DieterVerhofstadt/FullTrainingProgram

This is an auxiliary page to /Deliberate practice, starting too with the /PlayingUpToYourLevelOfUnderstanding.

The idea is to build a training program for about 100 games.

1. Fighting spirit
   1. Don't resign - play 10 blitz games where you focus on not resigning but instead find opportunities to come back into the game. Likewise, don't expect your opponent to resign but find and reduce opportunities for them to come back.
   2. Don't follow the opponent around - play two serious games where you assess every move by the opponent on the need to answer it. Should you answer it locally or can you play elsewhere. If you tend to be overly confident, overcompensate by answering when in doubt. If you tend to be overly cautious, play elsewhere when in doubt.
2. Time management
   1. Don't lose on time & use the time you have - play a few games with 2 overtime periods. Play your move 5 seconds before the first one elapses. You have one second chance.
   2. Use your overtimes wisely. See /time management for an explanation.
   3. Use your opponent's time to assess the whole board situation
3. Remain concentrated throughout the game
   1. Play games in good conditions and spirits (good connection, fresh and awake, no alcohol, no music ...)
   2. Be aware that liberties become scarce in the endgame
   3. Count liberties of chains in the endgame, after each move in the vicinity
   4. Assess connections regularly
4. Study easy life and death exercises
   1. try the easy ones in the series provided by Hitachi and Gogameguru.
   2. play casual games during this period, to allow for subconscious wielding of your new weaponry.
5. Reading
   1. Consider 3 alternatives for each move - play 10 games where you do this for every move. This will seem a waste of energy but it serves as an overcompensation for automatic play. After this training, you may remind yourself more often to think about alternatives.
   2. Read 3 moves deep for each of those - same approach as above
   3. Count liberties, especially towards the end when they become scarcer - play ten games where you pause at the endgame. Instead of evaluating endgame moves, you focus on counting liberties after every move of the chains affected.
   4. pause at life and death situations and think a bit longer - play ten games with time settings that allow you to pause for a long time at the first few life and death situations that occur. Create a mindset where these are book problems.
   5. look actively for life and death techniques (surround, cut, reduce eyespace, vital point)
6. Middle game
   1. connect and cut on a large scale
   2. surround and escape
   3. strengthen and harass
   4. else, move to big open areas
   5. play away from strong groups
7. Endgame
   1. Try to keep a disadvantage under 10 points
   2. Pause at the start of the endgame (when all groups are stable and no big open areas remain)
   3. Find the 5 biggest endgame points
   4. try to get 3 of them
   5. look actively for endgame tesuji
8. Opening
   1. Play 4-4 parallel opening
   2. Choose a pincer or an extension when approached
   3. Choose an approach or an extension when building
   4. play basic techniques in close encounters (hane, extend, block) and in local development (one space jump, keima, kosumi)
   5. review the sequences played with a joseki dictionary