Lesson 93
An observer gets eight more points than the players _ this is a well-known baduk proverb meaning that a person who is watching a game can make more precise and reasonable decisions than the actual player. This is not surprising at all, and you probably had similar experiences in everyday life. For instance, two people fighting each other cannot admit the fact that either of them may be wrong, while the spectators usually feel that both are in the wrong anyway. Two people in love often cannot see each other’s shortcomings, while their friends worry on their behalf.
Why the people playing a game themselves cannot judge the situation as it is, or take the proper action, it is very likely caused by their desire to win. This doesn’t mean that you simply want a victory. It may be easier to calm down and play cautiously if your only goal is to win the game at the end. However, when you play, you want to win, not only the game itself, but also in the individual situations that arise. In order to feel that they are winning in every moment and situation, people play risky moves and sometimes miss very simple points.
To be more objective, a professional often stands up from his seat and looks at the board from his opponent’s perspective during a game. Some of them ask for the game record being kept at the side to be read back to them, to follow the sequence of moves with a detached attitude. Such methods for cooling one’s head are definitely helpful for players, preventing them from becoming too focused on one local position or a specific attempt.
Nevertheless, as all other aspects in baduk, and in life, the detached attitude is not always beneficial. I, as a professional player, participate in the reviewing gallery of important professional tournaments every so often. In a separate room prepared for the gallery, a group of professionals review and critique the game in progress in another room as it is being played, guess future moves, and anticipate the result while discussing with each other and playing virtual moves on a board. Usually there are a lot of famous players in the reviewing gallery, some even more famous than the two competing players, and it is easy to think that they should be able to find better moves than the players themselves. To my surprise, however, oftentimes the players in the match find far better moves, wholly unexpected to reviewers of superior ability.
It is not so difficult to guess why these things happen. When you’re playing a game, and if you feel its importance, the meaning of the game becomes your whole world. There are things that can never be known by someone outside, but only to the players themselves. After the game is over, it is frequently the case that the players are the only two in the world who understand the real context of the game and can talk about it.
The writer is a baduk professor at Myongji University and a professional player of the game.