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Only Playing Black - Never Playing Against Weaker Opponents
Path: BadHabits · Prev: RequestingBlackAgainstAWeakerOpponent · Next: CommunicatingWithIdioticAbbreviations <rant mode on> KGS has the nice feature of displaying and saving game records of every game played. It's easy to identify how often players take Black or White. Now, for some reason or other, there are players that only take Black, against stronger opponents. I understand their desire to improve by playing stronger opponents, but feel that this is not good gamesmanship. After all, White is playing a weaker player for every game Black is playing a stronger one. Return the favour! What's worse is that the "improvement" in playing Black all the time is balanced with the loss of fighting spirit. Having grown accustomed to defending a four-stone handicap to victory, they have lost (or underdeveloped) their ability to make sabaki, take sente, or invade - making them easy targets when suddenly facing an equal opponent. I play White most of the time - so I typically make quick work against players like this when I play Black. Sai commented on how playing against the handicap is instructional on attacking, while Hikaru was training for the exams. <rant mode off> -- lavalyn Out of my last 100 games, I was white in about 90 of them. I play on IGS. 'Go' figure. -kungfu 3k* I think playing only weaker players is bad, too, because it neglects your own development. It may help your win total, of course, but only by playing stronger players can you learn new techniques, and see the flaws in your current ones. MHO, of course. YMMV. -Blake (24k KGS) Path: BadHabits · Prev: RequestingBlackAgainstAWeakerOpponent · Next: CommunicatingWithIdioticAbbreviations This is a copy of the living page "Only Playing Black - Never Playing Against Weaker Opponents" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |