In my Go-club my games are rarely finished under 90 minutes. But well, we do talk sometimes in between - so it's not like a tournament ^^

As a beginner trying to get through some full-size games to get some good practice and experience, how long would you recommend I spend on each move?

Playing moves quickly would certainly get through the games quicker, but at some point it becomes a little random, you make tons of mistakes and you are not doing enough reading or giving things proper thought.

I could quite easily spend 15 minutes on each move, often changing my mind about a move or seeing some fresh insight in the last few minutes of that time, but is it worth trying to think too deeply as a ddk? It also means games slow down to a crawl.

As a beginner trying to get through some full-size games to get some good practice and experience, how long would you recommend I spend on each move?

Playing moves quickly would certainly get through the games quicker, but at some point it becomes a little random, you make tons of mistakes and you are not doing enough reading or giving things proper thought.

I could quite easily spend 15 minutes on each move, often changing my mind about a move or seeing some fresh insight in the last few minutes of that time, but is it worth trying to think too deeply as a ddk? It also means games slow down to a crawl.

Meh, I think we may be overstating the importance of quick games versus slow games. I don't want to disagree with Bill or ez4u, but just last night I had a teaching game with a player whose complaint was something like "I've spent a decade playing, four games a week, why am I still DDK?" Now, I looked at a few of his games and at first I was offering advice on this and that, but then after he told me he had been playing for a decade, I went back to the beginning of the game, because I had a strong hunch as to what I was going to find.

He took 3 seconds for his first move. 2 seconds for his second move. Four seconds for his third move. Et cetera, et cetera, around he made a very serious error and paused for a whole ten seconds. And then went back to 2-5 second moves. Was this a blitz game? No, he had 25 minutes on the clock and 30 second byo-yomi. The game ended after 200 moves and he still had twenty minutes left on the clock.

@jts

Please reread the original post... "I could quite easily spend 15 minutes on each move, often changing my mind about a move or seeing some fresh insight in the last few minutes of that time, but is it worth trying to think too deeply as a ddk? It also means games slow down to a crawl."

I do not see this as a another thread on the usefulness of playing blitz. Please do not hijack it. Thanks in advance for your consideration of this point.

As a beginner trying to get through some full-size games to get some good practice and experience, how long would you recommend I spend on each move?

At least 30 seconds. The upper bound really is up to you and depends on the context. If it is a casual game that you are playing frequently to train yourself, then I would suggest that 1 minute per move is probably more than enough for a beginner/DDK player. The key is to think as hard as you can in that 1 minute. It is helpful to have reasons and choices that you can remember for review. Based on what I have seen of others, and from my own personal experience, kyu players make a ton of mistakes that come from not reading ahead 3 moves, 2 moves, or even 1 move! One has to learn how to walk before one can run.

I recommend, at the DDK level, an average of 10 sec. per move. Then a 19x19 game would take between 30 and 45 min.

Korean 5 dan...asked, "Why do they take so long, when they have nothing to think about?"

Peter, listen to Bill.

I remember when a Korean 5 dan visited our club and, seeing SDKs take 2 hr. on a game, asked, "Why do they take so long, when they have nothing to think about?"

It looks like around 15 seconds per move seems sensible, and also gives a reasonable game time.