A player (25k, with 1565 ranked games) joined my game and I suspect that he is not playing seriously. I noticed that currently he is in 170 active games, all 19x19. I can see in his game history that he losing about 84% of his games (and it seems like his wins are all by timeout or resignation of opponents), all with more than 200 moves and up to 355 points.
To be honest, I find the prospect frustrating—playing for weeks or months against someone who doesn’t even concentrate properly on playing with me and who just won’t give up, even when they don’t stand a chance.
Am I missing something here? Is there a good reason why someone should play 170 games at the same time?
I recommend you simply resign the game and block the user. People will accuse you of sandbagging, but it’s a bit absurd to continue a correspondence game when your opponent is not putting thought into it.
In the future, challenge players closer to your rank!
Why? I don’t see anything suspicious with the game. I think it is a very bad advice to resign the correspondence game just because it is too slow. The OP set a main time to a week.
That’s a pretty common fact. Many players play multiple correspondence games, at the same time. They connect whenever they can and play one move after the other, one game after another. It’s a way to organize yourself when you have difficulties to book a dedicated time for a unique live game.
I did that too but as of today I don’t like it that much.
Yes, I noticed that most players play multiple correspondence games at the same time. However most play maybe 10 and I certainly never met someone who played 170 games in parallel.
I meant losing by 355 points. I’m new here on this server, but shouldn’t he have given up instead of dragging the game out like that?
I have no problem with the 7-point handicap. I’m just wondering about this player and fear that I will end up like all the other players he has competed against. So I think I’ll watch it for a while and then, in the worst case scenario, as suggested here, I’ll resign and block this player.
Playing 1 move every 1 or 2 days in 170 correspondence games is equivalent to playing 1 live game/day, that’s not so much and doesn’t indicate they are not playing seriously.
Me too. But it depends of what they want. Maybe they have very short windows of time and want the ability to always play games without waiting. So having a lot of correspondence game is reasonable in this case.
170 correspondence games at once require at least 170 moves per day. Not too much.
They usually ended their games properly. I mean not by the timeout. So they doesn’t look suspiciously for me.
There is nothing wrong with it at their level.
What do you mean by this? Are you worrying about game is too slow? I have an advice for you. Just play and have a fun.
You are able to start a new correspondence game at parallel.
There are often a few players like the OP describes hanging around OGS. They play fast and often, and, for whatever reason, seem unable to learn even the basics. I remember a case from about six or seven years ago, when a player like that appealed for help here in the Forums. Several of us tried to help him, he seemed to listen and understand, and then he turned around and did everything we all said not to do. I concluded that that person was mentally ill.
At the beginning of a game with someone unknown, it’s a good idea to check their history, If they play too much every day, or have an enormous number of losses in even games, then cancel your match.