Study Regimen

Warm Up:

Go is a mental martial art. Just as one would warm up his or her muscles before a karate workout or competition, so should one warm up the mind and sharpen the instincts before serious play or study.

To start, one should warm up with tsumego (Go problems). These warm up problems should be very easy. In fact, you should be able to solve them just by glancing at the problem. If you have to take more than just a few seconds to solve most of them, you should use easier problems for your warm up. Typically, in a 20 minute warm up, you can work 100 problems. For brand new players, even the easiest problems may take longer to work. This is fine. Simply work fewer problems. But do not focus for long periods on any one problem. The idea is to warm up, not strain. If the solution to a problem does not come to you in 15-20 seconds, look at the answer and move on.

Play:

After warming up, play a game or two or three. Play online or across the board from another human, or even against a Go-playing computer program.

There are fast games, moderate games, and then the slow, plodding variety.

Playing moderately fast games is best for gaining strength. If you play online or use a chess/Go clock, try 20 minutes per player with byo-yomi (overtime) periods equalling about 30 seconds per play. The mistakes you make while playing at this speed will show you the fundamentals that you still need work on.

If you play too fast, you will not be able to effectively apply what you have studied. If you play too slow, you will end up "out smarting" yourself and your confusion will lead to frustration.

Try not to worry about winning and losing. While it is true that Go is a game and that we gauge our relative strengths by wins and losses, focusing only on results will make you weaker rather than stronger. Try to focus on the game. Try not to focus on the consequences of the game. Don't let self talk like, "If I lose this game, this guy is going to think I'm a 25 kyu!" or "If I can kill this group and win by 30 points, I'll be the talk of the tournament!", affect your game. Simply focus on playing well. The consequences will take care of themselves. And after the game, there will be time enough for agony and elation.

Try to play 75% of your games as non-rated games. Ratings are helpful to establish a general playing strength and thus help you find opponents of similar strength, but focusing on ratings can lead to rash play. You don't have to shy away from competition, but allow yourself to play regularly in an environment free of additional stress and strain. This will help you focus on the game at hand and less on the consequences of winning and losing. "Argghhh! If I lose this game now, my rating is going to be the pits..."

Don't worry if you are making the absolute best move. Play the best move you know and understand for any given situation. If you play moves that are beyond your understanding because you saw someone else do something similar, you will not know how to follow up and your game will suffer.

Above all, try to relax and enjoy the game, putting your emotions on hold until it is over. There is a lot of beauty manifested in Go as players push and pull at each other and as the positions dance with complexity and subtle trickery. Enjoy it. Curse your silly mistakes all you like after it is over.

Review:

After playing a game, take time with your opponent if possible, or alone to Go over the game. Spend about 15 minutes looking for the key moves of the game. Key moves are those moves of either player that helped the players win or lose the game. They will be obvious. If you do not understand what to do differently in a situation, try variations. Play it out on the board, if you can. Even top professionals do this after games. It is part of enjoying Go!

Obviously, if you are going to replay a game, it helps if you record it. If you play online, most client software will allow you to save a copy of the game in a common format (typically .sgf). If you play live games, you can use a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) like a Palm Pilot or Pocket PC (for links to PDA Go software click here) to record your games. These game files can be then loaded into a game editor on your computer and reviewed. Typically, these programs allow you to add variations. These variations can also be saved in cas you need to ask a stronger player or a teacher about something you don't understand.

As you review your games, you will notice strengths and weaknesses in your play. If you do this regularly, you will notice that you are more aware of your weaknesses when you play next. This will lead to better play over time. If you neglect reviewing your games, you will consign yourself to slower progress and even stagnation, as is witnessed by those online players that are still 23 kyu after playing 1200 games online!

Cool Down:

Before you wind up your Go study, try to work a few harder tsumego problems for about 20 minutes. Pick a level of problems that challenge you and force you to read out a number of moves in advance to solve the problem. Don't spend more than 2-3 minutes on a problem. If you can't solve a problem in that amount of time, move on to the next problem. Some teachers recommend not looking at the answer, but simply skipping it until you work back through the problems the next time. Other teachers/authors recommend looking at the answer. Remember, working Go problems is not a university exam. Tho you may want to guage your strength by rigorously challenging yourself with problems, try working the problems to simply learn. Let your challenges of strength come naturally on the Go board.

Frequency:

If you are fortunate enough to have time to follow this regimen on a daily basis, you will be able to progress more quickly, but as most amateur players have many other responsibilities, time studying Go must be tempered with earning a living and caring for families, etc. But following this regimen even once, twice, or three times a week will yield better results than a regimen of game after unreviewed game.