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JonatanLindstrom

 

Taking a friendly game too seriously
Path: BadHabits   · Prev: SocksAside   · Next: TakingBackAMove
   

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? Of 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?

SAS: A small correction: Ryu didn't put himself in atari. Rather, O played a dame point that put some of Ryu's stones in atari, and Ryu (not paying attention, as he mistakenly thought the game had finished) played another dame point instead of connecting.

Well, I indeed disagree with the original statement. It does not make sense to me to distinguish between blunders, mistakes and bad moves. Where to draw the line? If instead of "auto-atari", you played a move which allowed opponent to capture in a ladder? Or a net, or something just a bit more complicated? Still take it back? I never ask to take anything back, and it is somewhat embarrassing when opponent asks me to do that, like you did in the game you described.

The game is destroyed in a sense, yes. But taking back destroys the beauty of the game for me just as well. Too bad, nothing to do but to start a new one. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with taking the game seriously.


Josh Larson: In my view, taking back a move is synonymous with resignation. Playing from a takeback is for the purposes of 'what would have happened'. I have no problem allowing a take-back in this sense - to learn further from the position, see how the game would have played out etc.. I however make a policy of never asking to take back a move. I would rather admit my defeat and use my 'undeserved' loss as fuel for the re-match :)


Confused: At the low level I'm playing, I let my opponent undo whenever he wants to, but refuse to ask for undos myself. The first part is to force myself to look for moves I like even if the best reply is played and not to relie on my opponets errors. On the other hand, if I make errors I'd like to undo, it should tell me to pay more attention next time.



Path: BadHabits   · Prev: SocksAside   · Next: TakingBackAMove
This is a copy of the living page "Taking a friendly game too seriously" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.