Life In 19x19

I've been practicing life and death using the BadukPop app. I upgraded to a Pro account so I can study problems with no time limit.

On September 1st of this year, I measured my time to complete a set of 5 problems at each difficulty level 1 through 5. There's also a level 6, but I did not attempt ...

I haven't posted recently, but my studies continue. I've played a new set of 64 openings, moves 1-46. Here are my results:

Point Loss Adjusted Point Loss
Games 01-08 16.7 13.1
Games 09-16 12.7 12.4
Games 17-32 12.8 11.2
Games 33-64 8.3 6.9

As mentioned, I was in a bit of a slump previously, but ...

Problem 11
Source: Game with KataGo
$$Bc Black to play local endgame
$$ . X . . . . . . . |
$$ O X X . . . X X . |
$$ O O X . . X X O . |
$$ . O O X X . X O . |
$$ . . . O O X O X X |
$$ . . . O X X O O . |
$$ . . . . O O . . . |
$$ ------------------
$$Bc Solution
$$ . X . . . . . . . |
$$ O X ...

These problems are about defending weak groups. Sometimes this is a matter of life and death, and sometimes it is merely about avoiding a severe reduction. Always the most profitable move is desired. Please contribute if you have similar problems of your own, or if you know of an existing collection ...

I've played another ten openings. This time my average loss was about 12.88 points. This is 4.01 points worse than my result in my previous set of 10 games. I might attribute this apparent step backwards to such causes as:

:b1: Too much time spent reviewing instead of playing.
:w2: Focusing less on ...

I'm about halfway through writing up these notes, but I feel like it is taking too long and I'd like to move on to playing more games, so I may not finish.

Anyway, while playing my next set of openings I'd like to focus on the following questions:
:b1: Am I moving in the right direction? / Am I ...

I tried playing an opening (up to move 46) against the AI from the Play Go Against a DCNN page.

My mistakes totaled 17.3 points (and the AI's mistakes totaled 17.4 points). Actually, it was mostly the same mistake, as we both kept ignoring the most urgent point on the board.

I am not sure if I ...

Joseki notes for games 47-56
(Note: these games were played with group tax, which affects opening strategy somewhat)

4-4 point, keima approach, keima extension, contact play
$$Bc How does this joseki finish ...

I mentioned my mistakes totaled about 8.87 points per opening in this last set.

Of these, about 1.1 points were lost to joseki mistakes; about 1.5 points to direction of play mistakes, and about 2.2 points to technique mistakes.

"Technique mistakes" is a sort of vague category, but I am referring ...

I've played ten more openings, and this time I achieved an average point loss of 8.87 points, which is more than 2 points better than my previous result.

This progress gives me hope that I may gain a stone in strength this year.

I'll post a more detailed analysis soon.

Here's my second attempt at a checklist.

Global concerns:
What is the second-biggest-seeming area?
Could there be a bigger move there that I haven't checked yet?

Reading:
Did I think of every possible local move?
What sequences can follow from each move?
Which of those outcomes is best?

If ...

Additional Joseki notes for games 37-46
(Note: these games were played with group tax, which affects opening strategy somewhat)

4-4 point direct 3-3 invasion
$$Wc Preferred sequence
$$ --------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . X 1 . . . . . .
$$ | . . 2 O ...

Joseki notes for games 37–46: double approach
(Note: these games were played with group tax, which affects opening strategy somewhat)

4-4 point, double approach, attachment
$$Bc :b3: tenuki
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . 4 . d c ...

Good news: I made a checklist, then I played ten more openings. This time my average point loss was 11.03 points, which is an improvement of 2.5 points!

Bad news: I didn't actually use my checklist very much. It's just too long and annoying. Here it is, for the curious:
(note: the forum somehow ...

I've played the equivalent of 10 games now, starting from various positions of this kifu I'm studying. And so far I've seen no net improvement! My average score has actually gotten worse, but only by 0.037, which I guess is not significant.

Here are my updated average statistics:

Stage Moves Loss ...