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Refuse To Take Handicap
Path: BadHabits · Prev: RattlingTheGoStones · Next: RelyingOnTrickPlays Path: HandicapGoPath · Prev: HandicapsBeyondNineStones · Next: HandicapAlternative Well, I don't know whether this ranks among Bad habits, but it gives me the occasion to tell the hilarious tale of a player who used to come and play in our club in the early days. I'll call this man Ernie. Ernie had just learned to play from a book, and as always, we suggested that he'd start to play on a 9 by 9 board. He saw the others playing on a large board, and decided that there was no reason for us to deny him the real stuff. He wanted to play on a 19 by 19. The best player in Gent at that time was a 6 kyu, and even if that is a modest level, he has been an invaluable teacher, with a Go attitude that I rank top class. I'll call this man Bert. Bert submitted to the pressure of the newcomer and granted him a "real" game. He kindly offered Ernie to take nine stones in order to compensate for the difference in level, as we all know is very common. Ernie was offended by this proposal. He started an exposé about the virtues of Zen Buddhism, and that in a Zen spirit, inequality did not exist and was not celebrated by something as tangible as stones. He added that Go was an oriental game, and as such was embedded in Zen spirit, making the idea of handicap stones an utter violation of the true spirit of the game. Every decent defense we came up with in favour of the handicap system was countered with another chapter of Ernie's Zen library. He concluded: "You can't force me to take a handicap." The other tables had not remained unaware of this discussion, and another 6 kyu said "That's true. Likewise, you can't force us to play with you." Ernie now really started to lose his temper, and Bert accepted to play an even game. And off they went. Ernie, who at least had taken Black, played his first stone. It was now Bert's turn. He passed ... He explained to Ernie that a pass was a legal move. Ernie played another Black stone, looking at his peacefully smiling opponent with an eerie feeling. Only when 9 Black stones were lying on the table, Bert played his first move. Scartol 25k: How very Zen of Bert. As a neophyte of both Go and Zen, this may not be for me to say, but I'll say it anyway: It doesn't strike me as being in the Zen spirit to read a book about something, locate a group of people who practice it, and demand that they play by your rules. As I understand Zen, students are supposed to learn from teachers by doing, not by whining.
Skelley: We have had beginners who woudn't take handicap at our club several times. What we usually tell them is that without a handicap they won't be able to measure their progress in the game over time and that it is not interesting to play them for any of the stronger players. That helped in all cases so far, especially the 'progress' part :) His inequality point is ofcourse nonsense. The handicap is there to make the game more equal, did you tell him that? MrKoala Two-figure k: What happens in this case when :
In the event that Black (Ernie) passes after White (Bert) has passed, you have to check the rule system that is being used to score the game. In some rule systems, the game is over; in others a third pass is required to end the game. Regardless of the rule system, assuming that Black actually wants to play a game, White (Bert) can use this method to "force" Black (Ernie) to accept a handicap. Stefan: Practically speaking, I think they would end up not playing their club game. It's probably also unlikely they would evolve their relationship into eternal friendship. Chomsky? It can be frustrating to play weekly with weaker players who refuse a handicap. This has been happening for a few weeks in our go club, and I'm afraid it's having a detrimental effect on the games I play. It's not fun for my opponents, who lose by a large margin, and it's not fun for me, since much of the challenge which is in the spirit of Go is lost. In the final analysis, I think the handicap is needed by the stronger player just as much or more than the weaker player. It is only polite to respect your opponent's desire for a challenging game, even it if hurts the pride a little. Often, perhaps only because of being accustomed to playing without handicap, my opponents do actually play better without handicap stones. What could be considered fair komi to make equivalent a "two stone handicap" or such? (Usually I take -9.5)
I suppose bert has won. How did Erni react? Jasonred Passing is not the answer... if White passes, then Black also passes until the game is over by the rules... Well, Black actually wins, because his one stone counts the whole board as territory, since there isn't a white stone in sight... a win by 360 moku, not bad... Or they could just keep passing ad infinitum. There's actually a simple solution for this, unlike chess. Forget handicap by stones, use handicap by komi. And if they refuse it, just nod your head and ignore them, and play as there was komi. When the games over, figure out who won based on that komi, and whatever you do, don't argue with them. It doesn't matter if you have differing views on who won, just your own satisfaction. (Don't bother about the stubborn twits.) Also, komi has the advantage that halfway through, the two of you can decide what the strength disparity is like and set the komi then. Charles Games with a large komi aren't the complete answer to anything - though they are worth trying every now and then. I wanted to say that many Chinese players aren't interested in giving or receiving handicaps; and that therefore one should be careful about applying the principle, that handicaps are always applied, across cultures. Ben? well actually, in the ernie and bert game, if ernie passed instead of placing again, the game would be "in dispute," as the yahoo go server calls it. The other day I sat down at a table with a fellow lowly ranked player to play an even game (tired of being utterly destroyed and trying to see how i could fair against my own level) and clicked the start button before noticing that black had a handicap of 3, and since this was a 9x9 board, and i was playing as white, I realized that i was going to be very quickly destroyed. My opponent, said they would pass, and I did not realize that the purpose was to catch me up, and passed myself, the server chimed in saying that the game was over, and tried to calculate the score, but since black actually didn't surround any territory, the score was zero zero and thus in dispute. So it said we had to continue the game, at which point i just asked for a cancel and then turned the handicap off. Path: BadHabits · Prev: RattlingTheGoStones · Next: RelyingOnTrickPlays Path: HandicapGoPath · Prev: HandicapsBeyondNineStones · Next: HandicapAlternative This is a copy of the living page "Refuse To Take Handicap" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |