Recording your tournament games: yes/no/why?

[RBerenguel]

Tomorrow I'm playing in a tournament again, after 8 years. Technology has gone very far and now my iPod Touch (8 years ago it was like iWhat?) can record games. I'm thinking about recording my games in the tournament: something I would never dream of doing 8 years ago is now painless with SmartGo Kifu. Does anyone have any experience with it? It is seen as odd by your rival (or even other participants)?

Of course, before doing it (if I do it at all) I would ask my opponent for permission, just in case.

[daniel_the_smith]

It's relatively common. Tablets/smartphones make it easy to position the device so your opponent can see what you're doing, so I wouldn't even bother asking permission. I've never had anyone complain or even look vaguely unhappy.

...however, I think I may stop doing that and just put the game in from memory afterwards. Last weekend I played in a tournament and lost both games I recorded and won both games I did not record, and this is definitely not the first tournament that has happened to me. It doesn't *feel* like it distracts me, but this has happened enough that it needs an explanation...

[RBerenguel]

Got it. Will leave it for another tournament I'm quite bad at remembering parts of my game: something is clear until I only remember a slump of stones, this is why I wanted "written record"

[topazg]

...however, I think I may stop doing that and just put the game in from memory afterwards. Last weekend I played in a tournament and lost both games I recorded and won both games I did not record, and this is definitely not the first tournament that has happened to me. It doesn't *feel* like it distracts me, but this has happened enough that it needs an explanation...

I've heard this from a lot of people. I've even experienced it myself, and put it down to coincidence, but I'm beginning to suspect it may not be.

[daniel_the_smith]

Got it. Will leave it for another tournament I'm quite bad at remembering parts of my game: something is clear until I only remember a slump of stones, this is why I wanted "written record"

Depending on what you want, it may still be a great idea to record your game. Plus, it may not affect you like it seems to affect me. Tournament games are good ones to review.

...however, I think I may stop doing that and just put the game in from memory afterwards. Last weekend I played in a tournament and lost both games I recorded and won both games I did not record, and this is definitely not the first tournament that has happened to me. It doesn't *feel* like it distracts me, but this has happened enough that it needs an explanation...

I've heard this from a lot of people. I've even experienced it myself, and put it down to coincidence, but I'm beginning to suspect it may not be.

Maybe it's just an impression. I should look through the games recorded on my ipad-- this theory predicts that I will have won less than 50% of them.

It could be something else, like maybe I play sucky in the morning and that's also when I tend to record games...

[xed_over]

...however, I think I may stop doing that and just put the game in from memory afterwards. Last weekend I played in a tournament and lost both games I recorded and won both games I did not record, and this is definitely not the first tournament that has happened to me. It doesn't *feel* like it distracts me, but this has happened enough that it needs an explanation...

I've heard this from a lot of people. I've even experienced it myself, and put it down to coincidence, but I'm beginning to suspect it may not be.

I figure I lose about 2-3 stones in strength when I record my games, but for me its worth it, because then I have a record of my games that I otherwise would not be able to remember.

Except for my very first tournament, I've recorded all my tournament games -- on paper.

[hyperpape]

I've never felt comfortable doing it because I worry it would mess with my concentration, but I always really like it when my opponent does and can send me the record.

So how selfish are you?

[Simba]

I'm not surprised it makes people weaker. One of my opponents at one tournament I went to was so busy faffing about on his phone trying to record our game that he missed quite a few very important things in the game I'm sure he would've seen if he was paying attention. I suppose it depends how good your memory is. When I played the game back to him afterwards from memory and reviewed it (while ironically he was confusedly looking at his phone with a slight "wtf?" since I replayed it the opposite way up to how his phone recorded it) he was like "holy crap how do you remember all that?!" I guess you can compare it to messing around chatting on MSN while you play - just another distraction, I probably am at least 2 stones weaker when talking to people while I play. If you always rely on writing down or recording games on a phone, I think it would hamper your ability to remember games (and by extension, even shapes in general). It's kind of like playing with a joseki book. You might get the joseki right from a textbook, but good luck repeating it when the book is taken away .

[Bill Spight]

Back in the days of colored pencils and paper, I used to record my tournament games. I followed the suggestion -- IIRC, it came from Botvinnik --, of recording my move before playing it on the board. I have no regrets.

[hyperpape]

That is a thousand times more elegant than sitting on your hands (which I often do).

[Ortho]

I record most of my tournament games on my ipod but I stop recording the moves when I get into time trouble in the (usually) late middlegame. I don't think it's any big drain on concentration and my opponents don't ever seem to mind.

[lobotommy]

Losing on time because of game recording - yup, very often in the past. But you need to train yourself in games recording then it would eventually turn to habit. I observed that my last tournament I played not so bad even with game-recording-distraction. It is all about concentration and focusing your mind on game. If you are focused then game recording should not distract you - it is the same board right ?
But yeah, it can be hard at the begining, and you loose about 5 second for each move. Multiply this by number of moves and you will know how many time you 'waste'. Solution: record moves when it is opponent's time.

[lindentree]

From my experience, if you can't replay the game right after, most of your moves aren't going to be worth recording. If I need help remembering, sometimes I ask my opponent to go over and review the game with me in the time between rounds and make a record then.

[p2501]

My go really suffers when I try to record my games, so what I did last time was record with a videocamera. I was a total freak at the tournament but I didn't care ^^

[Akura]

At my last tournament (4th, 5th of february) most people recorded their games, at least at the sdk tables where I sat. I was the only one who used paper kifus and a red and black pen, most players used their smart phone. I didn't had any problem concentrating on the board or running out of time.

My go really suffers when I try to record my games, so what I did last time was record with a videocamera. I was a total freak at the tournament but I didn't care ^^

A really nice way, several people used, is to take a photo of the goban every 10-20 moves or when a fight is locally finished.