6 stones in the next year

[otenki]

Since we are close to the new year I would like to make some good intends for the next year.

I have been playing for about one year, in this year I've gotten to about 9k kgs (EGF 11k) and have been stuck here for 5 months. The funny thing is that studying life and death shapes has not made me really a lot stronger. When I was 8k 5 months ago I started studying life and death and now I can read out a lot more corner situations etc which does come in handy. Howhever it did not make me even a stone stronger, wierd

Where I want to be in one year:

- I want to reach EGF 5k which is gaining a stone every 2 months, so about kgs 2kyu. I think this will be a very tough goal to reach in a year but still doable nevertheless.

That obviously brings me to how I'm going to do that, and here is the plan:

GoChild :
- 500k points. Thats grinding about 1.4k points per day.
- Do the chinese go school problems up to about 1k frequently.

Tsumego:
- Graded go problems for beginners (2?) & 3 & 4
- Weiqi 1000 life and death. (chinese) => this one I really want to master.
- chinese tsumego => Volume 1: Introductory (rumenpian)
- chinese tsumego => Volume 2: Beginner (chujipian)
- chinese tsumego => Volume 3: Middle (zhongjipian) => this one seems a bit hard though.
- Essential life and death 1,2,3 (4 is too difficult for now)
- 501 tesuji
- Life and death 1001 (This needs to be really easy soon)
- Making good shape (rob van zijst)


If i have any time left:

- Get strong at tesuji
- Get strong at invading
- Get strong at attacking


Theory:
- Some book on creating and destroying frameworks or invading, not sure which one yet. (if you know a good one, let me know)
- Lessons in the fundamentals of go.
- Re-read attack and defence

Not doing this anymore after comments:

Joseki, Fuseki & pro games:
- Study modern fighting joseki's like the magic sword with as goal to improve my shape and reading.
- Study games of Takemiya (for learning influence), Kato Masao(learn to fight) and Gu Li (for entertainment )
- Study mini and micro chinese and learn newer variations in the orthodox fuseki.

The reason I want to read making good shape:

I have the illusion that I play a much better fuseki than my oponent because I play fast(light) and high. Howhever I notice that this leads to very thin shape everywhere. I have to learn how to create thick shapes while not being overconcentraded.
The reason I want to get good at this is because I want to be able to do more moves in less time but at the same time not leave more messy stuff behind.

If you have any tips, books or other things I should add to my next year list please let me know

Cheers,
Otenki

[schawipp]

On your list, I miss the most important point "playing (and reviewing) games"

For solving Tsumego I can confirm that it does not immediately lead to rank improvement. Speaking for me, at least my playing style gradually changed, while being stuck on 6-7k KGS.

I think that continuity is more important that quantity, e. g. solving about 5 Tsumegos per day on goproblems.com or from a Tsumego collection such as tsumego.tasuki.org is better than working through all "Weiqi 1000 life and death" during weekend.

For the playing style, I was adviced in our local go group not to focus too much on territory. Instead I should focus on splitting the opponent's stones while keeping my own stones connected. If you do that effectively (and being good in tsumego does help, here), your opponent will be quite busy in keeping his splitted groups alive, so the "territory thing" will come as a side-effect. I'm experimenting with this advice and as a result, am either losing by territory by a big margin or winning according to a large kill. There may be still some adjustment needed, at least the games became more chaotic

I was also told that Fuseki/Joseki literature is not yet important at my stage...

[Boidhre]

On invading and frameworks, the book to start with would be Attack and Defence. It doesn't cover either area thoroughly but is a good introduction. Yilun Yang's Fundamental Principles of Go has a section in the back covering invasions of some standard shapes, it's also worth a look. After these and a few stones later, Reducing Territorial Frameworks by Fujisawa is meant to be a good follow-up from what I've heard, I've only just begun reading it so I couldn't comment.


I notice a lack of tesuji problems (there'll be some in GGPFB 3 & 4). Consider Get Strong at Tesuji as another problem book. Adds some variety and knowing these basic tesuji will help a lot in games. Equally you should read Tesuji by Davies if you haven't done so already.

Anyway, good luck.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Go for it.

Anyone with a penquin avatar has my blessing...and an occasional review.

As Boidhre suggested, Yilun Yang's 'Fundamental Principles of Go' is a good idea. Or Kageyama's 'Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go' would work too.

[otenki]

On your list, I miss the most important point "playing (and reviewing) games"

For solving Tsumego I can confirm that it does not immediately lead to rank improvement. Speaking for me, at least my playing style gradually changed, while being stuck on 6-7k KGS.

I think that continuity is more important that quantity, e. g. solving about 5 Tsumegos per day on goproblems.com or from a Tsumego collection such as tsumego.tasuki.org is better than working through all "Weiqi 1000 life and death" during weekend.

For the playing style, I was adviced in our local go group not to focus too much on territory. Instead I should focus on splitting the opponent's stones while keeping my own stones connected. If you do that effectively (and being good in tsumego does help, here), your opponent will be quite busy in keeping his splitted groups alive, so the "territory thing" will come as a side-effect. I'm experimenting with this advice and as a result, am either losing by territory by a big margin or winning according to a large kill. There may be still some adjustment needed, at least the games became more chaotic

I was also told that Fuseki/Joseki literature is not yet important at my stage...

I totaly forgot to add the playing and reviewing games because it seemed so obvious to me
I occasionaly ask for a review here on L19x19...


As for the playing style, look at this... This is a game I just played: (i'm black)



I don't think I need to play anymore influence orientated than this I think instead I should stop only thinking about influence and killing because its hurting my game....
Go is about balance I guess ?

On invading and frameworks, the book to start with would be Attack and Defence. It doesn't cover either area thoroughly but is a good introduction.
Yilun Yang's Fundamental Principles of Go has a section in the back covering invasions of some standard shapes, it's also worth a look.
After these and a few stones later, Reducing Territorial Frameworks by Fujisawa is meant to be a good follow-up from what I've heard, I've only just begun reading it so I couldn't comment.


I notice a lack of tesuji problems (there'll be some in GGPFB 3 & 4). Consider Get Strong at Tesuji as another problem book. Adds some variety and knowing these basic tesuji will help a lot in games. Equally you should read Tesuji by Davies if you haven't done so already.

Anyway, good luck.

I have read attack and defense and did not gain that much from it. This reminds me I'll edit the original post to say which books i've read.
I have started long time ago in "Fundamental Principles of Go" but I should do it again because I think I was not ready for it at that time.
"Reducing Territorial Frameworks" aha !!! This is the kind of stuff I'm looking for!

I've also worked myself through Get Strong at Tesuji & tesuji before but i'll add them on the list of todo again

Go for it.

Anyone with a penquin avatar has my blessing...and an occasional review.

As Boidhre suggested, Yilun Yang's 'Fundamental Principles of Go' is a good idea. Or Kageyama's 'Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go' would work too.

Thanks for the enthousiasm, people like you keep me going !

[Boidhre]

I have read attack and defense and did not gain that much from it.

When I first read it I got very little from it, several stones later when I reread it I got a lot. It's worth bearing in mind that it's a very easy book to not be ready for when you first pick it up.

[EdLee]

[schawipp]

As for the playing style, look at this... This is a game I just played: (i'm black)

This game looks quite interesting! I went through it and put some variations and comments. Since I'm approximately at the same strength as you this is rather meant for discussion and not as a "review"

One feedback I could give is that you could IMHO treat invading stones more severely. At several points I put suggested variations, which might illustrate that. If I suggested nonsense there, I hope that someone stronger would correct me.

[mitsun]

$$Bc W to play and kill
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXXX.XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc W to play and kill
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXXX.XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...[/go]

[Twitchy Go]

$$Bc B to play and live
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXX..XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc B to play and live
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXX..XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...[/go]

I might be missing something.(I probably am) But I don't see a move for black that works here.

[Boidhre]

$$Bc W to play and kill
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXXX.XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc W to play and kill
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXXX.XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...[/go]

Fun, thanks.


Twitchy, you're missing a stone in your diagram.

[otenki]

Ive scanned quickly and I think the answer is:

F19 G19 E16 D16 F16 => black dead.

Did not read very carefully though, will check again tomorow if i was right because it is late here now and I'm really tired

Thanks guys !
Otenki

[Twitchy Go]

$$Bc W to play and kill
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXXX.XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc W to play and kill
$$----------
$$|.O.......
$$|.OXXX.XOO
$$|.OOX.XXXO
$$|......OO.
$$|..OXX.O..
$$|.O.OO.OO.
$$|.XX..O...[/go]

Fun, thanks.


Twitchy, you're missing a stone in your diagram.

Yes. That was intentional. I was curious to see if B had just made a wrong move or if living was impossible before E18 was played.

[salerno]

Hi Otenki.
I would replace the books you listed (Making good shape and the other one) with kageyama's fundamentals for the time being, and when you reach around 4k read Attack and Defense.
Also, i wouldn't start studying joseki until about 4k/3k.
You should keep it simple at this stage: only fundamental theory (kageyama), lots of tsumego, and playing and reviewing every game, until you get to strong kyu.

"Study mini and micro chinese and learn newer variations in the orthodox fuseki" -> I think that's way too much of an objective, considering you still have to do all the other things. It's a task that will take you months, and at this stage won't help you too much. I wouldn't focus on this right now.

It's good to make a plan and stick to it, i like it. Good luck!

[SoDesuNe]

I made some sort of blog post (see my signature) about my progression some time ago, maybe it's useful for you:

Intermediate-Kyu (14k-7k (KGS))

Attack and Defense
This is the one and only middlegame book you'll need for a long time. It teaches you everything about how to attack and what attacking moves actually are; and it shows the opposite side: How to defend.
Furthermore it has chapters about invasions, reductions and how to build up a framework for yourself.
What might be even more important (but hard to grasp at this level) is the illustration on how to play if you are ahead in territory or ahead in terms of power.
You won't immediately understand everything in this book and you surely will read it more than three times over your Go career, but all this book offers is utmost essential and is a must need to know!

Tesuji
One hell of an important book!
Here you will learn every Tesuji you need to master to become a Dan player. But [ext] Tesuji does not just offer an overview of the different Tesujis, it wonderfully explains every single one and rounds that up with a lot of examples to practice. The book really is a jewel!
If you might not be convinced yet: The book also has a very useful (and highly regarded) explanation on how to read out a position, it covers a whole chapter.
This book, too, can be a bit difficult at the beginning, because it requires that you read out quite a few longish sequences. But don't be discouraged, the important point with this book is to learn to recognize the shapes in which the different Tesujis occur.

One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems
There is not much to say about this one. If it comes down to practice life-and-death, this book is one of the best choices for intermediate players. Solely because of its vast number of situations and its increasing difficulty, you will build up confidence in reading out sequences.
The one downside there might be: The problems are all very artificial, but then again, vital points are always the same and by solving all the problems in this book, you will surely use every important life-and-death tactic and Tesuji, which will benefit your play.

Get Strong at Tesuji
What One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems is for Tsumegos, Get Strong at Tesuji is for Tesujis. It might be one of the most powerful problem books for intermediate players in Go and together with [ext] Tesuji by James Davies easily one of the most powerful Tesuji books in English at all.
Also offering problems with different difficulties, this book invites you to resolve it several times and always learn something knew. I, for once, solved it five times already and I can say with confidence: This book alone made me at least one rank stronger.
As a remark: The problems in this book feel a lot different to life-and-death problems. You are not always asked to kill something or to make live but to gain a local advantage or put your opponent in bad shape. That's a different thinking and that's why many moves might be completely new to you. But that alone shows how much you can learn from this book.

Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 3
See above.



Advanced-Kyu (6k-3k (KGS))

Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 4
See above.

Making Good Shape
I find it hard to explain this book, because shape is a very abstract matter.
You will often hear or read about good shape or bad shape, but the theory behind it is very hard to grasp. To phrase it simply: Bad shape often invites a Tesuji, which will put the player with the bad shape in a even worse situation. So bad shape invites attacking, while good shape secures your stones. This is what this book tries to teach you with its problems.
At first you might get almost every problem wrong or you are totally clueless what or where to play (I experienced both), but that's okay. Take your time to think of an answer and than just check the solution and when you have been wrong, just try to understand what the correct move achieves and why the solution is better than what you would have played. You'll get a lot of new ideas and you will start to see more moves during your play after solving this book two or three times.

Rescue and Capture
The title tells about two central aspects of Go. Capturing enemy stones and rescueing one's own stones.
The reason why I include this book: It offers 80 really nice problems, which I find highly educational, because you have to find some not obvious looking moves (no standard vital point spotting). Furthermore, I feel that the focus in this book lies in reading further ahead, compared to books with problems for a similiar strength.
A very good book to practice one's skill!

Life and Death - Intermediate Level Problems
There is no way around, you need to practice reading, reading, reading and again reading ^^ But there are a lot of books out there with which you can practice. I think this book is one of the best to still have fun while doing Tsumegos.
The book structures the problems in circles of ten. 1 being the easiest problem (said to be around 7 Kyu, but in my opinion some problems are far more difficult) and 10 the most difficult (said to be around 2 Dan, but this is exaggerated, I think). In my opinion the problems are on average around 3 Kyu KGS.
Becauses of the structure you will have some easy and some hard problems, so it's not always troublesome to come up with a solution. But on the other hand you will slowly have to read deeper to find the right move and this is a nice challenge.
Furthermore this book has a really nice size: It fits in every pocket, so you can carry it around to always have some nice Tsumegos to solve ; )



Expert-Kyu (2k-1k (KGS))

Yi Ch'ang-Ho Selected Tesuji Problems Volume 1 - 5
Yes, it still comes down to more reading practice ; ) Volume one, two and especially four will be very easy for players with this rank and can also be solved when you are 6k-3k (it might be a good challenge then ; ) ) but nonetheless they are a good repetition.
Volume three increases the difficulty enormously, I think, and needs a lot more careful reading and even spotting the first move. You will have to verify your sequence against a lot of possible counter moves, which will sharpen your structur in reading to not forget any Tesujis White (it's always Black to play) might have. Furthermore a lot of problems feature Semeais, so you will get used to count liberties during your own fights, which will make you a stronger fighter and thus strengthen your play in the important middlegame.

Yi Ch'ang-Ho Selected Tsumego Problems Volume 1 - 3
Here applies almost the same as above. Volume one and two could also be solved when you are 6k-3k but since this "guide" is a approximate roadmap of my improving and when I read the books I found useful, it is only logical to put them here.
Volume three also becomes challenging for this level and requires some deeper reading and more technique. If you can't read chinese, be aware: Some problems are solved by Ko.

Get Strong at the Opening
After solving a lot of Tsumego- and Tesuji-problems, you might tend to focus only on the local position. This is of course bad and one way to efficiently work against this is to solve opening problems. Compared to Tsumegos or Tesujis you now have to take the whole board into consideration to find the big and urgent points. This will also teach you a more strategic approach compared to the more tactical approach when solving other problems.
Furthermore after advancing this far through the ranks, the difference in fighting strength becomes smaller and smaller, so if you screw up big time in the opening it will be very hard to fight your way through to a comeback at 1-kyu.

501 Opening Problems
See Get Strong at the Opening.

Lessons in the fundamentals of Go
For a long time I could not understand the value of this book, since it gets frequently suggested to read around the verge from double-digit-kyu to single-digit-kyu. I found and still find this very off, but it seems the majority of Go-players thinks otherwise, so be your own judge.
In my opinion this book fits perfectly here, just before reaching Shodan. In a strict sense, it does not teach you anything. Kageyama has a very conversational writing style and most of the time he writes about a certain attitude towards studying and what he considers to be fundamental knowledge. I don't like his writing style and on top of that I don't like his cocky remarks but he is right with every aspect he choses to exemplify a bit ("a bit" is to be taken literally).
These aspects like how to study Joseki, how to use influence, prober and improber moves, cutting and connecting, how the stones should walk and so on are actually the essence of your Go-strength. Of what brought you this far. While reading this book, you will hear about a lot of things that you already know or maybe just seem to know. The point is to make those things conscious again and find out if you really understood them or if you have still (bigger) blank areas. Then you can address them by reading an actual Go-theory-book ; )