Life In 19x19

Hi, I'm new to online go. I just played a game on KGS. In this game my opponent kept playing after he lost and had no chance to come back (I was >120 points ahead and no more chances for any fights). I passed a couple of times but he just kept playing. And he finally resigned when I'm one move away to remove a dead group from board.
My opponent was KGS 4k; he must know he's lost when he's got half board of dead groups.
I understand he's very frustrated (the game was full of misplays from both sides, and I made less mistakes than him). But is there a way prevent things like these to happen? I too wanted to end such a miserable game and start a new one. Should I resign to give him a win?

There's a number of issues at play here...

was he really 4k, or was he just using someone else's 4k account? (or his opponents kept giving him the wins to artificially inflate his rank)

why do feel the need to finish/score the game? You know you won. Do you really need acknowledgement from your opponent/go server that you won? If you're done with the game, just leave. start a new game with someone else.

if you really want the win, then play in such a way that your opponent can't make any more legal moves.

You can just abandon it if you want to get away from he hassle, but if you want to stand up to poor form out of principle, what you did in the end was the best solution.

Some people are simply this petty, and it's a shame there is not much you can do about it.

You can report this, too. If this player acts like that often, they might get their account banned, or if it's uncommon, they might get a warning. Neither case will do anything for you, though.

Luckily, this kind of thing is fairly rare. You don't have to worry about that it always ends like this.

ETA: Wow, over two thirds of this player's games in this month alone are forfeit losses. This is clearly not a lovely player. Amazing, and not in a good way.

Not to excuse the end result, but at least up to a point, white has to take into account that it's a handicap game and black may make a mistake defending and create a seki or something. Once it's pretty clear that doesn't work, though, time to resign (for white).

ystao wrote:And he finally resigned when I'm one move away to remove a dead group from board.

Actually he never resigned, he just closed the game window. Which is something he's been doing a lot, so it counted as an immediate forfeit. Just block him if you don't want to play him again, no great loss.

As annoying as it can be, it is perfectly legal to play on as long as you have legal moves (there's no reason their account should be banned for this). Though it is a form of disrespect in the Go world, it is your obligation to play on as well if you really want the win. As others have said: you know you won, just leave and make him have to wait until your entire clock runs down (a bit of his own medicine).

Was this a blitz game? There is a well known time technique to keep playing even when well behind, making moves that make your opponent waste time on the clock, hoping that the opponent will lose on time.

Moves like these are also sometimes an indicator or a Monte Carlo bot. I don't think it's the case for this game, but have seen it happen when people relay bot moves.

Joelnelsonb wrote:As others have said: you know you won, just leave and make him have to wait until your entire clock runs down (a bit of his own medicine).

Wow I can tell you are a chess player...

gowan wrote:Was this a blitz game? There is a well known time technique to keep playing even when well behind, making moves that make your opponent waste time on the clock, hoping that the opponent will lose on time.

25 minutes a side on the sgf. Didn't reach byo for either player. I've seen this once before when watching a slow game a friend was playing on KGS.

I don't find it entirely unfair to waste time of people who waste your time. The problem is that it costs time of your own, though.

If you're playing go for fun and not to uphold the honour of your family, you might want to dial down the revenge.

tentano wrote:I don't find it entirely unfair to waste time of people who waste your time. The problem is that it costs time of your own, though.

If you're playing go for fun and not to uphold the honour of your family, you might want to dial down the revenge.

I really didn't want to waste time. I just didn't know what to do then. I think I'll just leave next time if this occurs again, after all I'm just playing for fun.

This game was completely unfun though, so many mistakes.

Try to talk to an admin (they have stars by their name in chat). If it's someone who should know better/who has a history of bad behavior, they can intervene (or at least make your opponent leave the game first so they are flagged by the escaper system).

As others have said, you may leave as well if you don't want to go through that process...but if you find this happening often (e.g. > once a month) you might want to be careful that you don't run afoul of the escaper system.

Mef wrote:Try to talk to an admin (they have stars by their name in chat). If it's someone who should know better/who has a history of bad behavior, they can intervene (or at least make your opponent leave the game first so they are flagged by the escaper system).

I'm not going to pursue personal revenge He's more tortured than me in this game. Handicap 2 was unfair to him to start with...

ystao wrote:

Mef wrote:Try to talk to an admin (they have stars by their name in chat). If it's someone who should know better/who has a history of bad behavior, they can intervene (or at least make your opponent leave the game first so they are flagged by the escaper system).

I'm not going to pursue personal revenge He's more tortured than me in this game. Handicap 2 was unfair to him to start with...

Ah I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't clear...


I mean if you are in the middle of a game where this is happening, you should contact an admin to help you resolve it. I didn't mean to have them hunt down your old opponent (=