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Special Issues In Learning Go
Keywords: Problem
Moonprince (21k): One of the hardest problems for me in learning and playing go is dealing with medical problems. Specifically, I have narcolepsy, a neurological disorder, and I can definitely see it reflected in my game play. I can't be the only person in the world who has a learning disability of some sort, so I hope we can have some discussion about alternative ways of playing and learning that might be helpful to us 'non-traditional' go players. I'll start the discussion by using myself as a guinea pig, but before I do that, let me establish some ground rules. Ground Rule #1: Focus on the game. Be specific in both your problems and your suggested coping techniques. For example: 'When there are a lot of stones on the board I get distracted and can't concentrate on the local problem' and 'Try using your hands to cover up the rest of the board so you can see just the part you want to concentrate on.' A vague comment like, 'I have a hard time paying attention' is difficult to know how to answer. Ground Rule #2: Don't get involved in medical/personal discussions! It's very easy to get sidetracked that way, but this page is about go. If I come back and find stuff like that on this page, I will edit it out. You have been warned! Corrolary to #2: If you don't know what a particular medical problem or term is, look it up yourself. Moonprince (21k): Okay, lets float this boat and see if she sails. My issues: 1) I can't read ahead more than two or three moves or so because my brain simply won't map that much abstraction. And even if I could, thirty seconds later I wouldn't remember it. To compensate for this I depend heavily on pattern recognition. Learning different shapes, like geta (called 'net' in English), is helpful because when a geta is developing I don't have to read it out, I know what it looks like and how to play it. I recognize the pattern and that guides my play. 2) Another problem, related to the reading problem, is that too much input overwhelms my brain, which responds by tuning out the 'extraneous' input and focussing on one small piece. This is a common novice error in go as well, where the player becomes engrossed in the local issue instead of considering the whole board. Since I can't read all the details of the whole board I try to recognize overall shapes. I am trying to understand things like moyo and estimating territory to develop my whole board pattern recognition skills; I am also trying to develop a strategic feeling for go. 3) I get pushed around the board a lot because I have no plan when coming to the board and never really develop one -- I don't grasp how the game works as a system. The only strategy advice I have really received is 1) corners, sides, middle, and 2) try to reduce the opponent's moyo. I have checked the currently existing pages on strategy (as of 7 Sept 2002), and found only a little strategic advice. Mostly it seems to discuss 'elements' of strategy. The discussion of amashi and shinogi are what I consider 'strategy' while the other links such as miai and efficiency are elements of the game or principles of the game, which of course have an important role in strategy, but are not 'strategy' themselves. At least as I understand the term. This is a copy of the living page "Special Issues In Learning Go" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |