Influence on playing go (music and so on)

Influence of music at your playing

Well this time i just thought i take some random looking picture and.... Well, playing go while listening to music is something for the new generation go players, that´s what i hear most of the time when I play go. But first of all what one "NEVER" should do while playing at tournaments (for us from the new generation , which cannot play without music): - saying good game and then immediatly start hearing music - have your music on when your opponen arrives, - start entwining your ear cabels while making your opponent wait, - listen to the music at maximum strength to annoy everyone around you, and finally  the tipp tapping hand moving and shacking the body to the music while you. As i said these should never be done. It´s really important to ask first wether it´s okay or not to hear music (normaly they will allow it, but still it´s rude not to ask) (any kind of critism welcome if i left something out =)   ) So that´s it for the etiquette part of this post and now let´s go back to the interesting part of it SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO How does music influence us ? Effectively speaking it can be splitted in emotional affinity, subconscious affinity, logical affinity or  (of course) just a diversion of your mind. and the cool pictures will be more likely easier seen than my text^^ Exkurs: I should say first that as referenec you might like to read about this yourself in the book from Daniel J. Levitin and his work "this is your brain on music" Did you all ever wonder why we like certain music ? Well for that to explain it has to be understood first that the appreciation of music we have is deeply rooted with our ability to learn the underlying structure of the music. That said, it is easier to understand if I say that we can predict what will happen next in the music and it does happen, which gives a feeling of pleasure. Music is composed  in a way that the creator can manipulate our expectations of what is going to happen in the music and therefore is skillfully manipulating us. (well there can be of course suprising effects in music , which make the music itself more interesting, therefore it can be said that as much as needed expectations need to be fullfilled but no more  than that, because if it´s without suprise it get´s boring after some time ) To come back to the 3 sub parts of the effects of music, it can be said that the music needs to balanced between all 3 effects without beiing a diversion of your mind and affecting your game in a bad way. emotional affinity, subconscious affinity, logical affinity : emotional affinity  Music can influence our feelings in a good or bad way. For example while you are depressed and you hear refreshing music, you can instantly cheer up, but the same is for feeling even more depressed or to fired up or going over the goal by a long shot. That´s the emotional affinity which one haves with music. That also means the right music will have a good effect while checking your mind and controlling it to stay calm. Music will be an asset which will be very helpfull for this. It should be said that the music should have repeating effects and and it should vary between flexibel music, fast and slow music. For every situation there should be the right music to choose from. It´s best to not have music with lyrics, which can disrupt you thought process. Subconscious affinity For this part there is an really easy example: make yourself feel like it is your own home. This can be easy achieved, but it is really important. The more you feel like you are at home, the more you are able to relax. This is extremly helpfull, because it helps to make us less nervous and boosts our confidence. It should be used in consideration because if you are to relaxed you might drop your guard in the game :-) The way to achieve it, is to choose music which you hear often at home. logical affinity The most important affinity is the logical affinity. You choose the music depending on your mood. For this you choose songs you really like, which are most likely like I said above in the Exkurs "music which meets our expectations". But sometimes you should use music against your mood as well. I know this seems a bit strange but this can be helpfull too. For example after sometime hearing the same music over and over in my games, I tend to not hear the music anymoew while playing (I don´t think that I am the only one whom this happens to). Then i purposly choose a music to break my mood to help me concentrate more strongly on the game. That effect  is important because if you think over a long time about something or do something like playing go, you get after some time into a kinda routine mode which makes everything try to play the game itself only, but without  goal. Maybe the term playing the moves only but not thinking much anymore is better suited at this point. This state of mind can easily disrupted using music :-) Well this only a small part and this time mostly concentrated on the good parts of music (you need to be carefull of the disadvantages as well) But I am certain to say that music is helpfull while playing for both older and new generations of go players :-) I hope you will like this article and comment much feedback, with regards Yunyuki Kirigaya

Switching modus operandi personalia

If you are unprepared this will happen.... (and your girlfriend watching you fight on the board will get angry :D ) So if you can overcome it ( and hopefully not beeing like this guy above^^) You can fight and win or at least try to grasp victory Getting used to switching

The best way to getting used to it would be playing tournaments on a regular basis. Well, of course the hobby players like the most of us (myself as well) have not   the time to play many tournaments (I myself am able to play 5-7 tournaments per year), but there are many other ways to play serious games, which i want to introduce today. I guess the most player like me love kgs (kiseido go server) and use it for playing go. There are rooms which have leagues and so on. For german player there is what´s called Bundesliga games which one can participate. There is the ASR = Advanced Study Room, where you can play in leagues for prices as well (all the time around the year) and yunguseng from inseong, which costs money but has really good services. Of course you can try to play ranked games there too with a serious mindset, but still if there is a price as reward for playing, then it will rise your motivation more than leveling your rank =) There is for sure many more tournaments (like iron tournament or what it is called from kgs plus), so it´s worth looking into it and trying it out. It will definitly help you to getting used to switching between work mode and battle mode for tournaments As the saying goes: the more you battle, the better you get. Humas are live forms which have high adapting attitude :-)

Instinct and Reason Part 2

Ways on how to use it The power of memory

Baduk is a game where one needs strong mentality, that´s generaly for sports like Tennis as well a building point. Especially the more mental pressure in a game, the more you need to remain calm (and I think everyone will agree on this). But the question is: how can i go into battle mode and get serious all of a sudden, how can i beat my nervousness, how can i play at my best all the time if it is needed (with exception of beiing ill like having the flu, a cold etc.) Of course first thing is enough sleep and  and before the game a small excercice for the body as well as some easy tsumego will help you relax before the game and let´s your blood better circulate. It is helpfull to sit down and then stand up and go around as well (same reason as above and useable for job interviews in the waiting room, but don´t do it in the personal room waiting for the interviewer because you will get horrible nervous having to stand up and shaking his hand etc.) Ok, got distracted from the main theme ^^ One way is the way of the "power of memory". That´s what the people playing sports at tournament level are doing (and at higher level like pros etc. as well). It´s also called Changing the modi operandi of the personalia. Generaly there are only few modi. which we use: love mode, work mode, battle mode and the relax mode. The problem is to change between them is not that easy, because every mode has sub modes which lead to beiing stuck to one mode while needing the other one (you can kinda say like the hero has alsways the disadvantage in mangas, because he has to get into fighting mode like in kenichi the strongest disple). That´s where you use your memorys, recreating the moments were you going all out during a game (environment, smell, person, colors, your meal before, the wather, small talk, your own feelings at that day, the tingling atmoshpere surrounding the game) and use it to change into battle mode. This needs to be practiced of course to be usefull. Antoher way is to hype yourself up with watching at pro games (but becarefull this can backfire depending on the game you watched). Another way would beto want to play with reason and instinct (forgetting to want to win, but this is the most difficult way and most likely one way I will never be able to do, cause if I play then I want to win of course). But the easiest way to get into Battle mode is getting addicted to the thrill of the game (not that I am supporting addiction, but people who once tasted the thrill are the ones which play it for live trying to feel it again and again).

Instinct and reason

	Instinct and Reason
	2 kinds ofpersonalyties are messing within our body while playing but....

Well, i got a friend which recently askedme, why he is playing differently on tournaments and then playing at home. His first thought was, that he played different, because he was nervous.
Well that´s true as well but we already  talked about this in earlier topics. So I will challenge this time a general problem again of many go sportlers  (players).
It´s the "2 Person or Reason vs Instinct problem".

I am sure most of you have at some point noticed this problem.
It´s when you play unlike normal, more safe or aggressiv moves (not depending on the game) but on your emotional level.
If you want to win i already said that it will influence your game but there is a reason as well why it influences your game.
To be blunt: It´s about doubting the otherself.
An example what I mean: You  don´t  make the normal move you did 1000 of times but play a different move which seems safer but is lacking in power.
If you think about it different, it th e same as trying to shoot a serve but then you use less power on the serve to make the shoot more accurat (while serve is less accurat and powerfull than normal).
In go  it happens often that one doubts his instincts.
That´s why in games where you really want to win, you try deny your instinct and go back on theories or logic to to make your moves. But ignoring instinct is as hurtfull as ignoring reason.
What most players call instinct or feeling in baduk is almost everytime data about the game  (let´s call it experience), which is helping us in the game for problems.
It can tell us wether there is danger lurking around or if there is one vital spot at the enemys point to attack.
But you need logic as well to get the timing of the moves right and reading strenght to use your instinct to the utmost limits.That´s why don distrust your instinct and don´t depend on it but use it wise. For most players it´s a strong weapon (those with much playing experience or tsumego training) and it´s usefull for stronger and so as well for weaker players as well because it needs to be trained, to make instant jugdes on the game.

My friend will try it out today to play using both and not ignoring his instincts and i hope it will go well.
I am sure there are other views on this thema as well (this is only one view after all) but as i think about go as a sport game, i don´t think that my view is either right or wrong (i hope it will be helpfull to other people), so will be happy to hear comments about this and other themes from go players :-)

finishing the game!!!

if both work together, something incredible can happen

with regards Yunyuki Kirigaya