I prefer the UI and feel to other servers and also I can't review my games without using the KGS client. It's just optimal for it IMO.

-it has a heart and soul.
-it is the only server that I feel happy playing in.
-there are so many enjoyable high dans to watch.
-you can watch fast even games between strong players at nearly every given time.
-their ranking system is effective.

The only reason I would even contemplate playing on IGS is that there are so many aggressive sandbaggers there that I could learn a lot from fighting them.

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LoL forum:
"Complexity is Magic: The Gathering, lots of tiny rules and special cases, and basically every single card is a unique case. Depth is Go: the game has 4 rules, and it takes literally decades to learn how to play that game well."

you can chat on igs also. I do it all the time when I'm online there.

KGS is better than IGS for me. I like the software better and the lectures are fun, people are usually nice. I haven't tried other servers though.

Okay this is called a hard question. Let me think... I like KGS for many reasons :

1. The people there are more intelligent than in the other Go servers.
2. People there are kind, and seldom I have to block someone
3. The game platform is really fantastic. The sounds, the rooms, everything is so fascinating.
4. You can have your own avatar and profile where you are type whatever you want for free - in the other sites you have to pay in order to have avatar.
5. The ranking system is great - there no is mistake over there.
6. The name is cool

There are many other things I like there, but I just can't remember them right now

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Stefany, web programmer

There are nice people on KGS and i feel fine there...
but
the software is 10 years behind compared with wdaduk for example - sound, board some features missing. -
and the rating system is not for me. I dont like getting games counted from
months ago and i believe its wrong to rate handicapgames.
I have 2 accounts on KGS with nearly the same winning % but with very different rating.

greetings

I LOL'd.

Wbaduk's ranking system is crap. You struggle around at 18k until you're KGS 3-4k, and then suddenly you climb up to Wbaduk 1k. KGS's ranking system is the best that I've seen for playing go. It has some drawbacks, but comparing to other systems it is great.

Also I dislike Wbaduk's counterintuitive GUI. Besides, the betting stuff, the annoying noise, these stupid avatars, that's nothing to play serious games there. KGS' GUI has everything you ever need, in a tidy, neutral and comfortable environment, no unnecessary gimmicks.

How gay!

Really? You're going with that?

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Oh yes there is. Look at wbaduk ranking system. No mistake on dans.



And you measure by what exactly? Their knowledge of English. I would have a hard time saying people on Asian servers are unintelligent because I cannot communicate with them. But thats kinda human nature, think bad of things you dont understand...

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Yeah, but in the kyu ranks wbaduk's system is completely crap.

It's not the system, its the sandbaggers

Other systems can deal with sandbaggers without such a mess. It's one of the things why KGS is cool.

How does KGS deal with sandbaggers?

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FusekiLibrary, an opening library.
SGF converter tools: Wbaduk NGF to SGF | 440 go problems | Fuseki made easy | Tesuji made easy | Elementary training & Dan level testing | Dan Tutor Shortcut To Dan

It's impossible to deal with sandbaggers on any system, because a person can play as well or as poorly as they want to.

With many non-KGS servers, however, you can input an initial rank. This could potentially make it easier to sandbag. However, I still like systems where you can put in an initial rank. On Tygem, actually, I put in an initial rank of 5k and I'm 2d there right now. Some people might have said I was sandbagging.

However, conversely, it is hard for me to get an initial rank on KGS when I make a new account, so I often have to play a weaker player to get a game. People might still call me a sandbagger in that case :-p

Either way, if you're just playing to improve, I don't think sandbagging is really a problem. I'm glad if I can play stronger players.

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be immersed

I'm a sandbag victim. I wanted to get a stable rank on my old account but I abandoned it when it got to 2d? I'm not that strong but people kept resigning on me (and I got somewhat lucky in some games) and pushed my rank up. My current account is 2k? and I doubt I'm that strong. I know the solution is to play more ranked games but it's just not any fun to be thoroughly crushed on the board and still get the win. For some reason I like wbaduk's system better where this haven't happened (yet) because it takes a lot more wins to push up the rank. At least compared to kgs' ranks when you have very few rated games. I usually just play ranked to get a stable rank but it hasn't worked that well for me recently.

On the whole I think kgs' rank algorithm is nice though.

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FusekiLibrary, an opening library.
SGF converter tools: Wbaduk NGF to SGF | 440 go problems | Fuseki made easy | Tesuji made easy | Elementary training & Dan level testing | Dan Tutor Shortcut To Dan

+ KGS rating system is great and 9d is really a 9d. E.g. Artem and Ilja are 8-dans and currently two strongest European born players. And 2-dans really are 2-dans there. Yes they really do! EGF ratings are just flawed.

+ It is always possible to estimate the reliability of rank, if you know how the rating system works, by examining player's game history.

+ It is possible to make useful offline game archive script where rating graph and games archive are on the same page! E.g. like this php script.

+ Sandbagging is practically impossible in KGS due to rating system. Some Asian's may try that by resigning most games early. But this is very impractical and therefore rare. Resigning games on purpose does not suit well humans and is not that bad for the opponents.

+ People can express something intelligent in the info and select picture with good taste.

+ There are less those people, who do not want to learn go, but just annoy opponent by playing year after year without mind, improvement and sense of strategy and theory and do not even try to read further than three moves ahead. Even gobots are better opponents.

+ My favorite go player Zen plays there, with the company of other cool gobots. Sometimes gobots even play against each other in monthly gobot tournaments and that is entertaining to watch.

+ It is possible to choose NZ rules where handicap stones can be placed in random intersections. Also possibility to make suicides and have integer komi are nice extra. Suicide is sometimes needed as a kou thread but it is more fun to watch when opponent fills accidentally the last liberty and kills theirself!

+ It is easy to filter those challengers for handicap games that play only against significantly weaker or stronger opponents. I.e. plays only as either black or white.

+ People do not create many multiple account's there, because it is bad habit to have multiple active accounts. (ok, I was perhaps a bit sarcastic here =)

+ Score Estimator has some spirit and is an endless source for kibitz.

+ Pink stones and social features and all the other cool features that are already mentioned several times!

Less ducks leering at you than on wbaduk.

And KGS+ is pretty great for its cost.

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.