Broken Moves and Thoughts

As some of you know, I recently ramped up my activity on Online-Go.com (which in case you missed the news, it is a merger of the former Nova.gs community and the Online-Go community) and I have something crazy like 16 games going on at once.

In my last Friday Go Forward post, I mentioned the fact that I was feeling appreciative of the fact that turn based go is allowing me to practice applying concepts. Although that sentiment is still true for the most part, I have come to the conclusion that it’s not quite the same. And while I would love to go on a rant right now about turn-based go and its merits and demerits, I will save that for another time and focus on the reason I’m writing here today: disjointed moves that lack the energy and vigor that comes with playing real time games.

Though some might argue that one (ideally) should be able to identify the best move on the board at any time, I personally believe there is something to said about a person’s ability being pushed to the max when under time pressure and facing your opponent in real time. Sure, you might make mistakes here and there; but each move is made with purpose and with energy that only builds upon itself as the game goes on. I won’t speak for everyone else, but turn based games just don’t carry the same intensity for me.

To be clear though, I am not against turn based games and would still recommend it to those who simply don’t have the time to play games in real time. However, for me personally, I think it is in my best interest to avoid playing turn based games with random strangers (similar to the way one just play anyone on a real time go server like KGS). My moves and thoughts are just too broken for me to really use it as an opportunity to grow my skills and abilities.*

*I am sure that what I am feeling is exacerbated by the fact that I am playing 15+ games at once, but I think that it allowed me to come to this realization faster than I would have otherwise. So though it’s a bit painful at the moment, I am glad that I realized this now rather than later.