Usually the fastest way for making the biggest progress in Go is focusing simply on three things:
- Solving problems
- Playing games
- Analysing your own games with the help of a teacher
Why those things?
The game of Go might have many adjectives. Some people might call it e.g. a strategical game, a game of negotiations, a game of efficiency, or a business game.
All of the adjectives above are the key values that so many entrepreneurs and businessmen are trying to learn by playing the game of Go.
How to learn strategical thinking in Go?
It’s hard to win a war without understanding how to win a battle.
It’s hard to choose a good strategy in a certain global position in Go without being able to foresee a few moves ahead in small local situations.
Here is why solving problems is important. They help you improve your ability to foresee the next moves in small local situations.
By solving problems you develop your so-called ‘reading skills’ (the skills of foreseeing the next moves). And because of developing them it will be faster for you to understand everything else in Go.
Are you already solving Go problems?
If yes – great. Now there is the time for you to move to the second step on the way to learning the strategical thinking.
There is a saying that normal people learn from their own mistakes, but clever people learn from the mistakes of other people.
If making a mistake is very costly, this saying makes a lot of sense. However, if making a mistake isn’t very costly, this saying is simply wrong.
You can learn something new by analyzing other people’s games. However, what do you lose if you lose a Go game during your training?
Most likely your home will not be burnt and your plane will not fall in such a case. That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes.
Moreover, it’s very good to make mistakes, because thanks to them it will be possible for you to improve much faster than if you didn’t make any of them.
That’s the reason why it’s good if you expose yourself to making mistakes by playing Go.
Of course during the match try to play your best and try to make as few mistakes as possible, but don’t be afraid that you will make mistakes, everybody makes them.
The biggest mistake you can make is avoiding playing because of being afraid of making mistakes.
Are you already solving problems and playing Go?
If yes – awesome. Now you are ready to start learning real strategical thinking.
Coming into some conclusions (about what went wrong and what should be played better) by analyzing your games on your own is useful.
However, if you could also learn the reasons why your certain ideas were wrong and why some other ideas would be better, it would have been even more useful, because whenever in the future you find such reasons, your strategical adjustment will also be different.
That’s the reason why it’s good to have your games analyzed by Go teachers.
How to find appropriate Go teachers for you?
This is very similar to anything else that can be taught: teaching is very subjective.
Do you understand the teacher’s explanations well? Are you interested and engaged in the lesson?
If yes – this might be a suitable teacher for you.
In regards to the level difference between the student and the teacher – the teacher should be stronger than the student, but the teacher doesn’t need to be much stronger (e.g. for a 5 kyu player it shouldn’t make a big difference if a teacher is 1 dan or 7 dan). On the other hand – when you start to outplay your teacher often, it might be the time to switch to another teacher.
How many Go teachers should you have?
It’s nearly inevitable to switch your teachers from time to time and nearly impossible to keep having only one teacher throughout your entire Go career.
Did the lessons with a teacher start to become boring recently? – Maybe it’s time for a switch to a different teacher.
Another thing is that every Go teacher has their own style of teaching and their own style of playing.
Is the teacher one style oriented? – Maybe it’s good to keep having lessons with this teacher, but also taking some classes with some other teachers, who usually play with a different style.
As long as the teacher is stronger than you (at least in a certain part of the game), you understand the teacher’s explanations well and you are interested and engaged in the lessons, such a teacher might be added to your personal ‘pool of teachers’. There is no set number of teachers that should be in that pool, but you can choose a few that you feel are appropriate teachers for you and you can rotate between them. Another advantage of having a pool of teachers is the possibility of taking a lesson with somebody else if one (or more) of the teachers is unavailable at your preferred time.
The most important use of a Go teacher are the explanations of your mistakes played in your own games. And many teachers should be able to explain them well to you. There is really no need to stick all the time with one teacher.
What is a style in Go?
Style in Go is a tendency to choose a certain way of playing more often than necessary. In other words – style in Go can be considered as a weakness of the player.
The top players in the world play very flexibly, as they adjust their style to the stones that have already been played – sometimes it might be better to focus more on taking territory, sometimes on taking influence, sometimes on fighting. If a player always chooses one way, regardless of the stones that are already visible on the board, the result will certainly be sometimes bad for them.
Are you already solving problems, playing Go and analyzing your own games with teachers?
If yes – you are on a good way to become a dan player. However, there is one more thing needed: implementation of new things learned.
If your teacher told you something new e.g. that playing close to a strong group is bad for you, or making the opponent’s shape inefficient is good for you – whenever you see an option to play something your teacher told you, play that way.
If the result will be better for you – it means that you learned something that lets you play better.
If the result will be worse for you – show that game to the teacher who told you about playing that way and ask them how it’s possible that the result is worse for you. There can be some other reason why it went bad, e.g. the teacher told you that connection by playing ‘a bamboo joint’ is more efficient than a regular connection, but maybe in your game your both groups were already alive and you didn’t need to connect at all or maybe your groups were in a capturing race and they needed more liberties, which the regular connection could give you but the ‘bamboo joint’ didn’t give you?
This way you will be able to learn not only the certain strategy or pattern that the teacher told you about, but also the nuances around it.
If you don’t try to implement the new things that the teacher tells you about, how can you expect to play better if you keep on playing the same way?
Summary
If you wish to become a dan player as fast as possible, focus on solving Go problems, playing Go matches, and analyzing your own matches with a Go teacher. But don’t forget to implement the new things (that the teacher tells you about) in your next matches.