The Review Meta-topic: How to review?

[bugcat]

Reviewing pros

I recently reviewed a professional game from a “group thinking” standpoint – when & why were the different groups formed, when & why did they connect, and when & how did they influence each other?

Instructional group thinking in a 1952 Takagawa game

This is a review, as apparent in the pop-out, of the game Takagawa Shukaku 7p (W) – Okubo Ichigen 5p, played in the Oteai in October 1952. Let’s get some context. Takagawa Kaku, or Shukaku as he was at this point known, was born in 1915, At the time of this game he was 37, already old by the standards of modern top professionals (for reference, Lee Sedol retired at about this age). He had been 7p since 1945, would be promoted to 8p in '54, and eventually to 9p in 1960. At this time there were…

Recently I’ve been interested in this kind of review, the “group thinking”, “haengma”, or “narrative” style – in this way of reviewing, one focuses mainly on the directions that the groups are travelling in, whether they are free or enclosed, whether they appear weak or strong, etc.