Hi,

In two KGS games played today, my opponents resigned although they were clearly winning. This is not the first time that this has occured. Could anyone suggest why they did so? Is this common?

Regards,
tezza

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Ancora Imparo

It's impossible to say for certain but this sort of behaviour is one way of keeping your rank artificially low - so when you want to you can have the thrill of an easy win - sandbagging (e.g. a 3 dan player playing as a 10 kyu player with one of their several accounts). It's rather lame behaviour on the part of the sandbagger. The positive aspect for you is that you get to play a stronger player on more even terms I suppose but in general it's more annoying that fun.

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I am John. John-I-Am.

You can't discount the possibility that, among beginners, both players only have a very, very foggy idea of who is ahead.

I've been looking occasionally at the games of a brand new go player with whom I played 9x9 on his first day on KGS. I'm quite positive he is not sandbagging. He will resign (and from comments, seems to genuinely believe he has lost) as a response to losing a small clump of stones in yose, despite being ahead 40 points on the board.

Please report such behavior to any admin online, or send details to admin@gokgs.com
Resigning won games (ranked) is not allowed as it messes up the ranking system.

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Roman Pszonka

I have had a couple of games end like this and, when questioned, the opponent has usually said sorry, they have to go and eat or that their boss returned to the office unexpectedly. I would think that this is more common than sandbagging.

Best wishes.

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No aji, keshi, kifu or kikashi has been harmed in the compiling of this post.
http://www.gogod.co.uk

Even then is "escaping" the correct behaviour. Or they could escape politely -- tell the opponent they couldn't continue the game and ask for reschedule. But I guess it's too much hassle for them and they don't see any negative consequences.

I had this last week.
As the game was finished my opponent had cleary won (I actively helped him kill a corner group of mine) but instead of confirming the result he asked, if I really was 1D in Japan (I'm 1d? at the moment, guess he thought of Japan due to my nickname) because he is only 9-10k in Korea and if I wanted to play him again. I refused because I don't like cocky people. So he hit resign and said: "I let you win me."

But, well, was a free game anyway and he was a guest ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Hi,

Thanks. I suspect one of the two players was a sandbagger as CnP suggests. The other was (I hope) just a mistake. Live and learn .

Cheers
tezza

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Ancora Imparo

Sometimes the phone rings or something comes up too quickly. That's another possibility for a quick resign.

Also: What's the deal with those sandbaggers? What kick does a 3D get out of playing around 10k? It seems kind of odd to me.

I sincerely try to not get upset by escapers, and sometimes I succeed - but I believe it is NEVER the correct behavior.

It seems to me if you accept the match, at the time indicated, you essentially contract to have time to finish the game. If you cannot - and the boss is approaching - I think resign is appropriate. If you have time to chat with your opponent - and can continue the game at a particular time (if something has come up) then an opponent should be reasonable and allow an adjournment until that convenient time.

Just another idea:

Sometimes some people think that their opponent is far behind and should have resigned some time before...

Probably that's kind of improper behaviour in their eyes and they prefer to resign themselves instead of continuing the game...

I observed this already several times in real life and on kgs...

Hi noshape,

Ah, I see.

Cheers
tezza