Go confessions.

[quantumf]

Not sure I follow this one: are you saying you played out a situation offline to create the impression you had mad counting skillz? Or claimed a win you possibly didn't deserve?

[Boidhre]

I do tsumego like other people do sudoku. (In fact, I enjoy doing problems much more than actually playing the game, and rarely play compared to doing tsumego.)

This.

[LocoRon]

when i see an L19 post with too many diagrams or too much discussion of real gameplay, i just skip it

Yeah, I'm mostly here for the off-topic, or at least casual, conversations.

[speedchase]

Not sure I follow this one: are you saying you played out a situation offline to create the impression you had mad counting skillz? Or claimed a win you possibly didn't deserve?

I think he is talking about when he is kibitzing

[emeraldemon]

So do the people how like problems more than playing have any tips for those of us who can't commit to doing tsumego (like me?) What kind of problems do you do?

[Boidhre]

So do the people how like problems more than playing have any tips for those of us who can't commit to doing tsumego (like me?) What kind of problems do you do?

Life and Death, Tesuji, Opening Problems, Endgame problems, Connection/Cutting Problems etc.

I just follow the maxim of making sure they're relatively easy and I can solve them quickly and I then turn out 50-100 in a session usually. Whether it does me any good I've no idea but it's fun and I enjoy it.

[daal]

So do the people how like problems more than playing have any tips for those of us who can't commit to doing tsumego (like me?) What kind of problems do you do?

I've gone through phases of this, and I think you're asking the wrong question.

People who prefer tsumego over playing just don't like to compete so much. For them, tsumego provides much of the fun of thinking about go without having to enter a win-lose situation. Thus, it's not about finding enjoyable problems, because all (potentially solvable) go problems are enjoyable ... or not. I suspect that people such as yourself, who enjoy the competition, view tsumego as something like batting practice in baseball. It is useful to hone your skills, but it's really boring. Presumably, you don't enjoy tsumego because you see it simply as a means to an end.

For you, I think it's not about committing to tsumego, but rather about committing to improving. If you do this, there's no way around it.

On another note, to return to the thread topic, I still keep making new accounts, due to the notion that with a new name I could somehow unload the ballast of my weak play of the past. Probably, I'm up to about 900. Maybe I should take up baseball.

[Boidhre]

People who prefer tsumego over playing just don't like to compete so much.

I'd disagree, I love competing over a real board it's just online go that I don't like so much for a variety of reasons. Given a choice between a real world game and doing problems I'll always pick the real world game, I might pick doing problems over playing online though.

[Dokuganryu]

Just played 8 games with bots, 2 wins, 3 loses and 3 escapes Good thing is the bots won't be sad about playing such a prick (and I won't be able to play them anymore).

[quantumf]

3 escapes...I won't be able to play them anymore

As a matter of interest, if you subsequently go and resign the game, will the bots undo your blacklisting? I'm guessing not.

[Dokuganryu]

I don't know, it will do me good not to play bots anyway, so I won't check that

[Linokai]

I often listen to the HNG soundtrack whilst playing Go.

[Tami]

I buy more books than I have time to read.

Sometimes I go away and slowly make a cup of tea if I suspect my online opponent is impatient and trying to make me play quickly. (But I have a right to play within the agreed time controls, don`t I?)

I once declared an opponent (who had once blatantly escaped me after being rude) to have been "whipped" after he resigned. Upon analysing the game, I found that I had been somewhat lucky, so that made me feel rather less like a dominatrix.

[Samura]

I often listen to the HNG soundtrack whilst playing Go.

Heh, recently I played a game with this music in loop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZFKLu5IH9A

Really cool!

[logan]

I still own and play with 20$ go set. I've never purchased anything higher.