Path to 9Dan, step by step.

hl782 · **#401**

In terms of tsumego review, I have finished up LCH L&D 1~3 and LCH Tesuji 1~4. All i have left are to go over the remaining 800 from the 1001 L&D Problems, before I am all caught up.

In terms of improvement, it's still sorta hard to say. I'm still teetering around 50% win ratio on KGS, while on Tygem I actually have a shot at a double promotion. I've also had 2 lessons with Mark Lee so far - 1 which we reviewed 2-3 of my games, and the other where we played a teaching game. They are pretty informative, so here's to hoping it helps a long way.

hl782 · **#402**

Had a relaxing weekend, where I got to play lots of go (I actually won a fair handful).

Attached are some of the games I played with self-commentary.. 3 Ws with lots of big fat kills, and 1 L on the next post.

This guy made a terrible mistake in the upper left and I capitalized and rode it to the end for the victory.

Made mistakes here, but my opponent made 1 critical mistake that let me kill him.

Lesson learned to not play aji keshi moves. Opponent played very small moves that and left his group very vulnerable and I killed him in the end.

hl782 · **#403**

The loss. It's a classic case of throwing away a good lead for naught. However, I enjoyed the game (except for my 2 blunders) - because I counted a lot (compared to normal) and felt confident in my position throughout the game until my mistakes.

I'm trying to get into a habit of counting frequently in game. I feel that a sense of judgement will help me improve my game a long way.

Knotwilg · **#404**

hl782 wrote:

The loss. It's a classic case of throwing away a good lead for naught. However, I enjoyed the game (except for my 2 blunders) - because I counted a lot (compared to normal) and felt confident in my position throughout the game until my mistakes.

I'm trying to get into a habit of counting frequently in game. I feel that a sense of judgement will help me improve my game a long way.

When looking at the game I didn't share your good feeling about it and so I checked with LZ. Important moves are 40 and 52. Comments until where you express your 15-20 lead (where LZ thinks you're at 15% of winning).

hl782 · **#405**

Interesting. This was my reasoning for my estimate on the score at that time - Bottom is a minimum of 25 points, left I figured i'd get at least 18, the right i have a solid 15 plus 6.5 komi - putting me at 64.5. I counted this, assuming the reductions would take place.

Black on the other hand, has 12 top left, 8 bottom left, 20 at the top, 20 at the right, roughly at about 60. In addition, I got the center to swell up to about another 12 points... which should have put me in a comfortable lead, assuming I didn't die anywhere. But of course, I did.

Was this a poor estimate?

Knotwilg · **#406**

hl782 wrote:

Interesting. This was my reasoning for my estimate on the score at that time - Bottom is a minimum of 25 points, left I figured i'd get at least 18, the right i have a solid 15 plus 6.5 komi - putting me at 64.5. I counted this, assuming the reductions would take place.

Black on the other hand, has 12 top left, 8 bottom left, 20 at the top, 20 at the right, roughly at about 60. In addition, I got the center to swell up to about another 12 points... which should have put me in a comfortable lead, assuming I didn't die anywhere. But of course, I did.

Was this a poor estimate?

White:
- bottom 25
- left has 2 defects to reckon with: Black's keima (my A in the sgf) which either moves in or cuts off 4 stones. Not seeing the defect of those 4 stones is of course making your estimate optimistic; and Black's pushing through bottom left (my B in the sgf). And the potential territory is facing a Black wall. 18 is definitely optimistic here
- top right is strong but overconcentrated; solid 15 is very optimistic. I get 8-ish with pessimistic endgame
- and the centre swelling to 12 points is also very optimistic; there are defects in this position

See variation at 85

hl782 · **#407**

A few days ago, I had a conversation with my dad about baduk, and why he has (more or less) phased baduk out of his life.

It was a rather private conversation, so I won't get too much into the details, but I think it effectively 'voided' my goal of beating my dad in a 1-on-1 game as my ultimate goal.

This sorta leaves me in a rut, since my #1 feedback mechanism from baduk was winning & getting tsumego problems right - since I saw it as the only way of measuring positive progress towards my ultimate goal.

I still really like the game, but I'm feeling slightly confused and a bit empty right now. I'm hoping to figure something out for myself in the next few days.

Kirby · **#408**

hl782 wrote:

This sorta leaves me in a rut, since my #1 feedback mechanism from baduk was winning & getting tsumego problems right - since I saw it as the only way of measuring positive progress towards my ultimate goal.

Still a good feedback mechanism, though, I can see how it might be less meaningful when your rival has left the playing field. I suppose you could make a new goal - e.g. becoming 9d anyway, or maybe beating a different high dan player that you know. Or maybe you just enjoy for the sake of playing. I guess everyone has their reasons for playing and/or studying go, so it's a personal thing to come up with your own motivation - or choose another way to spend your time, if you'd prefer.

I've been doing go regularly, lately, but I've also been dabbling in chess problems, lately - I even played a few games. I've also been listening to beginner's Chinese lessons for about 30 minutes a day, when up until now, the only language I'd been studying was Korean (though, I did study Japanese a lot back in the day)... There are a lot of interesting things to learn in the world. Go is certainly one of them - I still think it's one of my favorite.

I'm not trying to encourage or discourage you from playing go. Just rambling at this point, so I'm going to click the "Submit" button, now...

hl782 · **#409**

It sucks not knowing that my dad will likely not play with me in the future (even if I become as good as him one day), but I don't think that's enough to make me stop playing. I've basically realized, I still like go a lot, and also enjoy winning and improving at something in general that I put work into.

I'm 750 problems down through my rerun of 1001 L&D problems. And I've been winning a fair share of games too. I'm currently gunning for the double promotion on tygem to 3Dan. KGS is a steady climb but its going alright.

hl782 · **#410**

Some updates - I'm now 15-2 on Tygem, meaning that I've locked up a promotion to 2D. If I win my next 3, then I'll have the double promotion. No pressure right? On KGS, I'm still getting there.

Here are two of my recent Ws on KGS. 1 was a bit fortunate, and the other was a convincing win.

The fortunate W

The convincing W

hl782 · **#411**

In terms of Tsumego update, I am 925 problems through the 1001 L&D rerun. I scored roughly 85% in the first 200 problems (back in August when I just came back) - but the rest, I've been going through at a 95% accuracy.

I've also taken the time to organize the problem sets I've done so far into 'difficulty groups' for other people to reference to. Attached is a screenshot of it below. I plan on doing the ones labeled as "1Kyu to 2Dan" after I finish the 1001.

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dfan · **#412**

Your difficulty groups are close to mine (in particular, I think people often think GGPB and 1001L&D are for weaker players than I think they are). I personally would make only two changes: I think that Get Strong at Tesuji is very useful for people in the 10-5k range to learn about good shape (the problems generally don't require a lot of reading), and at least so far (I'm only a quarter of the way through) I think 1000 Weiqi Life and Death Problems can be attacked profitably by strong kyu players.

hl782 · **#413**

dfan wrote:

Your difficulty groups are close to mine (in particular, I think people often think GGPB and 1001L&D are for weaker players than I think they are). I personally would make only two changes: I think that Get Strong at Tesuji is very useful for people in the 10-5k range to learn about good shape (the problems generally don't require a lot of reading), and at least so far (I'm only a quarter of the way through) I think 1000 Weiqi Life and Death Problems can be attacked profitably by strong kyu players.

When I first started, I definitely did problems that were 'ahead' of my level. I was trying some of the later volumes of LCH Tesuji/L&D at 5kyu kyu, some GGPD and 501 Tesuji Problems at 3kyu, etc. etc. While I do believe getting that early exposure is helpful, I now firmly believe that actually trying to achieve 95% accuracy on sets suited for your difficulty level is better. Particularly as your rank gets higher and higher, depth matters over breadth.

As for GSaTesuji, your point is valid. But I'd also argue that some of the 3-4star problems are pretty tough and that I think it'd be actually difficult to understand the nuances of the 'shapes' seen in those 1-2 star problems. Interestingly enough, I missed more 1-star problems than 3-star ones when I did my last run-through of them. Maybe my sense of shape is still utter garbage idk :salute:

hl782 · **#414**

So I stayed away from go this weekend because of a trip to NYC. Today I logged onto KGS, and was greeted with a pleasant surprise.

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I guess I'm a Dan player now? Pretty anticlimactic though hahaha

hl782 · **#415**

My first few games as a Dan player on KGS haven't been too hot P: As of yesterday, i am 16-2 on Tygem 1D.

Loss vs 2D

Loss vs 1D

As for tsumego, I've started to work on the later volumes of the LCH series. I'm also beginning to look through Attacking Knowhow by Yoo Chang Hyuk and Invasion & Reduction by Lee Chang Ho to sharpen up my middle game. I got these books shipped to me from a friend in Korea (he bought used ones online). These books are also nice because all the examples are from real pro games, so it sorta knocks out two birds with 1 stone.

Knotwilg · **#416**

Game 2 move 57 is a w00t moment.

hl782 · **#417**

w00t y33t

On a more serious note, does anyone know how to download SGFs from Tygem?

Kirby · **#418**

you can get the files locally under the installation directory, but they'll be in .gib format. You can convert them to sgf with a tool like multigo, or one of the online converters. IIRC, gib has like numerical coordinates and stuff. anyway, you can just convert to sgf.

hl782 · **#419**

Kirby wrote:

you can get the files locally under the installation directory, but they'll be in .gib format. You can convert them to sgf with a tool like multigo, or one of the online converters. IIRC, gib has like numerical coordinates and stuff. anyway, you can just convert to sgf.

Very nice! Thank you that will save me so much time.

hl782 · **#420**

Here are some of the sgfs with notes on the middlegame studying I've started recently.

Attacking Knowhow - Game 1

Invasion & Reduction - Invasion 2

Invasion & Reduction - Reduction 2

Path to 9Dan, step by step.

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