I was on KGS and I was playing some matches and made it to about 24k (whether or not I really am that or I just did well on people off their game), so when I went against a guy that was ranked like 27k and got my face rocked off the whole game made me wonder if I was really improving at all.

Especially in these low ranks, you can play against a wide variety of different strengths. It just takes a week or so to become stronger than 20k, so maybe this one player played a couple of games, got ranked 27k and then stopped playing for a week.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with you getting worse ; )

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

As SoDesuNe says, probably your opponent suddenly got better. In the 30k-20k range you can get a few stones better from one game to the next. If you know what you did wrong in that game, don't make that mistake in your next game. Voila you are at least one stone stronger.

I have difficulty in handling having multiple stones set against me to begin with- even if the other player is supposed to be "weaker" it can be stressful. Any tips?

It's generally hard. I think the idea is to say calm and wait for (or provoke) your opponent to make mistakes. This works if your really are stronger, but as others have said, folks in the 20ks can play much better (and sometimes much worse) than their rank indicates.

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Patience, grasshopper.

Don't worry, I think I'm getting worse too (or I'm staying the same and everyone else is getting better...).

Actually, I find being bad at chess way more stressful. But, just don't be afraid to loose, I guess.

Hi Donovitch,

Your opponent is a "dynamic" - improving quickly - he/she has moved up to 24k. Don't be too upset, we come across such players from time to time.

I, personally, went from ? to 30k to 19k in about a week. I did get stronger during that time, but it was mostly the system figuring out where I was at. I played a 2 stone handicap game and wound up at 20k after playing a match against a 21k. That was my first handicap game, and like you boy did I feel it. I vaguely question the sanity of handicap stones in high Kyu games lol. All in all, don't be discouraged!

God bless,
Adam

Just had to edit that quote of yours. It took me months. Even if you ignored the two years when I played a few games every few months, I started playing against GnuGo one June and was 23k (old KGS) in August.

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Occupy Babel!