Life In 19x19

Ed, they escaped having to play you. They are an escaper.

Sure, they got a loss, but you also got a win you didn't earn. It seems everyone is penalized.

xed_over, oren: I know exactly what all these terms mean and the ramifications on the servers.
In fact, we all know that. Escaping policies have been a perennial discussion forever on Go forums.
Anyway, to me, non-chronic escapers can escape on KGS; IGS escapers get a loss.
(Of course, anybody can escape at any time in any situation -- you can have a heart attack -- so that's a tautology. )

oren wrote:Ed, they escaped having to play you. They are an escaper.

Sure, they got a loss, but you also got a win you didn't earn. It seems everyone is penalized.

It seems to me that if you leave a game because you are losing, and you are aware this will count a loss, escaping is exactly the same as resigning except not as polite. Saying that the win wasn't deserved is like saying that all wins by resignation are not deserved. "Escaping" is as much an admission of defeat as a formal resignation.

DJLLAP wrote:It seems to me that if you leave a game because you are losing, and you are aware this will count a loss, escaping is exactly the same as resigning except not as polite. Saying that the win wasn't deserved is like saying that all wins by resignation are not deserved. "Escaping" is as much an admission of defeat as a formal resignation.

He has stated earlier that people are escaping the game after noticing the time limits. This is not a loss on the board that people are escaping from but game conditions.

While this is an interesting discussion that is completely novel to these boards, I still wonder if "How to find slow games" is not a more appropriate theme for the thread.

I was always worried I was playing too slow for always running out of time when I switched to KGS.
Your posts have inspired me to take even longer.

konfuzed wrote: Turn-based feels too far on the other end of the spectrum with games taking months, "analysis paralysis", and no limits on how much of your day you can spend thinking.

I've played games in DGS that lasted two or three days total. Some people have their phones constantly connected to the server and just answer the moves as they pop up.

It's just a matter of finding some opponents on your time zone and that play fast.

What you ask, from my perspective, is much harder. You're asking for someone to dedicate to a game more than an hour of full, or close to full, attention. A lot of people simply don't have a lot of those per week.

Alguien wrote:

konfuzed wrote: Turn-based feels too far on the other end of the spectrum with games taking months, "analysis paralysis", and no limits on how much of your day you can spend thinking.

I've played games in DGS that lasted two or three days total. Some people have their phones constantly connected to the server and just answer the moves as they pop up.

It's just a matter of finding some opponents on your time zone and that play fast.

What you ask, from my perspective, is much harder. You're asking for someone to dedicate to a game more than an hour of full, or close to full, attention. A lot of people simply don't have a lot of those per week.

So true, that's why I personally only play on weekends and study during the week.

If you want to play slow games but do not like correspondence go, then joining a league might guarantee slow games.

If I remember correctly both the ASR and CGA leagues have games with 45 minutes of main time plus byo-yomi. There may be others.

Thanks for all the help. Still working through your proposed solutions; just lost another game I was winning by 100+ points by time.


It's kind of a compound issue for me because my campus internet connection creates huge lag at random on my moves. That means I hit byo-yomi faster and lose at random when I get there. Before I got my cell phone with a 3g connection my account was at 12k and falling just from the time issues. It's frustrating because I only get to actually play once or twice a week, and the games are typically decided by obvious blunders or lag-based timeouts so it's hard to improve; it almost feels like the board state is irrelevant.

The KGS app for my cell phone doesn't have the lag issue but it's not a great connection and doesn't allow for anything other than blitz-medium automatch as far as I can tell. I tried IGS but couldn't find a way to rejoin the game after a disconnect and lost that way. I guess either trying to adapt to medium games on my cell phone ( I did manage to get back from 12k-6k that way at one point) or trying to find longer custom games on my PC KGS and coping with the move lag might be my best bet. Too bad there isn't a "slow" option for KGS automatch.

konfuzed wrote:Thanks for all the help. Still working through your proposed solutions; just lost another game I was winning by 100+ points by time.


It's kind of a compound issue for me because my campus internet connection creates huge lag at random on my moves. That means I hit byo-yomi faster and lose at random when I get there. Before I got my cell phone with a 3g connection my account was at 12k and falling just from the time issues. It's frustrating because I only get to actually play once or twice a week, and the games are typically decided by obvious blunders or lag-based timeouts so it's hard to improve; it almost feels like the board state is irrelevant.

The KGS app for my cell phone doesn't have the lag issue but it's not a great connection and doesn't allow for anything other than blitz-medium automatch as far as I can tell. I tried IGS but couldn't find a way to rejoin the game after a disconnect and lost that way. I guess either trying to adapt to medium games on my cell phone ( I did manage to get back from 12k-6k that way at one point) or trying to find longer custom games on my PC KGS and coping with the move lag might be my best bet. Too bad there isn't a "slow" option for KGS automatch.

Actually, the KGS app allows for "Medium" and "Fast" which are the slower two of the three automatch settings (the third is "Blitz" which is even faster than fast.) If you want a slower game, you can challenge someone who posts a custom game offer to the open list via your phone app. Under "New game" hit the "Open" tab at the top.

I guess there's no club at your university or nearby? We rarely play with time limits in Dublin (unless it's a tournament game, or the barman has just called last orders) and most people can still get in a couple of games in an evening. If you've made the effort to go somewhere to play, you've already made the time commitment so there's no stress about taking the time to play the best you can.

Same applies to tournaments but obviously they're more of an occasional pleasure for most of us.

Edit: sorry, I see now you were specifically looking for online venues for games with longer time limits and that the clubs you've been to favour fast games. As you were, then.

rottenhat wrote:I guess there's no club at your university or nearby? We rarely play with time limits in Dublin (unless it's a tournament game, or the barman has just called last orders) and most people can still get in a couple of games in an evening. If you've made the effort to go somewhere to play, you've already made the time commitment so there's no stress about taking the time to play the best you can.

Same applies to tournaments but obviously they're more of an occasional pleasure for most of us.

Edit: sorry, I see now you were specifically looking for online venues for games with longer time limits and that the clubs you've been to favour fast games. As you were, then.

Omg people play go in bars?

Why can't this be my life.

Please tell me more of this wonderful fairytale land.

One of my friends informed me this is quite common for clubs in Europe (or at least everywhere he'd been in it). I also know of one club in Toronto that used to meet at a pub; though this was a few years ago and I'm not sure if it still exists.

My experience has unfortunately told me that the more I drink, the worse I play. Still trying to figure that one out.