Author: Albert Silver
Date: 07:52:07 01/30/00
Go up one level in this thread
On January 30, 2000 at 09:39:05, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>On January 30, 2000 at 08:02:01, Amir Ban wrote:
>
>>On January 29, 2000 at 20:47:41, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>There was nothing wrong with resigning, as you and I know. But spectators
>>>may have a different view, not knowing what was going on...
>>>
>>
>>You must admit, that in light of your (fiercely defended !) treatment of your
>>computer opponents on ICC as a gang of probable cheats deserving no courtesy
>>whatever, that this respect shown to you yesterday was touching.
>>
>>Amir
>
>I might also add it was "highly unusual". The typical computer opponent (mostly
>manual operated ones) offers draws when losing, etc. _many_ draw offers in
>fact.
>
>Playing in a visible tournament game vs "just another computer game' reduces
>the probability of this happening, as does knowing the opponents fairly well.
>If it was easy to 'relax' my draw refusal code for known opponents I would
>do so, just as I automatically kibitz for some opponents...
>
>Don't feel as though this was targeted at you... it was _not_ But if you play
>most computers, using an automatic interface, you will know the manual operators
>that offer dozens of draws, trying to find a flaw in the draw logic...
These abuses are hardly limited to computer opponents. The amount of bad
sportsmanship that reigns is sometimes startling. When I first began playing
chess over the Internet on FICS some years ago it wasn't uncommon to get a
number of tells along the lines of "Hi! I'm from Timbuktu!", "Where are you
from?", etc... Long and interesting conversations could ensue at times and these
experiences really helped form my opinion of the Internet as something friendly,
and extraordinary. Yet gradually, a new type of player began to appear with a
whole new type of tell ranging from the silly to the crazy to the abusive:
1.e4 e5 KillerJoe says: "Why don't you resign?" and then two moves later:
"Resign.", etc...
"You should learn to play better"
(many times sent when the opponent's position is worse)
"Is that the best you can do?"
"Screw you!" - "What's the matter?" - "You SOB, you think you play better than
me, don't you?"
"F*** you! You piece of s***! I could beat you blindfold!"
(sent, you guessed it, when they are about to lose)
and finally, the funniest moment I ever had was against some French guy who,
after getting mated, began filling my tell screen with 'insults'. The 'insults'
ran along the lines of (what an imagination) "You smell the s*** of your
mother!", "Your girlfriend is Lassie!", etc... A friend was with me at the time,
and we almost got sick from laughing so hard.
But aside from the humour, there are the people whose only purpose is to try to
ruin it for others through different forms of abuse: endless draw offers,
stopping to play when they are lost and with several minutes left on their clock
(if it's unrated and my opponent does not respond to a friendly tell, I just
resign - it's simpler), play a few opening moves and stop playing, etc... Not to
mention the outright cheating. Abusers are definitely a part of the picture, but
I try to not let this change my attitude in general as it would be grossly
unfair to honest and friendly players. I never see tells anymore anyhow, as I
play on ICC with the console window disabled, which gives a bigger board and no
distractions (though I can't see draw offers with this option enabled either
unfortunately). I would imagine that some newbies who run into a lot of this in
the beginning, may be unprepared for it, and be turned off by the experience,
which is tragic of course.
Albert Silver
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