Thank you everyone for the advice and suggestions.

I joined KGS and played some games there. I have a nice shiny new 26 kyo rating.

Notes and observations:

some mistakes are killers. The whole game can come crashing down.

I've been somewhat successful at capturing some corners and sides but I'm losing a ton of points in the center.

I was concentrating on one game so much that I completely overlooked the steady stream of insults that my opponent was raining down on me. I only saw it after the game was over. They weren't even creative or funny just dumb but English probably isn't his primary language. I'm not sure what would lead someone to behave like that.

The auto match is pretty cool. The handicap stones I'm getting don't seem to help too much. They mostly just give my opponents more targets to go after.

As suggested, it's easier to find even matches on KGS than the others. I'm (mostly) not taking the drubbings I was on the other sites.

I haven't figured out how to open the games I've played on KGS. I click on them and get a beep but nothing else.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Tom

I believe you can right click them in KGS and choose where you want to open the game for review. Also, you can embed them into the forum here (or download them from the internet to open from the KGS client offline). Your games can be found here: http://www.gokgs.com/gameArchives.jsp?user=TominNJ+

To post a game on the forum, make a sgf or sgf-full tag, and just paste the link to one of the games inside. Glad you're getting more even games! I look forwards to your further observations!

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Generally speaking don't expect to make any territory in the center. Stones in the center are for fighting and keeping the opponent from making center territory. At the end of the game very little of the center will be actual territory. Those stones are there so you can break ladders and run weak stones out from the sides to the center. While it's possible to make territory in the center, it's a dangerous strategy, because there are too many open sides where the opponent can come in and ruin things.

If you find your opponent building a large center territory, find all the open edges and make sure you have more than one way to dive into that territory from a safe base. Your opponent can't defend all of them at once, so if he's going for center territory it's extremely probable he'll end up with less territory than you. You're not in trouble as long as your opponent has more than one open border to secure.

In fact, if you find yourself with a choice between taking territory or getting stones towards the center (ie: influence), only chose the influence if there isn't any other way for you to get to the center somewhere else on the board. As you get stronger you will eventually figure out when it's a good idea to trade territory for influence, but until SDK (single digit kyu) neither you nor your opponent really know what to do with influence anyway, so you're better off grabbing territory.

Double in fact: in the end game, moves near the edges and corners are worth waaaay more than they appear to be. You're almost always better off in the end game making a move on the second line than making a move on the 8th line.

So summary: Sides and corners are where it's at.

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1k KGS

QFT

This one doesn't go away no matter how strong you get

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Main Entry: zing·er Pronunciation: \ˈziŋ-ər\
1 : something causing or meant to cause interest, surprise, or shock
2 : a pointed witty remark or retort

What on earth could be yousang's motivation for playing these games against weaker players? He sure doesn't seem to enjoy winning by 50+ points.

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We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Probably one of those win-obsessed people... best to avoid.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

The difference is that while I enjoy winning, I prefer to win against people my own strength. I personally don't get much pleasure out of sandbagging, but I can kind of understand how others do. Yet this guy doesn't seem to enjoy winning as a sandbagger either, based on his insults.

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Right-click on them and choose "Load in..." and pick any room


yeah, don't worry about it. Just play your own game the best you can. You're probably better off if you don't read the chat until after the game is over anyway