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What Do We
Really Want?
August 11, 2005
By William Cobb
What do you want? A
friend of mine who is a strong player constantly reminds me to ask myself that
question as I play. The idea is to contemplate the whole board situation, but
the question is not only important while you're playing a game. It's also useful
to ask it before you start playing. From listening to conversations here at the
Congress, I've gotten the impression that many players would answer by saying
that their aim is "to get strong, to improve my
rating."
I think that's a limited
goal, which ignores some important aspects of go. Having "getting stronger" as
your aim makes you focus strongly on winning. Go is designed so that almost all
of us are going to lose about as often as we win. So if getting stronger is what
we want, we're going to experience a lot of frustration. It would be nice if pl
aying go were -- at least most of the time -- a pleasant, satisfying and
enjoyable experience. Since it's difficult to experience go that way when it
becomes very important to win, perhaps a different aim would have a happier
result.
What if the answer to "what
do you want?" is just "to play go"? If just playing becomes your aim, you'll
find many more ways to make the experience a good one. Undoubtedly, winning is
fun, and getting stronger helps you to win, but perhaps becoming stronger should
not be an end, but a means; a means to enjoying the game more, whether you win
or lose. So when you sit down to your next tournament game, remember to ask
yourself "what do I REALLY want?"
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