There is a proper method commonly used by pros
"...I’m glad to hear that you enjoy watching go as well as playing yourself.
There are individual differences in the way professionals use their time allowance, so let me tell you about myself. I’m a slow thinker, and in a game in which I had a 5-hour time allowance I spent close to one hour on just one move. Recently, there are more and more 3-hour games, so one has to be careful with one’s time, but even so I sometimes take 30 minutes on one move.
What do I think about? The first thing is to check that there are no problems with the move that I have thought of instinctively. If there are, I look for another move. Putting it like this makes it sound simple, but, as you know, the difficult thing about go is that one doesn’t get clear answers. I formulate strategies based on the instinctive move and other moves and produce definite shapes in my head, but how to tell which course is the best? Almost all of one’s time on a slow move is spent agonizing over which is actually the better strategy. Quite often, one is unable to reach a conclusion and one just plays the instinctive move one first thought of. Concerning the number of moves, if you count the different variations that branch out from one shape, the total is probably about 100.
The other thing is that one is thinking about the game when it’s one’s turn to move, but it’s the opponent’s turn, one’s mind wanders and one thinks about what to have for lunch, if it’s in the morning, or one takes a look at the other games . . . I really should try harder to concentrate!
I hope that you continue to enjoy go, both as a player and as a spectator." --Izawa Akino (strong Female pro)
"...It’s hard to generalize about how many moves ahead we read. When you are thinking about the next move, there are a number of different choices. For each of these, there are then a number of different choices for the next move. Then for the next move after that . . . If you added up all the different branches, the total would probably be several dozen. However, among the different choices there are some moves that one’s intuition just tells one are no good, so one doesn’t actually read them. I’m sure that amateurs also would read several dozen moves if they developed their reading ability." --Suzuki Ayuma (strong Female pro) "A: Usually professional players, including me, read around 100 moves ahead. But that's not the case for every move. First select 10 candidate moves and then read ahead for each of them. After reading ahead 20 to 30 moves for a candidate move, one could reach a tentative conclusion like "this is a bad shape" or simply "this is not it." At that point, I stop any further reading for that candidate move and look for another. This is a process of elimination that ususally leaves one or two candidate moves. For each of these final candidate moves, I read ahead about 100 moves. This might surprise amateur players, but the more difficult thing is not reading ahead 100 moves, but deciding which of the final cadidate moves gives a better result. .... The most painful moment is when I realize that I am on the wrong way a few move after my original decision. That gives me an agony beyond description. People call me "Stone Buddha" for my lack of facial expression during games. But you will notice some changes in my face when I am in a bad situation. You have to look at my face carefully." --Lee Chango (Top pro)
_________________ On Go proverbs: "A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.
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