American Go E-Journal

“Study life and death problems.” We’ve all heard that advice on how to get stronger at go, but it turns out that there’s a missing word that’s key to improving. The word is easy. Literally. Michael Redmond 9P revealed the missing word during one of his KGS audio commentaries on SAWMG games last weekend: “Study easy life and death problems.” Hard problems, “especially really complicated ones,” tend to be discouraging, “and they rarely come up in actual games,” Redmond said. Studying easy problems — “at least 15 minutes a day” — trains your eye to quickly see shapes and patterns and solving problems provides positive reinforcement that makes studying more likely, he adds. And since everyone’s definition of “easy” will necessarily be different, look for problems you can solve in two minutes or less.
– Chris Garlock