a quick question...

my question is about player ratings.. i've noticed that when you first start you get a rating of 1200 and when you play someone rated roughly 1700 (when your rated 1200) it says if you win your rating will go up by roughly 500 points! but when you have played for a while but your rating is quite low say about 600 and if you play some one rated about 1700 and you win (unlikely but possible) it says your rating will go up only by 60 rating points! surely the bigger the difference of the ratings the more points the 'worse' player is going to gain right?

Is there a reason for this?

The longer you play the more narrow the points won and lost gets.

For more information look up Glicko RD.