POLL INSIDE: Do you prefer blitz, live or correspondence games and why?

I’ll go first: I prefer correspondence games
a. Because I’m still with training wheels on and correspondence games work best for that purpose.
b. I’m too anxious to play live (blitz N/A).

I mostly play 19x19.

However, I’m starting to feel an itch for live games, although both my heart and my ego will suffer.

  • Blitz games
  • Live games
  • Correspondence games

0 voters

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The hero I need but don’t deserve.

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i would like to prefer live games… but i dont/cant :sweat_smile:.

i dont have the time (or the scheduling skills to put the necessary time aside) to play many live games. since blitz is way out of my comfort zone, any live game id play would be relatively slow. that means i would have to dedicate 1 and 1/2 hours upwards, which is kinda hard atm.

on the plus side, i am very comfortable playing correspondence games and enjoy them a lot. i ve also found that they are a good way for me to learn. i was never really a trial and error kinda guy ^^.
at some point my lack of experience (in terms of games played) is sure to hold me back unfortunately, but what can you do :slightly_smiling_face:.


im quite curious about this poll. my gut says that we have a lot of correspondence players in the forums. maybe thats because all the live players are busy playing? :thinking:

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Maybe the live players prefer to use the chat room?

An analogy

live : correspondence :: chat : forum

The last time I brought up this analogy, there was this interesting reply:

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Exactly the same as @kickaha - I prefer live games but rarely manage to play them. I’ve never played blitz…

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I prefer to play live games and then review them afterwards.

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I prefer correspondence. I’m old (65), my once excellent memory is weakening, and I am very prone to blunders in live play. Moreover, I am keen on playing the best possible game from a strategic-tactical standpoint, rather than winning or losing on a memory test. I do still get to play live, in weekend games IRL. Ironically, I prefer playing over a real board, because at my age the digital interface seems not to register as well in my brain. I actually see things better on a real board.

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Like @kickaha, I too would prefer to play more live games, but I think blitz would be unbearable, and even the typical live game timing feels very fast. I would love to play a slow paced game over 1-2 hours, but I rarely have a solid chunk of free time like that these days.

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I voted blitz, but I don’t know the difference between blitz and live games. Can someone who is not alive play blitz?

I voted that because I need to see the result immediately. When/if I become stronger I’ll probably move to slower time controls. Now, in this phase, it just looks like a waste of time, since I wouldn’t know what to think about the position anyway with more time at hand.

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I woulda voted blitz too if I had more time xD but alas with twins I can only get a few moves in :smiley:

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I wasn’t sure what to vote because I prefer live games, but I almost exclusively play correspondence because I don’t have the solid chunks of time for live.

I find blitz to be silly. I understand its appeal, but it doesn’t do it for me.

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I prefer correspondence because I want to take my time in complex board situations and I’m not always sure to have the right timeframe for a live game. The negative side effect of correspondence can be sometime that you lose the focus in complex situations. It happens to me that I forget entirely some tesuji or intuition due to excessive opponent’s thinking time.

The ideal would be live games with a reasonable main time and byoyomi like on a real board… but I don’t know why… it is not the same like a real goban.

Finally, I hate blitz. Essentially because go becomes another game in which you test only your ability to react instinctively to a board position (the opposite of thinking), It can be a useful test on how you internalized some shape or answer on the board, but it is a way of playing too much anxiogenous.

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Thanks everyone for participating! (I let it open for approx. 2 days)

I expected a similar result as a whole, but I expected more experienced players to prefer live and play correspondence mostly for teaching or tournaments. I was wrong :woman_shrugging::wink:

Correspondence wins, I guess us slow people frequent the forum. :grin:

Fun fact, after I posted this I actually faced the Blitz fear. We’ll see how it goes. It’s less about Go per se and more about conquering my anxiety for me.

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You know its nice to have live game sometimes, its fun and all, but…

I really really really really love playing correspondence! I love having tens of games ongoing at once, i love looking at my games on overview page and think about possible moves on multiple boards. I love knowing that i can always open ogs and see dozens of games waiting my move, i always have some go to play. I love playing without having constant stress due beebing countdown, and especially i love the emotional connection you can create with someone by having a game that lasts months, or even years! I truly am a correspondence player ^^

ps. and blitz is just awful x__x

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:open_mouth:

I constantly find myself forgetting what my thinking was behind a certain move, that’s what mostly bothers me in correspondence :worried:.

The way you describe it, I can imagine you in ancient times playing a game over actual correspondence, over a roll of paper taken back and forth by trusty horsemen. It really suits you. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I prefer blitz. (Setting Byo-Yomi, 4 mins at most for the game and only one 1 extra time of 10 seconds). I am playing just to have some fast distraction between other things I am doing. Not interested in complex analyses or too much thinking or waiting too long for the next move.

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Just pretend someone has handed you a go puzzle and you’re trying to find the best move if you can’t remember why a move was played.

Use the stones on the board to the best of their abilities :slight_smile: Then review it afterward to see if it could’ve went better :slight_smile:

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Or I could go on being useless and not grasp the basics. :yum::yum::yum:

Thank you, it should have been obvious to me that reading the board is an option, but I needed someone to point it out to me. :worried::worried::worried: Please don’t tell my teachers.