Of course, you can always censor people who suggest these quaint
anatomical impossibilities after a loss.

I use to say "thanks", or something to the effect, after every game,
win or lose; to me, it seemed as natural as extending my hand after a
game OTB... I would never dream of not shaking hands, or refuse to
shake if offered, after a game, regardless of result. However, after
repeated torrents of abuse from those who did not share my outlook on
this matter, I have given this up!

One thing I do find I can "get away with", so to speak, is if I feel
my opponent has played strongly, I can tell him so.

As far as computer-assisted play goes, surely I have encountered
people using it; but I should think that the overwhelming majority of
the 34000+ bullet games I have played on ICC were honest contests
between two people...

Nothing is perfect. But the ICC is STILL chessplayer's heaven to me.

Cheers,

zdrakec

EZoto wrote in message ws.com...
You just have to find the right crowd in ICC. Whether I win or lose I
always say gg or a handshake. What they do in response will tell you
whether it's worth playing them or not. If there is no response then
I assume they don't know english so I play a second game. Win or lose
I say gg or handshake. If no response the second time then I don't
even bother because most likely they are computer assisted. 99% of
the time I'm right because when I seek for a third game and ignore
there challenge even if I have lost or won both games against them
they respond with expletives. You just have to know how to get around
and know the right people to play.

EZoto

You have the right to say "gg" or "handshake" after a game. However, I
normally set my busy variable to 2, which means I won't receive any
"tells" whether playing or not.

There are simply too many abusive people, and I might as well avoid
all of them.

However, there are a few who bother to send me messages when their
tells don't get through. If it's offensive enough (and sometimes they
are), then I'll just forward the abusive message to "Lateknight" on
ICC, +cen and +noplay the person.

EZoto wrote in message ws.com...
You just have to find the right crowd in ICC. Whether I win or lose I
always say gg or a handshake. What they do in response will tell you
whether it's worth playing them or not. If there is no response then
I assume they don't know english so I play a second game. Win or lose
I say gg or handshake. If no response the second time then I don't
even bother because most likely they are computer assisted. 99% of
the time I'm right because when I seek for a third game and ignore
there challenge even if I have lost or won both games against them
they respond with expletives. You just have to know how to get around
and know the right people to play.

EZoto

"Ian Hurley" wrote in message
...
Is it just me, or are the majority of people who play on ICC
unbelievably rude?

Dear Mr Hurley,

I also have found some players (though not quite 'the majority') at ICC to
be rude enough to the point where I have become hardly surprised by any of
their misbehaviour.

If you beat them, they abuse you verbally.
If they beat you, they gloat and remark on your poor strength.

My advice would be to add those abusive players to your 'censored' list
and your 'no play' list more promptly than you seem to have been doing.

If you are playing a clearly weaker player than yourself, then you should try
to keep in mind that some of his inappropriate verbal responses might well be
influenced by his sincere lack of comprehension of the game that's being played.
In my experience, most of my clearly weaker opponents seem to have quite
unrealistic expectations about their chances of success in our games, which
are based on their misunderstandings about chess. For instance, some of my
opponents have deliberately gone into theoretically clearly losing endgames
because they had mistakenly believed that those endgames were easily drawn.
And then sometimes they have become abusive after I declined their draw offers.
That does not excuse their misbehaviour, but it may help to explain it.

I have encountered dozens and dozens of players like this.
It doesn't seem to be a problem on the Chessbase server, or any
other chess server I've played on.

For whatever it's worth, I have observed that my opponents in Go
almost always behave well or at least with civility.

Has anyone else noticed this?

My hypothesis is that there already are at least some latent anti-social
tendencies among many chess-players. The impersonal nature of 'virtual chess'
may tend to encourage those anti-social tendencies to emerge with a lower risk
than in 'real life' of having to face any adverse consequences.

In face-to-face chess games, however, even some once bitter wartime enemies
could still find a way to treat each other with civility and sportsmanship.
Here's an excerpt from a wartime memoir by Siegfried Knappe, a Wehrmacht
officer who became a prisoner-of-war in the Soviet Union after the Second
World War:

"We staged a bridge or chess tournament in the camp every few months.
Although our chess tournaments were limited to the camp, so many nationalities
were represented that we called them international tournaments. A tournament
took several days, and each 'nation' sent its best players. A Hungarian oberst
(colonel) and I played the final game in tournaments many times, and I was chess
champion at Krasnogorsk (prisoner-of-war camp) during my whole time there.
The Russians helped organise these tournaments, because they loved chess and
they wanted to keep us occupied. When an important Russian visitor came to
visit the camp from Moscow, they would ask me to play a game of chess with him
if they knew he was a chess player, as many Russians were. I always got some
extra cigarettes and a cup of good tea for doing that, and it was usually
quite friendly (only one of them became angry and abusive when I beat him."
--Siegfried Knappe (Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949, p. 317)

--Nick

I've seen problems like this on all the servers. The combination of rude
behavior and computer cheating really sours me sometimes.

I only say something after the game if my opponent has won. Usually this is a
form of congratulations, or a remark on a specific strong move that he/she
made. I like to restrain chat to any subject besides the game (unless my
oppponent wants to do a post mortem). These are things that are usually fairly
unambiguous, and not open to mis-intepretation.

People that engage in abusive behavior (both online and off) are ruining the
game. Things like anonymous abuse and cheating are facilitated by technology.
So I fear that it will only get worse, unless people learn how to treat each
other properly.


Bob Pawlak (remove 1et.tw to e-mail)
Chess Assistance
http://www.chessassistance.com
Chess Reviews
http://www.chessreviews.com

Nick wrote:

"Ian Hurley" wrote in message
...
Is it just me, or are the majority of people who play on ICC
unbelievably rude?

Dear Mr Hurley,

I also have found some players (though not quite 'the majority') at ICC to
be rude enough to the point where I have become hardly surprised by any of
their misbehaviour.

If you beat them, they abuse you verbally.
If they beat you, they gloat and remark on your poor strength.

My advice would be to add those abusive players to your 'censored' list
and your 'no play' list more promptly than you seem to have been doing.

If you are playing a clearly weaker player than yourself, then you should try
to keep in mind that some of his inappropriate verbal responses might well be
influenced by his sincere lack of comprehension of the game that's being played.
In my experience, most of my clearly weaker opponents seem to have quite
unrealistic expectations about their chances of success in our games, which
are based on their misunderstandings about chess. For instance, some of my
opponents have deliberately gone into theoretically clearly losing endgames
because they had mistakenly believed that those endgames were easily drawn.
And then sometimes they have become abusive after I declined their draw offers.
That does not excuse their misbehaviour, but it may help to explain it.

I have encountered dozens and dozens of players like this.
It doesn't seem to be a problem on the Chessbase server, or any
other chess server I've played on.

For whatever it's worth, I have observed that my opponents in Go
almost always behave well or at least with civility.

Has anyone else noticed this?

My hypothesis is that there already are at least some latent anti-social
tendencies among many chess-players. The impersonal nature of 'virtual chess'
may tend to encourage those anti-social tendencies to emerge with a lower risk
than in 'real life' of having to face any adverse consequences.

In face-to-face chess games, however, even some once bitter wartime enemies
could still find a way to treat each other with civility and sportsmanship.
Here's an excerpt from a wartime memoir by Siegfried Knappe, a Wehrmacht
officer who became a prisoner-of-war in the Soviet Union after the Second
World War:

"We staged a bridge or chess tournament in the camp every few months.
Although our chess tournaments were limited to the camp, so many nationalities
were represented that we called them international tournaments. A tournament
took several days, and each 'nation' sent its best players. A Hungarian oberst
(colonel) and I played the final game in tournaments many times, and I was chess
champion at Krasnogorsk (prisoner-of-war camp) during my whole time there.
The Russians helped organise these tournaments, because they loved chess and
they wanted to keep us occupied. When an important Russian visitor came to
visit the camp from Moscow, they would ask me to play a game of chess with him
if they knew he was a chess player, as many Russians were. I always got some
extra cigarettes and a cup of good tea for doing that, and it was usually
quite friendly (only one of them became angry and abusive when I beat him."
--Siegfried Knappe (Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949, p. 317)

--Nick

Hard, 'Nicky-buoy' - yo'sure yo's gotten the lifetime right of this
12yr. olde, 'sugar-cum - daddy' - 'ZZ', Reich-Stormennfocker?..

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 11:18:14 -0000, "Ian Hurley"
wrote:

Is it just me, or are the majority of people who play on ICC unbelievably
rude ? If you beat them, they abuse you verbally. If they beat you, they
gloat and remark on your poor strength. I have encountered dozens and dozens
of players like this. It doesn't seem to be a problem on the Chessbase
server, or any other chess server I've played on.

Has anyone else noticed this?


I have had a few people get up and walk away (lost connection) when I
have been winning during online blitz games, but on the whole I don't
think it really matters...

You're just playing because you like playing - if the rating really
matters, you should really play "over the board" - online rating
mechanisms are often flawed anyway.

Regards

Jonathan
Jon Beckett

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 11:18:14 -0000, "Ian Hurley"
wrote:

Is it just me, or are the majority of people who play on ICC unbelievably
rude ? If you beat them, they abuse you verbally. If they beat you, they
gloat and remark on your poor strength. I have encountered dozens and dozens
of players like this. It doesn't seem to be a problem on the Chessbase
server, or any other chess server I've played on.

Has anyone else noticed this?

At the end of all games, win or lose, I say "Thanks for the game." In
my experience, I get no reply at all 85 to 90 percent of the time. Of
the times I do get a reply, about 80% of the time it's after I lost.
Of those I later play the who responded after I lost, if I happen to
win this time around, I get a response to my "Thanks for the game"
only about half the time. But I've rarely had someone gloat after a
win or be abusive after a loss. It's happened (today, in fact, which
spurred my reply to your post), but it is rare. Maybe one in two or
three hundred.

If I get a reply (or an initial communication) of "good game" after I
played badly, I do respond with "laugh" because, to call it a good
game is laughable.

The best you can do is ignore the rude, add them to "censor" and "no
play" list if they particularly bug you, and go on. Don't let their
attitude ruin your day. I figure they must lead a pretty sad life to
become abusive over a lost game of chess or, worse yet, to feel they
need to gloat after beating *me* at chess. 8)

Ricky