I watch more games as I play. I always watch strong players games, if I watch others then I will have to help them and that’s not always the thing expected.
I feel I am stronger, 2-3 levels maybe more sometimes when I watch as when I play. I admire the very strong players moves when they take decisions backed up by much deeper reading as what I can do, because I should restrain myself to play these kind of moves if I can’t check if they work or not. I enjoy each time they play a better move as my guess, and I enjoy the very few time I don’t agree too, especially if I can kill a group
4 Likes
I just watched a Cho Chikun’s game on YT channel “Sunday go lessons”. It takes 1,5 hrs snd has commentary that help understanding what’s going on.
And you can see faces during the game!
I don’t always watch pro games, but when I do… that’s how I do it.
4 Likes
Lately in English chat, we’ve been developing more of a kibitz (or “live review”) culture.
If you want to kibitz a game, here’s what I recommend:
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Turn on your game filters. You want 19x19 only, opening (pehaps midgame as well), no bots.
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Avoid blitz. More informational than the stated time control is the speed of play in the thumbnail. A game that’s too fast will have trouble sustaining discussion.
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Generally avoid relatively weak players. It’s fine to kibitz these games now and again, but by and large I think it’s best to pick SDK or dan players, or at least the higher (eg. 12k up) DDK ranks. If the players don’t have basic tactical understanding then their games can be boring.
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Link the game in the English chat, making sure to state the rank range of the players, and ask whether anyone would like to kibitz.
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With luck, about three – five people will join the spectator chat and you can discuss the game.
8 Likes
The utter chaos and unpredictability make DDK games hard to watch for me sometimes - I just cant take the stress of these rollercoasters: You never know whats gonna happen next, dead groups come back to life to crush into crumbling walls which turn into nets which become ladders which mysteriously fail only to be played as flower kos for which a game changing threat remains unanswered for a small endgame hane at move 90, all the while NOBODY PLAYS AT THE FRIGGIN’ VITAL POINT - gsus, I’m in sweats just by remembering what I’ve seen in these games.
10 Likes
That’s nearly exactly how katago recently commented on one of my games! 
6 Likes
I’m pretty sure a strong player would feel the same commenting on some of my games 
3 Likes
I actually think that creating a kibitzing culture when building a player base is borderline just as important as building a “playing” player base.
Especially in western servers where people prefer to talk about the game rather then actually playing (no insult intended) but we do seem to love watching and talking more then playing on this part of the earth.
But, also even in the asian servers when watching high ranking matches there players also conversate a lot (just obviously in different languages of course they also play like 10-15 games a day as well).
So I think its a healthy atmosphere when you are inviting players to kibitz and talk about games.
8 Likes