Re: Does the culture of OGS seem... wonky... to anyone else?
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:27 am
Adding more meat to Kirby's and others' suggestion: there are two ways of dealing with obnoxious play (as you see it). You avoid it, which is fine but may deprive you from games, or you confront it, which may be painstaking at first but will make you robust against it. Here's how to confront it:
1. An opponent who resigns when you (think you) are ahead, is convenient. Don't expect that convenience. Accept that the opponent may take the game to the bitter end, even if it's clear you win and he's only gambling on you making a big mistake. If your advantages is indeed clear, then reinforcing a cutting point of which you are not entirely sure, or taking those captured stones off the board, may be worth spending a move on.
2. Manage your time. Don't allow the potentially obnoxious opponent to get into a position where he can exploit your being in the last overtime period, making invasions or give you tough life and death problems. Keep some overtimes in reserve.
3. As the game proceeds to the late endgame, liberties become scarce. Be aware of your groups' liberties as they shrink. The obnoxious opponent may find himself a sneaky atari while you are getting frustrated about him not resigning when you are ahead.
This is for real obnoxious play, but as others have said, what seems unreasonable to you, might be very reasonable from your opponent's perspective or even objectively so. After all, if they can live in your territory, then how could you tell it was yours to start with?
(PS: In racket sports, sometimes people find out their opponent can't handle overheads, so they start lobbing. As ridiculous as it looks, and as detrimental to one's own game it may be to do the obnoxious lobbing, as a player you really only have 1 option: learn to confidently smash the overhead.)
1. An opponent who resigns when you (think you) are ahead, is convenient. Don't expect that convenience. Accept that the opponent may take the game to the bitter end, even if it's clear you win and he's only gambling on you making a big mistake. If your advantages is indeed clear, then reinforcing a cutting point of which you are not entirely sure, or taking those captured stones off the board, may be worth spending a move on.
2. Manage your time. Don't allow the potentially obnoxious opponent to get into a position where he can exploit your being in the last overtime period, making invasions or give you tough life and death problems. Keep some overtimes in reserve.
3. As the game proceeds to the late endgame, liberties become scarce. Be aware of your groups' liberties as they shrink. The obnoxious opponent may find himself a sneaky atari while you are getting frustrated about him not resigning when you are ahead.
This is for real obnoxious play, but as others have said, what seems unreasonable to you, might be very reasonable from your opponent's perspective or even objectively so. After all, if they can live in your territory, then how could you tell it was yours to start with?
(PS: In racket sports, sometimes people find out their opponent can't handle overheads, so they start lobbing. As ridiculous as it looks, and as detrimental to one's own game it may be to do the obnoxious lobbing, as a player you really only have 1 option: learn to confidently smash the overhead.)