Proper way to improve your game?

billywoods · **#41**

Nyine wrote:

Is it possible that losing the first game of the day conditions you to play with less enthusiasm?

Happens to me all the time.

Nyine wrote:

the president of the club didn't see impressed at all

Then you have every right to be unimpressed with his/her dress sense or taste in music. Go is meant to be fun.

Bill Spight wrote:

20.

Much appreciated.

Nyine · **#42**

Thank you guys for your answers!

@SoDesuNe: You're right, I think I'm getting affected by the "I want a great ranking!" idea that most new players carry with them. I also think that your strength is based in how you play, not on a number. I just need to fix that thought in my head.

@Bill Spight: There are games where I am positive I'm not learning anything but how to get smashed, which usually happens when my mood has gone down, though it's possible that even getting crushed teaches you something (like not doing certain moves that lead to severe punishment).

@Peter: No, I'm sure it's not that. Yesterday I played against someone and a former opponent watched the game and messaged me saying something like "hey, you won against me big time and I'm way better than this guy, what happened?". It was just a very bad day. Probably I could not concentrate or focus for some unknown reason.

@jts: Hehe, I play a lot, even when I come back from the club. Maybe just against the computer or something like that, just to calm my mind with something more light. About EdLee, I'm not implying at all that he was harsh! His review made me realize of many mistakes I do during a match and made me think about how to improve those weaks points, but never said that my movements were "horrible", just pointed that some were "slow", others "overplayed", etc. in a very proper way.

@billywoods: Happens to you as well, doesn't it? I guess I should take a break after every lost game to calm down my mind before trying to play again.

Amelia · **#43**

Quote:

I guess I should take a break after every lost game to calm down my mind before trying to play again.

I tel myself this: winning or losing that game isn't very important. Important is:
1. I have fun
2. I learn something
(In this order)

When I feel under pressure for wanting to win too hard I tell myself this. Then I feel more relaxed to play a move that matches criteria 1 and 2 (I want to invade here! Does that work? Don't have a clue, let's find out!).

PeterPeter · **#44**

Nyine wrote:

Is it possible that losing the first game of the day conditions you to play with less enthusiasm?

This sounds different from you, but I prefer a little space between each game. If I start a new game immediately after finishing the previous one, it feels like it devalues it, and I tend to get a bit impatient and play too quickly. I prefer to let the first game sink in, and appreciate it as a whole standalone game. If I won, I want to enjoy the moment for a while. If I lost, I want to go over the mistakes in my head, before making a lot of new ones :oops:

.

This means I don't usually play more than 2 or 3 times a day. Perhaps you just need half an hour between each game to recharge?

xed_over · **#45**

Nyine wrote:

There are games where I am positive I'm not learning anything but how to get smashed, which usually happens when my mood has gone down, though it's possible that even getting crushed teaches you something (like not doing certain moves that lead to severe punishment).

You should be learning how not to get smashed

Many people feel that you learn more from your loses than from your wins. Its not as easy to see your mistakes when you're winning, but your mistakes will be much more noticeable in your losses -- "if I had only played here or here, I could have won". So you should be learning not to repeat those mistakes.

Just work on one or two of your most common mistakes at a time, then you can move on to conquer the next ones.

tekesta · **#46**

I know this thread has been inactive for almost 5 months now, but I thought I could add something constructive.

I first took up baduk in May 2006, when I was 24 years old. For the first 3 years I was beaten by almost everyone and did not know how to improve. I even gave up baduk for a while and focused on other hobbies.

Then some time last year I read the following posts by Furuyama Kazunari, a Japanese amateur baduk player.

http://kazsensei.seesaa.net/category/5656702-1.html
http://kazsensei.seesaa.net/category/5477443-1.html
http://kazsensei.seesaa.net/category/5547294-1.html

This one, too. From it I learned the great secret of Korean baduk pros.

http://kazsensei.seesaa.net/article/251432166.html

...and so I learned something very important.

I began looking at my problem books every day and slowly my understanding of baduk began to increase. I now find that the main benefit of doing tsumego is, beyond merely memorizing the order of the moves in a solution, knowing why that order of moves is correct, as opposed to an alternative one. The goal is to develop an intuition for the relationships between moves. This is the meaning behind the word 手筋 (tesuji); just as the sinews link together the muscles of the body to help them do great things, moves should work together to achieve great things on the board. Tsumego will help train the novice player to recognize differences in shape and relationships between moves. Of course it will not mean instant improvement to shodan, but it is the best way to improve in the long term. At the very least you will experience an increased ability to accurately read out board positions at different stages of the game.

Hopefully the author of this thread is close to SDK by now, if he is not already there :salute:

Proper way to improve your game?

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