What are the rules?

I noticed that you were a gentleman promptly allowing me to undo. I was surprised when I read that you dont ask for undos. But you were understanding and conceded me to fix the stone where I really mentally wanted it But my finger jumped somewhere else. LOL

It wasnā€™t me that you played, but Conrad_Von_Hotsendorf. However, I am glad to hear that my namesake is also a gentleman. I would hate to be mistaken for a scoundrel.

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On the whole, my experience in GO has exposed me to more ethical and courteous players than I had encountered in my many years of playing chess (before I discovered GO back in the early 1970s). Though there are jerks to be found in any genre, my experience was that GO demanded a higher degree of gentlemanly conduct. I think that the greater age of the game combined with its Chinese and Japanese roots have a lot to do with that.

Having been out of the GO playing loop for more than 25 years as I have, it makes my experience dated, but I hope that some things donā€™t really change that much.

Mogadeet

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I think people wouldnā€™t expect beginners following the ā€˜social conventionsā€™ in go, because it takes a bit of skill to decide when does the game actually end because it might be hard to tell if itā€™s still possible to make a living in your opponentā€™s territory/break the wall despite it being enclosed. But you will naturally acquire those skill as you move upward. I noticed some beginner I played with have trouble distinguishing the difference between resign and passā€¦ but I donā€™t think people will get upset (at least I wonā€™t) if they pass when they shouldnā€™t or do something silly after the game technically ended, because Iā€™ve been through that and most people learning go on their own has been through that phase.

I think one thing thatā€™s bad about the current system is that everyone is initially placed at 13k, and people have different expectation for a 13k. So if a new player sign up and being matched to a real 13k, then it would cause trouble and misunderstanding.

Thereā€™s a post about this: I think the 13k default rank is doing harm

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I agree that 13k is wrong. No beginner, fresh from learning the rules, can play at 13k. I cannot play at 13k, and I have been playing go since the early 1970s!!

Furthermore, a beginner should not be forced to lose games to achieve ranking stability. It is not good for their morale. The ideal is winning and losing with equal probability, but this (of course) cannot be achieved. They should start with winning, increasing their ranking.

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Just to clarify, there is no way the system, as it is, says ā€œA beginner is 13kā€

What it says is that every new player is very uncertain rank, somewhere between 7k and 19k. IE 13k +/- 6k.

There are two problems with this:

  1. The rest of the system (especially player-matching) doesnā€™t take the uncertainty into account.

  2. The range isnā€™t broad enough, and is biased in the wrong direction. New players are more likely to be TPKs.

This doesnā€™t change the conclusion, just clarifies, in case there was the idea that the system says beginners are 13k.

GaJ

I must disagree. Someone registering without knowing their current ranking is probably a beginner (someone who may not even know all the rules, and may not have played a game of go before). Such a person is very unlikely to be between 7k and 19k. A beginner, by definition in various books, is considered between 25k and 35k. I donā€™t know what TPK means.

Hi David. I agree that 13k is too high for beginners. But some like myself, came here with a basis, but with absolutely no knowledge on OGS, ranking, etc. I advertised myself as 21k app 3 months ago. I asked to play with stronger players as high as 13k. I learned a lot. I was beaten consistently by those w hight ranks, but it was beneficial. I believe I am now probably a 19k.
The problem I have now is that I was given a ? question mark. I am rarely asked to play now. I prefer to be a 13k falsely than a ? where I dont get to progress c/s I hardly play.
Lavinia

You play plenty of games, just none of them are rated. If you start playing rated games, youā€™ll get a rank pretty quickly.

Back to the original question: Not only can a game be resumed after two passes, but if there is a ko, your opponent can take it back after two passes, even if this would otherwise violate the ko rule! (At least, thatā€™s the case under Japanese rules.) Needless to say, I was quite shocked the first time that happened to me. :slight_smile:

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Actually I think you basically agreed with me. I too said that 7k-19k is not the right range.

The only different thing I pointed out is that the system does not say that ā€œa beginner is 13kā€. What it does (incorrectly) say is that a beginner is 7k-19k, we agree on that.

TPK: twenty plus Kyus.

Cheers,

GaJ

I havenā€™t encountered this but if itā€™s true then it is definitely a bug. The game should only resume when the score cannot be agreed and that should certainly be done from the game exactly as it was (including kos).
The potential to abuse this bug in certain situations is very real and may increase the demand on mods.

GaJ, Jusr a quick reply to confirm that I agree with you completely. :slight_smile:

Nope, itā€™s not a bug. Others have complained about this before, and itā€™s apparently legal. (Iā€™m not happy about it, but apparently under Japanese rules, this is allowed.) Hereā€™s a game where it happened to me:

I timed out because I was so confused as to what was happening!

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Further discussion in these threads:

I will be happy to play u question mark or no. : )
Handicap or regular.

HI and thank you. I dont have a clue how to maneuver this site. If I want to play handicap what do i need to do? Not that I want to play handicap all the time, but I would not mind trying it.

No worries I will send u a request.

Hi Lavinia, may I ask you why you played 434 games on OGS but no one ranked?

http://vatcss.info/games/gotstats/#/user/goodgogame

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Where did you see this, Lysnew? It is interesting to find out! And I have no idea about the ranking.

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