Studying Professional Games

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Studying professional games is one of the ways to improve. Both insei and amateurs can benefit from going through the games of the masters, although their way of studying and their level of comprehension differ widely .

Most insei in Japan will have gone through the entire Shusaku collection. Chinese pros will study the games of Nie Weiping while the Koreans will focus on Cho Hun-hyeon. All of them will have studied games of Go Seigen.

While insei will try to understand the reasoning behind the moves, this lies outside the scope of most amateurs. So, what benefit can there be in replaying professional games? The common reply is: to acquire a feeling for good shape and for the flow of the stones.


Sites that offer studying professional games


How to study pro games

In his column The magic of Go, Rob van Zeijst writes:

The first time, just play according to the diagram. Then play the game without looking at the diagram, if possible. The third time you play the game, start actively thinking about reasons and alternatives for every move. The reason for doing it this way is simple. If you think about the game from the very first time you play it through, you will use your own knowledge as a reference point for understanding the game.

Antti Tormanen has written a guide on how to study pro games: [ext] http://gooften.net/essays/tens-guide-to-studying-professional-games/.

Anon: A new approach is the Go Wisdom concept used in the most recent GoGoD books produced by John Fairbairn. There are several components. One is that the commentaries (all based on pro opinions) are given without variation diagrams. Instead, variations are described in the text, using letters on the board as necessary. The idea - in line with the theory effortful practice for optimal learning - of is to force the reader to visualise the variations, both in their flow and their final shape, rather than just glancing at a diagram. A second major component is a large Go Wisdom appendix in every book which discusses all the technical terms that appear in each book, and also very many that don't. The idea here is to offer the reader information that he may want but that does not appear in the text. It thus indirectly enhances and broadens the commentary, but through the thinking of the reader - again in line with best study theory. The third main component is that every technical term in the book is indexed in each book, in the GW appendix. This means that if the reader wishes to study a particular concept (e.g. thickness or momentum), he can look up many commented examples in the various Go Wisdom books, which tend to be large and so have very many examples. Books with the Go Wisdom concept include Genjo-Chitoku, Games of Shuei, The Teenage Meijin and the various books on commented old Chinese games in the Museum of Go Theory project.


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Studying Professional Games last edited by hnishy on October 25, 2022 - 10:36
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