174.34.0.203: Absolutes and experiments (2014-03-18 05:13) [#10007]

I think it's important to make sure that the new players you're teaching understand that you're giving them guidelines, not laws. We've all seen new players get groups killed by obsessively connecting, or who concentrated so heavily (pun intended) on the corners that they lost on the sides, or even in the center.

I recall a teacher telling me (essentially) "Professionals sometimes win by doing things differently than I've suggested for you. When you get good enough to understand how and why you can win using the center, start worrying about the center. For now, realize that although these guidelines aren't set in stone, right now if you don't use them, you'll never get better."

I also got a lot out of losing games trying to figure out the reasons for the basic principles. If you play without making serious efforts at connecting, you can learn why you should connect. If you hand your opponents the corners and try to make territory in the center, you'll learn a lot from your loss. It'd be rude to do this with a human player without letting them know and making sure it's ok, first. Outside of teaching games, your opponent generally expects you to play to win, but they might enjoy watching you experiment. Computers are good places to play out experiments like these.

I'd also suggest emphasizing to students that they remember they are doing this for fun. If you get so obsessed with advancing your rank that you end up hating what you're doing, you'll likely drop the game and stop advancing entirely. The person that takes a decade to get to 10kyu understands things better than the person who gets there in a year, hating everything about that year and seeing only unhappiness in the game.