Better to play or review?

Teaching
1

Hi everyone, I am a returning player that has been off for almost 5 years I guess (even then I only played for about 6-9 months). My time is kind of limited so I was wondering whether it would be better for me to play (and lose a lot) or review. For example would it be better to play 4 games a week with no decent reviews or 2 games a week with reviews? What are your experiences?

Thanks.

2

I think you should review because it helps you see your mistakes and find new answers to problems that you have. But everyone learns differently. I suggest trying both of them and seeing which one seems to help you more. Although if you’re a complete beginner, I would suggest playing more games before you start reviewing.

1 Like
3

Yeah, I don’t review as much as I should, but if you want to improve, I hear that’s the way to go. :slight_smile:

4

set at least 1 game per week to be reviewed. And play more games if you have time.

What kind of games will you be playing correspondence or live games?

I think review is a must if you want improvement post live games as you don’t have enough time to reflect/analyse your play in detail. For correspondence games I feel that you are constantly reviewing your moves. However it does help to review a few games every so often and get someone else to shed light as well.

PS welcome back!

5

Play as much games you can, after finishing a game replay/review it yourself, no matter what is the result.
But when you lose and can’t see why that happened, ask someone stronger than you to review.
That might work out nicely :slight_smile:

2 Likes
6

Thanks for the advice. I have a few correspondence games on the go but also like to play live games when possible. I guess I will try to split my time and review (although I don’t know whether I can catch all the mistakes or strong points).

Thanks again!

7

Thank you. I will try to review - there seem to be lots of helpful people here if I get stuck!

8

I suggest a compromise to use your limited time:

If there is something particularly weird, surprising or annoying during the game, write down the move number immediately on a piece of paper, and afterwards only review these parts of the game.

I also like to turn on the “calculate points function” after the game which marks the territories at the end and then replay the game rapidly, because these allows to see the stones played that are doomed to die and then I try to see at what point of the game they died and why I didn’t do anything about it.

2 Likes
9

Oooh - that’s a very good idea. Thanks!