So, I don't wanna brag (but maybe I do ), but these last weeks I have had two consecutive winstreaks of 15 and 17 wins playing automatch games on KGS. I feel like the opponents I am playing right now don't really stand a chance. Most of the times I win by resignation or +30 points, it has been rare that there was a game with <10 points difference.

What triggered this increase is realising the difference of value in stones. Some stones have served their purpose after they are played (e.g. most kikashi), some stones just mark the boundaries of territorries (if not important for group stability these can be treated lightly) while other stones are essential and will be fought over (cutting stones, heavy groups). This made me tenuki more and evaluate sequences I would not have seen before (walling off a section by sacrificing for example).

Another reason for the increase is playing games with more time (30 min main time), because I lost on time a lot before.

Is it usual to experience this sudden increase strength? And if I win almost all of my games at 9kyu, what could be my real strength?

I am asking because it's more fun to play even games than to win every time.

Furthermore, I am interested in your winstreaks and how you felt about them!

Out of interest, how long have you been playing, and how many games on each board size do you estimate you have played?

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Regards,

Peter

Hey Peter. =]

I have been playing for three months I guess? But I am quite the addict, I think I have played around 200 games total. Yes, that is an average of two games per day and yes that is quite insane.

On a day like this, when I have nothing to do, I pretty much only play go, clean my room and eat.

Good for you, that is very good progress. I have been playing for a month, mostly on 9x9, but I am trying to move on from that now. I will be very happy if I reach your level after 3 months.

Do you review all your games, either by yourself or with a stronger player?

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Regards,

Peter

Everybody agrees reviewing games is really important, mostly to find out what your weaknesses are. To identify common mistakes.

My weaknesses are probably:
- Playing to light, not playing attachments.
- Overconfidence, going into small semeais on the side without thinking.

I do not review all my games, but the interesting ones are fun to review and really helpful. =] Do you review your games and if so with who? I can recommend KGS Teaching Ladder if you want stronger players to review for you.

BTW, when you are playing on KGS we should play a game together!

That would be nice... one day

At the moment, there are lots of players on there who could give you a more even game.

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Regards,

Peter

Maybe seven kyu or a bit stronger. You might want to make a new account, set it to 7-8k and then let its rank settle. Winning so many games is surely boring.

I do think these strength jumps happen.

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

Strength jumps happen all the time, my experience was almost all jumps until the dan ranks (from 18 to 12 to 7 to 5 to 1.)

I find they're usually accompanied by an increase in flexibility, that suddenly I added a dimension to my game.

You could be up to 5k, just make a new acct and find out!

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Tactics yes, Tact no...

Mmm...

I must say I don't really feel like making a new account, because what a stupid feature! It's like changing your name when you get your college degree because people remember you as the drunk student. Which is of course smart, but stupid. Smart, but stupid. I like my username.

You know what, I'll just play rated games with the non-automatch feature.

Thanks for the comments!

The thing is, the system on KGS isn't designed for rank jumps (wms has stated this on a couple occasions) so if your strength is changing rapidly, there's just no point in trying to fight it (non automatch games won't speed it up, unless you're finding people to play who are willing to play rated games at the wrong handi.... In which case, you're going to have a deflating effect on the system.) would be nice to see a feature on KGS where you could zero out your rank and go back to ?, without losing your handle, but thems the breaks

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Tactics yes, Tact no...

Start a new account, play it for a month or two and than it will be much easier to level Your old account (at the same time the "new" account will be slowed down).

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Formerly Gorim

I hear other others' responses, but I agree with you on this one. I've had several sudden jumps in strength, and get streaks like 30-1. I was playing a lot of games at the time, so my rank was slow to catch up. But I didn't want to create a new account, so I didn't. It'll catch up eventually.

Yes. I don't know if there is anybody connected to KGS on this forum, but would it not be nice if they implemented the feature to reset your rank? Apparently this problem occurs to everybody and I think nobody 'likes' to make a new account and re-find their buddies. Also, this is database-inefficient!

Rank reset could be abused, have a losing streak, reset your rank, etc. I agree that it'd be a handy option though for genuine users.

I think a rank reset is much more useful in the kyu ranks, since one is much more likely to jump by a significant strength in a short period of time. Perhaps an option that doesn't remove the rank entirely, but ages games by, say, 45 days would be useful, along with a flag that the rank has been reset recently, or frequently. Alternatively, perhaps it should only be available until a certain rank. I know at the moment that one can't get a rank above 10k without winning, as well, so that may help.

So Skydyr, tell me, how can one achieve a rank of 10k without winning a single game?

Lose an even game with a 9k (question mark included of course).

I'm of the opinion that people should stick with their account. Your rank will adjust eventually and that's more fair for the people who lost to you: KGS will use your current rank to evaluate the games they lost to you.

As for the sudden increase, it looks like you have realized which fights are worth fighting. Being weak at fighting myself, I sometimes win against people that I feel are much stronger than I am by just walking away from unnecessary fights and taking a big point instead. They have the potential of suddenly gaining several ranks by just realizing that. I, on the other hand, have to increase my reading ability which would require some serious practice...

In my opinion, the more you can improve, the better. Sudden improvement is great, but sometimes causes laxity in one's studies. This can cause the player to hit walls, as they somehow expect that improvement will continue withought further effort. This is bollocks, sadly. Any great rise in strength requires corresponding greatness in effort.