What is your undo policy?

[daal]

I think this is quite an interesting question, and I do wonder whether we are all being entirely honest with ourselves when we state our personal undo policy. In the poll, I clicked "Accept undo requests for misclicks, but not misreads - by my own judgement," but when I think about it, that is more what I view as reasonable than what I actually do. What I actually do is more on a case by case basis, and emotions affect my decisions. Certainly I am more likely to grant an undo if I think it won't affect the outcome of the game, and there have been occasions in which I've clicked "no" in a close game without thinking about whether it was a misclick or not. My subjective feeling towards my opponent, which might be influenced by how quickly he plays his moves, the type or absence of a greeting and the speed with which the undo was requested also affects my willingness. Making decisions on the basis of emotions is often a bad idea in go, but I do it anyway. *shrug*

[joellercoaster]

It's funny. On OGS the default UI allows you to hit 'SUBMIT' after you click the intersection to confirm it's where you want to play... and yet people choose not to use it, and allow themselves to have misclicks.

That said, if a person claims a misclick and asks to undo, I will *always* allow it. What does it cost to be kind?

I would say "unless they're a jerk" but I can actually say I've never met one on OGS. Just lucky, I guess.

[gowan]

I grant undo whenever asked whether playing on line or face to face. If a serious mistake is made by misclick or by inattention, it spoils the game for both players in my opinion.

[Bonobo]

Online I currently only play correspondence games … and sadly I have overseen more than one undo request. I’ve had it that I allowed to undo an alleged misclick where the player later played a better move somewhere else, and it didn't feel good during the rest of the game (IIRC I resigned later), but I don't want to burden my memory by remembering who it was nor do I want to burden my mind by keeping a grudge; I allow any undo — given that I notice the request. (I clicked wrong above, choosing the second option.)

[Bantari]

One option is missing: depends on many factors, like my mood and how many times a person takes back moves during games.

For me, I usually, as a rule, grant any undo to my opponent. If somebody abuses the priviledge during the game, I might tighten up the rule a little, but usually I just avoid this player from then on. I know a guy who likes undo a whole sequences, multiple times during a game, for "learning". I put up with that for a while, then just stopped playing him - so much for "learning".

Then there are the special times, when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, my fuse is short, and I don't like granting undos - except for obvious misclicks, sometimes not at all. This does not happen very often, though - when I am in a bad mood, I usually do not play Go.

I myself never ask for undo, and never undo even when the opponent suggests it. Makes games more interesting this way, I think.

[Bonobo]

[..] I myself never ask for undo, and never undo even when the opponent suggests it. Makes games more interesting this way, I think.

Yeah … I have asked perhaps once or twice, when I misclicked, but when a friend wrote “I own also my mistakes” when I offered an undo, IIRC after an obvious misclick, I liked that so much that I acquired that as a rule for myself.

[Elom]

A well known quote of of Takeo Kajiwara Sensei comes to mind.

I've never asked for an undo. But I don't remember ever refusing an undo either.
I guess I accept any undo, but may think about if it *feels* as if the fun or nature of the game is being compromised.

If a player wants to repeatedly undo up until the point where it ruins the fun of game, that person should be content with being politely questioned at the end-- I'd only do this if I win, as the aim is purely to prevent it being done to someone else, and I wouldn't want to seem like a bad loser, as it's more unlikey for undo expert to listen .

Apart from the mentioned reasons for not being inclined to undo, I personally also want to be able to look back at a game in 20 years and be able to tell when greed overtook, when fatigue arose, when I fell into stupidity, and when lunch was ready; I feel it's worth more than the cost of one or two losses here and there (though the cost may be a bit more sometimes )

[Gojira]

I only hit undo when i play on ogs via handy and my stone jump to another place as i hit submit :/ I take every undo request from others. Lost a game because of that but i can handle it .

[Joelnelsonb]

I tend to be far too kind about it than I really should be (no reason to make enemies). The only time I don't allow them is when my opponent obviously blunders. In other words, he goes somewhere that makes perfect sense, its just wrong. You can almost always tell a misclick when you see it. In fact, I'm usually waiting to see the undo request pop up. All this being said, on OGS (and I would imagine all servers) they have the option to use a submit button for each move which makes misclicks impossible. It's your choice if you want to player the faster, more dangerous way of single click (I at least use double click). Therefore, no one has the right to ever demand an undo and no one above 6 years old should ever get "angry" about it.

[PeterN]

I clicked the option for Accept any undo request before the next move is made, although there is a little more leeway than that, if I respond to their move very quickly then I'll still accept the undo request if it comes in what I consider to be a reasonable time. I've done similar things in face to face go as well, however although I've never played in a tournament I probably would never accept an undo request there (not counting ASR League here as it's for teaching).

The one thing which automatically gets any and all requests from someone rejected is if they undo a move and then try to undo the previous move as well.

PeterN