I am relatively new to Go, started a couple of months ago and very fresh to this platform. Perhaps its my luck but 3 correspondence games I started are now in lingo one after the other. The game starts fine with both of us doing 5-6 moves a day average, but as soon as I get visible advantage the response drops to 1 move every 4-5 days. I cannot help but feel that this is because the opponent does not want a defeat on his/her record. It is mighty dishonorable for any sport let alone Go!. Such timing ofcourse means they can stretch the game to over a year easily.
This is a bad starting experience for me and I hope that the platform would have some way to stop such exploitation. Perhaps an option to report such behavior and if its a pattern on this player then strike him out.
Welcome to Go and this site! I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with the game and this server.
Sometimes, it might be possible that a player is deliberately playing slower to frustrate their opponent when they are in a losing situation. However, it is also possible that someone has slowed down simply because they have suddenly become more busy with other things in life, and it is difficult to distinguish between these two cases. It is within a player’s right to use their time how they see fit, and one might want to spend more time thinking about a more difficult situation. If you want to ensure that a game moves at a faster pace, I would recommend that you seek games with faster time controls.
However, as already mentioned, if you believe that a player is only deliberately wasting time or delaying, you can report it to the moderators to investigate and deal with.
as long as they are playing within the agreed upon time settings, it’s fine. You may wish to join one of the groups that prefer fast correspondence games and set time controls accordingly, such as this one.
I think the others summed up your situation pretty well. One last bit I want to add is about the motivation of your opponents.
They might be slowing down not because of malice, but because they want to think more, as the game got harder for them.
Or they just lost interest in the games as they see no chance of winning. This is not nice behaviour, but still not as bad as purposefully stalling.
Next time use your own time settings, if you are worried!
The other posters have covered the main points well, so I have just a small elaboration. It is normal for correspondence games to start with a flurry of moves because the opening has fewer possibilities to consider, and most players go into the game with some idea of what kind of opening they want to play. After the opening, the game slows down because it becomes more complicated, the choices are unclear, and players have to explore many variations. Many people play correspondence games precisely because they want to play a slower game with deeper consideration of each move. In most cases, you should expect to spend at least 4 months for a move-a-day correspondence game.
I can see how annoying it must be to check ogs and see that no-one of your opponents has played a move, correspondence go is kinda pointless if you’re not in a situation where you always have moves to play and positions to think of. What i recommend is to have more than just 3 corr games, that way you will always have moves to play and you kinda just stop noticing what pace does any of your opponents have.
About playing slow:
I am one of those people who would be considered as slow correspondence player, and i can recognise myself from your description. But please understand that my motive is NOT that i dont want a loss on my record (i have plenty of those already and one more doesnt matter at this point) nor do i wish my opponent to lose on time (i’ve often paused correspondence games when i’ve noticed that my opponent is running out of time)
But what happens quite often is this: i can play my opening moves quickly without thinking much (most of the times i’m sticking with the same fuseki and handful of josekis which i know how to play), but as the board progresses it requires lot more time for reading local fights and for thinking what i even want to do in that specific board.
On games where i feel that i’m winning, i can decide on a move lot faster, since i feel like i have more good options available and i can just “throw a stone somewhere” and still be winning. Instead if i feel that i’m losing or if the game is still close match, its lot harder to see where i should play, even if i see few good candidates for my next move. “This move looks good and is worth 6 points for me… but would some other move be more than 6 points? is it enough to get 6 points here and give up sente? should i first see if theres some aji in my opponents corner?”
Another thing that makes my corr games longer than they should, is prioritising. I’m having about 60 corrs ongoing at any given time, with various time settings. But there are days when i don’t have the time / energy / mental capacity to properly play thru all/most my corrs. On days like those i prioritise and only make moves on games that are short on time (thus cannot wait till tomorrow) and games where i can play a move without thinking it too much (openings, end-game, taking the ko in a ko fight, games where i have large lead and so on)
I hope you can find enjoyment of correspondence, it’s really fun when you always have some games and moves to play! But you kinda have to accept that sometimes games drag on for a long time, maybe you can even use that and build some personal connection with your opponent while playing a year-long game. I have gotten many friends around the globe by sharing long correspondence games with them, there are certainly much more than just “winning a game” that you can get from slow-paced correspondence games ^^
I’ll second Bhydden’s suggestion to join the Fast Correspondence Group, and play people from there - either via ladder or tourney is good (as well as direct challenge).
I did a (fake) graph a while back of correspondence game speed vs my % chance to win. I bet you can imagine what it looked like (I haven’t been able to find it again!). It’s just human nature.
