Reviewing blitz games

[RBerenguel]

After seeing Namii (one of my teachers in the Nordic Go Academy) play 6 or 7 blitz games in just an hour or so, I decided to try my hand. Yes, after around 8 years of playing (more not playing than doing it, but well... I have to graph my playing to show how little did I play in those years!) I had never played blitz. In past times, even playing a normal friendly game got me nervous (in some other thread I'd read about the "adrenaline rush for a game", quite so) so the prospect of playing a game with 1^m+3x10^s wasn't thrilling. But for the past few months, after so much relaxed playing in the ASR I've got more calmed, and decided to try. It is fun! Also it gets me to think quicker. Too quick, I think I have only used one byoyomi period in two games.

The question is: should I review (even if for 5 minutes) these kind of games or just ignore them? Just in case, I'm adding the last one here. It was much worse than my usual, but again, I'm not used to blitz at all. I just played by shape (bad shape, probably) and instinct. And managed poorly my time, too I know, I can self-criticize my play, I only want to know if looking at these games one more time is worth it or not.

http://files.gokgs.com/games/2012/3/25/rcsteppat-RB44.sgf

[illluck]

My personal feeling is to just take a look at a few places that were not clear and may have changed the course of the game if I think there were such points. They tend to either be where I collapsed in a fight or where my opponent collapsed in a fight because of an awkward move. I don't know how useful that is - but looking at those places doesn't take much time anyways and I am generally curious.

[hyperpape]

Spending five minutes to find really glaring mistakes seems fine. Also, if an interesting life and death position comes up, it can't hurt to analyze it even if it takes more time than you'd have in a game. But there's probably no payoff to analyzing sequences in real depth.

[Uberdude]

Review them yourself if you want, but don't ask me to. If you can't be bothered to think about your moves, why should I?

[RBerenguel]

Review them yourself if you want, but don't ask me to. If you can't be bothered to think about your moves, why should I?

Did I ask anyone for a review? I just pasted the game as example. No need to act like that.

[Uberdude]

Sorry if you took offence, "you" was not meant as you in particular, that is just my general philosophy regarding reviewing blitz. (Just as you didn't ask for a review, I didn't say I was asked for a review.)

[RBerenguel]

Well, "don't ask me for a review" was present in your post, so I think my misunderstanding is understandable (these two words together look fun for a non-English speaker like me). I don't expect my blitz opponent to review the game with me, although I've found that in some cases I could have told them something (today for example, my rival lost on time thinking about an extension in a semeai that didn't work... I was just seeking a sente move.) No high level stuff, just 1 minute or less of "this didn't work and that you did was way cool". I've also found a guy who answered my "thanks" with "no, never" (he had lost on time). Although playing so quick is fun and I can fit more games in a day (or at least, one game per day), this kind of attitudes put me down. Go should be a friendly game, even more in blitz which is meant to be "fun".

[xed_over]

Review them yourself if you want, but don't ask me to. If you can't be bothered to think about your moves, why should I?

haha... I thought that might get misunderstood

But I think I understood what Uberdude intended to say (in response to a general question of reviewing one's own blitz game)... that in general, anyone plays blitz games shouldn't expect anyone else to review them, and so by inference maybe its not even worth your own time to review a game you already didn't put much thought into.

(at least that's what I took it to mean )

[jts]

Well, "don't ask me for a review" was present in your post, so I think my misunderstanding is understandable (these two words together look fun for a non-English speaker like me). I don't expect my blitz opponent to review the game with me, although I've found that in some cases I could have told them something (today for example, my rival lost on time thinking about an extension in a semeai that didn't work... I was just seeking a sente move.) No high level stuff, just 1 minute or less of "this didn't work and that you did was way cool". I've also found a guy who answered my "thanks" with "no, never" (he had lost on time). Although playing so quick is fun and I can fit more games in a day (or at least, one game per day), this kind of attitudes put me down. Go should be a friendly game, even more in blitz which is meant to be "fun".

I think we have a friendly enough community here that if you post a game someone will be generous enough to review it, so conversely posting a game (even if not under the ambiguous heading "Reviewing blitz games") can be taken as a request for a review.

And even if it were 100% clear that you didn't want a review, it's worth saying from time to time. Beginners (who, in many cases, have never reviewed a game themselves) often don't understand how much time it takes to review a game. If they did, they would understand that it doesn't make sense to play thoughtlessly and then ask someone else to spend twice as much time reviewing it. It's not mean-spirited of them to ask for reviews of their not-even-blitz games, but it's not mean-spirited to occasionally remind people of the relative time investment involved in reviewing, either.