Sounds good to me. It would be nice to have some rivals like that on KGS. But that's not the typical model, where people put up a game for anyone to challenge (or are themselves challengers).

I have the opposite impression; in real life, there's no pressure because the game is ephemeral, once the stones are put away the only thing that remains is you and your opponent's memories of the game. Online, the game is stored for perpetuity, and I know lots of people who regularly check out their friends' past games. Not to mention that the amount of observers in an online game is typically much higher than a random game at the club.

I feel much more free to make mistakes in real life -- who cares, nobody will remember by next week anyway -- whereas online you have to suffer through the post-game review and people asking you "What were you thinking with S3 here?! It clearly doesn't work"

I personally find that online (real-time) play puts a lot more pressure on me to not screw up. I actually get very stressed out when I want to start an online game and the pressure often stops me from playing altogether. Once I'm in a game though, I feel relieved of that pressure.

Hi all:

I wonder if anyone has shared my experience, which probably many of you will not believe. I play at least 4 and possibly 5 stones weaker online than in my over the board games. This not related to timing either, as I own and regularly use a digital clock in my over the board games.

The disparity has been validated to such an extent that I am convinced there is no self-deception at work. I regularly play and beat 2 and 3 kyu kgs players over the board and win. I play my 2 dan kgs friend over the board with 2 stones competitively. In the local go club I attend in Beijing, I play the (self described )1 dans even and do win games. I play the 2 and 3 dans even as well, and lose, but not embarassingly.

On KGS I am 7k.

At my local go club, I give my friend, a well established KGS 7k, 3 stones without much difficulty.

This is a familiar pattern for me. When I was a teenager studying chess, I was around 1950 - 2000 USCF, battle tested in many tournaments, and my ICC blitz rating would hover around 1700. I have never been able to concentrate on the online game; I feel I can't or don't read well on the 2D screen, and of course it is much easier to be impulsive. In my KGS games, I am often amassing overwhelming positions, 30 - 40+ point leads in the middlegame, and then playing long strings of serious tactical howlers that would be absolutely unthinkable over the board. Reviewing the games is worthless because it is not a strength issue; I am very aware that I am playing horrible moves as I play them or shortly after.

Has anyone ever had a similar problem? I believe it is primarily psychological and then partially related to 2D / 3D perception and the differing stimuli of playing with stones and goban vs playing on a computer.

I personally find that online (real-time) play puts a lot more pressure on me to not screw up. I actually get very stressed out when I want to start an online game and the pressure often stops me from playing altogether. Once I'm in a game though, I feel relieved of that pressure. However, if I play an opponent who makes bad moves yet still ends up beating me, I feel even worse. Or, if I play an opponent who just doesn't know when to give up, I get agitated much easier online. Offline though, it's totally different. I look forward to playing over-the-board games, and I find it easier both to shrug off my mistakes and to learn new things.

However, despite this difference in attitude, I haven't noticed myself being particularly stronger or weaker online or offline. I do feel, however, that my games end up feeling like a different style of play offline than online, but maybe that's just my imagination.

I personally find that online (real-time) play puts a lot more pressure on me to not screw up. I actually get very stressed out when I want to start an online game and the pressure often stops me from playing altogether. Once I'm in a game though, I feel relieved of that pressure.

Same over here. My original diagnosis was OGA but I am not really sure whether it's exactly that.

Same over here. My original diagnosis was OGA but I am not really sure whether it's exactly that.

I have beaten some players consistently online (OGS) rated 2-400 points above me in the EGF. And I am losing consistently in over the board games (in tournaments) against much weaker players. And players I play even over the board have online ratings spreading as much as 5 stones and vice versa.

Notice the number of games both online and over the board which are decided by the last mistake. Anxiety (not only online go anxiety, but tournament go anxiety as well) may well be a major factor then. My impression is that such factors easily contribute +/- 3 stones to performance.

I didn't think wbaduk is remotely accurate at the 10k level. Try making a 2k account there-- you might do just fine. It also might depend on the server you use.