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billywoods's big fat go thread
http://www.lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=7518		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  billywoods [ Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:42 pm ]
Post subject:  billywoods's big fat go thread
If I call a thread "big" and "fat", that will mean I have to come back and not forget about it, right?

As well as getting on with my normal life, I would like to reach the lofty heights of (KGS) shodan within about 3 months. I think this is probably hard, and I think I'm probably not going to manage it, but I also think it's a valuable goal to aim for, and it will take me to some interesting places along the way. A vague and sketchy plan:

  • I should really stop messing about and do some tsumego. All of my reading skill seems to have come from one big stint of tsumego when I was 8 kyu (which almost instantly pushed me up to about 6 kyu). The Cho Chikun/tasuki tsumego seem good for this, and so do Graded Go Problems for Beginners.
  • "Attack and Defence", "Opening Theory Made Easy", hmm...
  • I do subscribe to Guo Juan's videos, and should really watch some of those - at the moment I'm just wasting my money ignoring them.

There's no reason why I can't put 20-odd minutes into tsumego daily, and play a few serious games per week. I hope, anyway...
Author:  billywoods [ Thu Jan 03, 2013 7:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
billywoods wrote:
  • I do subscribe to Guo Juan's videos, and should really watch some of those - at the moment I'm just wasting my money ignoring them.

Currently working my way slowly through some of the 'middle game training' sections on this. Pretty helpful, actually. My concept of the middlegame has always been nebulous, but it's helped to clarify some ideas. That said, it's a pretty poor substitute for actually going back and reading "Attack and Defense" from cover to cover. My excuse is that the 'middle game training' levels are broken up into hour-long videos with problems and explanations that are 2-5 minutes long each, and this is perfect for unpausing and pausing in breaks or when I'm bored. There's not very many of them, but all go is good go. Well, I'll get onto "Attack and Defense" at some point.

Played a few games over the board recently. I am out of practice, and it shows.
Author:  billywoods [ Sat Jan 05, 2013 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
I paid for a day pass to Baduk TV English today. I may or may not again.

I'll be honest: I like the content, and it is well translated and presented. The lessons, luckily, seem to be mostly aimed at my sort of strength (there are no lessons for players 6-ish stones or more weaker or stronger, as far as I saw - don't waste your time), and the pro games are clearly commented (and accessible at my level, but I can't really comment on others). The content is fast-paced, and there's lots of go and not much waffle.

Still, I remain unconvinced by the price. This is partly simply because I don't have $20/month to spend on go, but I don't think it's entirely that - I've been convinced to spend more on sillier things before. Firstly, $20 per month is $240 per year, which is about €182 per year, which is almost twice what Guo Juan's videos cost (€99 aka $130 - and Guo Juan has far more, for all strengths, of comparable quality). Secondly, if "$20 per month" still doesn't sound too bad, note that a "month" is actually about 5-6 hours' worth of video. I could watch this in a particularly dull day.

On the plus side, if I have a particularly dull day and want to fill it with go, the day pass is very good value for money. I'm just a little sad about it - $2.70 is clearly very cheap for half a day's worth of entertainment of any kind, but $20 is clearly very expensive. I'd like to support the site more, but it's a choice between two extremes, and I'm going to choose the one that doesn't start approaching a quarter of my food bill.


I need to do more tsumego.

A rough plan (at about 10-20 minutes per day, hopefully):
  • Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 3 should mostly be easy and take me a handful of days.
  • GGPFB vol. 4 is actually quite a lot harder, I seem to remember. I can usually do the problems, but have to scratch my head over them for a while. I'll do as much of this as I can be bothered to, before moving on to...
  • Cho Chikun's elementary L&D. I've done it once before, but it's still hard. I don't know why I find L&D so hard.
  • Cho Chikun's intermediate L&D. After this, I'll re-evaluate.


I need to play fewer stupid blitz games.

And preferably replace them with good, well thought out, serious games. But even if I don't replace them with anything, I think I will improve faster simply by stopping playing blitz against Tygem 14 kyus.
Author:  billywoods [ Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
(KGS) 3 kyu. Yay!

[Edit: I've also posted this game here, because people might be watching that forum more than my thread - can't imagine why, of course...]

I played a game (as black), which I eventually won because my opponent was rather overzealous. I made a couple of silly mistakes (getting myself cut, getting a few stones captured), but even in spite of those mistakes I seemed to get less than I expected out of attacking white's weak groups (which white was always very happy to create). I'd be grateful if someone could look through it, focusing on my attacks - no need to look past move 92, when things started going a little better for me. Thanks!



(In other news, is this how to embed an sgf file? We'll find out, I guess. Edit: ah, got it.)

Attachments:
billywoods-1.sgf [4.02 KiB]
Downloaded 944 times
Author:  Simba [ Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
Hi Billy,

Move 7 - you can just jump into the corner here. White's P6 stone will end up looking pretty stupid no matter what he does.

Re 17: - no, your move is the proper side. You don't want a weak black group in the middle of white's area. White should defend with D6 - not doing so is a disaster. The honte sequence would be white D6 then black J4.

Move 29 - far too small. Just play C3. Good shape, large on points, and threatens squeezy nonsense. The stone you saved is unimportant.

Move 33 - descend to F2 first. Stronger sente.

Move 39 - taking the outside is probably better given the lower left in general - consistent plan. 38 is stupid overplay though lol, so attacking severely like this probably is also good.

Move 43 - nooooooo! This is really, really bad shape. If white peeps at D13 you're going to feel like a lemon.

Move 47 - I think this is fine - much more solid at the top, and white can probably do more fancy stuff than in your variation (for example D13 peep then trying to run or such).

Move 55 - yeah, I like B5 better. This is another reason why you should play F2 earlier.

Move 59 - B13 better, unless you're sure you'll kill middle left.

Move 87 - S14 is better; no open skirt that way. Nobody likes an open skirt.

Move 92 - lol. Congratulations on killing a silly. Maybe when I'm a million dan I'll be able to reliably do that too :) .

Have said it before - think your play overall is fine, just some shape mistakes. Gratz on 3k!
Author:  billywoods [ Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
Thanks!
Author:  billywoods [ Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
Still flip-flopping 3-4 kyu.

Reading Davies's "Tesuji" on and off. It's fun, but a poor excuse for tsumego, really. I'm not learning anything I didn't already know, though there's merit in having it reinforced...

Maybe I'll play another serious game after coffee, and post it.
Author:  billywoods [ Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
I really, really hate tsumego.
Author:  SoDesuNe [ Fri Jan 25, 2013 3:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
Ohh, why is that? =o They are the only thing I have some confidence in =D
Author:  burrkitty [ Fri Jan 25, 2013 3:17 am ]
Post subject:  billywoods's big fat go thread
Me to! I love tsumego! I have exactly 0 confidence in a live game. Tsumego are fun. A perfect way to play without dragging in others...
Author:  billywoods [ Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
SoDesuNe wrote:
Ohh, why is that? =o They are the only thing I have some confidence in =D

burrkitty wrote:
Me to! I love tsumego! I have exactly 0 confidence in a live game. Tsumego are fun. A perfect way to play without dragging in others...

Partly just because I find them very hard. Partly because, in a real game, my opponent can make mistakes too, but in tsumego, only I can make mistakes. And I do, frequently. ;) Unlike tesuji problems, where I can see why the answer is the answer, the answer just seems to be completely random in life and death, and almost identical problems have completely different solutions. Unlike in real games, where there are usually many variably good points on the board, in a life and death situation there's only one good answer and everything else is awful. I'm probably thinking about it wrongly, but I'm not sure what else to do other than read just about every sequence in some order, and I find that taxing and dull. :)
Author:  burrkitty [ Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
billywoods wrote:
but I'm not sure what else to do other than read just about every sequence in some order, and I find that taxing and dull. :)


Maybe then the quarrel is not with Tsumego, but the way you are going about learning them. Perhaps a change of process? How exactly do you go about the process of solving Tsumego? What do you do? Perhaps if we examine it we can find a better way for you. Learning styles differ dramatically between people, so there is no reason to believe that there is no way for it to be fun. We may just need to seek a different method! (My mother was a GT teacher, some of it rubbed off) :lol:
Author:  billywoods [ Fri Jan 25, 2013 5:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
burrkitty wrote:
Maybe then the quarrel is not with Tsumego, but the way you are going about learning them. Perhaps a change of process? How exactly do you go about the process of solving Tsumego? What do you do?

I'm not entirely sure.

When I'm killing something, if the position looks a bit like one I know (e.g. an L-group, a line of stones on the second line), then I try to reduce it to the position I know, or I poke at points that look like vital points or would usually be vital points in other situations. If the group has no weaknesses, I work out how much eyespace it has and try to reduce it in sente until I can plant a dead shape inside. When this doesn't work, I play obvious hanes or throw-ins to reduce eyespace, or ataris or cuts to be annoying, or moves in the middle to stop my opponent splitting their group in half. When things that look like eyespace-reducing moves or obvious sente moves don't work, I'm reduced to playing out all variations at random.

When I'm trying to live, I sometimes try to pretend I'm my opponent trying to kill me. It mostly doesn't help; things that look like vital points for my opponent to kill often aren't vital points for me to live.
Author:  billywoods [ Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
I played a game, in which I went (back) up from 4k to 3k. But I wasn't very happy with it. Any comments appreciated!
Author:  billywoods [ Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
I played another game (not posted here) as a 3k against a 3k, in which I did very well until I lost concentration, lost a few vital stones, lost focus - and then lost. Ho hum.

Taking a leaf out of logan's book - or, more accurately, inspired by his post, but not necessarily related to what he's suggesting to do - I'm going to do a tsumego collection, reporting on my progress as I go, and repeat until I find the collection easy. Starting with Cho Chikun's annoyingly titled "elementary problems".
Author:  billywoods [ Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
My opponent played some sente dame, and I thought "it's only dame, don't care" and tenukied, and lost 30 points. Then lost the game by 0.5.

This is why I can't have nice things. :cry:

No more go until I've stopped being an idiot. On a more serious note, if I'm this sloppy and haphazard with the rest of my life, how do I manage to get anything done? It might explain why I reach the end of each day feeling like I haven't achieved anything. :)
Author:  SoDesuNe [ Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
It's safe to say, we've all been there. And your game of Go is maybe not accidentally called a mirror of your soul ; )

In the end you just have to embrace your mistakes and learn from them. It's hard sure.

I for instance lost one game in a Ko fight because, due to no sound, I though my opponent passed (you see: awesome whole-board-awereness!) and so did I. Jolly me, he just played a Ko-threat I didn't see and which killed a group of mine. In the endgame. In a won game. I think that was my most devastating experience in Go so far =D
Author:  Loons [ Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
This sort of thing used to happen to me a bit, but doesn't really any more (notwithstanding missing serious threats in yose).

Just from having it happen a few times you'll be more careful (like hitting done when your opponent has just unmarked a small group and hit done).


Tangentially, I find it's worth making the effort to, when playing go only be playing go (no browser windows or conversations running elsewhere).
Author:  billywoods [ Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: billywoods's big fat go thread
I think it's laziness. Once I'm winning, I'm no longer concentrating on the game, I'm concentrating on ending the game. I would never do something as silly as playing 1-point moves or dame before the end of the game even if they were huge sente (if I'm so desperate that my only option is to hope my opponent isn't paying attention, I will resign!), so I take it as read that my opponent won't either. Which is silly. Because they might, and they do, and I'm not paying attention. :-?
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