'godfable' 8-dan and blitz games

   There was an interesting chat going on in godfable's last game:

     Egad [7d?]: rapyuta is the [strongest] bot on kgs

   Now it is not very common to see 8-9 dans playing games with so short time controls.

   Recently two exceptions appeared: 'godfable' and 'corea', both 8-dan at the moment. For the record, the two of them started playing on KGS few days ago, on April 29th. 'corea' is from South Korea, and he became 8d today by beating 'roln111' (Ilya Shikshin) on time. We will post more details as they become available.

   'godfable' also likes to play blitz games. He always uses AGA rules in his games, so maybe he is a member of the American Go Association? Another curious fact: yesterday 'godfable' played a total of 17 games - he played for almost six hours in a row!

   The game that you can see here was played today by 'godfable' against 'kghin' (0 min + 5x10 sec). You will see that 'kghin' is also good at blitz games (he usually does not play games with byo-yomi shorter than 30 sec per move.)

   As you can see, 'godfable' likes to play unusual openings (which can be a good strategy in blitz games). Here he played for thickness. White 36 (E11) was a vital point. The sequence starting with White 90 (H14) up to White 140 (K18), capturing Black's group at the top, gave White a lot of territory, but in return Black became thicker in the center and a huge moyo emerged.

   Black 141 (C4) was questionable, I think, and Black 151 (R9) was the losing move - it was necessary for Black to defend the P9 cut.... Clearly Black missed the nose tesuji of White 158 (S11), which captures Black's group and ruins Black's moyo. What a great move!

   ------//------

   Please check http://361points.com/study/  to see Sorin Gherman's advice on how to improve. At some point in the article he writes:

   Among the first things that my sensei, Kobayashi Chizu 5p, told me when I became insei in Japan was: "Play a lot of fast games with the other insei - never mind the results, just play!". (As insei, "fast games" meant 10 seconds per move, no extra thinking time.)

   [...]

   There is of course nothing wrong with playing slow games, but you should also play many fast games: try to force yourself, gradually, even a little bit at a time, to play with slightly lower time limits than what you are comfortable with. This way you will read faster, concentrate on the important areas, and think more efficiently. Just like athletes are pushing their physical limits.

   If you like, you can share your thoughts on blitz (fast) games here - are they so important if one wants to improve? Or should the players take their game and try to find the best possible move they can, seeing the game record as an art form?