How do you guys force yourselves to slow down during a game and think? I played a couple of games online last night and I found that I was blitzing my moves as fast as my opponent. How do I avoid this? I do, in fact, do this while playing chess (blitz my moves out without thinking). I want Go to be different.

Also, I came to the realization that I'm not going to get any better without doing some Tsumego, so they're going to be part of my daily diet, hopefully.

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My plan to become an SDK is here.

Yilun Yang gave me a tip (which I do not apply all the time): For *every* move, consider two possibilities. Compare the two choices, and select the one that fits best. Even if your group is in atari, consider an alternative to escaping from the atari. For *every* move try to do this...

In actuality, I rarely do this for every move.

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be immersed

That's some thing I'm definitely going to have to keep in mind.

As for me, I try to take a deep breath every once in a while, slowly release it, and actually look at the board. Though, I can't say too much since all I've been playing recently is blitz games. (Even in those games, though, I've been working on actually looking at the board and not just immediately playing a move -- even if I know exactly what I'm going to do.)

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KGS: schultz [?].

It sounds silly, and is often recommended for kids, but if your dignity allows, sit on your hands.

I like Kirby's advice, and it matches my sense that you want to play slowly even when you can play fast (joseki/fuseki). I find that if I play twenty moves quite fast, it's a major effort to play the next twenty slowly. (Not that you should take five minutes when you've chosen a joseki--moderation in all things).

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Occupy Babel!

when cho chihoon was 6 years old his first game, i think it was 5 stone game, against (i dont remember who is was exactly..i think it was Mr Lim) he crossed his arm during the game to make sure that he think about his move before playing it.
i sometime play online game with my arms crossed to make sure i dont touch my mouse until i fully think about my move.

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"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

It has been advised for over-the-board play not to pick up a stone until you know exactly where you are going to play it. That encourages thinking before you play. You can do the analogous thing in online go by not keeping your hand on the mouse. After playing put your hand in your lap while you think about the next move. When you have decided where you will play then put your hand on the mouse. Keeping your hands on your lap also helps you to center yourself and counters anxiety.

+1
There's a saying: "A stone in hand wants to be played."

Also if after picking up the stone but before playing it you notice something new then put the stone back into the bowl again and don't pick it up until you have read out the new thing. This will have the secondary bonus effect of not irritating your opponent and everyone else around you by with the sound made from playing with the stone in your hand.

The only time you should have a stone in hand while thinking is if you have very little time like in a blitz game.

I have such a bad habit of doing this. I'm not sure if it actually speeds up my play or not (it very likely might, as it does calm me down a little bit when I stop grabbing the stones), but I do really like playing with the stones. Grab one, flip it around. Of course I really like to be able to do things with my hands, so it is that, or messing around with some thing else while I think.

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KGS: schultz [?].

A tip: before playing, consider this question: "if I play here, which responses does my opponent have, and do I like the result after that?"

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My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move

I got an advice from Jeff Chang (8d on kgs) that you should think for at least 20 seconds before every move in spite of move being obvious or not. This helps in yose where lots of kyu and low dan players tend to answer automatically without thinking, not looking for the best answer. One of the reason they think that the move is too small what the difference 1 or 2 points. But in fact 1 point can change the result of the game.