How does a player choose his style? I mean, is it voluntary or does it happen naturally?
Sometimes, when reading go books, I read something like: "He used to be a territory based player, but recently, he has changed his style." Why did he do that? I must ask.
Recently, though, I found my own style changing. I did not decide to change it, it came as the time passed. Looking back, my style has always been changing, as my personality developped. Of course, our personality influences our style, as does our way of thinking, as I have noted in "Go confessions".
Is it possible for style to change our personality? Not many people think about it. When you decide to change your style yourself, have you ever noticed that as the time goes, it becomes your nature to play like your new style? The changes usually settle and it is not too different from the old style of yours, because it would need you to change your personality drastically
I feel this is one of the most beautiful aspects of playing go. One wise man once said: "Tell me what you read, and I will tell you who you are." That, too, is true. I would, however, change this a bit: "Play a game of go with me, and we can become good friends." Often when playing and noticing your opponent's moves, you can realise, that you learn about him more than if you would be talking for hours.
Eridor
eridor@seznam.cz
2011-08-26 07:26:34
Good to know - I will fix it. In Firefox I can enlarge it by dragging. Maybe making it bigger at once would be nice too. Thanks!
CardiffGo
neil.moffatt@ntlworld.com
2011-08-24 15:20:37
This is a lovely article. It is great reflection on matters that are often confused - cause and effect. As I change my own Go style as a consequence of my study of stronger players, I feel differently about the way I play, and this of course feeds back to how I feel about myself, which then in turn affects my Go style. Bye the way, better to have a bigger comment box - it is a bit cramped in 3 lines as it stands.