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Taking a friendly game too serious
   

Well, some of you might disagree, but I think it's another bad habit to take friendly games too serious. Note: we are not talking about tournament games here.

Think of a game in your local club, nice atmosphere. You are playing a friend and although you both try to win, the atmosphere is relaxed. You chat while you play, you may be drinking or eating, anything. On the board, your highest priority is to play good moves, learn something out of it, not to utterly destroy your opponent.

You are playing a nice game (the score is close), when suddenly you make that stupid 50 point blunder (e.g. putting your stones in auto-atari).

And your opponent captures. As simple as that. The game is over.

Sure, your opponent played by the rules and taking back a move is a bad habit, but I never even would consider capturing such stones. It's against the spirit of the situation. Note: if you ride a fierce attack and that 50 point group falls prey to your clever strategy: fine, you earned it. But simply destroying a beautiful game for that unsatisfactory win is a bad habit, which really, really annoys me.

To top that: I once played a game, where my opponent made such a mistake. I pointed it out to him and allowed him to take back that move. 50 moves later (early yose) I made such a mistake. And he captured!

Seesh, some people take this game way too serious.

--Arno

Talking about auto-atari's and taking back moves. How do you people (not addressing anybody here) feel about O Rissei, who in a very important game against Ryu Shikun for the Kisei title captured his stones after Ryu Shikun put himself in atari when filling up the dame's? Off course, this wasn't a friendly game at all. It was the most important title in Japan. But don't you agree that it's still bad sportmanship to try to win when filling up the dame's? Note: Ryu Shikun would have won without that mistake.

Martijn Wallage



This is a copy of the living page "Taking a friendly game too serious" at Sensei's Library.
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