I’ve been practicing my abilities as a dedicated Go player for some time, and I’ve reached a point where I need advice on how to strengthen my approach. I’m quite familiar with the guidelines and the fundamental strategies, yet I feel like my development has stalled.
I usually play against players with comparable skill levels, but I frequently have trouble coming up with good ideas in the middle game. I have trouble weighing the relative merits of various actions and locations, and as a result, I frequently choose poorly and affect the game’s outcome.
Any tips or ideas from more seasoned players or Go enthusiasts who have dealt with comparable difficulties would be highly appreciated. What tactics or methods can I use to improve my performance in the middle game and my decision-making skills? What specific tools, books, or online lessons would you suggest for me to better understand Go’s strategic thinking?
I’m willing to put in the time and effort required to improve my game and am eager to learn new talents. I could truly use your expertise, counsel, and life experiences. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.
I see that you are using a brand new account with no game history here. I guess you’ve mainly been playing elsewhere as you mention that you have some experience?
For advice on how to improve, I think that depends a bit on your current level and what your weaknesses are. I would offer a teaching game, but maybe you are already more advanced than me.
As for general advice, I would recommend playing more games, reviewing your games, seeking teaching from stronger players, and solving tsumego. Specific books would depend on your level.
One thing that I would recommend against is any sort of tsumego collection that you would have to pay for, besides in printed book form. There are some sketchy spammers that try to pass off a scam site that sells tsumego that are misappropriated from other people’s copyrighted work.
Sometimes the scammers are even pose as a person seeking help with a sock puppet in order to prompt their self into providing a recommendation for their scam.
For SDKs, “Attack and Defence” is a classic book for a reason and really helps you think about the middlegame in terms of strength and weakness of groups, rather than territory, which is a key idea to improve.
Besides reading books like “attack and defence” and practicing tsumego or tesuji problems, what helped me climb from low SDK to high SDK ranks were:
Review games with AI. They helped me realize that I didn’t make good decisions (like neglecting influence, neglecting strength of groups, realize that a move which makes a base and steals the opponent’s base is very big, that a move which attacks and defends at the same time is better than a purely defensive move, etc…).
Play games with different time settings. Quick casual games on the internet are OK to gain some experience, but you also need games in which you spend a lot of time reading variations: ideally, real-life tournament games.
Get some games reviewed by stronger players, the best being to find a teacher. AI is very strong but human explanations may be easier to understand.
Replay pro games. A kyu player won’t understand much, but the way professionals play is so different that whatever you understand may be an eye-opener.
That’s for kyu level. If the question was “how to climb the dan ranks” then I don’t know, I’m not there yet.