My goal, SDK by my birthday.

[Websteria]

Hi there!

My name is Jeff, and I'm a solid 17kyu right now on KGS. I know this because I can't beat a 16kyu player, and I beat a 13kyu w/4 handicap stones by 2.5pts.

I'd like to come up with a study plan beyond "Study life and death problems" that will REALLY help me improve. I'd like to at least get to 12kyu but preferably 9kyu by November 25th which is my birthday.

My wife is having foot surgery tomorrow, so she'll be off her feet for 8 weeks, thus the longer schedule.

I'm looking for books, exercises, drills, some sort of study schedule I can do (I do work at home so could squeeze in some drilling during the day) to help me get to SDK.

Suggestions? Please, I'm desperate to leave kyu behind.

Attached is the last game I barely won.

Also, other games here: https://www.gokgs.com/gameArchives.jsp?user=Websteria

My KGS Graph:

[Boidhre]

Books that I've gotten the most out of:

Opening Theory Made Easy.
Get Strong at Tesuji.
1001 Life and Death Problems.

Good luck in achieving your goal.

I can also play a bunch of free games with you on KGS if you like.

[Twitchy Go]

I like Boidhre's list of books. I have a few things to add.
1) Do easy tsumego. I've found my greatest periods of improvement come from reading a lot of easy problems instead of struggling through harder ones. When you do try some harder problems you might be surprised to find there significantly easier now! (Speaking from experience)
2) How long have you been your current rank? If it has been a while 2+ months or so, then you definitely want to show some games to stronger players(low SDK to dan) on KGS(or your server of choice) because it's likely you have some "good moves" to unlearn. Getting your games reviewed is a good idea regardless of course, but unlearning any bad habits you might have picked up is a great way to improve.
3) play slower time setting games and set aside time to review them as well.

Edit:
I'm not really sure about the quality of this idea. But a random thought I had. You could try playing a particular fuseki a lot. Pick one, learn a little about it and use it in all your even games as black. Try to do something new with it each game to see what works and what doesn't. The theory being that this should give you a better grasp of how the stones interact on the board if you have a reliable base your starting off of each time. I could just be hallucinating that this is useful but it's a thought.

[Splatted]

I'll try my best to give some feedback on your game, but don't take them as anything more than suggestions. I'm currently a 6k on KGS

Move 16: I'd also be tempted to play this move, but I think blocking at B18 is worth more because it stops white from settling his stones and strengthens yours. The result you got in the game wasn't too bad (the main problem being that the C17 stones are too isolated), but your opponent didn't follow up well. White B18 instead of B17 leaves both your corner stones and your stone at H17 looking very weak.

36+38: I would have left these as ko threats. Both moves are sente for you and gote for white, so you'll probably get to play them later anyway. White A6 may look like sente, but I think at this stage of the game the threat of breaking out is small enough (it might actually help you secure your territory) that you can ignore it and play something bigger somewhere else.

40: I think this is too passive. You've built up a lot of thickness on the left so make use of it to attack white's stones on the bottom. Or if you are just going to take territory, play in the upper left. The C17 stones are thick, but they aren't strong.

52: I would play B11, partly to protect your territory, but also to stop white from settling their group. This way you each have a weak group to worry about. I think this also demonstrates why you don't need to worry about white breaking out at A6. If they had you might already have had a wall at B10.

I'm going to stop reviewing here. I hope it was helpful.

[xed_over]

I'm a solid 17kyu right now on KGS.
...
I'd like to at least get to 12kyu but preferably 9kyu by November 25th which is my birthday.

good luck with that. (seriously)

don't mean to be discouraging, but it probably won't happen. It could though. It all depends on how much time and effort you can put into it.

play as much as you can as often as you can. play stronger players every chance you get. review your own games and try not to make the same mistakes in your next games.

[Websteria]

Well, so far I'm not doing to great. I've started reading In The Opening and have started playing against many faces with the goal of not always stopping them from getting territory but keeping my stones connected. Seems to be working.

My wife just had ankle surgery so my likelihood of playing a real game anytime soon is minimal.

Thanks for all the feedback!
Jeff

[Boidhre]

Don't worry about deadlines when you've real life issues going on. Go is a marathon not a sprint (well at least for most of us). Your goal is 12k, don't worry about when you get there or even the next gain in rank, just work on getting stronger and your rank will take care of itself. Speaking as a fellow weak player that is.