Reason To Quit Playing Go

[the little professor]

I just about quit every time I accidentally misclick by one space and my opponent refuses to undo.

[hyperpape]

Family means I've mostly retreated from tournaments and face to face play--I say that even though I have a tournament that I can make tomorrow. Getting busier with work and other projects means I don't spend so much time on the boards anymore.

I've accommodated by mostly playing either correspondence or playing through pro games on my phone. So I've cut way back, but I think I'd have a hard time actually quitting.

[Kirby]

I've pretty much stopped studying go for the time being. But now and then, I'll play some blitz games.

I played one yesterday, and it was very fun and refreshing:
* I didn't feel pressure to show myself for what I had studied.
* I didn't feel a lot of pressure to win.
* Coming up with a strategy felt fun and good.

For me, this is evidence that I enjoy the activity of playing go, and it's not just a routine.

[tekesta]

I cannot really think of any good reason to quit playing Go. Of course I often never have as much time as I would like to devote to the game and there was a time when I did quit playing, but currently I cannot think of why to quit playing. The more I throw myself into it, the more it enchants me. It's almost like getting a beautiful woman to fall in love with me. It's hard at first and there are times when I feel like saying that she's not worth it, but with steady persistence I get her to open up.

I've been thinking about the meanings of each of the 10 Golden Rules of Go (囲碁十訣). Doing so has been helping me to get better at the game. A fellow LifeIn19x19 member once posted a thread on this topic. Below is the link.

forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5540

Where I live it's not easy to find people with whom to play Go, so I take inspiration from Honinbo Shuei, who would often go for long periods without finding a suitable player. During those times he would often replay pro game records. I do the same to keep my Go skills sharp and to unlearn bad habits. To speed things up a bit, I've been watching this video from Benni3D on YouTube. It consists of 1001 games replayed at high speed over the space of 60 minutes. I still watch commented game videos to learn Go fundamentals, but watching the aforementioned video seems to have a subliminal effect on my perception of Go; at least I find it a little easier to visualize segments of Go games after having watched it a few dozen times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6yHh-kWU80&t

[Knotwilg]

I more or less quit go when I found I could not make any substantial progress anymore unless I really devoted myself to the game, which I found too much of an investment.

Another reason to quit Go for me was to start table tennis, which induces the question what I found in table tennis which I couldn't find in Go. Mostly: physical exercise and the joy of spinning a ball. Table tennis gives me more satisfaction as a human being.

Go is the greatest board game on earth but board games have their own limitations.

BTW, I would probably sacrifice table tennis if I found musicians again to play together the songs I want to play.

[Fadedsun]

I more or less quit go when I found I could not make any substantial progress anymore unless I really devoted myself to the game, which I found too much of an investment.

Another reason to quit Go for me was to start table tennis, which induces the question what I found in table tennis which I couldn't find in Go. Mostly: physical exercise and the joy of spinning a ball. Table tennis gives me more satisfaction as a human being.

Go is the greatest board game on earth but board games have their own limitations.

BTW, I would probably sacrifice table tennis if I found musicians again to play together the songs I want to play.

Why do you need to quit Go to get physical exercise from another hobby? I do yoga, but it doesn't mean I need to sacrifice playing Go for that. I'm not sure I understand why you can only have one hobby at a time? With a smartphone, I feel there's always time for a little bit of Go. Whether it's a correspondence game, doing a few L&D problems, or looking at a pro game.

I can't think of a reason to quit playing altogether, but surely there will be times in my life I can't devote a lot of time to the game.

[fycj]

I have found that a lot of people drop Go in favor of sports or physical exercise and then come back after a few years

After a while you learn to balance everything, I dropped Go for some years to do sports and came back recently, but now I do both, my first reason is that i was burned out from Go and i wanted something more physical, funnily enough now I was burn from doing just sports and wanted something more mental

[Knotwilg]

Why do you need to quit Go to get physical exercise from another hobby?

Because the day of TT training is the same as the Go club gathering. Playing Go online only doesn't work for me: I need humans around me when doing a pastime.

Maybe more importantly, either Go or TT are not mere pastimes, they are areas for development. Such development demands a certain amount of focus. I've learnt, sadly, that it is too hard to develop multiple skills at the same time, not with a family and a job.

But what doesn't work for me, may well work for you. Cheers!

[mongus]

I think about quitting pretty often. There is definitely a love hate thing with Go for me. If I suffer a painful loss it does seem to really affect my peace of mind.

I'm playing a game on DGS at the minute that I was feeling pretty confident about, I'd killed off a large group and just had the end game to go. Last night, I was just about to sit down to meditate and my opponent played a devastating move. It looks like I have overplayed and now I am going to lose a huge corner and lose. This really wound me up, I spent ages trying to find a way to save the group, had a disturbed meditation session and ended up getting to bed far too late.

Times like that I just feel like I would be better off not playing Go at all.

But another thought did occur to me that I could take it on board as a valuable life lesson. Expectations, attachments to outcomes, seeking the joy in every aspect, maintaining an attitude of curiosity to life, not getting to greedy. All these are things I could learn and take on board through my Go games.

I don't think I will really be quitting any time soon..

[Cyan]

.

[Gomoto]

One good reason to stop playing go? To study go more is a valid reason.