Do you have a rival ?

Does your rival know they're your rival ?


I always consider a Japanese 6 kyu on KGS named Trikyou to be my rival. Ostensibly I'm a little stronger, but he is my kryptonite! I don't think he realizes that he's my rival though. We meet only through automatching (automatch knows he's my rival!). I think I might be one or two wins up right now.

_________________
Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

I had a rival when I first learned go. He had been playing for about a year when I first started, and was around 10k, I think. I played him often, but he always won. We were both programmers at the same company for a summer internship. I remember that one day, near the end of the summer, I beat him for the first time.

After the internship, we went our separate ways, but it turns out I played go a lot more than him. Last time I checked he was about 4 or 5k, but he has stopped playing on the account that I know him by. I don't know if he continues to play or not.

Currently, I don't have any rivals, except for Magicwand, I guess

_________________
be immersed

i had a few rivals that really helped me grow...

First was James Shenko. We were about 18 kyu when we were rivals...though it was a short lived thing about a week or so.

My second was my uncle, he had originally taught me to play and at some point i caught up to him, i was about 12 kyu and he was maybe 10 or so. We would play games for a few months every week after he tutored me in physics

my third was this dude named Tom who used to work at the New York Go Center. I cant say how strong he really was, perhaps around 10 kyu or so...i remember that he was significantly stronger than me till one day i beat him... I seldom lost to him again.

Then next person was Mrs Adams. She was about 8 Kyu. Similar story as before. She is a nice old lady who has been going to the NYGC as long as i know her. She can play as a 5 kyu, at least she can read as one; but she has no confidence--you would never guess that though as she almost shatters the stones as she places them.

Afterwards I believe my main opponent was my uncle again, i had shot up to 7 kyu and he was an 8kyu...

The person who really brought me up to where i am now i suppose is Richard Simon who is a 2kyu, i dont know if it was mutual but since the time i started coming to the NYGC my goal was to beat him, these days its about a 2 stone game with me as white...but the first time i won i felt like i could fly.

These days i would say my rival is this guy named Josh Guarino. He is about a half stone stronger than me, but i have no confidence to win... (though i won the last two games )

I've had a couple. One at 15 kyu. We played, and I lost on some dumb move. Man, was I heartbroken with that loss. It pushed me to become better, though.


Another time, when I was around 10 kyu, a beginner came into GD and started hanging out. I showed him a couple things, and in 2 weeks he was even with me. Our last couple games were intense. Haven't seen him in a while.

_________________
7 kyu. Nakamura on kgs.

I definitely have a rival. When I restarted playing Go a couple of years ago, I got back into it by introducing a couple friends at work. Only one of them really stuck with it, and we played a lot of games. I was quite a bit better than him and won quite a few games in a row. Then I finally made my first big mistake...and lost. Then played another game...another big mistake and a loss.

We've both definitely pushed each other to be better. I often see my biggest gains when he gets a little ahead of me and I have to "catch back up".

I am currently ahead by a few games, though.

_________________
KGS: schultz [?].

I don't think I've had anyone who I consider a rival. I generally play this game by myself, and don't have anyone around me who are interested enough to learn or catch up.

To me, it seems a bit self-limiting to have a rival though. Feels like if you only see yourself as a comparison/measure to others, you might miss out on your own development. Not to mention, I think you might hurt yourself if you ever get too far from your "rival", your motivation might drop, you might lose interest in this game, etc.

-edit-

Let me clarify, I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Just thinking of having a rival in a different view, that's all it is.

_________________
I know nothing.

Myself. As Luciano Pavarotti put it, "The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other."

I have a rival, though we do not refer to ourselves as such.

When I started playing go, of course I couldn't beat him. I kept getting closer for two months until I eventually won 8 in a row.

Recently I lost two games in a row to him, which had me very disappointed, as I feel I could comfortably give him 2 stones. What I failed to realize is that during the process of losing to me so many times in a row, he probably got much stronger.

Measuring performance against a single person does not seem like it would be an accurate gauge of one's progress, unless that person has been stagnant for a very long time.

When I returned to the United States from China at ~2k, Minneapolis was a great place to play Go. We had a good range of players from total 30k to solid 5d. I found one guy who was my match, and we have been neck and neck ever since. We are in the 3d-5d range now, but for the moment he has a slight edge (though I am loathe to admit it). For years, beating him has been the highlight of my week. Together we have climbed past most of the strong players in Minnesota, though one young player rocketed past the two of us. I like to think that he has a somewhat better strategic vision of the board while I enjoy a slight edge in fighting. If I let him play his game he tends to win, so I need to shake things up to have a chance. We have very different ideas about Go, so that makes our game reviews interesting. I used to have secret KGS accounts so I could prepare moves and strategies against him, and I have prepared sharp joseki variations to lay traps for him. This is a very friendly rivalry though, and I would still call up my rival to go have drinks, etc., even if we both quit Go forever.

_________________
I am Tartuffe from GoDiscussions.com

Lee Chang Ho. I don't think he knows it, though.

i started this game with 3 friends.
of course at start we always wanted to be better than the rest (yeah, we were rivals), but in the end, 2 of them quitted playing, 1 plays every now and then and i am alone on kgs.
The first one has reached 7kyu but didn't get any better and started to get depressed (he ignored almost everything he heard from others and questioned everytime, "why his solution is not better than the other - of course not hearing what anyone would have to say )
the 2nd one started to play less when he saw that he was 3-4 ranks behind.
For some month i just heard him mumbling everytime "i read go books, books books. I don't know if i can beat you but i am sure you are weak in "insert whatever here". You always were weak in "insert whatever here". He tried to talk us weak everytime we mention Go.
When the other 2 of us got stronger he just kept saying that he also was getting stronger and stronger. But in the end he never played with us again and after half a year he never even talked about it anymore. Just sometimes he says, it would be nice to play go again but he is too weak and will do tsumego/read books first before playing

That's when i recognised two things:
friends are friends, it doesn't matter how strong or weak they are, i just want to play with them.
Getting Rivals isn't a good thing for everyone. Just enjoy the game.

Funny! I have played him numerous times. My games with him have always been quit interesting. He plays some bizarre moves that I think that I should always win against him....but then I do not.

There was a palyer on KGS called fishbait that I played against alot. Our ranks mirrored each other for a long time and I always considered him a freindly rival in that I always wanted to makes sure i kept up with him.

My main rival (which is also freindly) is a local 2 kyu I have been playing since I orignally started going to go club. I started out taking 9 stones against him and have gotten it down to 2 stones. I win slightly less then half the time with two stones. He is 1 kyu now and my goal for along time has always been able to beat him even as white.

I think I've had quite a few rivals over the years; times change, people overtake me, or I them, or they stop playing ... it's not a permanent state.

On reflection, I think the most consistent rival I have is the friend who taught me Go: he's been around 4 stones stronger than me for nearly a decade. Obviously it's not a rivalry in the conventional sense, but I get studying good and hard if the gap looks like widening! And no, I'm not sure he knows that ... I wonder whether I should tell him or not?

At the moment my club has lots of people around my strength, which is awesome. I recruited and taught most of them, and I fully expect all of them to be stronger than me within a year or two. But for now, they're excellent rivals as a group; close enough to my strength for both of us to be properly challenged in an even game, and a whole pool of us so we get lots of different styles happening. (And the group is in constant flux; by the time Adam and Andrew and James are stronger than me, the next group will be my strength; I'm not going to run out of rivals. )

_________________
My European rating.

The Bulgarian champion on Go has the honor to be my eternal rival. Well I know she is 2d, but I just can't rid of the dream to beat her someday.
Wow, lets hope she would never read this post

_________________
Stefany, web programmer

i have seen many many young players who reached 2d level in 6 month.
infact i think everyone can be 2d in 6 month given proper training.
i am sure you will be at least 1d in 1 year time.
use this forum to ask and read comments by strong players.

_________________
"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

I have a rival who's just about my rank in the local go club. I should seriously be taking white by now. We both like to talk about how the other is going to get destroyed.

_________________
TucsonGo.org - Play Go in Tucson
We meet twice a week, visit us!

No, i don't have any. I hope i have one.

_________________
长考出臭棋.

There are actually two guys in the local club who are the same strength as me and who are fairly active at the club, so we play quite often against each other. In the last tournament we all played I beat them both, which gave me great satisfaction.

_________________
Offending ad removed

It's a lot easier to motivate myself to get better if I have a rival. I'm currently looking for a Go rival.

I had a friend who beat me about 25 times in a row in chess. I studied and studied, and eventually caught up to him. Then he moved away. I've been stagnant ever since.

_________________
My plan to become an SDK is here.

I do have a few rivals. Some know that they are, others don't:
chrollo(may have forgotten)1-4
ColdFront(Doesn't know)0-1
pilgrim2(Doesn't have a registered account and doesn't know)