I’m aware that many people have a hard time
remembering a game, and that’s fine. It takes
a lot of time and training to remember your game.
In order to record your game I highly recommend
playing on the internet because a game is automatically
recorded.
It's also a good idea to review your game right
after you play. If you review it, you may not
remember why you played your mistakes.
(By the way, many, many amateur players have told me
that they don't remember their thoughts after they
played a game. So for those people I always give comments
during a game. )
Pros review their game 3, 4, 5 hours or 8 hours
if they have time. Top pros review their games
until they are satisfied.
Amateurs, of course, don't have to review one game
for many hours. And if you review the most important
part just for 15 minutes, that will be wonderful.
Ideally you ask a pro or a Go teacher to give
commentary on your game. It’s because unless
you’re a 5 dan or stronger, you may not find
your own mistakes and proper moves easily.
If you have never asked a pro or a Go teacher
to review your game, I highly recommend it.
You would be surprised by how much you can learn.
I’ve been teaching Go for many, many years.
Usually I teach the same people for a long time...
3 years, 4 years, 5 years, and longer.
Based on my experience some people learn more from your
games than from playing with a pro or a Go teacher.
The reason is that some amateur players play with
peers completely differently from playing a pro
or a Go teacher.
It’s like "Jekyll and Hyde".
They change their Go personality drastically.
I’ve taught people like that. One day I realized
that I should teach them differently.
By the way, I should mention that you don’t have
to review all your games. Even if you get a game
commentary from a pro or a Go teacher once a month,
and if you go over it for a while, that will help
improve your Go.
How much you can improve depends on how much you review.
If you get 100 game commentaries and don’t have time
to review any of the games, then it’s better to get
one game commentary and review it many times.
The important thing is to review continuously.
It takes time to learn.
One of my Go students got my lessons and keeps
reviewing it at least once or twice a year, depending
on how busy he is at work. But every time I meet him,
he has been improving.
In order to become a better Go player, reviewing a
game is essential. Otherwise, you keep making the same
mistakes over and over again.
But I think it’s the same as chess and other mind
sports, and physical sports such as baseball, soccer,
Olympic sports, too. And I bet reviewing is necessary
for business and investment. I don’t think any company
lets workers keep making the same mistakes and lose
money over and over again.
When it comes to Go, even if you don't review your
games, you never lose money. But if your goal is to
become a better Go player, then you should fnd the
more efficient way of improving, and one important
study is reviewing.
If you study very hard, then you can become stronger,
but without a reviewing process, your improvement
would be slower, not efficient.
If you don’t study Go and don’t review, but only play
many games, then you may very well keep making the same
mistakes, which are going to be ingrained in you.
The longer you keep making the same mistakes, the more
they become a habit. When the same mistakes become second
nature, it's going to be very hard to get rid of them.
After that, even if you try to learn basics, it's not at
all easy because your mistakes prevent you from learning basics.
I can tell you this because of my teaching experience.
In Japan I have taught so many amateur players who never
studied basics for 10, 20, or 30 years.
One day they started taking my lessons, but I have always had
a hard time making them stronger because getting rid of
their common amateur mistakes takes 2, 3 or 4 years.
At the same time they also learn basics.
But it’s much faster to learn basics from the very beginning.
Sadly they eventually give up learning basics.
For amateurs I think it’s important to get basics
as soon as possible before you land in common amateur
mistake syndrome.
It takes adults much longer time than children.
So adults have to study basics much longer time than
children if they want to become stronger.
Reviwing is one important way to prevent you
from making the same common mistakes.
The following is an unusual pro case; just FYI.
When Yamashiro Hiroshi(山城宏）challenged
Kobayashi Koichi(小林 光一) Kisei(棋聖)
of the 16th Kisei best-of-seven title match, the
score was 3-3.
They played the last game to determine the winner.
In the final game Yamashiro was winning by half a
point in the endgame. Interestingly during the game
both Yamashiro and Kobayashi thought that the Kisei
title was going to move to Yamashiro about the same time.
But at the very end, Kobayashi found a move to gain
one point and turned around the game. As a result,
Yamashiro not only lost the title, he also
lost the glory and about $600,000.
After his loss, he kept studying the game for almost
3 month in Nihon Kiin.
(Like I said, this is just FYI.)
I’m not encouraging any amateur players to do this.
