Friday, September 02, 2005

Why not turn-based Go servers?


Alan had asked me about turn-based Go servers like Dragon. I guess it's a matter of personal preference of whether you like your games real-time or turn-based. Perhaps it's because of an instant-gratification need to see my current skill level that I haven't yet tried turn-based servers.

I can't deny that there are strong benefits to these.
  1. You can take the time to analyze your position and moves. This makes them excellent for deep analytical play.
  2. You feel less pressure and are not affected by time constraints.
Of course, if you were to play in live tournaments (something still far off for the likes of me), you might find it more difficult to deal with timed play. I've seen my game, and the games of my opponents, suddenly deteriorate when the clocks start ticking down to their seconds. I feel that the needs to hone one's mental alertness and natural instincts are better served by real-time play as suggested by Sorin Gherman (6d, ex-insei).

It's been said that the mind grows and develops faster with new challenges and I could probably benefit from playing deep versus playing fast. You may yet see me on Dragon one of these days.

I've noticed an ugly growing trend of blog comment spamming; readers (or bots) posting adverts as blog-entry comments. I've deleted five of these just today. As such, I've now had to turn on word-verification for all blog comments to help stem what might become a tsunami of spam.

posted by ChiyoDad @ 2:44 PM   4 comments

4 Comments:

At 3:42 PM, September 02, 2005, Blogger frankiii said...

Sorry to hear about the spam!

Anyway, I also have played a few games on DGS and, for whatever reason, I just don't get into the games like I do on the real-time servers. Perhaps I'd play there more if I had absolutely no time for a real-time game, but otherwise I don't see much of a point.

Plus, the clocks seem to be always broken. ;)

 
At 4:30 PM, September 02, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think it's kind of neat that you can have many games going simultaneously. My first two opponents on DGS both have over a dozen games running. Not sure what effect that would have on one's play, but I find it fun.

Also, the opponents I have found so far play pretty fast, up to around 5 moves a day. So if you find the right players you can make it through a game relatively quickly.

 
At 5:07 PM, September 02, 2005, Blogger ChiyoDad said...

I forgot that I do have an account on Dragon. Assuming that you'd accept the recommendation of a 29k, I think you should play a pincer on K17 or L17 with Dave (after all, you have a 3-stone wall along D).

Even an extension to H4 might be worth a shot (but it's probably too small a move).

Of course, you could try a keima approach on R15. You will either receive back a pincer or he may extend to line O. If he doesn't respond with a pincer, I would try to claim the right side.

That's another advantage of turn-based servers; relaxed kibitzing!
;-D

 
At 1:55 PM, September 04, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hah, those are almost exactly the moves I have been considering.

I think my estimated ranking of 25 kyu is much too high. I only chose that because DGS tries to translate ratings from other systems into appropriate DGS ratings, and when I tried to enter a much lower IGS rating it bumped it up quite a bit.

In any case, I'd rather rate myself too high than appear to be sandbagging.

 

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