Since Tygem released an iPad app, I've been playing a bit with it. While I cannot access more than the Beginner room, apparently because of their registration system, I've played about 15 games. I signed up at 18K because I didn't know what their ranking system was, and I've won about 12 of 15 games so far. However, it's clear that either a) the ranking system is very unstable, or b) there are lots of sandbaggers.

First, the games I lost. With players at 17-18K, who have lots of games (ie, not noobs like me), many of them are stronger than me. Second, I played a couple of games with one player who had roughly twice as many losses as wins, and who destroyed me, then resigned. I wonder if some people do this to keep their ranks low because gambling is allowed on Tygem?

Finally, there is a very serious lack of manners on Tygem. I've had many players escape (so I win on time, after waiting five minutes), and I just played one game where the player escaped but the five-minute time isn't counting, so I'll end up losing as the escaper most likely. It's an unfriendly place to play; not just because you can't chat with players, but it seems that the attitude is quite odd there.

So can any one enlighten me about the ranks? Someone who is a strong dan said I should probably be around 3-4K on Tygem (I'm 4K on KGS). I can't change my rank, and it seems to change very slowly after playing games; it took more than ten wins to get up to 17K where I am now.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

It's hard to say for sure on Tygem how strong someone is. I can play consecutive games with people of the same rank, and their strength seems greatly varied.

Some factors that may potentially contribute to this:
1.) Different servers may have different strengths (eg. Chinese server, Japanese server, Korean server, and different subcategories of each of these).

2.) People can set their initial ranks.

3.) Style is different on tygem, so perceived strength is sometimes different than what you would think on KGS. Some people might play "bad moves", but be good at other things. Then you lose by "something silly".

4.) There might be a different attitude on Tygem since go is more popular in Asia. A lot of westerners play on KGS, and a lot of people take the game seriously. They might study joseki and other stuff like that. Tygem probably has a lot of individuals who don't care about go that much, but just play for the heck of it - maybe like how I play Eurchre on Yahoo games once in awhile.

I haven't played on KGS in awhile, but I would estimate that my rank is within 1 or 2 stones between the servers. But it definitely feels different playing on one server vs. the other.

I think that you cannot have a generalized formula to compare KGS and Tygem. You just have to build your own experience, which varies from individual to individual (eg. I have seen people "stronger on Tygem", and others "stronger on KGS", despite the fact that this seems to be inconsistent.).

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be immersed

I see the app is available in English. Hope this means that we will have a normal English client for Tygem soon.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

Playing more games I see that ranks are all over the place; I've played many people who are stronger than me, at my rank (still 17k).

Also, lots of escapers. Pretty unfriendly people.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

I love this server. Very fast games, a lot of sandbaggers, a lot of players who want to play game after a game after a game, the best server ever!
Ok, now more serious - I love this server. I played ( and lost) yesterday 18kyu player with l&d, joseki, fuseki, reading better than 1d. It were two great games , he gives me handi in a very clever way at the begining and then Boom! Killing all over the board, tesujis , antisujis, all kind that stuff you-never-thought-about, and more killing. And at the end more killing.
Ok, now more serious - I love this server. Even real 18 kyu players are full of fighting spirit that is amazing. It's a great thing to see how they fight and invade everywhere. A lot of fun.

Also may I comment that almost all servers are plagued by sandbaggers and escapers at the lower ranks. Yes, there are sometimes more of them on Tygem, but this is outweighed by the fighting spirit of the players, the ease of getting a game, the excellent ranking system, great top boards, and pro identification. Definitely the best all-around server.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

This is quite true. I personally have more problems in Wbaduk than in Tygem, but thats another issue.
In both servers there are some players who played almost 30 or 40 thousand games and still 10-12k. They play for just killing time at work probably.
Another issue is time difference. If you play for example in the evening in Europe, in Korea or Japan it is too late and they might be drunk or something else.

Edit: Ok i will give wbaduk more credits. I played 3 games after the post, all ended with 0,5-1,5 margins and they were quite entertaining.

I played with Qgo2 on Tygem, it works fine and it's in english. If you got an account you could give it a try on the sourceforge website. I use the SVN version (it does not work with a stable Qgo 1.5.4).

What OS are you using? I have never been able to get qGo to work on Windows Vista or 7. I also run Linux Mint but have not tried it on that. However, this is probably meaningless, as Tygem is reportedly releasing an English version next month. See thread: New English Site.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

I use that :


And the package came from : http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=19261

It's directly d/l from SVN compiled and installed. It works great for me here. This is one of the rare possibility to get on those servers w/o eweiqi and so on linux