Choke Artist?
I seem to have a psychological barrier while playing on KGS.
A while back, I had finally got up the nerve to try out NNGS, the No Name Go Server. NNGS was apparently started by a group of people who were unsatisfied with (or banned from) IGS due to politics. I downloaded the client and played my first game. I went up against someone who was totally anonymous and apparently had no interest in the game other than racking up another win. (I know it is hard to believe there are actually players on the Internet like that). At the end of the game, I had difficulty figuring out how to terminate the match and run the score. Perhaps it was a software error (most likely the software between my ears) but I couldn’t get the client to mark dead groups properly. My opponent got pretty frustrated, and that was it for me on NNGS.
Now, I find that when I play at the Club in real life, or against the bots on KGS, I do great. (Well, 24k great). But when I play a real person, It’s like I lose four stones in strength. I fall apart and make simple mistakes. (I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of game requests now…)
I guess there’s only one way to overcome this. I’m going to have to lose a lot of games.
A while back, I had finally got up the nerve to try out NNGS, the No Name Go Server. NNGS was apparently started by a group of people who were unsatisfied with (or banned from) IGS due to politics. I downloaded the client and played my first game. I went up against someone who was totally anonymous and apparently had no interest in the game other than racking up another win. (I know it is hard to believe there are actually players on the Internet like that). At the end of the game, I had difficulty figuring out how to terminate the match and run the score. Perhaps it was a software error (most likely the software between my ears) but I couldn’t get the client to mark dead groups properly. My opponent got pretty frustrated, and that was it for me on NNGS.
Now, I find that when I play at the Club in real life, or against the bots on KGS, I do great. (Well, 24k great). But when I play a real person, It’s like I lose four stones in strength. I fall apart and make simple mistakes. (I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of game requests now…)
I guess there’s only one way to overcome this. I’m going to have to lose a lot of games.
posted by Woodard at 4:58 PM
2 Comments:
Good luck. I share the fact that in that same room I played my first tournament and also had my coffee and bagels. :)
And I can say that that same tournament was a turning point for me into getting hooked on Go. This was back in May 2003.
Nick,
Thanks for the encouragement! Since writing that post, I have actually won a game against a real, live person, so I think I'm making progress.
Letting Go of my anxiety seems to be the key.
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