How to Utilise Goban best, when you are alone

[saisandeep]

I am 12k at OGS, I want to improve my game, But I don't have any opponents to play in the area that I live, But I have a nice Goban with me. I am curious, what do professionals do with the Goban alone, other than replaying the games ? Does Goban help in L&D ? Any other interesting things are welcome.

[swannod]

I don't know about professionals but I use my goban for memorizing and reviewing commented games. I also use it for harder (for me) tsumego problems like the ones from Guanzipu & Xuanxuan Qijing. It's a lot of fun!

[Anzu]

You can use a Go set to play five-in-a-row (aka Gomoku) against your friends. The rules are simple, after all - just get five stones in a line to win. (vertically, horizontally or diagonally)

[Fool]

Sometimes I just play some stones and see where I go from there, I just like seeing the board develop.
Studying Joseki feels nicer on a real board, too.

[sybob]

Playing or replaying games, practicing tsumego, joseki, other kinds of study and leisure: that's always better be done on a real/proper goban. The learning effect is much better than using a screen.
I find doing tsumego on a real board to be much more effective than on screen.

Do you know the cartoon/book series '1001 uses for a dead cat'?
Perhaps we should start something like that, 1001 uses for a goban.
Some ideas:
- cutting board
- anti-theft device
- sunblind
- umbrella
- foot rest
- door stopper
- coaster
- side table
- baseball bat
Let's be creative.

[CnP]

Im not sure a pro has any need for a Go board when they're on their own - at best perhaps for replaying games but Id have thought their visualisation skills are good enough for them just to read the game record. It seems a bit like having a fancy pair of football boots but noone to play with personally I use my decent Go board for replaying games (or sequences from a book) only. Problems imo are best done without the board, to train visualisation. My board also acts as a reminder to study Go more.

[Uberdude]

Im not sure a pro has any need for a Go board when they're on their own - at best perhaps for replaying games but Id have thought their visualisation skills are good enough for them just to read the game record. It seems a bit like having a fancy pair of football boots but noone to play with

When I was in BIBA On Sojin 7p would replay Go Seigen games on a board.

And for the OP, replaying games and doing go problems on a board will likely make you learn better. Doing physical actions as you do mental ones tends to help you retain the information.

[joellercoaster]

I am much less experienced than other people in this thread, so take it for what it's worth. But I find doing tsumego on a real board to be a huge pain. Drilling through them with a book or an app feels way more productive (even though i find it more difficult, because my reading and visualisation are the weakest part of my Go). More is better, and setting up each problem takes time.

I love replaying games on the real board though. It's deeply pleasurable *and* feels like it's actually worthwhile.

[Uberdude]

I am much less experienced than other people in this thread, so take it for what it's worth. But I find doing tsumego on a real board to be a huge pain. Drilling through them with a book or an app feels way more productive (even though i find it more difficult, because my reading and visualisation are the weakest part of my Go). More is better, and setting up each problem takes time.

Indeed, I would expect doing one problem on a board and one from a book, you would retain/learn more from the board, but as it takes longer and you would likely have a fixed time to study Go, the choice is actually more like in half an hour you can do 20 problems on a board or 60 problems in a book/app/online, and then which is more productive in terms of increasing your Go skill* is less clear, and quite probably the latter.
* which may or may not be your aim.

[Bill Spight]

Why not play around with the board and stones?

See viewtopic.php?p=204147#p204147

[Babelardus]

I do the same as I did before I got my computer-connected DGT chess board. I play serious games against engines, by swiveling the monitor toward the board and playing out the game on the board.

Why?

First, to preserve board vision. In the past I've played so much chess on a computer screen, (with white at the bottom, even if I played black) that I lost my 'board vision'; when sitting at a real, 3d board, I overlooked moves I would not overlook on the computer. It took me some time to get my act together again. To prevent that from happening at Go, I now use a real board for a serious game, if it means that I have to play all the moves twice *and* play the computer moves as well.

Second, the real board slows me down. I don't put the move on the screen before I played it on the board. Previously, I sometimes wouldn't think; I hovered the mouse above the intersection of my next move, anticipating the move of the engine. If my anticipation was correct, I'd click without thinking. Sometimes, I would actually click as soon as the 'ding' for the engine's move sounded, only to discover that the fracking thing did NOT play where I anticipated, and that I now was in deep trouble. Using the real board noticeably improved my results as of late, by slowing me down and thus cutting out the impulse moves (and blatant blunders).

(Bill: a lot of 'followitis' has disappeared, and my win ratio against Aya, GNU Go and Cosumi.net is skyrocketing. They're all +/- 5-6k engines, and I expect I'll have to give them some handicaps soon )

Third: I just like playing at a real board. Call me sentimental or something, but I like to see the patterns forming on a real board, and rearranging the board to count and then finding out I won a serious game by 1.5 point is just different to having the computer tell you 'you won by 1.5 point' as soon as the second pass is done.

I'd love to have a DGT-type Go board. I know DGT is actually thinking about creating one... I hope they do. If they build a computerized board that can use normal stones somehow, I'd easily pay €500 or more it. (The DGT Chess board needs special DGT chipped pieces so the board can recognize each piece; but that it's not necessary for a Go board, obviously). With their chess board, you can just set up the computer/laptop, hit 'Go' (in a Chess program, yeah...), and then play at the board; the engine's move is displayed on the clock. You don't have to look at the computer screen anymore, and you don't have to put the move into the computer. The board does that for you. Now, if they just make that Go board...

The setup looks like this:

setup.jpg (241.38 KiB) Viewed 13069 times

I just won a game against Cosumi by 8.5 points, playing black. I actually always count first before I click the final OK. This was not a Moyo game, if anyone is wondering why the territories are so large. I just always pick up all the loose stones within a territory, and use them to fill all the small territories

By the way, this is the board that I reviewed here, together with the dark ash bowls I got at the same time, and the size 31 glass stones.

[Drew]

I agree with just about everything Babelardus said, although I don't wish for a digital board peripheral costing more than €500

I doubt everyone suffers from board vision discrepancies, but I know I do. I also very much enjoy the tactile feedback of playing. Last night my mobile phone beat me though.