Maybe you review them too soon? How many books/problems did you solve in between?

I'm going through Get Strong at Tesuji as well at the moment and I still learn a lot from the problems. Though the last time I did them was a couple of years back, I guess.

E.g. these two 3-star-problems:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Black to play
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X O X . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . O X O O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O O X O X . X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O , . O X X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . X O X O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

In the top right I was quite lost. I only knew what the bad moves would be but I didn't the see the correct one, probably due to "shape reasons".

In the bottom left I figured that there could only be one sensible candidate move but I didn't see White's strongest response (move 4 in the main sequence).

Seeing the right move in the top right and figuring out why there could be only one sensible move in the bottom left was already worthwhile. For me these "tiny things" are very important. Since these are quite easy problems, they show me that I lack certain basics and I feel without those basics everything more advanced would be - at best - standing on very shaky ground.

501 Tesuji Problems is also on my list : )

Using the money I got from private tutoring, i ordered a yearly service of BadukTV today... hehe this is going to be my source of pleasure and learning for an entire year now

I am thinking about going through Expert's Haengma, Catching Up to 3 Kyu, Real Power 3 kyu, and Intermediate Maek X-Files. I went through catching up to 5kyu a while back (found the whole thing for free on some korean blog), and I loved how concise and short they were - 15 minutes each that taught me quite alot about the 2-Star and 3-Star openings. I think this will be perfect for when I go back to school and I don't have as much time to focus devote to studying.

Is it in English or Korean?

The 1st ranked game, I was simply outplayed. I didn't attack correctly, etc.

I have been so busy with work these days from 9-3 and then out tutoring from 4-8 I've hardly had time to work on my go for the past few days but I've just solved 50 problem a night before going to bed. Maybe its a good break since i was thrashed just a couple days ago. I am still aiming to hit 8kyu by the end of the summer.

this may sound a bit with rank obsession but how does KGS' rank system work? It seems that a defeat affects your ratings a hella lot more than a victory does...

In the meantime, I thought I needed to focus more joseki/jeongsuk - particularly because i kept on getting killed by anyone that played the 3-4point instead of the starpoint. I couldn't find good English books for Joseki - one that contained the essentials, had reasons for each move, variations, and was recent and up to date. The closest I found was 38 Basic Joseki but it was outdated. So instead, I bought 3 korean books - each volumes from the Cho Hun Hyun Baduk Series. One book on Star Points (11 joseki), 3-4 point (11 joseki), and new millennium joseki (contains 15 modern joseki).

Or, ignore learning joseki except when it comes up in a game. During your game review, take a look at josekipedia, which has plenty of variations along with comments which moves are good.

From there, you can try to read it out, but at this point at your (our) level, I'd recommend skipping learning too much about joseki, get the basics (during game reviews), and focus on other elements of your playstyle.

I've been thinking about why I've been losing lately.
Actually, I didn't deliberately think about it so much as a thought came to me as I watched a bit of one of Haylee's Youtube videos. For those of you that don't know, Haylee is a pro that does video streaming of the games she plays on Tygem. As she's a pro, she often wins, so it's fun to watch her talk about her thought process.

Anyway, I started to think about the some of the differences between the way that I play go, and the way that she plays go. Of course, she's much better at reading, and can evaluate the board position much more precisely.

But what stuck out to me was her attitude during the game. The biggest difference in thinking that I can notice in her playing style and mine is that I am constantly thinking of the result. I don't have a problem in making myself try to count points in the game, which is good for evaluation.

But perhaps I think of the result too superficially. When I get into a local skirmish, I feel like I'm rushed to get past the skirmish, and move on to the end of the game. Haylee, on the other hand, strikes me as being much more patient, taking her time to play the best way for each move in the game. Even if she knows she's ahead, she plays without rushing the game - like savoring each local battle.

With thoughts like rank, winning and losing, and finishing the game on my mind, I feel I rush the game, overlooking the basic and proper way to play.

I will play another game soon. And I plan to play it properly, without rushing to the end of the game. I think Haylee would do it that way, and I'd like to try, too.

another loss today

edit: managed to win a game of handi go against a 7kyu with 2 stones, 6.5 komi.

Are you getting all of the games u played reviewed?
It'a good way of dropping off bad habits. Instead playing more games, maybe you can review them first by yourself, attach questions and then share it on reddit or here, so better players can have at look at them. Even if they do not comment the whole game, they'd indicate 1-2 obvious faults in our gameplay.
edit: You can also ask to some dan level players in kgs, most of the time they would review the whole game with you. It's better to correct most of our bad habits before it's too late. After we play 500+ games it would harder to change our style.

On another note - I finished GGPB Vol. 4 with 70% accuracy.

What was interesting is that I got 94% of the middle game problems and scored around 60 on the life and death problems. But what's odd is that my middlegame during games is weak.. x) Baduk is a mysterious game.

Congratulations!



It is hard for us to judge our own game. With just this information I would trust your score on middle game problems over your impression of your own play. Why, then, do you feel that your middle game is weak? One possibility is reflected in this old joke:

Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.

Doctor: Then don't do that.

You will sometimes see players showing a position and asking what they should have done in it, because they got a bad result. Often the real answer is, "Don't get into that position." It may be that you are getting poor middle game results because of earlier mistakes in the opening.