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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #21 Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:02 pm 
Lives in gote

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Shortly after my last post I lost a few games in a row and ended up dropping to 4k on KGS. I thought if I won a few games it would pop right back up, but it was surprisingly hard to regain my status. It took more than 30 games with a 75% win rate in order to reclaim 3k. Actually I reclaimed 3k 3 times, without losing a single game between. I would play my daily rated game, get promoted to 3k only to log back in the next day to be 4k again, and this happened twice.

On the bright side, my win today (where I started at 3k) puts me at 5 wins in a row and 9 wins out of the past 11 games. I feel I am playing really well in general. I make at least one major error in most of my games, but I usually win by a fairly large margin anyway. I hope this is a sign that I am ready to shoot straight up to 2k. I really want to make Shodan this year.

I have been working through 501 tesuji problems. This book is much more challenging than any other problem book I have used, and often frustrates me, and makes me just want to turn the page for the answer, but I am doing my best to attempt each question seriously. The problems all seem to be shapes from actual games, and many have less specific and very practical goals ("Black to settle both of his groups").

In addition to problems, I am playing at least one serious game every day, and reviewing every game I play (even my rare blitz game), if only for a few minutes.

Here is today's game with a few comments by myself.



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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #22 Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 7:31 am 
Oza

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Online playing schedule: When my wife is out.
The first thing that comes to mind in this game is running with the high double-approach stone. Black is happy to leave it be for a while, because the 3-3 point is still open due to it's aji. I wouldn't exploit it right away, because there are other bigger moves on the board, but black can expect to take it or take a free sente at least if white fixes it later in the middlegame. There's no devastating punishment where all white's groups collapse.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #23 Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:06 am 
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skydyr wrote:
The first thing that comes to mind in this game is running with the high double-approach stone. Black is happy to leave it be for a while, because the 3-3 point is still open due to it's aji. I wouldn't exploit it right away, because there are other bigger moves on the board, but black can expect to take it or take a free sente at least if white fixes it later in the middlegame. There's no devastating punishment where all white's groups collapse.


I did consider playing elsewhere, it just looked so big if B captured that stone. I have only recently started using the high double-pincer in response to a low pincer, and am not really all that familiar with all of the followups. I think this is the first time someone has not cut after :b9: . After playing around with some variations though it does look less of a big deal.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #24 Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 1:31 pm 
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The prize idiot award of today goes to me! Jump to the invasion at 219 and you will see how I single-handedly resurrected an enemy group - choosing one of the few sequences that would lose me the game among hundreds of possible lines of play in which I lose nothing. Also there were many ways B could have lived in the corner and W was still happily winning.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #25 Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 1:00 pm 
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Last night, I played my first game with my new go mentor Kirby (Thanks Kirby!) viewtopic.php?f=10&t=11531

I felt like I was playing pretty well throughout the whole game, but I constantly was giving up the important parts of the board and ended up resigning when I was bout 25 points behind in the endgame. We decided that I fight well, but often made greedy overplays that created multiple weak groups or invading too deeply into my opponent's territory, so I may be a little to keen on fighting. I also needed to be more aware of the important areas on the board to develop the places with more potential - the "interesting side" as I hear in pro commentaries.




I have also started to attempt to memorize the Lee Sedol-Gu Li Jubango. I am not really sure if memorizing pro games really helps you improve, but if nothing else it will help me with being able to remember my own games clearly.


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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #26 Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:18 am 
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I have been doing a mediocre job at continuing to study go regularly. My plan to memorize the Gu Li - Lee Sedol jubango ceased after the second game. I can still remember pretty much all of the first game after not reviewing for weeks, so at least that one is semi-permanent. On the flip side, I have been successful in replaying at least one pro game a day on my new shiny goban. I haven't been good about doing go problems, but I am playing many 9x9 games every day on Go Quest.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #27 Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 9:24 am 
Oza

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DJLLAP wrote:
I am not really sure if memorizing pro games really helps you improve, but if nothing else it will help me with being able to remember my own games clearly.

I found this to be the biggest bonus for me.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #28 Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 8:18 am 
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My last post was almost 2 years ago. Wow.

It has been difficult for me to keep studying for any extended period of time. I study for a month or two, gain a stone or so, and then stop. Sometimes I even stop playing go altogether for a spell. And I generally revert back to my previous strength. So it is that I have been stuck around the 3k mark for a few years now. The lack of easy progress has been frustrating to me, and I have been wanting to get a teacher. Someone far above me who would take the time to get to know my individual strengths and weaknesses and give me a plan for making forward progress again.

Last month I finally had my first lesson with Kaz Senesei. Most teachers play a game with you and then review that game to point out your mistakes, but Kaz Sensei does not teach like that. I sent him 10 of my most recent games for him to go through and look for patterns. He then sent me a few 'go tests' to further assess my current knowledge. These tests gave me a go position and asked me what I thought was the best line of play. After he analysed my answers, he decided on a topic of my first lesson. He sent me a review of one of my games focusing on two specific errors that I make frequently. He also sent his answers for the go tests, and about 40 original go problems specifically relating to my mistakes.

The mistakes addressed in this first lesson were my tendency to leave weaknesses in my shapes while fighting in order to play something 'more severe'. The problem being that you can't do anything severe when you can be cut apart. The other mistake was that I tend to play vulgar forcing moves that force my opponent to protect his own weaknesses. Both of these mistakes highlight ways in which my thinking about go was wrong, and by correcting those wrong thoughts, I am able to make progress without increasing my reading ability at all.

A month after my first lesson, I have risen to 1k on KGS. I occasionally drop back down to 2k for a game or two, but so far I have always popped right back up. When I distill the lessons learned from my first lesson it comes down to these two thoughts:

1: Protect your weaknesses as soon as possible.
2: Give your opponent every opportunity to make a mistake.


I just bought an 11 lesson "online go camp" from Kaz Sensei, and I wanted to track my progress, so here I am, back in my forgotten study journal. I'll keep you updated as we see how far I can go.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #29 Posted: Wed May 17, 2017 4:33 am 
Dies in gote

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I think i have the same tendency as you to not protect my shape first and try play faster elsewhere, which usually results in a messy game.
Making unnecessary forcing moves is bad too, focus on where is important positional play.

I've read Jowas advice here recently which i think is gold:
forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7508

Which I interpret for myself as play more of a thick solid honest game and be patient and confident with my stones that they will win in the end, don't be greedy.

I find when I did this in the past my game felt more powerfull, and my opponents stones started to to look weak. Guess my overall strength improved.

I've wondered about taking lessons from a strong amateur or pro but have not done it so far. It will be interesting seeing your updates, and look forward to it.

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 Post subject: Re: DJLLAP's study journal
Post #30 Posted: Wed May 17, 2017 5:29 pm 
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Quote:
I've read Jowas advice here recently which i think is gold:
forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7508

Which I interpret for myself as play more of a thick solid honest game and be patient and confident with my stones that they will win in the end, don't be greedy.


I think I know what you mean. Many of the games I have won since my first lesson I have played trying my best to keep the 'protect first' mentality the whole game. This often seems to make me feel behind until some point in the middle game where the weaknesses in my opponent's shape comes into play and I am usually able to cut something off or kill something. Sometimes I think I might make a move that is too slow by defending a weakness in stones that are actually light and could be sacrificed, but I guess it is all part of the learning process.

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