I don't think I can afford to keep studying Go every day, that's too much time spent on a board game in my opinion.

But will the game become boring if I never study?

That the way it goes for me with Chess.
I play Chess rarely, don't study anything, and still enjoy playing the game...
Not so with GO, I really "feel" the need to learn... don't know why...
[DISCLAIMER, the puprose of this post is not to start a CHESS vs GO war Just a personal feeling...]

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Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

I stopped studying 25 years ago. I still play every day. But maybe a sample of one is not representative.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

But, studying chess is so lame. It's just rote memorization of openings

While I'll come down squarely on the side of go vs. chess, that characterization of studying chess is as far off base as saying North Korea is the world's greatest defender of human rights.

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Todd K. Pedlar
Associate Professor of Physics, Luther College
Decorah, IA

My sarcasm detector is beeping wildly when I point it at SmoothOper's post.

But then again, without a blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of a snobbish go player that someone won't mistake for the real thing.

That's like saying studying go is just rote memorization of joseki. Both games have an opening, a middle game, and an end game. Chess is dynamic as the relative value of the pieces changes as the game progresses in much the same way that the status of groups changes in go as more stones are added to the board.

But the OP asked whether the game gets boring without study and I'd say the game will only get boring if you don't enjoy it.

not for me, it doesn't.

I don't play very often anymore, but I enjoy teaching beginners, and I enjoy watching high level games (and playing through them when I have time)

and I enjoy game recording/broadcasting

No, if anything, it gets more fun when you stop studying and just play crazy

Is like this with me too (not sure why either). Chess endgame studies can be quite interesting though.

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"Tsumegos are for reading power and Tesujis for knowing which moves to read"

Of course, because we all know Germans are such great examples of defenders of human rights, that the North Koreans can't begin to surpass them on the non-notoriety scale, and while we're at it Germans have always had the best fiscal policy, never once going bankrupt as a society.

Rote memorization works best with kids between the ages of 3 and 10 years; they seem to like memorizing facts, even if they are not very fond of testing

Rote memorization of the basics is time-consuming, but it's a good way to internalize basic knowledge so that it operates subconsciously, making more complex topics easier to handle than if the basics have not been internalized in the first place. This is why, in my humble opinion, it is better for elementary school students to concentrate on basic arithmetic, with an emphasis on rote memorization and testing occurring only once a week at most. With the internalization of the basics, math topics presented later on in the school curriculum become easier to handle, as even the most complex algebra, trigonometry, and calculus problems are just multi-step arithmetic problems.

Rote memorization can also work for students of Go. Of course practice makes perfect (just ask a pro!), but most adults who are learning Go for the first time may not have interest in this method, as it is time-consuming and adults generally look to be as efficient as possible with their daily time. Still, rote memorization of elementary material in all categories - life & death, tesuji, endgame, fuseki, middle game, and joseki - can provide a foundation on which to base understanding of intermediate and advanced material. Intermediate and advanced problems often include several steps for the solution, whereas beginner problems are usually 3-5 moves at most.

As you can see, it doesn't really matter if you include this or not. When given the chance, the chess vs go people will start the discussion anyway, with or without you. ^^ Thank you for trying though.

Trying to get back to the op: I tend to have more fun playing go when I'm also studying it, because I have new things to try out in my games. A nice bonus is that losses don't fluster me nearly as much when I'm studying, then there's something to learn. When I'm just playing go to have a good time, losing tends to feel much more unpleasant.

To me, Go is fun whether I'm studying the game or not. You can, after all, just play for the pure enjoyment of the game. Something else to keep in mind is that you can always learn from the games you play, and thus sort of study and play at the same time. It's not the same as studying specific tactics or positions independently, but every game can nonetheless be a learning experience.

Huh?

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Occupy Babel!

If anyone is wondering, Chinese chess, and Japanese chess are a lot of fun. You can play both at playok.com

Surely this is not the first time you've came across a... post from SmoothOper?

The problem is that on this board there are any number of people that prefer chess, and jump on opportunity, to state it. Even if they are not ever entitled to feel that way on a Go board. I think it speaks to the increasing dominance of Go in Chess related spheres, that these people can be found trolling L19.

It wasn't boring before I started studying, I doubt it'll be boring when I stop.

PeterN