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How to avoid blunders
Tristan: Since I'm one of the world's leading experts of making blunders, I thought I'd share some of the ways I've tried to make myself less of a trailblazer in this activity. In other words, here are my anti-blunder tips: 1) Sit On Your Hands. Uncomfortable but it restrains impulsive moving. 2) Think Before You Play. Pretty obvious, huh? So obvious that many people play quickly without thinking, relying on instinct and emotion. I shudder when I recall all the times when I launched an attack impulsively, only to find it made my position worse, or when I played out a losing capturing race from inertia, without considering its value as aji. Go is a game of thought, and making the effort to think about your moves can only help you to play better. But it is an effort, which is why so many people don't do it.[1] 3) Use a Squeeze Ball or Similar Object. Like sitting on one's hands, this prevents an itchy mouse-finger from clicking an unthinking move. It also relieves stress. 4) Use Checklists. At its simplest level, you could make a two-step list to apply on every move, such as "1. Where would I like to play? 2. Am I missing something?". 5) Write Down Your Move Before You Play It. This is a tried-and-tested technique favoured by chessplayers, and it works. If you are making a game record, write your move onto it before you play it. The only drawback is that this is quite significantly time-consuming, which is a problem given the comparatively short time limits in go tournaments (in chess tournaments, you typically get an hour and a half for just 40 moves).[2] 6) Ignore Your Assumptions. When playing situations arise and are resolved to a certain extent before play moves to another area of the board. When play shifts, I end up with assumptions regarding the status of the stones in that area of the board. After a while, all areas of the board have a status assigned to them. Before moving it is good to set these assumptions aside and view the position afresh. This prevents silly things like self-atari among other blunders. 7) Put Your Blunders Behind You. It really hurts to lose a well-played game because of a blunder. But it happens to everybody sometimes. You've just got to accept it and move on to the next game. Allowing your memory to burn with anger only clouds your judgement and makes future blunders more likely. Be like O Meien. When he missed the famous ladder in the first game of the Honinbo match of 2000 he burst out laughing, even though he confessed later that he wanted to weep. Again, he suffered a spectacular mishap in the first game of the 2002 Oza title match. Once more, he laughed at his misfortune, although one can believe he was torn up inside, as he would have won the game by 0.5 had he reinforced his position. But who went on to win these matches? It was O Meien in both cases. So, when it all goes pear-shaped, try to laugh at it and do your best next time! 8) Don't Move (and Think) Until You're Uncertain. Quick play occurs often because we feel certain about our move so we play it immediately. Then we see how foolish it was. Doh! A method I use now is to think until I am uncertain. Sounds funny but here is how it works. I see where to make my next move and after some amount of time (5 seconds, 30 seconds, whatever) I am confident in that move. It is the move I will make, I am sure. Then I think about where my opponent will go. If this is clear (because it is forced or there is only one more big move or some such) then I think about my next move after his. And so on... I do this until I see a branching point where I'm not sure what the next best move is. Frequently this is only a few moves deep. Sometimes (e.g., in ladders or other obvious tactical sequences) it is many moves deep. Regardless, I'm not moving until I've read what I can, up to the move where I become uncertain. Often times my opponent doesn't make the move(s) I felt certain (s)he would and this sometimes presents a golden opportunity to take the lead or sometimes it reveals that I was wrong in my thinking. There is always a temptation to think "why should I read so far ahead when my opponent seems never to play what I read anyway." This is a self-indulgent justification for not reading. It is always better to look ahead, regardless of what happens in actual play. You'll be better equiped to handle deviations from your hypothesized play that way. Anyway, when I employ this "don't play until uncertain" method, it leads to the funny situation of me sitting and pondering for longer than seems necessary (because my next move may be forced or obvious). My opponent is left wondering what on earth I could be thinking about. Sometimes I tell my opponent I'm doing this so they don't get annoyed. Anyway, I see a lot more of the game ahead of time and this is a very good thing. --SnotNose [1] When I meet a speed merchant on a go server these days, I no longer feel intimidated but play slowly and gleefully anticipate his mistakes. [2] Andrew Grant: Speaking as a tournament organiser, I feel that this practice could be considered cheating. If you write down your move on a game record you are able to see the proposed move in place before you play it on the board, which will certainly aid you in spotting blunders; but in what way is this different from trying out candidate moves on a separate board (which certainly would be considered cheating)? You are supposed to visualise the move in place before making the decision to play there. If you play the move then see you've made a blunder... well TOUGH. Learn to read better next time. The comparison with chessplayers' practice is not valid since chessplayers use an algebraic notation which does not lend itself to easy visualization of the move in place. But in go a kifu is in effect a picture of the board. You could write down your proposed move, see it was wrong, then decide to play your actual move elsewhere. Tournament rules, at least in Europe, state that you are not committed to your move until your fingers have left the stone, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to use this as a loophole. Tristan: I absolutely see your point. But where do you draw the line? I vaguely recall reading that it is not forbidden to use pen and paper to make a note of the current score, so long as you are prepared to show your opponent the calculation if asked to do so. Also, would you consider using a set of rosary beads or even one's fingers to check off points on a checklist a form of note-taking or cheating? Charles: It has been ruled illegal, on occasion, to use the stick-on number form of record-taking before playing the move. As for drawing the line - I think I've seen this sort of discussion before, in relation to rules. However much people say 'oh, there ought to be explicit rules about what is allowed', there is never going to be an adequate formulation. Tristan: So, ultimately, it's down to the tournament official's disgression? Andrew Grant: Maybe there cannot ever be a complete formulation of tournament rules, but that's no reason not to try. I once produced a set of rules for player conduct in tournaments which I may post here if anyone is interested; they forbade any external note taking such as pen and paper scorekeeping but I admit that they had nothing to say about using rosary beads! Charles: So, I suppose none of those joseki handkerchiefs, no accomplices doing tic-tac outside the window to the rokudan in the car park[3]. How about disappearing from the playing area for 45 minutes without explanation, as was once done to me? Andrew Grant: Innocent until proved guilty, I'm afraid. Have you any evidence that those 45 minutes were used for some nefarious purpose? And what were the time limits? 45 minutes out of 1 hour is a long time to spend on one move, however good it is. 3 hours, on the other hand. Charles: Oh, it was a well-known British 4 dan sitting in the car park trying to get over having played a kikashi that made a knight's move net work for me. Rude rather than rule-breaking, I thought, as was the subsequent use of six periods of overtime when losing by a final score of 29. It was 90 minutes each. But 'player conduct' might imply more.
Dolgan: I think it would feel sour for me. I want to play well, but that does mean play well by myself not with the help of a sheet of paper. If I am still not good enough to win - well go is just a game after all... (Though Honinbo prizes would perhaps let me feel different, but as long as I am far from a one-digit-kyu... ;-) ) Nacho: I have tried number 5, and it works, except when you write down your move, look again at the board, and decide it wasn't the best move, so you play a different one, and now you have a problem: you have to erase the one you didn't play. Tristan: Pencil? Nacho: Luckily, I never use pens, always pencils, for everything. I don't trust myself enough. I know I'll always make some mistake. But in this case, it proved useful. I lost some time correcting the kifu, though (I had to search for the eraser which was lost in the bottom of my pocket). Maybe I should add that recommendation in the kifu page... [3]: Charles: So I should try to explain. Tic-tac is a kind of semaphore language used on race courses for passing information about current odds in betting. A rokudan is a 6 dan. I was trying to make an example for a way of cheating that might not be explicitly mentioned by a listing of things players shouldn't do. Tristan: It's unfortunate that we in the West have something of a culture of cheating. "Win at all costs and by any means". That said, I wonder whether it's just another example of stereotyping to assume that in Asian cultures it would usually be considered unbearably dishonourable to cheat. Not that this has anything to do with avoiding blunders, but perhaps there's material for a discussion on Cheating In Go?? Blake: Well, I'm not sure about more specific 'over the board' cheating, but Jowa is commonly believed to have politicked his way to his title. Despite cultural differences, the East is full of human beings, too. And quite a lot of them, at that. Tristan: Good point. Jowa's chicanery was not exactly praiseworthy, but on the other hand he is regarded by many as the strongest fighter of all time, so perhaps this should not tarnish his legacy too much. Exswoo No, the typical Eastern attitude is that Cheating is only cheating if you're caught Hey, Cheating is called Cunning in Japanese for a reason! :) Charles Yes, I doubt the cultural lines are really drawn the way Tristan suggests. This is a copy of the living page "How to avoid blunders" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |