Reading skill

General Go Discussion
1

Reading is hard,

Multiple variations, memorizing final shapes of each variations, choosing the best.

I wonder how to be better at reading.

I used tsumego, long ladder reading, read shape up book twice.

I created two apps :

But when i have to read, i get lazy.

I need some ways in order to read.

And you ? How do you handle reading ?

2

I would say that one of the skills that complements reading, is knowing when you need to read and when you don’t. This is something that comes with experience. There are plenty of situations on the board when you know the expected outcome of an exchange. Joseki is just one example of that. When you see something unexpected, that is a signal to slow down and carefully read it through.

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3

If you want to get better at reading, don’t use the Analyse Board feature on OGS. It makes you lazy and bad at reading.

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4

You get better at reading by practicing reading. For me, most reading mistakes in a game come from

  • Not reading at all: not checking whether a group is alive, not checking whether two stones can be disconnected, playing a shape move automatically, not checking whether a stone can be captured in a ladder or in a net, playing joseki automatically ignoring the context.
  • Considering only one move
  • Considering only one response from the opponent
  • Chickening out: add an unnecessary defensive move or play a less ambitious but safer move.
  • Stopping one move short. The solution was one move deeper.

Reading under time pressure is hard. For better reading practice,

  • Play games with long time settings, and use your time.
  • When you are in byo-yomi, your reading can’t be as accurate, but do continue to read, and try to read faster (yes that sounds silly but obviously we play worse with 30% brain capacity than with 80% brain capacity).
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5

i never use the analyze board feature :slight_smile: good advice for other with the same issue as mine.

@jlt i see the point, thanks for the advices.

improving by reading more and more, and with time, maybe my brain will stop being lazy !

6

These three are my most common stumbles, in roughly equal quantities. Even though I know it, I still do it. I only recently came across the term ‘reading width’ (as opposed to depth) which I think is what the last two are about.

This…

…got me started on BlackToPlay. I played without an account for ages, eventually created one so that I could get the 100k AI expansion pack (mostly just to give a little back to the devs). I initially hated those AI puzzles with a vengeance but have come to enjoy them more than the ‘classics’.

A few days ago, I passed 50 k solves on Black To Play. (the accuracy stat is misleading because I reset to beginner every morning so get some easy wake-up solves)

50k BTP
50k BTP720×387 30.7 KB