Are you someone who savors each and every moment of a Go game? Do you appreciate the depth, intricacies, and the beauty of the ancient game of Go? If so, I’m excited to share that I’m on the hunt for like-minded players on the OGS Go server, who revel in slower time control games. Let’s gather to fully embrace the richness and strategy that unfolds when we take our time with each move.
Imagine spending 45 to 60 minutes for each player, diving deep into the game, contemplating every possibility, and understanding the core principles of Go. Not only does this allow us to develop a stronger foundation, but it also enhances our appreciation for the game’s artistry and wisdom.
By playing slow-paced games, we can:
Refine our strategic thinking
Gain deeper insights into the game’s complexity
Foster an environment of camaraderie and learning
Enjoy the relaxing aspects of Go even more
So, if you share the same passion for leisurely-paced games, I’d be honored to have you join me on this journey. Let’s create a space where we can grow, learn, and immerse ourselves in the enthralling world of Go.
To connect with other slow-play enthusiasts, please reply to this post with your OGS username and preferred time of day to play. Let’s create a community that celebrates the art of Go and the joy of mindful gaming!
You’re proposing live games with 1h time for each player or something similar, aren’t you?
I can’t participate but I wish you to find your partners.
Also I could suggest something that is working quite well for me and some other users which love fast correspondence games: create a group on the server.
This way you’ll be able to create a place where users can meet, chat, create their games on the go.
A forum thread like this one can also be useful to let people know about your group and collect some more users.
I consider 45 to 60 minutes per player normal live games, even a bit on the faster side. I think slow live games are more like double of that: 90 to 120 minutes per player.
Yes, online games tend to be faster, but at some point I’d call those blitz games (less than ~20 minutes per player) rather than live games.
Between 20 and 40 minutes per player may be called “rapid”, but probably that’s more a subcategory of “live” rather than “blitz”.
1 minute / move is better than 30 seconds / move
But without any time limit is bad idea. You start to stupidly brute-force every possible move instead of asking your intuition which move is better. You start to train your imagination instead of training Go skill. Time limit forcing you to actually use your intuition, so it trains your Go skill.
One, this is a niche game. With internet, we can quite easily find games.
Two, the majority has spoken. They don’t like slow games.
That’s why I’ve accepted the reality. Nothing wrong or right, it is what it is.
Having said that, my own experience is when I setup a slow game, like 1 hour 5x1 min byo, on OGS or KGS, I can still get games.
If one likes to play a little slow regularly, Fox is a good place in my experience. It has a 20 minutes +3x1 auto match setting, 1 minute byo is MUCH less stressful than 30 seconds.
A game with those settings could last 5+ hours if both players use all their time. I’m OK with a 2.5 hour live game (at least IRL), but 5 hours for a single live game is too much even for me. In that case, I’d rather play a correspondence game.
A game with those settings could still last 3.5 hours or so.
Sure, but at the same time such games can take much longer than one might expect. Or do you actually account for those games to potentially take many hours?
Byo yomi is usually shorter, 30s to 20s quite common, much more rare longer because with long main time setting it’s easier to fit a game in a planning like a tournament. If you have 1hr ot more main time or even more then at this level of thinking players are supposed to have anticipated a big part of the remaining moves so one can ask them to play a bit quicker.
If you aim for an online game to likely not take longer than a specific amount of time, I’d recommend using Fischer time. For example 20 minutes + 20 seconds increment (OGS max Fischer time 60 minutes) will likely not take more than ~2 hours to finish. Multiply those numbers by some factor for a proportionally shorter or longer game. For example, 60 minutes + 60 seconds increment will likely not take more than ~6 hours to finish, and 10 minutes + 10 seconds increment will likely not take longer than ~1 hour to finish.
In theory you are correct. In reality, in both settings, most of my games end within 90 minutes.
I like to play without that much time pressure. I don’t necessarily play that slow. My strength does not allow me to think constantly 10 minutes for a move.
Most of my opponents don’t use up main time. It’s very funny on fox when I am in byo, most of the time, my opponents have 15 minutes left.
Most of the games end up resignation. That helps, especially when I have more time to evaluate the board, the more likely I resign properly. In 30 seconds byo setting, lots of times, I sort of know
I am hopeless, but just not 100% sure, so refuse to resign.
You have a good point though, when people see this kind of setting, they are concerned and decline to play. Many times, players accept the games without realizing the clock setting. Kind of awkward.
What I heard is trust is a concern. People not comfortable when their opponents “read” a long time, say 5 minutes, cause they don’t know what is going on the other end. I’ve experienced such exercise on both fox and kgs. Players don’t play and wait for opponents losing patience to resign or disconnect. On fox disconnect equals resign. So the concern is legit. I don’t know how this can be resolved.
Maybe one day OGS can certify players, so people know those certified players are the ones who don’t cheat with AI and exercise tricks to win the games.
But I think mostly people just don’t want to play slow or don’t have that much time, then it is very understandable they don’t accept slow games.
