Sngrfxz

I consider myself weak in games and activities that require strategic thinking. I started playing Go to deliberately challenge myself to improve in this area.

I mostly play on DragonGoServer, where I've progressed from 26k to 25k after playing a dozen or so games. I sometimes play on KGS where I've progressed from 27k? to 21k? without playing a single game! There is a lesson there, I think.

Niklaus: I think the lesson is: Don't worry about ratings, especially not as a beginner.

wms: I'd like to add another lesson here: Ranks with a "?" at the end do bizarre things on KGS. Sometimes hilariously strange. Don't worry, the "?" means that the server is aware that it really doesn't know yet what your rank is.

Sebastian: So this was different from a rank inflation (cf. RankOnGoServers)?

Sngrfxz: Yes, this was not rank inflation. I think what may have happened is that I won against some other players with undetermined ranks (ie. with a "?"). As they continued playing and improved their ratings, the system bumped up my rating too. Since I haven't played any more rated games the system can only guess, "Well, he beat this guy who now is a 20k, so he might be around 20k".

I want to try to follow the advise to review my own games, find one mistake and learn not to do it again. I'll record them under /'s mistakes.

(Sebastian:) What does your nick mean?

Sngrfxz: It's a quote...

Nacho: Now I'm curious too. Is it too impolite to ask which quote? I assume it is an acronym made from the words of the quote, right? Is it English? (I don't mean to be impolite, so if you don't like this questioning, please ignore me; I'm just curious).

Sngrfxz: It's not an acronym, but verbatim (as best I can remember it). Questions are ok. Just don't expect me to give you the answer..