tchan001 wrote:
Personally I prefer studying commented games rather than just memorizing a set of pro games. The commentaries usually give a lot of insights into what the pros are thinking about. Especially valuable are the variations a pro considers prior to making a difficult choice of move. I just don't have the reading power to see through the ideas behind the great moves and plain memorization does not take into account the particular situation. So it could backfire if I were to try out some pro sequence with little knowledge other than that a pro had played this way in a game I memorized earlier.
I honestly don't know if memorizing is of any use for improvement but if it is, then I believe it has little to do with rational reasoning of moves.
During the process of memorization, what really happens is that you subconsciously learn shapes, sequences and maybe a feel of direction. You are less concerned about the rational reasons why a certain deviation from the sequence gives worse results. You just internalize good patterns (without knowing why the others are bad). It's a totally different learning philosophy.
An analogy could be made to two different methods of learning a language. In one method you emphasize learning grammer (like studying variations of commented games and understanding why certain moves are played), in the other one you just learn patterns by repetition (more like a child learning the language).
Therefore studying pro games with commentary is a kind of study more similar to a joseki study or a tsumego study, while memorizing pro games is a completely different method.
That's how I understand it (without being sure of course). I got this impression especially from the words of a pro which was something like "
by memorizing pro games, not your mind but your hands learn to find the correct move".
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