Fwiffo's 2010 Study Journal

Marcus · **#21**

Magicwand and topazg both jumped on it quicker than I did. Thanks guys!

fwiffo · **#22**

In fact, it is on goproblems.com. I should have just done a position search.

daniel_the_smith · **#23**

I need to go back to bed... :-?

unkx80 · **#24**

That was Hitachi Number 9 on SL, posted many years ago. Chances of somebody seeing it should be quite high.

fwiffo · **#25**

June 29, 2010

The Direction of Play, Started Chapter 2
Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol. 4, #19-41, 17/23
Continued six ongoing DGS games plus Malkovich

Not happy with getting 5/23 of these problems wrong; they aren't very hard.

fwiffo · **#26**

June 30-July 2, 2010

Started re-reading Making Good Shape, hoping some of it sinks in this time.

fwiffo · **#27**

July 3, 2010

Finished re-reading Making Good Shape, Chapter 1
Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol. 4, #42-71, 33/37

Was in a problem-doing mood today, so I did a bunch.

The first 41 problems in the book were middle-game tesuji/shape type questions. #42-49 are joseki problems. I missed #46 and #47 which were handicap joseki, and #49. I almost gave myself half-credit for that last one because my end result was similar to some of the several correct variations given. The next four were multiple-choice, direction-of-play type opening problems. They were pretty easy; I would probably have gotten them right even without the labels. #54-71 were life-and-death, and I aced those. #72-78 were endgame problems, and I missed just the last one.

Next comes "Level Two", we'll see how much harder they are.

Finished my first DGS game this morning; the only one where I got black. Started a few more and have a total of eight going right now. Somehow I'm white in all of them.

[sgf-full]http://www.dragongoserver.net/sgf.php?gid=579375[/sgf-full]

fwiffo · **#28**

July 4, 2010

Finished re-reading Making Good Shape, Chapter 2
Lesson with teacher

fwiffo · **#29**

July 5, 2010

The Direction of Play Chapter 2
Making Good Shape #1-18 (14.5/18)

Making Good Shape #11 is the same as Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol. 4 #43, but the two books give different solutions. I'll give myself half-credit :roll:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W $$ ------------------ $$ | . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . O . . . $$ | . . . X . . . . . $$ | . . 1 . . . . . . $$ | . . O X X . . . . $$ | . . . O . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

How should black respond to :w1:

?

Anyhow, I should do better than this considering it's my second time through these problems (I'd gotten through #104 before I started over). I don't feel like I'm really absorbing any of the new ideas I'm being exposed to. My teacher has shown me a couple things more than once in our lessons, and I've made the same EXACT errors multiple times. Likewise with the shape and direction of play concepts I've been reading about.

I won two more DGS games today. I think my initial rating there is too weak, and I keep getting white, so I put up a couple requests for stronger players. I have eight games ongoing and a couple requests in the waiting room.

Of the two games that ended today, I think this is the more interesting one. I had handicapped myself by playing unfocused and really terribly for a couple days, falling behind and left with weak groups, but put together a much stronger endgame than my opponent and ended up with a pretty easy win.

[sgf-full]http://www.dragongoserver.net/sgf.php?gid=579565[/sgf-full]

The other game that ended today at only 77 moves (I made a pretty major kill), and is probably less interesting. I have two other games nearly finished. In one, I've killed more than half the board. The other is close, but I'm ahead and it's late in endgame so I just have to avoid a major screw-up.

Dusk Eagle · **#30**

fwiffo · **#31**

Yeah, I like that result (which would make GGPfBv4 wrong and Making Good Shape right). But I wondered if it might depend on context (neither book gives wider context).

ethanb · **#32**

fwiffo wrote:

Yeah, I like that result (which would make GGPfBv4 wrong and Making Good Shape right). But I wondered if it might depend on context (neither book gives wider context).

I don't have Graded Go Problems for Beginners, but the first thing that occurs to me:

Are you certain that the "wrong" one is also starting from a 4-4 stone? There's a 3-4 joseki which starts out identically, but black gets in a bit of trouble if he blocks.

fwiffo · **#33**

Mystery solved, the correct and incorrect diagrams are swapped in the book.

fwiffo · **#34**

July 6-14, 2010

My studying has been more erratic lately

The Direction of Play Started Chapter 3
Making Good Shape #19-72 (33/54)
Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol. 4 #79-90 (7/12)
Lesson with teacher (Sunday)

I'm doing very poorly on the Making Good Shape problems, which is sad, because it's my second time through them. I don't really know what to do about it. They're not the kind of problems where I'm going to do better by taking more time to read. I'm wondering at this point if I've just gotten to old to learn new things. After getting so frustrated with Making Good Shape, I go on to do other problems, but the frustration carries over so I don't exercise enough patience. The section of GGPfBv4 I'm in right now is really the same kind of problem as in MGS. I really don't understand them very well.

I've finished several more DGS games, the most interesting of which was my first DGS loss, handed to me by Marcus316:

[sgf-full]http://www.dragongoserver.net/sgf.php?gid=581146[/sgf-full]

Chew Terr · **#35**

Thanks for sharing the game, it was interesting. You seemed to play more moves that were fast and light, and Marcus seemed to play several more moves that were slow and steady, 'This will give me 15 points here, and is rock-solid' like R3. I just played through it quickly, but it was fun to watch. =D

Marcus · **#36**

Heh, this game was my first experiment with the Micro Chinese (R8) as played by Lee Sedol in the Fujitsu Cup Final 2010.

I really enjoyed the way the board played out, and I'm going to have to try incorporating this formation into my repertoire.

This was a very fun game, but it really stretched my reading and estimation skills. Chew, you mentioned my move at R3. That move in particular I wasn't keen about making, but I didn't want to fall behind any more than I already felt I was, so I took gote (for what felt like the 20th time) to secure the corner.

It really felt like I was giving up sente too much in this game, but I couldn't find a good way to keep it a lot of the time. :w38:

-

in particular felt very strong for White, and I couldn't find a good time to attack those 3 floating stones until the very end of the game.

Definitely a lot of fun, though. I'm up for another any time, fwiffo, if you'd like.

fwiffo · **#37**

Sure, I plan to play a few games on KGS this evening if you'd like to do a real-time game.

fwiffo · **#38**

Go is hard!

Marcus · **#39**

I know!

daniel_the_smith · **#40**

Nobody knows anything about go and I know less than anyone...

Fwiffo's 2010 Study Journal

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