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Playing Styles And Player Types
Keywords: Humour
(See also Professional Players' Go Styles.)
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 Anti-Bizarre Style: God does not play dice, He plays Go.
- 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 receive high handicaps, and as a result thinks that they're just bad at fighting. They assume that the opponent will stomp them in any fight even though the opponent is really only about as strong as they are.
- The Fatalistic Style: This player assumes that any moyo will easily become solid territory. They rarely invade, and when an invasion is made, even if it would be more reasonable to take influence, they throw themselves at it like a rabid weasel diving into a drainpipe full of field mice.
- The Jealous Style: This player constantly fears that the opponent has too much territory, and will therefore tend to immediately invade any moyo or large territory the opponent creates, rather than build up their own position.
- The Extremely Jealous Style (Also known as The Extremely Unreasonable Style): This player illustrates what happens to devotees of the Jealous Style and the Belligerent Style when they become old and bitter, or occasionally, a very new player. Their view of the game is that you are not only forbidden to make territory, but you are also forbidden to make any live groups at all. So, even your smallest areas will be invaded on sight, and all your stones will be attacked endlessly from the moment you place them on the board. Often, this player is very skilled tactically and very experienced, which makes them very, very fast. The unwary are intimidated and get slaughtered, leaving them with a bad taste in their mouth. It is vital to remain calm and to punish followers of the Extremely Jealous Style, not only for your own sake and sanity, but also to defend the higher morals of the game. :-) Tamsin
- Listless Style Tamsin: I reached my best rank yet on IGS at the end of August and suddenly I lost all motivation. I slipped back down to 2k*. Since then, my play has been pathetic, and I cannot put my finger on what's wrong. My groups always seem to be weak and my severest moves are answered by tenuki. I can't be bothered to calculate anything and there's always fatal bad aji, even where my position is replete with ponnuki. I used to get like this at chess, too, where I couldn't win no matter what. It feels that all of the power has gone out of my play. I cannot describe my enfeebled go at the moment any better than as the "listless style".
- Velobici: Sounds just like an overtrained athlete...hard to get out of bed in the morning, elevated morning pulse rate, loss of appetite, no zest in training, poor results in competition. Give Go a rest for one week. Do not play at all. Do not read any books. No Sensei's (that might be the hardest part ;) Then come back to Go. The difference will be amazing if this is the problem.
- Puppy Style chrisg: This player just follows you around the board, assuming all your moves are sente. Normally this style is met by white in high handicap games. This is probably a substyle of "The Timid Style" above.
- Internet style:
- Don't think during opening, just scatter some stones
- When your opponent seems to build something that might become big, put some stones in it and live
- Fight through middle game. Whoever kills first, wins.
- If, per chance, you reach the endgame, the winner is more or less randomly determined
Player Types
- The Oblivious Genius: This player has an incredible talent and understanding of the game and often plays sparkling moves that completely dumbfound the opponent. Their attention to detail is seriously lacking however and in almost every game, they will make one or two enormous oversights that allow them to lose the game. This one is often accused of sandbagging, as they will play games brilliantly only to get their rating smashed down by the most ridiculous mistakes. A close cousin of "Inconsistent", a player whose skill can vary by 10 or more stones depending on how they is feeling that day.
- The Postman: (the one that always rings twice). In the endgame they play 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. They look at you, bemused: "Hm, you saw it, ay ?"
- The Speed Merchant: This player plays very quickly and sharply. Their moves are often dubious, but they rely on intimidation to beat you. You try to play at your own pace, but end up playing as quickly as they do, making silly mistakes and falling into their traps because they are better at seeing things quickly than you are. Often, the Speed Merchant relies on the Jealous or the Extremely Jealous Style.
- TJ: Worst proponents of this style will actually demand that you play faster, even in a timed game where they decided what time controls to use. Best answered with a smile (or smiley) and a good long think.
- Neil: Make sure that when you peg someone as this type that the player is actually any good. If the person is, oh, 12k KGS, don't go accusing the person of some grand psychological strategy, as has been done to me! Some of us just haven't learned the discipline to play carefully yet!
- Studious Braggart: If anyone can come up with a better name for this style feel free to change it. This is the closest I could come, but am still not happy with it. These players can be really irritating. They study a lot and are arrogant beyond belief about their Go and Go knowledge, but don't actually spend all that much time playing. Is always quick to flaunt their so called "knowledge" and will constantly quote very strong players or pros. Usually has an overinflated opinion of their rank, and as a result, is seemingly afraid of internet go because it will probably tell them they are not as strong as they think they are. Despite being a font of knowledge, their Go is extremely boring. They play something like a mindless pattern matching automata. No fighting spirit whatsoever. Can be entirely thrown off if you play a move that is not overtly conventional, and when faced with a fierce attack, they collapse like a house of cards. While their play won't annoy you necessarily, it will almost assuredly bore you, and if you beat them they will make all kinds of excuses for why they lost, which probably will annoy you, especially when the follow-up is a constant stream of "know-it-all-ness".
Dieter: Ouch. Sounds like me and quite a few other Sensei's.
unkx80: Arrrgh, you got me there.
BlueWyvern: Naw, I don't think so. No one here seems all that arrogant. :-)
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 they did wrong when their whole moyo on the left side is gone... not that it ever happened to me though:)
Tamsin takes a slightly more serious look at playing styles.
...which is why I moved her remarks and the subsequent discussion to another page on style.
This is a copy of the living page
"Playing Styles And Player Types" at
Sensei's Library.
2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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