great !

This is cool Rakesh!

Thanks for explaining.
So there is no 'major' jump (in either direction) in top20.
But I would think that cpickerel and willwc cases are significant jumps.
The point i'm trying to make is a jump of 5 ranks in top20 or jump of 10 ranks in top50 or a jump of 20 ranks in top100 should be considered as major.

Jump or Drop you mean :)

Blue is my favourite colour, so I wanted more of blue .
Actually, with the current thumb-rule, it is less likely that we'll see a green or red arrow in Top 20.

I think you meant a drop for cpickerel. Thanks Rishi.
But you have got a very valid point here. Since you want to see a more colourful rating list, we can definitely think of a context based definition of 'major'. Lets have more views on this and we can refine this further.

Yes - I used jump for both the directions. drop is the correct word.

Change would be the best word since drop only signifies a downword trend :D

As some of you have already noticed, the LMI Puzzle Ratings have now been updated after the two recent puzzle tests - LMI Screen Test 1 and Puzzles & Chess.

A total of 223 players from 36 countries find a place in the ratings, including 43 new players. Players who have missed the three most recent puzzle tests have not been included in the rating list.

Apart from India, there are 10+ players from USA, Germany, Japan, UK and Poland on the rating list.

The top 3 are now separated by only 20 points, comfortably ahead of the next 3.

Another Observation....
In top 10 all players have played 5 or more tests out of 8 rated. This shows playing consistently will keep u high in the rating..........

The rating system is really cool, thanks for doing this. One issue though, on both 'change' columns, when you sort by that column, it doesn't quite sort correctly. For instance all numbers starting with 1, whether it's 1 digit, 2 digits, or 3 digits are all grouped together. (it sorta goes 1, 10, 100, 11, 110, 111)...

The sorting works the way it does because of the square brackets around the numbers.
Rakesh, any reason why the numbers have to be bracketed?

The square brackets are not necessary. They can be done away with, if that helps in sorting on the 'Change' column.

The LMI Sudoku Ratings are now updated after the December test. Overall, 258 players from 41 countries are included in the rating list now.

The LMI Puzzle Ratings have now been updated after Puzzle Jackpot.

A total of 236 players from 38 countries find a place in the ratings, including 11 re-entries and 19 new players. Players who have missed the three most recent puzzle tests have not been included in the rating list.

The Top 6 remain the same. motris continues to lead the ratings at 996. The highest gainer has been Alberto who gained 186 points. Amongst the Top 50, pixl has been the highest gainer, gaining 151 points. The highest ranked new player is Valezius at #99.

The LMI Sudoku Ratings have now been updated after the January Monthly Sudoku Test "Prime Exotica".
A total of 268 players are included in the current rating list, including 31 new players and 7 re-entries.

Thomas consolidated his #1 position with a top performance, and remains the only one with a four digit rating. Rishi lost 34 points but remained in 2nd position.

None of the Top 10 gained any rating points. WaterlooMathie was the only new name (re-entry) in the Top 20 at #16. David McNeill gained 17 rating points to move up to #15. Fred76, who tested Prime Exotica, gained 2 ranks as others around him lost a few rating points.

TiiT is the highest ranked new player at #71. Valezius gained 50 ranks to move to #70. In the Top 50, jonm, karin and Psyho were the major gainers.

The LMI Sudoku Ratings have now been updated after the February Monthly Sudoku Test "Double Delight". A total of 231 players are included in the current rating list.

The Top 3:
1. motris - 997
2. purifire - 913
3. jaku111 - 911

WaterlooMathie, the Double Delight winner, continued his rise with a gain of 60 points and 3 ranks. TiiT and bskbri were the two biggest gainers in the Top 100.

Top 3 from India:
1. purifire - 913
2. Rohan rao - 860
3. gauravkorde - 676

Overall, 37 countries are represented in the ratings. A distribution of the countries with the maximum rated participants is shown below:

I notice I'm missing from the rankings now. (I think I've done only one test since November.) How do you determine whether someone is 'active' or not? How long before you get removed?

If you miss three consecutive tests then your name is temporarily dropped from the ratings. You will again enter in the list as soon as you play another test.
Sudoku tests / ratings and Puzzle tests /ratings are totally different entities....and are not mixed together.

Further if you have missed two consecutive tests then you will be shown as N... which is an indication that your name will be dropped in the next list if you dont play the next test.

Hope to see you back in the next ratings update. All your previous scores WILL be considered while calculating the new ratings.

Awesome, thanks. Maybe now I'll have the motivation to do better!

Updated LMI Puzzle Ratings after Puzzle Zoo (February 2011 LMI puzzle test) are now available. Overall, 186 players are included in the ratings, including 14 new players and 8 re-entries.

Not much of topsy-turvy.......except a few changes in Top 10. Psyho climbs up to #7, gaining 54 rating points after Puzzle Zoo. Willwc enters the Top 10, gaining 14 rating points. Uvo sitting just behind deu and battling hard to reach the second spot.

Rob was the biggest gainer from Puzzle Zoo, gaining 221 points and 113 ranks. Amongst the Top 50, Valezius gained 181 points, and Nyuta gained 95 points. Notable re-entries to the rating list include #19 (Tarotaro) and #40 (ByronosaurusRex).

Updated LMI Puzzle Ratings after Puzzle Hybrids (LMI March 2011 Puzzle Test) are now available.

motris (992), deu (984) and uvo (955) occupy the top 3 spots.

The following table shows the highest ranked puzzlers from the countries that are represented in the Top 50:
(The countries are in alphabetical order)

Country	Puzzler	Rank	Rating
Austria	euklid	23	647
Canada	ByronosaurusRex	39	558
Czech Republic	Janka1	13	721
France	godisdead	24	640
Germany	uvo	3	955
Hungary	Valezius	20	674
India	Rohan Rao	34	587
Italy	forcolin	28	617
Japan	deu	2	984
Poland	Psyho	7	808
Romania	rubben	32	591
Serbia	nikola	4	888
Slovakia	pista	16	699
The Netherlands	Para	27	621
Turkey	yureklis	21	673
UK	drsteve	29	601
USA	motris	1	992