If you mean the above diagramme, my opponent resigned before anything could die but I think White has the advantage after his mistake.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

What time's good for you to play? I generally am home from work after... UTC6:30 (I think, can't do time math). You can't be far from 2d now anyway, we're pretty rubbish (I say this with authority).

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

I'm UTC+1. UTC 6:30pm sounds good. Today?

And I think I'm preeeetty far away from 2-dan ^^ Just recently I got crushed two times on 2H by a 2-dan.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

The last ~20 problems of Yi Ch'ang-Ho's L&D vol. 4 are above my head (got six in a row wrong), so I changed to Seigen/Segeo's Tesuji Dictionary vol 1 and I managed to got three of the C-problems wrong =O (One time, I didn't understand the objective - perhabs that's even worse ^^).

Ohhhh, the long and lonely road... ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Happened also to me with the C levels (but there's no way I could pick LCH4 yet :/)... But they are so cool as problems!

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Holy canoli... back to the realm of solid 2-kyu. Things will not work out these times. Maybe later? Pretty please?



Funny thing is: My reading grows worse and worse, I think. Some reverse training phenomena?

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

If you are applying yourself and forcing yourself to stop and read every move then I don't think your reading will get worse unless you are not doing anything.

Maybe you're exhausting yourself doing tsumego and when the games come 'round you don't really feel like applying yourself to reading. Happens alot if you're tired when you play games.

I hope things work out for you. I know they will if you work hard for it. It must be so

While replaying Shuei's games from Fairbairn's new e-book, I finished the C-problems of volume 1 and 2 of Segeo/Go's Tesuji Dictionary - success rate should be around 75%. There are not so many in total. Then I switched to Get Strong at the Opening.

I tried to solve the book back in 2011, I think, and gave it up after a couple of douzen problems, because I was wrong every time. Now it seems, I got something around 60% right, but big and urgent points or even assessing the whole board is definitely a big problem for me. I plan to go through 501 Opening Problems from the Mastering the Basics series to address this weakness. In the meanwhile (I don't have 501 Opening Problems right now), I will finish the third volume of Segeo/Go's Tesuji Dictionary (C-problems as well).

Next weekend is the local tournament. I will attend as a 4-kyu EGF, although I feel terribly out of shape at the moment. Last tournament in autumn last year I missed to reach 3-kyu, because I blundered away all three games on the first day (lost two won games because I neglected Honte and showed aweful positional judgement, the last game of the day against a 7-kyu I won with half a point because she spent a move to defend a non-existing weakness inside her territory). I blame that I had to get up early to catch the train...

I hope, I will make 3-kyu this time!

As for studying, I'm beginning to realize that reading in general is not the biggest weakness (despite blundering every so often, although most times I simply lack the focus), but that I lack knowledge in every other aspect of Go. It's sure understandable since all I ever did, was solving problem books. I think now might be a good time to get some theoretical input and I'm eyeing Breakthrough to Shodan, Positional Judgment and Basic Techniques of Go. I would love to browse through Get Strong at Attacking and Get Strong at Invading to get some patterns and shapes to work with but I don't know anyone, who has these books and I can't already buy Go books again ^^

In the long run I still plan on working through Takeo's Joseki Dictionary. Not memorizing in the first place, but replaying and reading the commentary to get a better feeling for shape and Tesujis involved. Then I like to tackle Shuko's Tesuji Dictionary. I almost went through the second volume about defending stones a year ago, so I will start with that and see how many problems I get right this time. The further roadmap is: Tesujis for the opening, the endgame, attacking, life-and-death and finally capturing races. This alone should last a couple of months ^^ Most likely I will alternate this with the C- and B-problems of Segeo/Go's Tesuji Dictionary.
By that time, the second volume of Takeo's should be out. And finally I still want to study Reducing Territorial Frameworks, which I bought years ago and never really opened.

So, assuming I will not buy a lot of new books on the way (GoGoD and the remaing Shuei-e-books do not count) or/and a new, bigger weakness emerges: This sounds like a plan =D

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

So, the tournament ended on Sunday and I'm quite content with myself =)

On the first day, I managed to win all three games against an 1-kyu, a 4- and 5-kyu. (I started as a 4-kyu.)

The first game against the 1-kyu was very intense and lasted the longest of all five games. I, again, fell behind in the opening - as I often do - because I approached a Komoku in not the ideal way (did not work together with my other stones) and thus became slightly overconcentrated on the side. Then I Tenuki'd an attacking move to enclose my corner, but my opponent luckily missed to attack me severly. A Dan-player later suggested a move threatening two things simultanously, devastating my whole side.
Later on, I invaded my oponnent and he let me live very easily (and lost all territory there) but he managed to get a Moyo in exchange. After the game the same Dan-player showed us some moves, which would make the invasion very painful for me. The game was to be decided in endgame and I had a lot of moves to reduce his Moyo. Once, he missed to defend a cut and I could come in even further, capturing a stone. I won by around Komi.

The second game against the 4-kyu was very aweful for me. My opponent was a slightly older gentlemen whose main objective it was to play strange moves "since the young know patterns too well". It completely throwed me off. I played very timid moves, over-protected my territory, connected living groups and made weak ones inside his influence. Although, it was very funny, because he told me later that he always counted me ahead. I had quite the oppsite opinion and started an all-or-nothing-Ko in the endgame. I ignored a Ko-threat, which killed a group of mine to - in exchange - kill his group which was three times as big. But I missread, it lived. Had he played correctly. He did not and died and I luckily won.

The last game of the first day was against some sort of nemesis of mine. Against her I always play very strange and do not concentrate enough. But we reversed positions in this game. Mostly she goes for influence while I gladly take territory but not this time. After a strange "Noseki" I ended up with a lot of influece and played accordingly. Later I missed a cut and lost quite a lot territory on one side and even let her become thick facing my center Moyo.
My only chance was to attack some early reduction stones in the center and I went all-out-large-scale, which she tried to evade by playing a light two-space-jump. This maybe was a mistake because I was strong everywhere in the center. I immediately cut her jump and the bigger half of my Moyo began to become territory. Sadly, in early endgame she managed to get a Ko to revive her stones inside my Moyo and I had to ignore every threat. Lucky for me, she "just" went to capture six stones of mine on the side (about 20 points of territory) instead of threatening my Moyo. I could even find a sacrificing sequence which attacked her corner and was able to solidify a group of mine in Sente.
The game was over by then and I won by a comfortable margin.

The second day started very bad but had one extremely thrilling game against a japanse 3-dan.

My first opponent was a 2-kyu and - surprise - I blundered in the opening. Or so I thought, later on some Dan-players told us, the position was totally even and my opponent had a few weaknesses I could exploit. But yeah, my feelings overthrew any rational judgment and I played, well, very, very, very bad. I sacrificed a bigger corner to make a lot of influence, but my opponent was thick all over the board. My desperation attack just ate around ten points of his side (and could have even died after the first move ^^) but I myself did not make enough territory in return and lost big time.

The best comes last - it was to true for this tournament. I got to play against a japanese 3-dan and this game was just the best. It made the whole tournament worthwhile.
We played a farily normal Fuseki, with him ignoring my first Hoshi Kakari (mini-chinese rejection) to play a Kakari himself to my Komoku. I, then, douple-approached and got naturally the corner, while he got Sente to attach to my Komoku. With strong positions on both sides he went for a Moyo on the top side and I was baffled as I always am with the decision when to reduce and how. In doubt, I - of course - Tenuki'd and approach his other Hoshi stone. He ignored it and enlarged his Moyo with a Keima. I cut it and pushed the cutting stone along the fourth line (which had an open skirt from my San-San-invasion after the double-approach from the beginning) - attacking and reducing his center at the same time. After I was sure that he would not answer a further push, I jumped in the center but I did it badly. He managed to cut off this jump, solidifying his Moyo again and I had a weak group now.
But since his cutting stones were also weak, we battled it out. In the course of the fight I managed to squeeze him through a hole in my position (with a lot of broken shapes and violating the proverb) but my goal was to cut off and surrounding his Hoshi, which I had approached earlier. And I succeeded. There was some Aji left but he had no time to activate it just yet.
We then jumped along to the right and there he approached my second Komoku. I pincered to help my weakish center group and he attached on the outside to make some shape for his group. Later he played a move from which I guess, he thought would threaten my corner but it did not, it was just big endgame (well and it made his group absolutly alive ^^). I took the chance to completely kill off his Hoshi-Aji. The game was a bit favourable for White (my opponent) because his top-side Moyo was very big and I had no chance to invade it. But I played forcing moves from the outside and my former weakish center group now surrounded almost twenty points - in Sente! The game way very close now but he managed to get a lot of big Sente endgame and in the end I lost by 3.5 points.

Here's the Kifu for the first 93 moves. I forgot the order for the following moves, so I did not include them.



This is the end position.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c End position
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . O O O |
$$ | . . . . . X X O . . . . . . O . O X O |
$$ | . . X X X X O O . . O . . . . O O X X |
$$ | X X . , X O . . . , . . . O O X X . . |
$$ | X O X X O O . . . . . O O X X . . X . |
$$ | O O X O X X O . . . . . O O X X . . . |
$$ | . O X O X . O O O O O O X X . . . . . |
$$ | . O X O X . O . . O X X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X O X X X O O X . . . . . X . X X |
$$ | . O O O O X X O X , . . . . X , X X O |
$$ | . O X X X . X . X . . . X X O X X O O |
$$ | . O O X . X X . X X X X O O O X O O . |
$$ | . . O X O O X . X O O O . . . O . . . |
$$ | O O X X X O . O X X X O . . O . O . . |
$$ | O X X . X O . O O O O . . O X O . . . |
$$ | X . X O X . . . X O . . O O X X O O . |
$$ | . . . . . X X X X O . O X O O X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X O O . O X X X . X O O |
$$ | . . . . . . X O O . O X X . . X X X . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

In the end, I really should work at my Fuseki. Mostly direction and Joseki choices. Then some positional judgment would be fine and a habit to count ^^ But I was very satisfied with my reading ability this tournament - as long as I now what to read ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

It's the end of the term for me, so naturally it's time to think about a small study plan for the holidays!

I followed the outlines of the post two posts above this one and I'm finishing "Breakthrough to Shodan" this week. I think the book has some nice insights about how to handle handicap games. Ideas which I can easily use in my own games. A nice side effect is that I can reverse the ideas and get some really good insights about playing handicap games as White.
The downside is the book's structure. It's a bit jumpy. The author mostly starts a chapter with a certain move (mostly Joseki), then shows a lot of possible continuations and in the end he tells you not to play this move. The next chapter then tells you how to play better but again starts with a further "mistake", which will then be corrected in the next chapter. Troublesome for a first read, but I think the book will prosper in the second reading.

Then I started "501 Opening Problems". Basicly the same as "Get Strong at the Opening" only now they have written down proverbs as hints. At first, I try to solve the problem without looking at the proverb, when I have a candidate move, I read the proverb and look if my move fits. I really like these opening problems, I feel they teach me a lot about direction and urgent moves, even about certain continuations.

Now my plan is to finish "Breakthrough to Shodan" and "501 Opening Problems" and then start a cycle with:

1. YCH Tesuji vol. 1
2. YCH L&D vol. 1
3. Get Strong at the Opening
4. YCH Tesuji vol. 2
5. YCH L&D vol. 2
6. 501 Opening Problems
7. YCH Tesuji vol. 3
8. YCH L&D vol. 3
9. YCH Tesuji vol. 4
10. YCH L&D vol. 4

I will repeat these books until I can clear all/the main variations of one problem in at least under 30 seconds. I will not use a timer, though, my feeling should suffice. Naturally some books will be easier to clear than others, so I will drop those to replace them with other books like "Get Strong at Tesuji", Segeo/Go's Tesuji Dictionary C-problems, Maeda's Intermediate Level Problems, "Rescue and Capture", maybe even "501 Tesuji Problems" or some chinese/japanese problem books. I will decide when it's time.

Then I plan to visit an online Go league in August, to play serious games and get written reviews from (far) stronger players. I hope, I can concentrate on these games. When I play regular KGS games right now, I don't focus and just read the obvious. Well, it is around 30°C here, this might play a minor role.
But that's one last thing I need to improve: More playing ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Join the NGA, you'll enjoy the reviews, lessons and games

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Yep, somebody made a nice Online-Go-League-Overview (http://igonoma.blogspot.co.at/2012/06/r ... r-you.html) and it seems the NGA is the best choice for me =)

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

There may be some changes coming, July has been a different month. If everyone prefers the structure of July we may change a little how it works. This month we have a tsumego competition and a round-robin tournament instead of pre-fixed (unknown) pairings. As prize, a free month. Its kind of cool, and we also have "study sessions" for the two classes (A is from 1d, B is below 1k).

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

It's a difficult situation when a 1-kyu does not know what a Bent-Four-in-the-Corner-shape is, since KGS claims it's Seki. If they tell you to prove it, they will fight the Ko and under japanese rules you just can't defend every Ko-threat beforehand, because you will lose points.

Luckily, this time I was ahead even when the corner was considered Seki...

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Chinese rules ^^ Much better

IIRC the status of the Bent-Four-in-the-Corner-shape depends on the oustide liberties: 2=alive, 1=ko, 0=dead. Am I missing something?

under japanese rules bent4 is dead, regardless of any liberties.

for example J1989:


life is defined locally. the shape itself is ko, but there is no local ko threat, so you can't prevent the capture. ko threats on other parts of the board don't matter when you define life and death under japanese rules.

under area-scoring (basically everything but japanese rules) life is usually defined as "it's alive if you can't capture it in a real game" (simplified)

outside liberties don't change anything - just fill in these liberties before you start the ko.

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igonoma.blogspot.com

He had 0 liberties in the game and still claimed it was Seki. Hm, yeah, maybe I should use chinese rules. But then I can't use SE to "analyze" the game afterwards =D

This was the corner:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ------------------
$$ | . X . O O X . . .
$$ | X O O O X X . . .
$$ | . O O X . . . . .
$$ | O O X X . X . . .
$$ | O X . . . . . . .
$$ | X X . X . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Maybe someone would like to reverse engineer what White did wrong? ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

If there already is a bent- four eye shape, then with 1 or 0 liberties, it is ko. with two it is alive.
They aren't talking about that though, they are talking about what happens when the attacker can make a bent four at any time, which is death

I like your journal and your sensei's page.