I love live matches… The Kisei is a little slow for me (mainly because I have to quit around Lunch time so I can go to bed!) but I love watching high level games online (in person might be really nice as well…! I have yet to find out)
If you can understand at least half of the moves a stronger player makes, whether or not you can actually find those moves, it could probably be of benefit to watch them in real time. The reason this seems good to do is because while the two other players are thinking, you can also be reading to try and figure out the best move! If you get it right, perhaps you’re on the right tract toward getting stronger… if you don’t make the same move, you can see what move the stronger player would have made and often figure out why (though sometimes it may require a sequence to be played out first). How can you not get stronger when playing a teaching game in this method?
Yes, playing… whenever you read through a sequence as you would in your own game, you really are playing the game. Certainly your move doesn’t show up (unless you’re thinking correctly and on the same path as the actual player). The only difference is one of rules…
Take an example of Mr. 10-kyu (me, perhaps) watching Mr. and Ms. 2-dan play a game. If I come up with the same move, I win the round… if I come up with the wrong move I don’t find out why it’s wrong, but I do get to take back my move and play the “correct” one! As long as I keep that mindset of “I might not have been wrong, but I wasn’t ‘most right’ according to Ms. 2-dan!” then I’ll continue to get stronger.
This seems to be, essentially, the same game the Kisei Kibitzers play. The only difference now is that there’s some competition between the kibitzers to come up with the correct answer. The higher ranked players are divinely deferred to in this game, but you might get a chance to find out why your wrong answer is wrong! I must say I prefer the solitare version.