Life In 19x19

Mnemonic wrote:but I created a drunk account for myself.

Hey Shaddy!

I have in the past felt the way you describe. I took an 18 month break. I don't think that's what you want to do, though.

You mention you like the social aspect of the game ... so find some online opponents who are willing to chat throughout the game, too. Maybe that's harder to do at the dan levels. I can usually find people who are chatty on KGS and we play and have fun.

Redundant wrote:

Mnemonic wrote:I don't know if you have ever tried this, but I created a drunk account for myself. Whenever I'm coming from a party or similar and feel the need to play some games I just put on some hard techno and start playing. The techno and the alcohol pump me up and I start to just cut and kill everything. I then loose horribly because everything I tried to kill, lives and everything I tried to cut, connects. But it is a lot of fun

He has a drunk account ... but it's 5d? on kgs ...

I don't know what you mean exactly, but drunken acounts are fun. When I first created my drunken acount I was around 13k so I put 15k as estimate. I quikly plumited to _19k_ The next time I played drunken I had advenced to 14k (some wierd KGS mecannic. Either way I was 14k at the time, so I thought it was no biggy) Next day I checked and my drunken acount was better than my main acount It didn't last long and it probably only works on ddk level, but my point is: a "I'm not feeling so good" acont is very beneficial to your 'go games played per month'.

edit: my post is writen without artificial corection so please forgive me. (details explaind in this post)

I don't understand why some people care about winning and losing so much, if it's not for some external benefit. I don't mean "care about win" as implication to play the game in the first place. The fact is within community Wins = Losses. For every winner there is exactly one loser. Loser in one game can very well be winner in next one and vice versa. It's like fate. You never know the mental state of your opponent. The only evidence, granted by ranking, is the level he plays over long periods of time. Play against your peers and you have a fair game every single time.

One can not "lose" rank either. It's an illusion when you've played for many years and slowly developed skill in game. Getting rank feels like prize. In reality rank reflects only your own skill. If you were to start a new account and played a few ranked games, you'd instantly be where your old account was.

Marcus- Yeah, a lot of dans are either foreign and don't speak english or don't want to chat during the game.

Mnemonic- He means I played a few games on it, won all of them, and now the account is [5d?]

Mnemonic wrote:I don't know if you have ever tried this, but I created a drunk account for myself. Whenever I'm coming from a party or similar and feel the need to play some games I just put on some hard techno and start playing. The techno and the alcohol pump me up and I start to just cut and kill everything. I then loose horribly because everything I tried to kill, lives and everything I tried to cut, connects. But it is a lot of fun

I do that too! Except on my main account......

Strangely, I started feeling the same way as Shaddy recently. I started hating losing but probably for a different reason.

I think the reason is that the way I perceive the game has changed. Go has a special character which is not so strong in other games like chess, backgammon, bridge, etc. Every move says something. If you perceive the game like that, then an opponents overplay, (or e.g. an impossible invasion try) seems to say "I think you are weak enough to let me get away with this overplay".

In backgammon, an overplay would mean more something like "I feel lucky". In chess, the thinking is in a way more analytical, of course the moves have meaning but they don't "speak" as strongly as in Go.

If an opponent tells me that I am weak enough to allow him this or that invasion to succeed, I started perceiving it a kind of humiliation. And in the end if he can get away with it, this makes me feel less well. I hope it's just a temporary situation.

entropi wrote:I think the reason is that the way I perceive the game has changed. Go has a special character which is not so strong in other games like chess, backgammon, bridge, etc. Every move says something. If you perceive the game like that, then an opponents overplay, (or e.g. an impossible invasion try) seems to say "I think you are weak enough to let me get away with this overplay".

- Thoughts running through my head at point like that are more like: "Looks like the hunting season just started!" I love unreasonable invasions.

Toge wrote:

entropi wrote:I think the reason is that the way I perceive the game has changed. Go has a special character which is not so strong in other games like chess, backgammon, bridge, etc. Every move says something. If you perceive the game like that, then an opponents overplay, (or e.g. an impossible invasion try) seems to say "I think you are weak enough to let me get away with this overplay".

- Thoughts running through my head at point like that are more like: "Looks like the hunting season just started!" I love unreasonable invasions.

And how do you feel when they live when you are pretty sure they shouldn't?

entropi wrote:Every move says something. If you perceive the game like that, then an opponents overplay, (or e.g. an impossible invasion try) seems to say "I think you are weak enough to let me get away with this overplay"....If an opponent tells me that I am weak enough to allow him this or that invasion to succeed, I started perceiving it a kind of humiliation. And in the end if he can get away with it, this makes me feel less well. I hope it's just a temporary situation.

Perhaps you could tell yourself that your opponent doesn't know what his words mean? There are deliberate overplays, but more often, your opponent doesn't know he's saying your weak. He's just choosing the best play he can find.

entropi wrote:Strangely, I started feeling the same way as Shaddy recently. I started hating losing but probably for a different reason.

I think the reason is that the way I perceive the game has changed. Go has a special character which is not so strong in other games like chess, backgammon, bridge, etc. Every move says something. If you perceive the game like that, then an opponents overplay, (or e.g. an impossible invasion try) seems to say "I think you are weak enough to let me get away with this overplay".

In backgammon, an overplay would mean more something like "I feel lucky". In chess, the thinking is in a way more analytical, of course the moves have meaning but they don't "speak" as strongly as in Go.

If an opponent tells me that I am weak enough to allow him this or that invasion to succeed, I started perceiving it a kind of humiliation. And in the end if he can get away with it, this makes me feel less well. I hope it's just a temporary situation.

I admit I get into this mindset sometimes, and I like the characterization of certain moves as "offensive" . I usually take some time to stretch and talk myself out of this mindset. I find I play my best when my thoughts are "live, die, or kill, what can I learn from this?"

Also, I've been on the other end of this. While I've gotten away with vulgar/offensive moves before (not my style), I suspect that some players act as if my moves are offensive when they aren't; so perhaps I do the same thing sometimes--my opponent wasn't really being offensive, but just saw a weakness I didn't.

Another thing--about 70-80% of the time, if an invasion really is offensive, I don't have to kill it. But I won't see that if I'm too busy being offended.

topazg wrote:And how do you feel when they live when you are pretty sure they shouldn't?

- See the difference is that I don't hold expectations. I'm thinking about stealing base, or preventing access to center as general strategy. Even the opening chapter of Attack & Defense book discusses that goal of killing is unreasonable. I regard this game as intellectual play rather than straight-faced competition. Maybe this is why I find it hard to empathize with OP.

hyperpape wrote:Perhaps you could tell yourself that your opponent doesn't know what his words mean? There are deliberate overplays, but more often, your opponent doesn't know he's saying your weak. He's just choosing the best play he can find.

This is of course possible. Sometimes I am not sure whether my opponent is aware of what is going on, or maybe I am completely out of tune myself. On the other hand, I am absolutely sure that I also play such overplays myself without noticing it.
But this consideration still doesn't change my perception during the game.

Before, I used to see the each move as a puzzle to be solved, rather than seeing the whole game as a competition. I don't know what happened but recently my perception has annoyingly changed and this incredibly reduces the fun of playing. Maybe it is time to give a break but the game is like cigarettes, in the sense that you cannot stop so easily even temporarily.

Mnemonic wrote:I don't know if you have ever tried this, but I created a drunk account for myself.

My old teacher ONLY had a drunk account...

youngjae wrote:My old teacher ONLY had a drunk account...

Reminds me of a joke:

A young woman walking down the street noticed a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch. She called out to him as she passed. "Hello there! I couldn't help but notice how happy you look. What's your secret for a long happy life?"
"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he replied. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat nothing but fast food, and never exercise."
"Wow!" The woman was amazed. "How old are you?" she asked.
"Twenty-six," he replied.