Life In 19x19

SoDesuNe wrote:
As with amateurs there are a different takes on this in the professional realm:

I won't argue with the pros, even if they disagree among themselves but ...

I still think this discussion is more about acquiring techniques (tesuji) which is indeed one outcome of solving problems, i.e. do you acquire those techniques by memorizing solutions or by (re)discovering them for yourself or by the hybrid method of read and compare. This is an interesting debate but derails from what I (now) see as the primary benefit of solving problems, which is training your reading skill in settings that don't require positional judgment and have no time pressure. The "solution" is more like a carrot held in front of you while doing the reading.

Years ago, I asked a EGF 5-dan player how he started out into the dan-ranks. He told me he just played a lot of blitz. I also asked a EGF 6-dan, he did a lot of tesuji problems. A EGF 5-dan went to town on goproblems.com and watched a lot of pro games, journeyed from EGF 12-kyu to 1-dan in a year. Everyone consistently played in multiple tournaments every year.

Nice if this is a reliable sample, the last sentence points at a potential necessary condition, while the rest is auxiliary.

Memorizing life-and-death problems may work... if you have a good memory. Some people are naturally able to reproduce a local position on a board after seeing it, but I am unable to do that. Maybe practice could help, I didn't really try hard.

jlt wrote:Memorizing life-and-death problems may work... if you have a good memory. Some people are naturally able to reproduce a local position on a board after seeing it, but I am unable to do that. Maybe practice could help, I didn't really try hard.

I imagine for a professional or aspiring professional the time and effort (and motivation) available to dedicate to the task may make it efficient whereas the methods may be dubious for amateurs who can dedicate less time every day. Mostly, it's a hobby, finding ways of studying you enjoy is probably the most important thing. I'm unsure there's much merit in someone forcing themselves to never look at answers or forcing themselves to memorise problems if they dislike doing these and end up being less inclined to study life and death. The situation is different if you're trying to get good enough to make a living out of it. Similar to language learning where if you're not on some deadline to reach a particular level how you study vocabulary and grammar doesn't need to be about efficiency as much as being something that works which you can maintain long term.


Personally, I think people should just mix it up a bit. Memorise simple (for them) problems, solve easier problems purely through visualing the position with no diagram or board to help, attempt hard problems with the goal of reading deeply for 10-15 minutes rather than finding the solution quickly and so on. The greatest enemy here is probably people repeating the same practice methods over and over, it's an easy way to miss out on some low hanging fruit alternative study methods might catch.

This is my reply to OP.
First is whether you should improve. Cho Chikun 9p once suggested that when you reach shodan (Japan. probably 4k-5k in US/Europe) to stop there, cause you can easily find players at around your strength, thus making your go life enjoyable.

Say you reject his advice. Next, my teacher says that to make a stride in improvement, you need to change your way of thinking. If you play close to thickness (either yours or your opponent's), you will not improve much by studying tesuji, joseki etc, as long as you continue playing close to thickness, he says. He also says that changing how you think is a multiplication where studying tesuji etc is an addition, to your strength.
Also, he adds that when you change your way of thinking, you will start losing your games, because your skills have not adapted to it, and it will be some time, like 6 months or maybe a year, before your stride culminates in a win.

If you only see a point in playing if you're improving, then while I'm wary of such a viewpoint I think to be consistent with that philosophy, stop playing any games doing any sort of studies except life&death and endgame puzzles, since these also fall in the category merely of puzzle solving. In fact, perhaps you could try sharing life&death tsumego and endgame tsumego with others who like solving puzzles, but don't tell them it from a board game initially. Just explain the rules of capture and territory as if it's only for these puzzles. Then have having smart people who like puzzles who don't play the game solve tsumego you find difficult with you is probably the surest way for you to see the game in a new way that would help you improve if lack of improvement makes someone like you not want to play actuall games!