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Naming all your Excuses for Losing
Path: BadHabits   · Prev: GetAngry   · Next: NegotiatingAfterALoss
    Keywords: Culture & History

The worst excuses for losing a game ranked from bad to worse (#1)

  1. "I wasn't really paying attention"
  2. "After you'd lost that group there I wasn't really playing my best game anymore."
  3. "That move you played there wasn't really possible anyway."
  4. "Actually I would have won the game if I had played so and so."
  5. "I can't see well with this light"
  6. "I was too tired to play well"
  7. "Oh, but I have a cold."
  8. "I had too much to drink" ;)
  9. "We're not playing gomoku?"
  10. "I was curious about that invasion."
  11. "You didn't play joseki there."
  12. "I would have won if there had been/hadn't been komi."

Bad bad bad! Point made, I think :) -- Skelley

Lucky: This is a variant from the #1 expression above, it really happened on IGS. "I was talking on the phone while playing."

adamzero: My usual 'excuse', which is also usually the truth: "I saw my opponent about to make a few points of territory and I got panicked and made a weak group which he then abused until I resigned."

Dansc: I like the excuse 'I would've won, if I had made more territory than you.' I find this a completely acceptable excuse.

Scryer: I had him crushed on the board, but not on the clock.


I've found that *any* drink is too much for my Go :( Strange, I don't notice any other effects after one drink except that I seemingly lose 8 stones strength. -- Karl Knechtel

I find that playing strength can actually *increase* after a drink or two, for some players at least. I have a Nihonjin friend who enjoys a glass of wine or two during the meal, and during the game after dinner; his play is noticeably stronger than before the evening's drinks. Perhaps he's too tense and needs to relax into the game :-) -- Bignose


Alex Weldon: I suffer from gradual mood swings, sort of like a mild form of manic-depression, although no doubt far too mild to be considered an actual psychological disorder. Anyway, if I'm depressed, I can't play Go at all, and lose all my games. I guess I just shouldn't play if I'm not in a good mood.


karmaGfa?: Here are a few excuse that my opponents told me and which are not in the list :

  1. "I didn't try to win anyway"
  2. "I wanted to try some new moves"
  3. "I lose because I wanted to win too much" (imply that he would normally win, like in other excuses :-) )
  4. "I don't like to have Black with handi stones: I am obliged to defend all the time, that's why I lose."
  5. "Your first move frustated me, you played in my territory" (reference to the polite 1st move on the goban)
  6. "That's normal that I lose, I am one stone weaker than you."
  7. "I don't like to play with White." (really common)

Hu: I respect #2, new moves. Why not experiment and have some fun? Perhaps it is best to try them out in non-rated games, though.


BlueWyvern: Two of my least favorite:

  1. "You played so fast and it made me play fast and I didn't think about my moves."
  2. "You made some really odd moves, and it made me play stupid."

While I never actually respond to these, I would really like to say:

  1. "It's not my fault you played fast." and/or "Maybe I'd play slower if you gave me any moves worth thinking about."
  2. "Just because you haven't seen a move before, it doesn't make it odd." or "You are never going to know how to respond to every single one of my moves immediately, that's why we are playing an even game."

The main thing that irritates me about these excuses, and some of the ones listed above, is that they all seem dismissive of the winner's ability and imply that the loser really should have won.


Snappy: Two of my favorites:

  1. "I can never play a serious game against you!"
  2. "I was cooking the chicken."

You know who you are.


DJ: Ah, uhm... I wouldn't like to appear the wise old guy, but it seems that this (very funny) page is almost all dedicated to excuses put forth by our opponents. Well, what about your excuses for losing?

My personal favourite: "I'm just tired. I've been practicing tantra buddhism too much last night."

Alas, not true, as all excuses above!


Velobici: "You played so slowly I lost interest and just wanted the game to end already." That is my excuse and I am sticking to it! Each of the two local Go clubs that I attend has a player that plays only one game a night. That's one game over a two hour period. I like to play two each night. The result is that during my own game I start watching the games being played on either side of me, and reading out their situations. So, distracted, I make a few silly moves.


mgoetze: My favourite excuse is "I always make silly mistakes when playing online..." off course, it doesn't work when I lose a game offline, but that doesn't seem to be happening so often nowadays...



Path: BadHabits   · Prev: GetAngry   · Next: NegotiatingAfterALoss
This is a copy of the living page "Naming all your Excuses for Losing" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.