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[2]The psychology of actual play, playing with a robot
The psychology of actual play
1. Play a lot.
· Playing a lot is the shortcut to improvement.
·'1,000 games to become 1-dan': this saying emphasizes the importance of playing a lot. |
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2. Think while you are playing
· Playing a lot is important, but try to think while you are playing.
· If you think before you play a move, when you go wrong you'll understand the reason why, so you'll learn from every game you play. |
3. Review your games after you play them
· Don't just go on to another game immediately. When a game hasn't gone right for you and even when you have won, get into the habit of reviewing your games.
· Thinking carefully about your game is good, but it's also useful to consult your opponent when you review a game. Of course, during the game, you must remain silent and play by yourself, but after the game reviewing together the queries you and your opponent have is a good way to study.
· Professionals always review their games after finishing: they study together. This method can help you resolve the queries you had during the game. |
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4. Read books
· Playing actual games is the shortcut to improvement, but, viewed over the long term, reading and studying Go books to increase your knowledge will also help you a lot. You can also get various kinds of information about Go through your computer.
· Storing up experience through actual play and knowledge through books will become the two wings guaranteeing your progress. |
5. Increase the number of your friends
· Different opponents will play in different ways. This is very beneficial.
· Playing various kinds of games with different types of players will raise the value of your experience.
· The more people you play actual games with, the wider will be the range of your Go, so make a positive effort to increase your Go friends. |
6. Value your opponents
· At the beginning, finding opponents may be difficult. If you find someone who knows Go, apply for a game without being timid.
· The more opponents you have, the more this will help your progress, so you should value your Go opponents. Winning or losing is not everything. Observe good manners and be pleasant so that you both enjoy your time together. |
7. Proceed at your own pace
· Go is different from school study. There's no deadline for when you have to learn a certain lesson. There's no set criterion for how much stronger you should be a year later.
· Some people will have a lot of leisure and some people will be busy. You should study at your own pace, making effective use of your leisure time. If you try too hard, you won't keep it up, so you should enjoy Go patiently, at your own pace. |
8. Go is concentration
· The more time you spend on Go, the more quickly you should improve, but your speed of progress will depend on the attitude with which you approach Go.
· When playing, try to concentrate on your next move and think before you play. If you think carefully before you play a move, this will help you remember your reasons for playing the move in the game review. You'll be able to work out the reasons for your mistakes and improve your play in the future. |
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9. Have contact with Go for a set period
· The most effective way to make progress is to concentrate hard for a short period rather than play for a long time without thinking hard. This applies to everything, but rather than spending an hour a month for twelve months, making a total of 12 hours in a year, it's better to study an hour a day for ten days.
· It's also important to concentrate on your games, but it's effective to concentrate for a set period. Playing ten days in a row may be unreasonable, but let's study without spending too much time on it. If you play three games every weekend, you will make a lot of progress in three months. |
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10. The knack of enjoying Go for a long time
· Being unreasonable in anything is bad. Even if you become fond of Go, you might have to give it up for a while for various reasons. At such times, don't be unreasonable. In due course, you'll get chances to enjoy Go again.
· Sometimes you get beaten so badly by a really strong opponent that you feel you never want to play Go again. On these occasions, just forget about Go for a while: take a holiday from the game. Before too long, you'll want to play Go again. The attraction of Go is profound. The knack of enjoying Go for a long time is to do things at your own pace, without overdoing it. |
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Robot games
· Since you already know enjoy to play, please ask any Go players you know for a game. If you say, 'I've just learnt Go. Please teach me,' Go lovers will be happy to help you,
· If, however, you can't find anyone to play with, you can play with software programs. We call them robot games; the programs will be strong opponents for beginners. We recommend starting with 9x9 games.
· As you make progress, you will probably surpass the robot, but then you play with Internet opponents. You'll find many opponents of the right level for you and you can play any time you feel like it. The good thing about Net games is that you can play more lightheartedly than when playing face-to-face. |
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