Too many go books sinking the game boat.

[Polama]

Try focusing on one aspect of the game. For me, a slump usually means I've gotten too caught up in strategy. I'm thinking about where I want influence, how much to simplify or complicate, how I'm going to use strength and weaknesses on the board. And then my opponent outplays me tactically and all my bold strategies are for naught.

So I start playing games where I consciously focus on playing the best local move. I tenuki less, I don't worry about whether I'm building a wall I can't profit from, I just look for locally good moves. And that seems to bring balance back to my game.

Other people, especially after a tsumego kick, seem to have the opposite problem of ignoring the board for the local. In that case I'd recommend games where you're consciously evaluating the global implications of your moves more.

Reading a lot, your mind may be a bit overwhelmed with options: Which move leaves the least aji? Which would be sente? Where can I secure groups? Where can I play the good shapes I've been studying? You might try choosing a theme for a game: I'm going to focus on sente, or I'm going to look for honte moves. That might help focus your attention on a subset of all the possible moves before you, which you can then make a better choice between.

[daal]

I think that what I'm realizing is that although the game I'm playing is called go, it's not really, because the game I'm playing is a game of chance.

And yet, I'll wager that as a 5k, if you play a few games against a 10k, you'll win every single one of those "random" encounters. You'll be amazingly lucky.

Well, sure, and I'm not saying that there is no skill involved, but in an even game I don't foresee any but the simplest of results, particularly when no captures are involved. Instead, I play a few of what I deem to be good moves, and then when the action's finished I might discover what was good or bad about the sequence. For example, in a game I played today, I played a sequence and discovered after it was over that it left me with an advantageous miai situation. That wasn't why I played it though.

What's been happening is that by reading these books, on the one hand I've been adding reasons why a move might be good or bad (and probably putting other old reasons on the back burner), and on the other hand, I've been seeing how go is supposed to be played - plan, read probable variations, compare and judge, decide - and realizing that what I tend to do (bar an L&D situation) is: plan (or jerk knee), decide. How it turns out is a matter of chance. Luckily, my opponents seem to have similar deficiencies. Probably they're reading the same books.

[daal]

The beginning of wisdom. It may be painful, but it shows that you are ripe for learning.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Bill Spight]

How it turns out is a matter of chance. Luckily, my opponents seem to have similar deficiencies. Probably they're reading the same books.

[Toge]

If it was just unlearning, I wouldn't be worried - but I think what's happening is that I'm seeing how far away I am from good go, and although some of my moves are based on sound principles and such, whether an idea of mine turns out well or not seems to be a matter of luck.

- But it's not luck. Reading is like seeing into the future to determine the outcome of the battle. If the outcome is unfavorable, refuse to play it. Perhaps even bigger problem for kyus is just simply following the opponent around and not caring. Imagine if the rules said that you'd have to play every move on the close proximity of your opponent's stones. Wouldn't it be quite clear that whoever played first in the area would be victorious? That really is so. The first move takes the biggest chunk in the area and all subsequent plays are getting smaller and smaller. The question is when will you snap out of it. The higher kyu, the longer it takes.

There are lots of game aspects that don't depend on any reading. Are these stones having any function or can they be discarded (ask for both your stones and your opponent's)? Am I attacking weak stone or strong group? Where the potential territories of this game lie? What's the balance on safe territories and influence?

What books are you reading that deteriorate your game? I like to read books that make me think about the game. Some books may be the type of "do this" or "play like this" that don't really give the locus of control to the player.

[Aten]

I think the more books the better too!

It's pretty common in chess, poker, or go, where when you are reading new material that you're partially absorbing new ideas and your game deteriorates...

Think of it as experimenting!


I'm curious too, what books you were peeking at, and what were some 'ideas' were you 'sorta' trying out?


---

I think it's true with a lot of games [sports too], and learning music, that one just keeps studying modestly and you keep playing regularly and just by magic, you slowly improve.

There's also something to be said for making sure you got more and more of the basics covered, it's true with chess, or one's leaks in poker. But quick progress is all about what you study and the order in which you study it. As well and figuring out where you did a 'bad move'.


You're at the level where you can still get some mileage out of
G2 Basic Techniques of Go

and still get good use of the Elementary Go Series still
[only G11 38 Basic Joseki and G16 Handicap Go are going to stop being useful to you]

And you're at the perfect strength for G6 Strategic Concepts of Go

and the Get Strong/xxx Problem books fits in nicely for single digit kyus as well

---

but it's pretty common for people to totally look at things differently at certain stages of their game too. But i think of it not as the books as sinking the boat, but new ideas and new weapons sinking the boat. It makes you respect how new ideas can be tricky to master, or figuring out a bad move might be really really difficult to pinpoint. [a lot easier with chess and chess computers when you search for weak moves in your games, or the older literature]


study-play-enjoy-study-play-enjoy...

don't forget the enjoy part... studying too hard and wanting to win too much can sometimes klll it


but there's a lot of awesome advice tossed already on here about things, and to always keep browsing and to also keep studying 1 or 2 books as thoroughly as you can, and to re-read most of your books when you go up a few notches.