How to Get the Most Out of a Baduk Teaching Game: 5 Habits

A teaching game is one of the most valuable lessons you can take. A strong teacher plays a full game with you, builds challenges into the position to test how you respond, and then reviews it with you afterward. (We cover the format in our guide to choosing a Baduk teacher.)

How much you get out of it depends mostly on your own habits, before, during, and after the game. Here are five that matter.

Last updated: 2026-06-14.

1. Before the game: play the way you would in an even game

Some students assume the handicap is such a big lead that they can win simply by retreating again and again. Look at the math. A 4-stone handicap is worth about 45 points. If, on average, each of your moves loses just one point more than your teacher's, it takes only 45 of your moves to give that lead back. That is about 90 moves in total, and you reach it before the endgame even starts. The handicap allowance is smaller than you think.

The point of a teaching game is to learn, not to win. Learning as much as you can is the goal, and winning is a by-product. It usually will not happen against a pro-level teacher, who can win whenever they really want to. If you do win by retreating everywhere, it probably means the handicap was set too high and you were not challenged enough. A retreating style is also not something you can carry into your even games, so playing that way defeats the purpose. Play the same moves you would play against an equal.

2. The opening: do not spend too much time there

When your clock is still full, it is tempting to look for the perfect opening move. The professional advice is not to. A game is usually decided in the middle game and the endgame, not the opening, and those are the stages where reading accuracy matters most. If you spend too long early, you will not have enough time to think and read later, when it counts.

This does not mean playing randomly in the opening. The idea is to stop spending time on the perfect, 100 mark move. Find a good 70 to 80 mark move quickly, and rule out the 0 mark moves as fast as you can.

3. Mid-game and endgame: find an acceptable move first, then a better one if time allows

This is the "how" behind habit 2. In the opening, train yourself to find an okay move quickly, maybe a 50 to 60 mark move, then push for a better one without using all your time at once.

At critical moments, for example when life and death is involved, the method is similar, except you may need to push further to find the best move. In those positions, unlike in the opening, the difference between an okay move and the best move can be very large.

4. Throughout the game: be ready to defend your decisions

In a teaching game, a good teacher may intentionally pick a more challenging line. It may not be the best line for them, but it tests whether you can make good decisions. When you face a hard position, shortlist a few options, compare their pros and cons, and pick the one that gives the best result and the most control over what follows.

Be ready to explain why you chose it. A good teacher will ask something like, "You played A. Did you also consider B?" B might turn out better or worse than your move, but what matters is that you thought about it. If your teacher suggests an option you never considered, that is a sign to work on your move discovery, your ability to find candidate moves in the first place.

5. After the game: review it again yourself with AI

After a teaching game, the teacher usually reviews it directly, without using AI analysis. That review is very valuable. A pro-level teacher's insight applies easily to your own games, because they share their thought process, their reasoning, and how they judge a position.

Then review the game again yourself with AI. Engines now play far above human level, so their suggestions make a useful second opinion, especially next to your teacher's. Check whether your teacher's suggested moves match the AI's best move, and if not, how large the score difference is. Do you understand the move sequence the AI recommends? Working through this revises what you learned in the teacher's review, and it gives you sharper questions to bring back, such as asking the teacher to interpret the AI's line. Between their judgment and the engine's, you understand the truth of the position better and get all the learning you can out of the game.

Ready to play one? Browse our pro-level teacher roster to find a teacher who offers teaching games with a full review.