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Playing Styles And Player Types
   

Playing Styles

  • The Bizarre Style: We've all played against people using this style before. They open on the 5-5 point and 3-6 point. Every move they make seems to defy convention. Yet for some reason finding a suitable play against it is always impossible. You end up losing by 20 points and are at a loss to see how you got so far behind. Not to be confused with the "Beginner Style" where bizarre moves are played, yet in the end, they are left with a couple small barely living groups.
  • The Belligerent Style: Players using this can't seem to stay away from a fight. Forget any concept of a fuseki, two stones are plonked down in two random corners, then a violent fight is started. Every time you free yourself from one violent aggressive mess, another is started. The position on the board never grows evenly, always in huge amorphous blobs marking the site of each bitter struggle.
  • The Timid Style: This player has played a lot of games where they recieve high handicaps, and as a result thinks that he`s just bad at fighting. He assumes that his opponent will stomp him in any fight even though the opponent is really only about as strong as he is.
  • The Fatalistic Style: This player assumes that any moyo will easily become solid territory. He rarely invades, and when an invasion is made, even if it would be more reasonable to take influence, he throws himself at it like a rabid weasel diving into a drainpipe full of field mice.

Player Types

  • The Oblivious Genius: This guy has an incredible talent and understanding of the game and often plays sparkling moves that completely dumbfound his opponent. His attention to detail is seriously lacking however and in almost every game, he will make one or two enormous oversights that allow him to lose the game. This guy is often accused of sandbagging on IGS, as he will play games brilliantly only to get his rating smashed down by the most ridiculous mistakes. A close cousin of "Mr. Inconsistent", a player whose skill can vary by 10 or more stones depending on how he is feeling that day.
  • The Postman: (the one that always rings twice). In the endgame he plays a dame. "Huh ? The guy plays dame ... Oh, right, yeah, next comes a sente dame. Let's play elsewhere." So the postman rings twice and plays the sente dame, to which you respond. He looks at you, bemused: "Hm, you saw it, ay ?"

Ellegon: I'd like to add a playing style that I am "guilty" of. I would call it the text-book style. You recognize that type when you see bits of good shape interspersed by huge and obvious cutting points, and heavy useless chains. It's when a beginner has started reading go books and reading lessons on the internet, but hasn't figured out how to use them yet. It's mostly a transitional state, during which the player in question is left wondering what he did wrong when his whole moyo on the left side is gone... not that it ever happened to me though:)



This is a copy of the living page "Playing Styles And Player Types" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.