I'm finally starting a log. I strongly expect this to peter out after a few (uninteresting) posts but if it helps me to keep studying, so be it !
As for context, I started playing go more than 10 years ago, read lots of books and at some point reached 1-2k, the level of the strongest players in my club. I haven't made much progress since, which I think can in part be attributed to this lack of contact with stronger players. Bad habits are now firmly ensconced and removing them on my own doesn't seem feasible.
Lately my reading skills have deteriorated, something which is evident in my blitz games. A cure of tsumego is thus indicated.
So, this log will have two goals :
- enabling me to keep track (and motivation) of go problems solved
- posting serious games, as well as questions about specific positions, and get comments/new ideas from anyone who will be willing to comment
Practically speaking, this means :
- solving Lee Chang-ho's tsumego books starting from vol. 1
From what I've seen the first volumes of Lee's tsumegos shouldn't be too much of a challenge but tsumego works better for me with a lot of easy problems than a few hard ones. The thing of course is to read all the sequences and not be satisfied with just finding the vital point (after all, the point is to improve reading skills not solving tsumego per se). I've done this a couple of years ago and found it was a great way to improve (or at least maintain) reading skills.
- stop playing blitz and put more thought into my games
I love blitz and the time pressure that goes with it but while I think it can be very valuable to play fast games in order to make your bad habits stand out, I also feel that I've played too much of them now and that it has made it more difficult for me to think deeper in slow games.
- (maybe) stop playing at Wbaduk
or at least stop playing in the Korean room. A bit like blitz games, I think playing there had great positive effects on my game because it taught me how to fight better and deal with overplay. But now I sort of have trouble dealing with games that do not feature as much overplays and often find myself at a loss about what to do when the game is a peaceful one.
Here it is, now to work !
