Life In 19x19

Hey guys,

I've recently started to play on Tygem and I must say I'm loving it! (On Korea 1,2 and 3)
Howhever I'm a bit concerned... I'm registered as a 18k since thats the lowest you can register and I have not yet won a single game !!! On kgs i'm a 14k, is it normal for the ranks to be more than 4 stones apart ?

Or is it just me who is playing bad against this style or so ?
Should I upload a game for you guys to see why i'm failing at this low level of 18k ?:-)

Edit: btw i'm not just playing bad but litteraly getting crushed. (like 80 - 100 points loss)

Thanks!
Otenki

Yeah, it's normal for KGS DDK players to get crushed on Tygem I'm afraid. There are quite a few sandbaggers, and lots of people to whom the sort of crazy fights you get are just second nature. I've had some insane games on there myself, where overplay+cut+cut again just creates a series of large whole board fights. If you've been used to the relative peace on KGS, it's like being hit in the face with a Go sledgehammer.

Feel free to post games if you like though

I'm 9kyu on KGS and have won 2 and lost 20 on Tygem where I am 18 kyu.

You should avoid 18k and 17k on tygem!
I registered as tygem 16k when I was about KGS 10k and I was able to win most of the games. But 16k and 15k is still in the sandbagging range, you will be crushed every 3 games or so, but you get a lot of equal players or sometimes total beginners.

I haven't played much on tygem lately, currently I'm 10k and there are some that crush me (those with 10000+ games) and some I can crush. There is still a huge difference, but it's fun to face strong players every now and then.

The playing style on tygem can be explained in one word: Overplay!
If you are weak against overplays I recommend to play on tygem, this really helps to learn how to deal with overplays and then you can punish overplays on KGS

Are you saying that I should change my rank to 16k on tygem or did I understand that wrong ?

I would suggest not playing on Tygem until you get around 5k KGS. Then you can play at around 3k on Tygem. You will still have a difficult time at that rank until you adapt to the insane fighting style most Tygem players have, but you won't have to worry about getting sandbagged every match like at the lower ranks.

The only thing you have to worry about at the higher ranks is having your opponent disconnect which means they automatically win.

Thanks for the tips but I wonder appart from the fact that its maybe not so fun too loose each time.
Would it not be a good idea to play lots of strong players on tygem in order to improve ?
Or would it not help because the strength difference is too big ?

I think it's a fun way to get even games against stronger players. I tend not to play there because I have trouble getting my sgf files off the Tygem client so I can review them (I play on Tygem on my ipad but then when I go into my games history on the PC it won't let me save them from there even though there is a "save" button).

Also the fighting style is really fun.

Otenki, opinions may vary, but I think that it is not really useful to play against a much stronger opponent unless he plays normally and he or someone else is willing to help you see your mistakes. A game against a strong player who just wants to have fun by ripping through a much weaker opponent is not a good conduit for learning as it is likely the stronger player is doing massive overplays throughout the game.

@otenki: No you don't need to change your rank but I recommend it.
The best opponent is only a a little bit stronger then you.

@mw42: Are you serious "KGS 5k is tygem 3k"? When I was a KGS 5k I fought my way up from 15k to 10k, but even now I still have a hard time winning against tygem 10k players. Does that mean 10k is still full of sandbaggers?

mw42 wrote:The only thing you have to worry about at the higher ranks is having your opponent disconnect which means they automatically win.

Did you really mean to say that if someone disconnects they win?? If my opponent disconnects, I wait 5 minutes and win.

@judicata: that would be reasonable, but if you use the English client that is actually what happens. I only encountered it once, but it was sort of annoying and unbelievable. It's probably a bug that they didn't care to fix.

illluck wrote:@judicata: that would be reasonable, but if you use the English client that is actually what happens. I only encountered it once, but it was sort of annoying and unbelievable. It's probably a bug that they didn't care to fix.

I use the English client, and haven't faced that problem. I've just played recently, though, so maybe they just fixed the bug.

I had that happen perhaps a month or two ago, so I doubt it.

@blade: I guess that is part of the reason (and you are inadvertently contributing if that's the case :p), but a bigger part of the reason is probably that there is a very small strength difference between most ranks under 3d (if I remember correctly, that's the highest rank you can register at)? Though I have also heard that even the difference between 5-7d is quite small.

blade90 wrote:@mw42: Are you serious "KGS 5k is tygem 3k"? When I was a KGS 5k I fought my way up from 15k to 10k, but even now I still have a hard time winning against tygem 10k players. Does that mean 10k is still full of sandbaggers?

That's right. I'm 2k @ KGS and 9k @ Tygem, though I agree I might be slightly underranked there. The ranking does not adjust fast enough.