If you could recommend just _one_ game to study â¦

Bonobo · #1

Hello everybody,

I realise that I have far too little time to invest in Go … so I can’t really study as much as I’d like to do. Currently I’m perhaps around 11 kyu (oscillating between 13k and 11k for the past ~3 years), I think, though that can be wrong since I’ve been playing correspondence games exclusively for the past two years (on OGS, which may be important for the accuracy of my rank), (except for Real Life games in “my” Go club every Friday night where I still am the strongest player). I have done perhaps ten thousand Tsumego. I have never (NEVER!) replayed any classic or contemporary pro game.

So, I’d like to ask you for a favour:

If you could recommend only one specific high-class game record to study, which would that be? I’m aware of the possibility that three commentators here could recommend four different games :lol:

but it can as well be that you agree more about a singular, exquisite game than I can foresee … I don’t know yet how to decide between different recommendations, if there are, but maybe you can convince me that I should take yours? Keep in mind that this might be the only game record I may study until I can retire (in seven years, which seems like eternity to me).

I promise that I’ll play out that one game on my Goban, over the time of perhaps the next two months.

Greetings, and thanks in advance!

Tom

p.s.: I’d have made a poll with some games to choose from if I knew, but if I did, I’d probably not write this whole post.

EdLee · #2

Hi Tom,

Short & blunt reply: I think it's a wrong question.

Longer:

Knotwilg · #3

There is indeed only one game to study: your own last game.

Good luck!

Jujube · #4

EdLee wrote:

L&D, books, and YouTube videos don't provide (nearly enough) feedback on your mistakes, on your actual moves.

Absolutely right! Like you have said before Ed, we need to know fundamentally WHY our move is bad, and a strong player is ideal to point this out. We think "maybe I should play here instead", but we have not solved the problem of why our move is bad! Analogy: Cutting the head off the weed, only to find it grows back in the next game, instead of pulling it out by the root!

That being said, there must be value to visiting a "useful game pick-n-mix section" and poking your shovel in the box named "exploiting weaknesses and vital points" for example.

I'd love such a pick-n-mix section, so that after I play a game, if I at least know what area of my game on this occasion brought about my downfall, I can poke my shovel and study a game where it's done right??

gowan · #5

I never tire of playing through the first game in the ten game match between Kitani and Go Seigen. There is a detailed commentary in John Fairbairn's book Kamakura

I try to follow Kikuchi's advice which I found on SL as one of the Mottoes on the Coffee Machine page:

"If you ... start thinking like "what is it exactly that surprises me here" (after feeling thrilled by the surprise in the first place) and put some energy into that line of thought, from that very moment you'll start to grow." -- Kikuchi Yasuro, famous Japanese amateur player and teacher of pros (Yamashita Keigo) when asked how to improve at go (at the WAGC)

DrStraw · #6

Knotwilg beat me to it. That is exactly what I was going to say and I agree completely.

oren · #7

Agree with the posts about reviewing your own games from previous. I'll get that out of the way and suggest the quality of the commentary is better than the specific game.

Kamakura was a good suggestion. There are also Lee Sedol's Commented Games, 1971 Honinbo and others. Get quality commented games. If you want to save money and still get great commentary go to https://gogameguru.com/get-better-at-go ... -go-games/ and pick any that look interesting to you. There are (probably) no bad games to study there.

jdl · #8

The Lee Sedol Commented Games books are awesome. There are only a few moves (sometimes only 1 or 2) per diagram, with a ton of commentary and variations in between. I enjoy playing "guess the pro's next move" and then reading about why I was wrong.

Bonobo · #9

Thanks for your answers, everybody, I will have to think about this.

With all the challenges that Real Life confronts me with I guess it will be some time before I’ll be able to delve deeper into those “big” games.

Thank you _/|\_

Tom

gowan · **#10**

Maybe the proper attitude is to put your energy into playing. If you just play and think about what you are doing you will improve. Your improvement would be faster if you had time to study with a teacher and take advantage of all the resources on the net but no matter what, playing thoughtfully is the most important thing. If you are trying to put more time into studying than you can give then frustration will result eventually leading to giving up the game. Playing and enjoying it will give a lot of pleasure and improvement too.

otenki · **#11**

Hi,

I will not repeat stuff that has been said allready as that would be boring, but I agree with a lot of things said...
What I do not 100% agree with so much is the need for "high quality" pro-games. Except for entertainment it currently has not that much value to you imho.
Whay I would do is *quickly* go through lots of pro-games without thinking too much about it. Just feel the flow and the shapes. At the same time play games so you automaticly start to incorporate the good shape. At 11k if you read a bit and play good shape you will start to win any games purely because your stones will live and the others will die or be cramped into small teritories because of the forcing moves...

Good luck!
Otenki

Bonobo · **#12**

Thanks Otenki and everybody _/\_

I did NOT get the answers I wanted and expected — you folks gave me answers that seem more valuable than that.

Cordially, Tom

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If you could recommend just _one_ game to study â¦