I may be showing my lack of skill with the game, but I frequently see large games (13x13 or bigger) with extremely (almost impractical) time limits, often under 5 mins, even as little as 30s, and with short “overtime” limits, to boot. I know it takes me awhile to evaluate a board state compared to D-level, or even SDKs, but a total game time of a minute between both players on 19x19 seems a bit extreme in terms of mouse movement/hand-eye coordination.
Is this actually a viable means for play? If not, are the players offering these challenges trying to set “trap” games? Worse, could they actually be working, as a means to “rank up” w/o actually winning more conventional games?
That just means 10 minutes base timer, after which you get 30s/move which you can exceed the use of, 5 times. It isn’t actually ‘overtime,’ you see. You get 30s/move after the base time is depleted.
Might’ve been the fischer type. But it was along the lines of 5s+5s (up to 30s), or 2min+5x5s byo-yomi for a 19x19 board. Seemed like “minimum” time settings, and impractical for any consideration, even pushing the limits of hand-eye coordination for some. Super-short turns. I imagine it’d take genius to play so instinctively and be competitive, and many times I see DDKs offering these games, instead of maybe the dans.
Some people enjoy pushing the limits of a blitz game. It is certainly a special skill in addition to normal go skill. The fastest I’ve seen here is a series of games by a couple low SDKs using 7s/move every move (I think that’s called “simple time”), One slip and the player times out.
These are very reasonable timings. You’re focusing on the wrong part.
Your first example (5s+5s up to 30s) is Fischer. You start with 5s and you get an extra 5 seconds every move. This means you will spend on average 5 seconds per move. That’s more than enough to make reasonably decent moves. If on a 13x13 game you make, say, 50 moves, it means you have 4 minutes for the whole game. The “up to 30s” part just means you can’t accumulate a buffer of more than 30s (a pointless limitation IMO but whatever), but the entire game can be much more than that.
The byo-yomi is similar, you have 5 seconds every move. You can’t accumulate spare time between moves, but you can exceed the 5 seconds 5 times. And you also have 2 minutes to start with. Again, more than enough.
Truly crazy time controls are those which average 1-2 seconds per move. And it can be even crazier than that: On chess servers, some people play games of half a second per move, you basically have to make your move before you see what the opponent does - I don’t think that would work so well in Go.
No, it is (usually) not a trap. Please do not accept games you do not want to play, especially if they are labelled “Beware, fast blitz” as mine are.
Simple placement of a stone takes much less than 1 second. If the connection is good, count 1 second for the lag which leaves you 1 second to decide. One trick is that you have to identify later key moves much earlier and keep them in mind and when you get sente, you play the first move on your mental list. Obviously, you cannot read, but your opponent cannot read, either.
Personally, I find it easier to play 3 seconds than 10 seconds, because with 10 seconds you actually have time to start to think and read, but then you cannot finish your thought. I especially like the fact that 3 second games really have a regular rhythm of alternating play of one move per second which puts me in a flow and you feel any slight hesitation of a half second by your opponent. I would prefer it to play a one move per second game without clocks just by the rhythm but people don’t do that.
Obviously, you can rank up with blitz games without winning or playing conventional games, just as you can rank up with playing only correspondence games.
Aha, thanks for all the information, everyone!! I guess those games are more plausible than they looked, though some may indeed be “traps”, but even those are more rare than I first thought.
