tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202519.post113636174445612918..comments2023-12-22T19:51:16.445-05:00Comments on Because It's There!: Playing Down to Weaker PlayersAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05058163876793685461noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202519.post-1136588468791337242006-01-06T18:01:00.000-05:002006-01-06T18:01:00.000-05:00I'm not very strong, but I am the strongest player...I'm not very strong, but I am the strongest player of my regular face-to-face opponents, so I often play high handicap games. For example, I regularily played someone giving them 5 stones on a 9x9 board. I was always relying on trick plays to win (this was back before I realized this is bad) so when I played a stronger opponent (relatively to my friend) I would do the same and suffer.<BR/><BR/>There are two things I take from this. Taking advantage of an opponent's inability to punish bad plays has two effects. It makes you weaker and it doesn't show your opponent the prove moves that they should play to get better. My new philosophy is to try to always play the best move, reading when I am able, otherwise, for shape when I'm not able to read.<BR/><BR/>It's not much as I'm only 19k, but I think, all other things being equal, always trying for the proper play is better overall.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202519.post-1136511541892898452006-01-05T20:39:00.000-05:002006-01-05T20:39:00.000-05:00Funny thing, that.I was thinking about similar tan...Funny thing, that.<BR/><BR/>I was thinking about similar tangent as of recent.<BR/><BR/>I played against a very strong player, 5d on KGS. Then next day, I played against 13k. There are two big reasons.<BR/><BR/>1. We tend to be complacement against weaker players.<BR/>2. Since we know that stronger players knows how to punish our overplays, so we are forced to pick right moves.<BR/><BR/>So...I think in all, we need to start to pick right moves, and start to disclipine ourselves to pick right moves, not any silly moves. It's going to be hard, but I think we can get much stronger if we just focused on picking right moves, instead of silly moves.Flamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17497211917481699991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10202519.post-1136433665593579572006-01-04T23:01:00.000-05:002006-01-04T23:01:00.000-05:00When you figure out the answer to this, let me kno...When you figure out the answer to this, let me know! As you know since we've talked about it, I'm in the same boat. I play much stronger against strong players and have trouble with similar/lower ranks. They make moves that are clearly not the ones they should make, but when I try to figure out how to punish, things always seem to go badly for me. It's quite frustrating!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com