Aidoneus' Cave of Flatulence

daal · **#21**

Aidoneus wrote:

I'm looking for a stonecutter...
...

Maybe find a copy of The Art of Go Series: Connecting Stones?

Like Bill said, you already have a lot of good books, and most of them are filled with concepts that you are not yet able to apply. Connecting Stones is another one. It's basically a problem book, and most of the problems are too difficult for me. My suggestion is that instead of reading the books, you simply think about their titles before playing your games - direction of play - shape up! - vital points and skillful finesse for sabaki - connecting stones for example, and see what insights you gain on your own.

Aidoneus · **#22**

I'm back home. My last class MW ends 9:15 PM CST.

@ Bonobo (or Tom if you prefer): I saw your post between classes and logged into OGS, but I couldn't see any friend request. Give me time to read the site's instructions!

@Joellercoaster: I saw your game invite and tried to send you some questions. Afterward, I wondered if you posted the invite earlier and weren't actually on at the same time as me.

I'd be happy to play both of you in ranked games with some time settings of 24-48 hours, with extensions as needed, though I would anticipate playing faster at the start of the game. (Come the second week of December I'll have the last tests to write and grade, followed by final exams to write and grade for four classes...and then there are the holidays.) In fact, I think that I could handle 2-4 OGS correspondence games total if anyone else would like to play with me.

Also, I have been wanting to try a Malkovich game for a long time now. So, I'm going to add my name in that thread.

Bill Spight wrote:

If you think that I am criticizing your corner kosumis, I am not. I was just showing you alternatives.

Bill, Bill, I want you to criticize my moves! Your moves are so much better!! I was just trying to explain my rational for playing certain moves--even when my moves aren't so good because I miss proper direction or whatever.

Bill Spight wrote:

As for attacking while racing to the center, the one space jumps on the right side do that. In addition, the one I recommend at move 10 is also defensive. And it keeps White separated. (Not that White is currently threatening to connect.

)

Shape is basically about locally efficient play. Shape Up! is good.

Also, local issues are more paramount on the 9x9 and 13x13. You might look at the haengma material on Senseis Library, too. I highly recommend doing so.

A heuristic for basic shape. Count the stones for each player in the local area. For instance, in the 3x3 square around :b38:

there are 3 Black stones and only 1 White stone. Does Black really need two more stones there than White? Maybe so, but usually not. Similarly with :b50:

. Black has 2 more stones in the 3x3 window than White. Besides, :b50:

forms an empty triangle, a well known bad shape. (BTW, the later in the game, the less these disparities matter.)

As for connecting, the plays I talked about were much simpler than nearly all composed problems. See moves 4, 10, 16, and 22. Think about keeping your opponents stones separated.

You have a lot of books. At this point, playing and reviewing your own games is probably the best thing to do.

More great advice! Thank you!!

Want to adopt me? You can claim me on your tax return... :lol:

Aidoneus · **#23**

joellercoaster wrote:

You could play on OGS? You can set a provisional rank when you join - for the next bunch of games, only your rank is adjusted (not your opponents'), until yours is calculated properly. It seems like a fair way to manage the I-don't-know-my-true-rank question.

I haven't played at OGS, just tried watching a few games when I first joined many months ago. I guess there is no way to change my self-chosen provisional rank of 21-kyu to, say, 10-kyu now? I think that rank would give me fairly competitive even games with players from 12 to 8 kyu. Or not, but if I can't buttress my hubris I deserve a large heaping of

Yeah, machines may have over-inflated my head, just like my dogs think that I am something special--or maybe just their favorite behind-the-ears scratcher! :lol:

joellercoaster · **#24**

Aidoneus wrote:

I guess there is no way to change my self-chosen provisional rank of 21-kyu to, say, 10-kyu now? I think that rank would give me fairly competitive even games with players from 12 to 8 kyu.

PM one of the admins (there is a list pinned on the forum I think)... this situation comes up from time to time and they can set a provisional rank for you by hand.

Quote:

just like my dogs think that I am something special

"Lord, help me be the kind of person (my dog thinks I am)"

Aidoneus · **#25**

Bill Spight wrote:

One thing that might be helpful is to study high handicap games. But most modern books only have a few games at each handicap. A wonderful book is Okigo jizai by Hattori Inshuku, which presents handicap game openings. Some of the plays are old fashioned, but high handicap play has not changed much in the past 200 years.

You can find it online at http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/861111 . That’s volume 10, with 9 stone games.

Not being able to read the Japanese text is not so bad. But you do need to be able to read the numbers on the stones.

Here is a game from vol. 10, with a few comments by Hattori and a few by me.

Enjoy!

After grading tests this morning I found time to go over the three games you uploaded, thank you! There were some very interesting plays! (BTW, I have a secret trove of exclamation marks. Britannica refused to let us use any, so now I've reverted to the wild.) I need to learn, or at least see, more tesujis. I think that I'm going to pick up Five Hundred and One Tesuji Problems to look at while my students are taking tests.

@Bonobo:
Time to drive to Purdue. Back tonight. I think that I figured out how to accept your friend invite. Do you want to set up a ranked game? Or maybe you could first reset my rank to, say, 10-kyu from 21-kyu? (I've never played at OGS, and I set that value about the time I joined L19.)

Bill Spight · **#26**

A couple of more Okigo jizai games.

Enjoy!

Bonobo · **#27**

Just a short note for others here: Aidoneus and I have meanwhile found each other over there ;-)

Aidoneus · **#28**

Bonobo wrote:

Just a short note for others here: Aidoneus and I have meanwhile found each other over there ;-)

I sent you an invite at OGS for a ranked correspondence game. Feel free to change any of the terms (I left them at the default settings).

Wind gusts to 60 mph and strong lake effect snow coming down this morning here in Northwest Indiana, so I'll probably stay inside all morning or even all day. :cool:

Aidoneus · **#29**

A few minutes after my last post, my neighborhood lost power. As a youngster I sometimes watched the Wall Street TV Channel during the summer. The only utility this national program ever mentioned as a recommended buy was NIPSCO (Northern Indiana Public Service Company)--I guess for its dividends rather than infrastructure improvements, as we have one outage per month on average.

Anyway, its too dark and depressing to grade papers so I get in my car, turn on the heater, and discover that my heater fan has gone kablooie (a technical mechanical term), and that my local mechanic can't get to me until tomorrow.

Fortunately, my power had been restored by the time I got back from eating breakfast out, though looking at NIPSCO's outage map (http://www.nipscooutages.com/WSSNisourc ... oaded=true) worries me about losing power again, as we still have very strong wind gusts.

What does any of this have to do with Go, you ask. Nothing except that I'll get back on OGS for Bonobo and joellercoaster and be looking for any moves by Ed, again.

Bill Spight · **#30**

Power to the players!

Bill Spight · **#31**

A couple of more from Okigo jizai.

Bill Spight · **#32**

Two more.

When I was learning go one piece of advice for high handicap games was to attack around 30% of the time and to play defense around 70% of the time. I never followed that advice, myself.

One thing I like about Okigo jizai is that it is mostly about how to attack. Often a play will combine attack and defense. Since Hattori hardly ever has Black simply defend, it is also about how to sacrifice.

Aidoneus · **#33**

These posts are wonderful, Bill...now that I can get online again.

My power was just restored after a long, cold, dark, night. Also, I had my car's heater fixed. I am attaching a picture to show what the issue was.

Bill Spight · **#34**

Two more from Hattori, each with a theme.

Aidoneus · **#35**

I know that I said I would post some more computer games, win or lose, but with my loss of power Friday and Saturday, I never got around to playing MFoG. For the first weekend in months, I didn't get around to solving any problems at gochild or goproblems, either. :sad:

I have been playing two semi-quick correspondence games on OGS, though. And I picked up an iPad mini to practice Go problems on while my classes take tests.

(It almost goes without saying, but this is football season. And my wife is also into the game, so we typically watch 2-3 games together on Sundays, depending on whether my Bears or her Steelers play. She'll never tell me what Steeler she dated, or for that matter, what Piston, before we met.)

Aidoneus · **#36**

Thanks to Bonobo, I finally figured out why I couldn't get my journal and many other pages to load. (I changed the preference to 10 and then just 5 posts before I got certain pages to load.)

I'm having fun working through the included problems in SmartGo Kifu and looking at some sample pages from SmartGo books. So far, I have neglected studying any pro games, even though I purchased GoGoD for the game database. I think that I will start with Shusaku and hope that I absorb subconsciously (or implicitly) some better feel for shape and direction. In fact, I'll probably try moving some of those GoGoD games to my iPad to study while giving tests this week.

In addition to my Malkovich game with Ed, I am playing two correspondence games at OGS. I believe that I played pretty well for maybe the first 30 moves in those games, but I know my play rapidly deteriorated in the middle game. Win or lose, if my opponents give me permission, I will post them in this thread. (Something I never felt obliged to do with Many Faces of Go. ;-)

) Maybe reviewing pro games will help me some with the middle game phase. I guess James Davies' Attack and Defense is really the book I should study next. Other than Sakata Eio's The Middle Game of Go, which looks like it contains just a few deeply analyzed games (probably way over my head), and Michael Redmond's out-of-print ABCs of Attack and Defense, Davies' book looks like the only choice on this subject for my level. Meanwhile, I should get back to reading Breakthrough to Shodan--thus far, I believe it has given me a somewhat better idea of how to use handicap stones. (Also, playing maybe twenty or so handicap games with MFoG!)

If you don't hear from me for a while, it probably means the next polar express slammed through here. I thought that we were not supposed to have any more winters like the early-to-mid 70s! :cry:

Bonobo · **#37**

Aidoneus,

1) Since one of the recent versions, SmartGo Kifu contains the GoGod Games, IIRC

2) Yeah sure, feel free to publish our game here, no matter how embarrassing it will be to me :-D

I’m also curious to read any comments.

Cordially, Tom

Aidoneus · **#38**

I'm still having problems loading pages. I went down to 2 posts in the User Control Panel, changed browsers, and restarted. I don't know what my problem is, really. Very frustrating!

Bonobo · **#39**

Aidoneus wrote:

I'm still having problems loading pages. I went down to 2 posts in the User Control Panel, changed browsers, and restarted. I don't know what my problem is, really. Very frustrating!

Always good to know which pages these are.

See also here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=11048

And perhaps it’s time to revive this thread.

Greetz, Tom

joellercoaster · **#40**

Aidoneus wrote:

Win or lose, if my opponents give me permission, I will post them in this thread.

Please do with mine as well, I would welcome the feedback!

Aidoneus' Cave of Flatulence

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