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How Does It Feel to Improve at Go
Keywords: Question
See also Personal Stories. As I explained in Why Did You Start Go, I began to play because my father loved the game. I'm a competitive wretch, and I needed to beat him at his own game. Then I fell utterly in love with Go, and you know how that goes. Last summer, my father gave me nine stones, and won. In January I took Black in an almost even game (no komi) and won by a single moku. When I went home for Spring Break a few weeks ago, I took White and won several times, by thirty or so points at least or by resignation. The thing is, I can't tell what makes me stronger. I'm not sure what the difference is in my play between January and now. (I can tell the difference since last August, though.) It's like trying to remember the first time I learned about death - I just can't. I can think of a few tesuji I've studied, and I read a book on fuseki (and promptly forgot most of it), but that doesn't seem like enough. Can any of you put your finger on what it felt like to be a weaker player, and what it felt like to gain in strength? Has your mindset changed, or your attitude? What happened? --Regyt Scartol: It's odd for me to write about this, seeing as how I'm still so weak (27-25k). But I know I'm stronger than I used to be, because I don't make the stupid mistakes I used to (and I can beat weaker players because they do). The impression I get, however, is that definite things like this are less tangible as one progresses in the ranks. HolIgor: Easy. You were a blind puppy and now you see. Bill Spight: Sometimes single ideas have an almost immediate effect. When I was starting out, "Play the whole board," and "Throw stones away," were worth several stones each. A few months later, "Play efficiently: make the stones you have already played work," was worth a lot. Even at the dan level, "Is good shape good enough?" was worth a stone in a month or two. The rapid progress that follows such insights can be exhilarating. But, more than any game I know, character is important in Go. In my 20s I often had no chance to play anyone for over a year. Although I would occasionally read Go material, I didn't really study. But on moving to where I could play regularly, I often found that I made quick progress, even though I had reached a plateau before. I think a lot of that had to do with emotional maturity. In one place I lived, we could always tell the state of a local 2-dan's marriage by the quality of his play. :-) Matt Noonan: As for how it feels, I like Go Seigen's words on this the best: "Becoming one stone stronger is the supreme enjoyment." (From A Way of Play for the 21st Century.) BlueWyvern: I've noticed two things myself. One is my score scale has changed. I used to think that 15 points was a close game, and 30 was a game with a few mistakes in it, and maybe 50 was a crushing defeat. Now I think anything under 5 stones is close, 10 is a solid victory, and if I am investing serious thinking time in the game I will usually resign when I am 15 points down in the late middlegame. 20 points is a crushing defeat, and anything over that is just embarassing. :-) Another thing I've noticed is that I don't play nearly so thoughtlessly anymore. I'm able to recognize moves that look forcing but really aren't, sometimes turning the table on my opponent, and I've learned how to do things like play in such a way that I lose 1-2 points but gain sente, things like that. And now more than before, I am playing much fewer blunt mistakes. Kendrah: I know I'm improving, but I don't feel any different than I did when I first started. In fact, I tend to feel more confuddled now-a-days than I did before. Recently, I went back and looked at my games when I was a 30k, and it's startling to think how much I've improved... I think I'm stuck in the beginners mindset. ('Course, I'm still a beginner, 22k, just not so wet behind the ears as I was.) Tristan: Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. When you're learning something new, your game can fall out of balance and you might find yourself making silly mistakes and losing more than normally. After a time though, things fall into place and you become able to apply the new knowledge more properly, with the result that you're a stronger player. Scartol:When I feel myself improving on the goban these days, I hear this snippet of dialogue from The Matrix:
Neo: You're telling me that I can dodge bullets?
Morpheus: No. I'm telling you that when you're ready, you won't have to.
deg: As a 10-15kyu, I remember a game where one of my groups was in trouble. I saw a sequence where I could get a double-atari, so concluded that my group was safe. My opponent played the sequence anyway, I captured a stone but gained only a false eye. My group died. My opponent had read past the double atari! After this experience, I tried to do the same. Nacho: The main difference I have noted is that the board tends to become "smaller". When I was a total beginner, a stone at the opposite corner of the board had no meaning, but now that I'm just a beginner (no more "total" there), it influences my decissions on what to play. At the same time, as BlueWyvern said, the differences in score also become bigger. A 30 point loss used to be "not that bad", but now it is just too much. Egao: Some little thing make me feel improving improve a lot.
Stefan: In general - I know I've reached another phase of improvement when I start to see certain aspects of the game in a different way. It's consistent with what Bill Spight wrote: a deeper understanding of "throw stones away" or any such thing always translated itself in progress a bit later. Another example that I remember is when my understanding of thickness changed and I thought differently about the meaning and value of stabilizing groups. On the contrary I know that I could improve by getting better insight in the true meaning of sente, but somehow I'm not quite there yet, more or less stuck in my current simplistic views. Currently I can feel something moving inside on the topic of shape (no doubt caused by reading Charles's chapters), so get ready for my leap to shodan, people! :-) Oh, wait a minute. I may have to actually play to get stronger, I guess... Dieter: How does it feel to improve at anything: you only want to get better. This is a copy of the living page "How Does It Feel to Improve at Go" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |