You may find that if you ignore the other person's score and go on the premise that it is their score and there is nothing you can do about it, it basically comes down to you vs. the board.

This topic follows on from the "White Moment". We are talking about a very basic problem. It's one of those really big questions, controversial even amongst players of high standard and there are practical and philosophical approaches to it. Here is the point of view to advocate.

First the practical. It seems that ignoring the opponent's play is a good way of keeping cool and focusing on winning. The main problem here is that it is nearly impossible nor to be influenced by your opponent. A key point to a good performance is awareness. This awareness has to be understood in a broad sense: it means involvement, focus, and the ability to feel your own throws. This is absolutely necessary even for solo practice. But how can you really be aware of things going on around you when you are attempting to ignore something? Simple: you would have to ignore only your opponent and their play (just as in a solo practice situation). However, this can be a highly difficult thing to do and as you can see, we have two things working against each other: The need for high awareness and the need for acute awareness required for ignoring your opponent. Even if you manage to exclude your opponent completely from your head, there is one final situation you cannot ignore and must deal with: the opponent's game shot.

In summary:

1. Maybe a person who ignores the opponent and still maintains a perfect state of mind would be the perfect competitor, but we know we won't ever be able to achieve this.
2. Because of 1 and because we know this is valid for our opponent as well, let's try to use it in our favour and try to influence the opponent in the best way we can (and of course within in the rules of fair play).

Now for the philosophical approach. As already said, ignoring the opponent is like playing by yourself. Why then should you enter a tournament or even bother playing a match? What then does winning mean to you? Would you bother to play matches when you could have the same fun playing alone? A general rule in sports psychology is that if you don't have fun, you won't play well. You can have fun when playing an interesting match. One in which you can feel the tension building up and it's a great feeling to work on keeping this tension under control. Remember: fun is not just a nice thing to have, it's a necessity to win! The term "fun" in this case doesn't mean to shout "Cheerio" and "Hooray" throughout the course of the match, it's meant more in the context of feeling 'good vibrations' and enjoying yourself quietly and aware.