Life In 19x19

I've been trying to get some games on IGS today from my iPad, using Tengen Go. There's hardly anyone listed as being online, and auto-match doesn't get me anything. There's only one or two people online at my rank, and none of them either respond or accept my challenges.

Is IGS dead or something? I thought there used to be a lot more people there. I don't use my iPad often, but I've played there before with the same program and not had this difficulty.

There was a little bit of discussion about this in the Pandanet Cup thread.

I had my last 60 online matches on IGS. I'd say it works. But it strongly depends on the time you log on. Roughly 80% of the players are from Japan, so if you log on when the Japanese sleep, it's hard indeed to get matches.

karaklis wrote:I had my last 60 online matches on IGS. I'd say it works. But it strongly depends on the time you log on. Roughly 80% of the players are from Japan, so if you log on when the Japanese sleep, it's hard indeed to get matches.

Good point. It was afternoon in France when I was trying; that's late in Japan.

I'm regularly on IGS as well and rarely have an issue finding a game using automatch. But I do agree, it does seem to be very time dependent.

phrax wrote:I'm regularly on IGS as well and rarely have an issue finding a game using automatch. But I do agree, it does seem to be very time dependent.

Same here.
Usually from 06:00am(hour that i wake up) till 14:00pm (usually 1000+ players) automatching is a breeze
From 14:00pm till 20:00pm is a bit hard but after it it gets good again
(Notice: I´am on the GMT+1 time settings)

I hope this helps since actually we (me and kirkmc) are only 1 hour apart.

But still, much easier to find games on KGS and wbaduk than IGS...

I'm able to get games on my iPhone with Tetsuki only if I set my status to looking for a game and then wait. For whatever reason I am unable to have my invites recognized. Tried this with a local friend and that is what we found. Not sure what the problem is. Anyone else experience this with iPhones or iPads?

Also, if 80% of the players on IGS are Japanese, has anyone noticed a difference in the play. When i've played Asians of my same strength in the past, I've noticed that they are say 9 kyu for a different reason. I for example my play bad shape while I see this much less often with Asians. My experience has been that it may be more strategic weakness that shape based weakness. Has anyone else noticed this?

I play as "Tojojo" on IGS. I'm always happy to play up or down.

I haven't seen 1,2 people in IGS yet. there is always players are more than 200(also when early morning times of japan). You have to check your program initials I think.

He said one-two players of his rank. But this seems very few nevertheless. In the quiet time I always have about a dozen players with exactly the same rank as me, so several dozens within half a stone. But most of them are just idle or already in a game or watching someone else's game.

When I search for games actively, it often happens that I get high-handicap games. I hate handi games, because I lose them anyway as black and as white, so I accept at most 2 stone-games (rarely 3 stones). I just wait for someone to challenge me while watching high-dan matches or doing something else. It rarely takes more than 10 minutes to get a game. For some this may seem very long, but I am not in a rush, and if I don't get a game at all, I'd not be sad.

Look at my signature and if you see me on IGS - just send me a game request. I'm always playing via iPhone or iPad so sometimes chat option outside a game is not available for me due to different clients I'm using. But still - game requests are always welcomed . I'm from Poland - it's GMT+1 time zone.