When my budget is 250 or 300$ it is alot harder..

It sounds like you have unbalanced skills. You`re good at some things and not so hot at others.

I have two different suggestions you might like to consider:

* work on your weaknesses and turn them into strengths - maybe read again Otake`s fuseki book, or maybe In the Beginning, or indeed any other good book about the opening
* focus on your strengths - try to set up immediate fighting

Maybe if you're getting into trouble because you're not thinking things through first, then...think things through first. Cross your arms or sit on your hands.

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Learn the "tea-stealing" tesuji! Cho Chikun demonstrates here:

I think the last part is the most helpful to me. I just need to take my time and think out the opening.

When I think in the opening I do it quick... example:

"Oh he approached.. my stones are on the other side so i will pincer." /plays

I might think "hmm what pincer is better for this situation" but nothing beyond, okay what happens after? And alot of times I don't know the joseki for the move so I end up dieing .

Just make your opponents play with handicaps that way you can maintain your ranking without having to learn fuseki. After all if you can beat a 9kyu with 9 stones handicap you must be a 1dan.

9 kyu with 9 stones is much easier than beating a 1D even

Maybe you could watch In-seong's two ASR-lectures on both opening and middlegame. He explains very well how to decide when to pincer and when to defend the corner, for instance.

http://yunguseng.com/lectures.html

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

I prefer playing even games myself, the fuseki is the best part. However I tend to get board part of the way through when I clobbered them in the opening. However the low approach to the 4-4 is just so effective.

Oh i know about those. I really love his lectures

when I'm recording high level games at tournaments, like the US Go Congress, often I'll see players spend 5 minutes or more on move 1.

Yes.One downside of SGF reviews is no real-time interaction. If you have any questions,
if something is unclear to you, you cannot ask in real-time.
Same for the teacher -- to ask you questions, to have a dialogue, in real-time.

Also, one game is nowhere enough. Not even 10 games are anywhere close to enough.
(At least, not for mid-dans or below, IMO.)

Just like piano or language lessons. 10 lessons? There are probably exceptional
cases where someone around these levels can make a big leap in 10 lessons.
But that seems to be really the exception, not the norm. Again, YMMV.

You know by now there's no short-cut to Go. Should you find a really
good teacher who can help you make a big improvement in 10 lessons or less,
(say, an average of 3 game reviews per lesson, that's _only_ 30 game reviews)
you'll likely be very happy to share the experience with us here,
and that teacher most likely wouldn't mind your endorsement.

Good luck.

I don't know if it applies to go, but I've used this in music: if you know you need to work on something (play calmer), and yet you're having a hard time getting there, then try to intentionally overdo it: try to play a few games slightly too slow in the opening. You might find that moves that seem slow actually aren't.

I have to agree with Robert's earlier comment in this thread - if you already know what you are doing wrong, you know what you must improve to fix the problem. You've listed three things here that you find as the source of your problems. Why not try to fix these things (eg. read about mini-chinese, kobayashi, etc.; read more moves before playing; consider your instinct move more seriously).

IMO, you are lucky because you seem confident that you know where your problems lie. In my case, sometimes I can see errors I made in a particular game, but I'm at a loss for my biggest problem areas in go. Since reading is so important, I typically assume that reading is my problem.

But since you know what you are doing wrong, then adjust accordingly!

Good luck!

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be immersed

Reading Fuseki strategy books these help explain why some things aren't Fuseki. Observing pro games, Kombillo is great you can do searches, and look at how several pros handle a situation, though I find this somewhat limiting since many of the databases only have a few games that fit any particular Fuseki. You can even build your own database of pro games that you can review.

Then above and beyond that sometimes you have to be creative and solve your own Fuseki problems, especially ones that involve common hamete plays, which I enjoy doing offline.

Ideally I would find a partner or study group then keep playing the same Fuseki over and over again as both black and white, however I don't think many casual clubs do this, except maybe with the traditional Fuseki.

It's not necessarily that simple. Knowing what you are doing wrong and knowing how (some technique) to stop yourself from doing this thing that is wrong aren't at all the same. If it were, losing weight would be easy.

There is another issue pointed out on the same martial arts site that provided the 'basics versus fundamentals' essay. It applies quite nicely to Go, IMHO.

'...The primary question is not "What did I do wrong" but rather "What is wrong with the move I just did?"

The difference is the emphasis of the question. "What did I do wrong" is on you. The emphasis of the question "What is wrong with the move I just did" is on the move itself...'

I think this helps us realize that knowing something went wrong and knowing what to do about it can be two, quite different, things.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Hi Dave, off-topic:Of course, no argument there.

Fuseki mistakes often manifest themselves at a much later stage in the game. IE, of the hundred previous moves which was the one that wasn't correct, was it a Fuseki mistake or a poor execution of the Fuseki, these are the kinds of questions I ask myself. Once, I can answer this question, then I look at what the alternatives are. I find I go through iterations where, my Fuseki improves, I can beat most of the hamete, I rank up, then the hamete comes back stronger in addition to some of the competition also knowing great Fuseki moves. For example, I get fairly competent at refuting 3-3 shoulder hits at 6 kyu, but as I approach 4 kyu, I start losing to players, who play 3-3 shoulder hits, but because they actually play the joseki, and it is a few points difference, then I have to go back and look where was I depending on being able to turn Fuseki mistake into game deciding 50 point play, I only get maybe 10 points out of the play, so then I need to find places to make up those other points I was counting on to win in that line of play.