Time warp

[Andd]

So something kind of remarkable happened. I was obsessed with go during my senior year of highschool 2008/9 but stopped for the most part that December, around 5k kgs at my best. Fast forward to about two weeks ago when I pick up the game again seems the general consensus is that I've gained 1-2 stones by doing nothing! Has this happened to anyone else?

[palapiku]

Yes.

[blue88]

Yes.
Before I stopped playing I never would be able to break the 5k barrier. Within two months after resuming the game in March I was not only back to 5k but 3k.

My time off was about 3 years (completely devoting myself to something else) and I had to relearn practically everything (starting at 15k).
But that happened rather fast, after a couple of days I again knew 3-3 invasions, kakari respones what seki is etc. These things were just locked away in my brain but a lot of old ballast (mistakes and fixed ideas I had collected on my first time making the way to sdk) seemed to have fallen off and it was much easier to learn and remember new things, thus becoming 2 stones stronger than before.

[edit] Btw, what suffered a huge loss during my go absence is reading skill and it is really difficult to recover that.

[iSoma]

I was just about to come here write about something related to this.
Yes. For me it happened quite a few times. My way is sort of a one step back two step forward thing. Sometimes just the other way around. I found mostly during periods of studying and reading books. ( guess this relates to "learn 1 joseki and lose 1 stone")

Well I did progress the most when just forgeting about it and have fun playing. Or after taking a break from go for a few months and coming back playing relaxed, fresh when feeling to do so. Not just because I read that book that says this and that, trying care too much about it. This went now for a period of 4-5 years from around 14k to around 5-4k. Though I'm playing since 20 years first 15 years were not studying and reading anything, just playing from time to time with friends.

[karaklis]

Maybe much of these effects has to do with the drift of the ranking system.

[Bill Spight]

So something kind of remarkable happened. I was obsessed with go during my senior year of highschool 2008/9 but stopped for the most part that December, around 5k kgs at my best. Fast forward to about two weeks ago when I pick up the game again seems the general consensus is that I've gained 1-2 stones by doing nothing! Has this happened to anyone else?

Yes. I left Hawai'i as a shodan and lived for two years where I hardly played go and then only by giving several stones. Then I returned to Hawai'i and after a month went to a local tournament in hopes of getting promoted to 2 dan (nidan). When I registered the TD said, "You play as nidan." I did, and took second place in the 1 - 3 dan flight, losing only to a Korean visitor who was obviously under-rated.

My hypothesis: emotional maturity matters in go.

[BaghwanB]

It's the wisdom of age (even it is going from 18 to 21).

Bruce "Geezer" Young