All Things Go Podcast

Building a Sustainable Relationship with Go

[00:21] Travis: So at this point you’ve learned the basics, you’ve started playing games, and hopefully you’re beginning to get a little more comfortable with the fact that you’re not going to understand everything right away.

[00:31] Travis: But there is another question that I think becomes important. If Go starts to become a real part of your life,

[00:37] Travis: how do you build a relationship with Go that you can sustain over the long term?

[00:42] Travis: Over time, you’re going to have to figure out how you want to learn who you want to play and learn with what you’re actually trying to accomplish,

[00:51] Travis: and how to deal with the periods when it feels like you’re not improving at all, or when your interest starts to fade.

[00:57] Travis: And ultimately, I think the goal is to find a way of engaging with Go that continues to be enjoyable and meaningful to you.

[01:04] Travis: So let’s talk about what that can look like.

1. Find Good Feedback and a Teacher

[01:07] Travis: The first thing I would suggest, and I can’t emphasize this enough,

[01:11] Travis: is finding people who can help point out patterns in your mistakes or areas for improvement, and if possible,

[01:18] Travis: finding a teacher.

[01:20] Travis: Having someone stronger than you look at your games and help you understand what you’re missing is incredibly valuable.

[01:26] Travis: It can speed up your improvement compared with learning entirely through trial and error, whether that’s just playing games or solving Go problems on your own.

[01:35] Travis: Of course, if financial resources are a challenge,

[01:38] Travis: you can always go online and reach out through various channels to get advice from various stronger players and see what they think.

[01:46] Travis: I do think that there is value though, if your finances allow you to have one main teacher that can actually track your games and your abilities over time so that they can identify what your weaknesses are and systematically address them.

[02:01] Travis: On the other hand, maintaining only one teacher or only using one person’s view in perpetuity can also eventually lead to a lack of multiple perspectives.

[02:14] Travis: Go is very much a game where different ways of thinking and approaching the same situation can benefit you and one might click in your head more than the others.

[02:24] Travis: When you get feedback from another player,

[02:27] Travis: pay attention to their relative rank.

[02:29] Travis: Not every opinion carries the same weight and stronger players may see things that weaker players do not.

[02:35] Travis: If it’s a very self aware player, they’re going to tell you pretty quickly whether they have any idea why something is a good or bad move.

[02:43] Travis: You might even notice that when you show the same game to two different stronger players, but one is significantly stronger,

[02:50] Travis: different things will be noticed.

[02:52] Travis: This likely would even happen if two players of the same stronger rank. So you always have to take everything with a grain of salt and try to look holistically at the different pieces of advice to understand what you think is really useful for you.

[03:07] Travis: And always remember, when you find other people to give you guidance that are stronger than you,

[03:13] Travis: remember that being a really good player and being a good teacher of those things are very different.

[03:19] Travis: So in some senses I would almost prefer you work with somebody that is better at articulating why something is good and bad than just going with somebody that’s a really strong player.

[03:29] Travis: But they’re not so clear at explaining things.

[03:33] Travis: As I mentioned before,

[03:35] Travis: a lot of times finding a Go teacher comes down to finances and what the particular situations of your life are. So cost is important.

[03:44] Travis: The amount of time you have,

[03:45] Travis: personality fit and teaching style are also really important.

[03:49] Travis: And just how often you realistically can meet, whether that’s weekly,

[03:53] Travis: once every two weeks, or something different.

2. Stay Connected to Other Players

[03:57] Travis: The second thing I would suggest is finding ways to stay connected with others in the Go community.

[04:02] Travis: And when I say community, I don’t necessarily mean the traditional idea of joining a club or being part of some large group.

[04:10] Travis: It can certainly be those things,

[04:12] Travis: but it can also be much smaller or different than that.

[04:16] Travis: It might just mean talking with other Go players on an online forum,

[04:20] Travis: or getting to know people through an online Go server,

[04:23] Travis: joining a Discord community,

[04:25] Travis: or having one or two people you regularly talk to via chat or over a cup of coffee.

[04:31] Travis: The point is simply to have some connection to other people who share your interest and go.

[04:37] Travis: I think that can make the game much easier to stay engaged with over time,

[04:41] Travis: especially during those periods when you aren’t playing as much or aren’t feeling quite as connected to the game.

[04:46] Travis: A buddy system can be a really helpful way to do this.

[04:49] Travis: Just like how I see other people or myself go to the gym with somebody to keep them accountable.

[04:55] Travis: Just having somebody else that you check in with regularly. It doesn’t even need to be something formal. That can really help.

[05:01] Travis: I’ve also found that over time just recognizing some of the same names on a certain online Go server or on a online forum,

[05:08] Travis: that I just start connecting with them and sending them a message to see how they are. That can be enough.

[05:14] Travis: Of course, don’t discount your local Go meetups or Go clubs. That’s a great way to get face to face playtime.

[05:22] Travis: Meet people and players of different strengths and backgrounds and just have a nice time.

[05:28] Travis: Tournaments and larger Go events like Go Congresses could be another level of community that you could access if that’s something that interests you.

[05:36] Travis: But just keep in mind that’s not necessary.

[05:38] Travis: From my personal journey, I’ve been involved in the game to some degree since around the pandemic, but it was only recently that I actually attended my first large Go event, which was the U.S. Go Congress.

[05:49] Travis: You also might find that you have a regular opponent that you play in a certain context or almost like a study partner, and that can really help.

[05:57] Travis: And just knowing that you’re going to play or talk with someone every so often is also helpful to keep you just engaged and from falling away from the game.

[06:08] Travis: I’ve also found that the people that I meet in the Go world don’t always serve the same purpose in terms of how I interact with them.

[06:16] Travis: One person might be more for studying with and talking about game review and moves, while somebody else I’m just talking about other aspects of Go, or about how to be a parent and also play Go,

[06:29] Travis: or about improving.

[06:31] Travis: And then still others I’m talking about different things. So there can be different purposes for different people you connect with.

[06:37] Travis: Of course, at the end of the day, if you’re falling out of the game,

[06:40] Travis: if you just introspect for a minute and say, okay, why am I falling out of the game? Is it because my life has gotten really busy or other things have taken priority?

[06:48] Travis: It is what it is, right? That can’t be helped.

[06:50] Travis: But if you find that it’s for other reasons, things like feeling stressed out or you’re feeling overly anxious playing the game, or you’re too focused on losing, or you’re too focused on not improving,

[07:02] Travis: it’s a really good idea to step back and use these different ways to stay involved with Go and the Go community,

[07:11] Travis: where it doesn’t just involve literally playing the game.

3. Decide What You Want from Go

[07:16] Travis: The third thing I would suggest is being honest with yourself about what you actually want from Go and how much time and energy you want to give to it.

[07:25] Travis: Maybe you simply want to improve and reach a certain rank.

[07:28] Travis: Maybe you care a lot about winning and want to win as often as possible.

[07:32] Travis: There’s nothing wrong with that.

[07:34] Travis: Maybe you mostly want to play because you enjoy the game and the people around it.

[07:39] Travis: There are very much trade offs between how quickly you want to improve,

[07:42] Travis: how much time you have at your fingertips, and how much work you actually want to put into the game.

[07:48] Travis: If improving as quickly as possible is really important to you,

[07:52] Travis: that might mean just playing a lot more games,

[07:54] Travis: doing a lot more reviews of those games, studying more, and having more deliberate practice.

[07:59] Travis: And there’s nothing wrong with deciding that you don’t want to organize your life around achieving a higher rank either.

[08:05] Travis: You might have a period where you’re very focused on improvement, and another period where you mostly want to play casually and just be doing it for the sake of it.

[08:13] Travis: Winning, improving and enjoying yourself are not always perfectly aligned. So working hard on your game can sometimes make playing feel more stressful.

[08:22] Travis: And playing mainly for enjoyment may mean accepting slower improvement.

4. Expect Plateaus

[08:28] Travis: The fourth thing I would say is to expect plateaus.

[08:32] Travis: You might reach a certain rank and stay there for months or even longer.

[08:35] Travis: And when that happens, it can be easy to assume that you’re no longer getting better at the game.

[08:40] Travis: But your rank doesn’t always tell the whole story.

[08:43] Travis: You can be improving in ways that you don’t immediately see in your rank, where they don’t show up.

[08:49] Travis: Maybe you’re reading positions more deeply or making fewer major mistakes,

[08:53] Travis: or you’re understanding more of what is happening on the board, but it’s just simply not showing up yet in your rank.

[09:00] Travis: Rank is also a relative thing,

[09:03] Travis: and if the players around you are improving too,

[09:06] Travis: you can get stronger without necessarily moving up in rank if everybody else is also getting strong. So keep that in mind.

[09:15] Travis: Sometimes improvement can also just come in bursts, right? It might not come in a nice, smooth, steady line over time,

[09:22] Travis: and I don’t think we love to talk about this, but there may just be some natural limits to how strong any of us will ultimately become.

[09:30] Travis: How much time you have at your fingertips, what age you are, when you started, or where you’re currently at,

[09:36] Travis: all those things are going to play into whether there’s a ceiling for you.

[09:42] Travis: And if rank is extremely important to you. A plateau could be really frustrating. And that can be a good time to work with a teacher to identify specific weaknesses or patterns in your game,

[09:52] Travis: or even go to a different person,

[09:55] Travis: mix it up,

[09:56] Travis: try to set a few concrete goals.

[09:58] Travis: Having a structured plan could give you a much better chance of breaking through that plateau.

[10:03] Travis: But again, it’s never a guarantee. So you’re gonna have to be patient.

[10:08] Travis: I know for me personally,

[10:10] Travis: I have relatively smaller amounts of time that I can dedicate every week to playing games.

[10:16] Travis: And so I really focus on the journey of playing the games and enjoying it, not trying to get too stressed about it.

[10:24] Travis: And then I really savor reviewing that game with a teacher live where we can talk about what’s happening,

[10:31] Travis: what themes am I not sticking to, and what themes am I improving at?

[10:36] Travis: That has really worked out well for me. And it’s also meant that I need to just care less about rank improvement. It’s something that I’ve not moved steadily up over three or four years,

[10:48] Travis: and I’m okay with that. So it’s different for everybody.

5. Appreciate More Than Rank and Results

[10:52] Travis: The fifth and final thing I would say is that the longer Go remains a part of your life,

[10:58] Travis: the more there is to appreciate about the game beyond simply playing.

[11:02] Travis: Some of that can be hard to see when you’re starting out, but it reveals itself over time as you play more, learn more, meet other players,

[11:09] Travis: and simply have more experiences in and around the game.

[11:13] Travis: And your relationship with Go won’t look the same all the time.

[11:16] Travis: You may go through periods where you’re playing constantly and other periods where you’re barely playing at all.

[11:21] Travis: You might even step away for a while and come back to it later.

[11:24] Travis: That’s all part of having Go in your life over the long term,

[11:28] Travis: as you understand more about the game, there can be a beautiful move,

[11:32] Travis: an unusual position,

[11:34] Travis: or a famous game that can become interesting in a completely different way once you understand more of what is happening.

[11:40] Travis: I often find, for me personally, that it’s in moments where I’m reviewing a game with my teacher,

[11:45] Travis: I often find that it’s where I’m reviewing a game with my teacher, and there’s a moment and there’s just a fundamental misunderstanding about what’s happening, or there’s a new way of thinking about a particular situation, and it feels like everything clicks all of a sudden and there’s this aha moment,

[12:01] Travis: and it feels so cool and it feels so great, and I try to jot it down so that I can remember it for later. So these are just the really wonderful ways that things can come up.

Closing the Beginner Series

[12:13] Travis: If you are new to Go, I hope this series gives you enough to understand why so many people become fascinated by this game,

[12:20] Travis: how to begin playing it, and maybe a little reassurance that feeling confused along the way is completely normal.

[12:27] Travis: But ultimately, there’s only so much I can tell you about the game.

[12:31] Travis: At some point, you have to put some stones on a board and start experiencing the game for yourself.

[12:36] Travis: You don’t need to know where it’s going to take you. You don’t need to know how strong you want to become.

[12:41] Travis: Just start playing. Give it time and see how things unfold.