Studying Professional Games

   

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 game.


DieterVerhofstadt's personal comments:

In a discussion on rec.games.go (November 2001) on "studying games of Go Seigen" someone noted that his teacher (a pro) encouraged him (and every amateur) to study games of professional players who play natural moves, such as Takemiya Masaki and Otake Hideo. He considered Go Seigen much too complex for us amateurs to understand and appreciate.

I followed the advice and quit studying Wu's games. I started to go through the Otake collection instead. I replay them through my sgf-viewer with the goban next to the computer. It seems to be important to feel the physical effect of a pro move. Before each move, I try to guess where it will be and put the stone on the goban. Then I adjust. When I don't have to adjust, a great feeling of satisfaction betakes me. It is certainly true that the "success rate" with Otake is much higher than with Wu. I don't read any comments, but write down a couple of moves per game that I really didn't expect.


HolIgor: I noticed an interesting aspect of the reviewing professional games. If you play after it you subconciously try to follow the pattern. After viewing Takemiya's game I played for a moyo in the center, then exchanged it for the territory and after viewing the last Oza game I got all four corners. If Cho does it then why can't I do it?

I think that if you have time, which does not happen often, the best thing is a live broadcast. You can sit at the computer and think with them. You have some ideas, other kibitzers that are stronger than you show you things that you don't see. I watched some game recently and I have to say that the moves they make are simple and natural mostly. Of course, in the last Oza match Cho Chikun went for a big adventure in the end and won a magnificent semeai. I don't know if all that was read out or he just risked in a hope that he'd get enough liberties to kill the opponent's stones. He needed nine. It was fascinating that he got them.


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.

See also:


This is a copy of the living page "Studying Professional Games" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About