Which pro game to memorise first?!

When I decided myself which game to chose, I rejected those unbalanced games having a quick end.

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Sadly no. But i do have go dojo now and hope using that some day might help. Maybe over Christmas.

This is a great idea. I’ve even read this book but didn’t think about going that step further.

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ps.waltheri.net is extremely useful. Thanks for the information!

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Fun anecdote of someone who got stronger from Go Seigen’s games. What can we learn from Go Seigen (1914 - 30th Nov 2014) ? • Life In 19x19

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More details on this:

https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?p=262806#p262806

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I guess the advice from the novel First Kyu has some merit. Just studying Go Seigen games even when you don’t understand the commentary. In the novel’s case because the commentary was in Japanese and the Korean protagonist doesn’t understand it.

After all, the author was a strong player himself. 1 gup/kyu when amateur dan system was not there yet.

John Fairbairn’s post also reminds me about the claim that your strength is related to how fast you can replay games from a kifu. Perhaps because when you can identify the big/urgent place, you can find the next move more easily.

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I would recommend some Lee Changho games from the late 90s to early 2000s. Vs Cho Hunhyun particularly.

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Which pro game to memorise first?

Well in case I would try to memorise a pro game I would pick a game that is fascinating and one that is fun to replay several times.

To be honest I don’t fancy learning a pro game by heart. See it as a waste of time for a 5 kyu (my current ranking).

Furthermore the use of the word first suggests that there should also be a second, third, fourth, etc. :grin:

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It’s not a waste for a 25k

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Again, I come back to Kerwin’s advice.

Kerwin on improving from 20+ kyu to 10k (excerpt):

… studying pro games. Go through the game once. Then try to replay the game from memory. When you can’t remember the move, think of where you would play. Once you’ve decided, check the move actually played and compare it with your move. Try to understand why the pro’s move is better than yours. Keep doing this until you remember the game.

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Memorizing (at least the first 100-150 moves) of a game helps a lot to understand commentaries. So I’d say, memorize any game you would like to study in a commentary book or video. But don’t expect to gain 5 stones like that.

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I’m not sure who to study any more. I’ve spent time looking over the games of many different players.

I like professionals who play thickly, clearly, yet with imagination, how I try to play in my own games.

Yoda Norimoto was a player I was recently considering looking into, since I was attracted by a comment made by Hane Yasumasa:

Yoda dislikes being attacked the most of all professionals. The word “flee” is not in his dictionary. Instead, there are entries only for “live” and “sacrifice”.

This reminded me of a section of Jowa’s advice for students of Go:

… going too deep into the opponent’s territory, running groups away … these things are bad. … running groups away will make you cowardly. … if you have invaded too deeply, you must sacrifice your stones … Sacrificing stones is the sharpest way to play.

After compiling those games of 1976, I don’t have any huge urge to study them… I’d need to pick one of the players, tournaments or matches to focus on.

Here is an old game that I am interested in:

I think this is potentially a useful game to memorize as it gives some interesting opening ideas for 1-stone handicap (no Komi) games (or actually for even games too since we are amateurs) and some old-style peaceful territorial ideas to mess with opponents who are addicted to hypermodern post-AI style (aggressive, influence based, early 3-3 invasion, etc)

When I finally get around to completing my home-made goban, I think this is the first game I will play on it with my lovely glass stones in wooden bowls :sunglasses:

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Strongly disagree.
How the stones work together can be appreciated at different levels, starting very low (a beginner) to very high (a weaker pro). Even if a 5k will maybe follow 5% of what is in the game, that’s still an amazing treasure to understand how to play in good style.

Should? Why? One can be enough (and why not afterall if you want more after the first )

Think about all those people who married for life with their first encounter.

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