Spezi wrote:Thank you for the tips.
Tried to play a game the way you said. Time was 30min+30s, but it seems to be far too little time for me. It seems I need like 3h pro player. Didn't take many moves to reach byoyomi. Does 30min+30s count as fast or as slow? Nonetheless, it's clearly not enough time. When I reach byoyomi I can't think clearly anymore. Did quite some mistakes. Lost the game. I will review it later on. You don't have to do it. I simply attach it because doing so does no harm. I'm playing white.
That's right. For the purposes of this exercise, 30 mins won't seem like much time. It's usually hard to find people who want to play more slowly though, except in tournaments. It's hard for you now because this might be the first time you've approached the game this way. It's partly the challenge of this that will help you get stronger.
In some book I read about human learning, they used the mnemonic 'FEED' - as in feed your brain. It stands for Focus, Effort, Effortlessness, Determination. The point is, that learning new skills is often hard, but if you stay focused on doing your best and put in the effort, even when it's tough, it will help you reach a level of competency where what was hard before suddenly seems effortless. From memory, determination was there mainly to point out that you have certain goals you're aiming towards and once you reach effortlessness, you raise the bar and start the cycle again, instead of stopping.
When I play like this, 30 mins doesn't seem like that long. However, after awhile you'll get into the habit of looking at the whole board, so you won't have to consciously think about that so much. Also, your reading should start to get more efficient and if you read things out accurately and remember the results (including moves x, y. z are sente against this group) then you don't always need to re-read later. This way you can make up a lot of time later in the game, because you already know the result.
If you have to save time somewhere, I'd recommend playing a straightforward, solid opening and then using most of your time on finding opportunities in the middle game. This is where most amateur games are decided. A solid opening gives you a good foundation for fighting later if you want to.
Remember though that you're trying really hard and reading fast, you're not just taking your time because it's not a 'fast' game.
One of the great benefits of doing lots of tesuji and life and death problems is that it will make your reading more efficient, especially once sharp moves become reflexive for you.
The advantage of reviewing all your games is that you have all the time you want to think about the whole board and read deeply. Take all the time you want. I really think reviewing thoroughly is one of the keys to improving.
It's not the only way, as Araban has said, but it's one way which is worth trying for awhile.
Personally at one stage I tried following the standard advice about blitz games. That took me from about 7d on Tygem back to 5d (back before Tygem had an English client) and it took awhile to recover. So the blitz advice doesn't work for me, but it might work for others. After I started having lessons with An Younggil, he also told me that blitz would make me weaker. It may be different for people who are younger? I'm not sure where the blitz advice comes from.
David
