How to read, and how to make it stick.
Man, reading is interesting for me now. Often, I found myself reading about 20-30 moves deep for many different situations, but however...when I'm done reading, I found myself unable to remember what is the best line, and what is the right candidate for what I'm reading.
From what I can see, easiest part is reading. Hardest part is convincing yourself which line is best, and which line is safest.
How to improve on this? I don't see much choices, except push myself to keep reading, and improve my discipline on picking out what I want to play. It is quite something to be able to read this far. But frighteningly enough, sometimes, far isn't enough.
I'll quote Lee Changho's answer to question about reading...
"A: Usually professional players, including me, read around 100 moves ahead. But that's not the case for every move. First select 10 candidate moves and then read ahead for each of them. After reading ahead 20 to 30 moves for a candidate move, one could reach a tentative conclusion like "this is a bad shape" or simply "this is not it." At that point, I stop any further reading for that candidate move and look for another. This is a process of elimination that ususally leaves one or two candidate moves. For each of these final candidate moves, I read ahead about 100 moves. This might surprise amateur players, but the more difficult thing is not reading ahead 100 moves, but deciding which of the final cadidate moves gives a better result. .... The most painful moment is when I realize that I am on the wrong way a few move after my original decision. That gives me an agony beyond description. People call me "Stone Buddha" for my lack of facial expression during games. But you will notice some changes in my face when I am in a bad situation. You have to look at my face carefully..."
What I can read...is only a fraction of what he can read, not to speak of professional players.
And furthermore...to be able to do that much reading with that much confidence...is unimaginable. Reading is probably an important tool in go, since there are many situations where you will have to keep reading out again and again until you know the shape. More one push reading, one can evolve the skills further and further. There are zillions of different shapes in a game, and who knows what would happen, so it's up to one to read, read, read until they understand the shape, and know exactly how to deal.
After all, go is about pattern recongitation. If you know the shape, you can read past it easily, but if you don't know the shape, you can get stuck with millions of variations that it can present.
It takes a lot of time...
and practice.
Confidence is key to reading. Keep that in mind.
From what I can see, easiest part is reading. Hardest part is convincing yourself which line is best, and which line is safest.
How to improve on this? I don't see much choices, except push myself to keep reading, and improve my discipline on picking out what I want to play. It is quite something to be able to read this far. But frighteningly enough, sometimes, far isn't enough.
I'll quote Lee Changho's answer to question about reading...
"A: Usually professional players, including me, read around 100 moves ahead. But that's not the case for every move. First select 10 candidate moves and then read ahead for each of them. After reading ahead 20 to 30 moves for a candidate move, one could reach a tentative conclusion like "this is a bad shape" or simply "this is not it." At that point, I stop any further reading for that candidate move and look for another. This is a process of elimination that ususally leaves one or two candidate moves. For each of these final candidate moves, I read ahead about 100 moves. This might surprise amateur players, but the more difficult thing is not reading ahead 100 moves, but deciding which of the final cadidate moves gives a better result. .... The most painful moment is when I realize that I am on the wrong way a few move after my original decision. That gives me an agony beyond description. People call me "Stone Buddha" for my lack of facial expression during games. But you will notice some changes in my face when I am in a bad situation. You have to look at my face carefully..."
What I can read...is only a fraction of what he can read, not to speak of professional players.
And furthermore...to be able to do that much reading with that much confidence...is unimaginable. Reading is probably an important tool in go, since there are many situations where you will have to keep reading out again and again until you know the shape. More one push reading, one can evolve the skills further and further. There are zillions of different shapes in a game, and who knows what would happen, so it's up to one to read, read, read until they understand the shape, and know exactly how to deal.
After all, go is about pattern recongitation. If you know the shape, you can read past it easily, but if you don't know the shape, you can get stuck with millions of variations that it can present.
It takes a lot of time...
and practice.
Confidence is key to reading. Keep that in mind.
posted by Flame at 5:46 PM
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