Life In 19x19

Hello John, and thank you for joining the thread. As it happens, I have been reading the research literature extensively, too, and have radically changed my approach to all the important things in my life, not only go, and so far my results seem to be improving, and my level of enjoyment increasing. Certainly, one conclusion I have is that it's not so much quantity of time that counts so much as quality of time. It may take 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, but there's a difference between 10,000 hours of mindful study and 10,000 hours of going through the motions. I think it's why people can stay at the same level for many years - I know guitarists who proudly boast of having played for 40 years, but they haven't troubled to learn as many chords in those years as I have in two.

There are many well known and well regarded paths to getting stronger at go, but just for now I am curious about the other things people attempt. I mean, for example, why not memorise joseki and discover why you get 2 stones weaker? Could there be a learning value in creating an offbeat fuseki pattern and trying to find ways to make it work? (Thereby developing your creativity instead of merely trying to win by confusion.)

I would like to express my appreciation of your many insights into pro thinking and the go literature that hasn't yet appeared in the West. Reading about 3D (立体) shapes and about combining loose and tight haengma were two especially 悟り moments for me. I also stumbled on "The Big Game" (Kudo-O Meien) the other night, and I feel very stirred up by it. Thanks largely to your explanations, I'm starting to perceive much bigger things than before, as though being finally being allowed a glimpse into the real treasure house after spending twelve years in the antechamber. If you ever find time, it would be wonderful if you wrote a strategy book.

Hamete. Lots of them.

When I was starting out there was a point at which I wanted to play a stronger player taking only 5 stones rather than the usual 7 I used. I don't believe that were we keeping track of results, there was no kadoban or anything. And I didn't have any particular reason to believe I could beat him at 5 stones, either. But what he said to me I'll never forget: "Sure. The only way to lower your handicap is to lower your handicap." I don't remember whether I won the game or not, but I definitely felt more pressure to play fewer slack moves. It made me reset expectations as to what acceptable play looked like.

When you get comfortable at a certain level, there's this danger of cruising---playing the same old familiar moves and strategies that give you a 50% result at your level, reading to the same shallow depth, etc. To shake this complacency, I advocate experimental self-promotion. Depending on your level on some Go servers, this is easy to do online (some servers have caps on new account ratings). When I was DDK my usual practice was to create an account 5 stones stronger than my stable account and play with that for a while, getting those games reviewed. Of course I'd lose like 90% of them, but that doesn't matter. The resistance made me stronger in OTB games. The new account's rating would quickly drop down but the funny thing is that often it would stabilize a stone or two above where my old, stable account sat. This is a strategy I call "swooping." I firmly believe that I would not have been able to raise the rating of my old accounts to that level using the same number of games and maybe not even with any number of games. Whether this is psychological or a behavior of the rating system I'm not sure---I think both factors matter---but it worked for me.

Whether it's rated games or free games, online or OTB, I really believe that even (or underhandicapped) games against stronger players are immensely valuable. It's good to be generous and offer weaker players the same chance, of course, but your own improvement is going to come from those games when you are the total underdog.

I don't consider this a shortcut, BTW. To get results I had to make a lot of effort step up my game and learn from my mistakes. Just casually losing a lot of improperly handicapped games doesn't have the same effect. I know because I tried that, too, with blitz games but it didn't work.

So I'll say it again:

The only way to lower your handicap is to lower your handicap.

Whether this is psychological

I think it is. I have only one account, but what i discovered, not only in online play but OTB as well is, that prior to improving one rank, comes a stage where i "lose the respect for xK/xD".
That isn't meant to be rude, even though it may sound so. What i mean is losing the respect towards the rank or strength, not the players. Let me try to explain what i mean with this.
I remember at my first tournament, which i entered as a 25k (roughly one month after pickung up the game) i awed across the room where 15k were playing and i thought "i want to be that strong someday". That is the kind of respect i mean. (Respect may not be the best word for that, but i can't find a better one)
When i was a 4k, 2k seemed just so strong. While playing against 5ks there were so many mistakes they made, that i could take advantage of (and of course quite a share of mistakes on my side), but against a 2k, their play seemed so solid and flawless. I couldn't find any mistake to take advantage of.
The funny thing is, that seemed still true, after i improved to 3k. Now i should be able to win games with black against 2ks, but it still felt like hitting a brick wall.
I won't say, that losing this feeling was what brought me from 3k to 2k, but i think it was an important step in this improvement.

Today i try to apply this, a 1k might be still stronger than me, but i firmly believe that in a tournament game i can win - that it will be a struggle, but that i'm not at a disadvantage, even if i have to play as white.
I firmly believe, that i can beat a 1d in a tournament game, if i play to 100% of my ability and don't slip during the game (which of course i will do).

I have not enough evidence to clearly back these statements up (only one win against a 1d in a tournament and a lot of utter defeats against 1d), but i think starting the games with this mindsets, helps me play at the top of my ability.

So, the first thing to become one stone stronger, is to think you can beat those 1 or 2 stones stronger than yourself.