Yukontodd's Go Journal

[Yukontodd]

I'm back again. It isn't because writing about Go is hard, even. I could write and write about my thoughts and spill out a bunch of things I've gone through until I filled the buffer.

But writing concisely, that's hard, with Go. But I'll try.

Working on the opening did indeed pay off. If you're lost and sort of randomly trying to make things look okay in the opening without knowing much about why you're doing it, a basic study of the opening took really not that much time when done using Get Strong at the Opening.

That wasn't enough though. I had been doing lots of tsumego, and focusing on life and death. But my weakness comes with tesuji. So I studied Get Strong at Tesuji. I hated Davies "Tesuji". I hated just going through it a little to remind me about things I tried to learn from it years ago. GSA Tesuji suited me better. I was totally lost for a while. I'd get one star problems wrong more often than the more difficult ones. I was over-thinking! Tesuji is all about reading. Once I got that, and understood a little what that meant, I got better. Much better.

Recently, I won a game centered on two big fights against a 6 kyu. I won another making lovely sabaki against her stretch across the board and force desperation attacks ... which I can now defend against.

I've gained about two stones since I started here, and am around 6 kyu now. I think that's good progress.

So, more of the same: all the way through GSA Tesuji, maybe some Graded Go Problems for Beginners III after that. Oh, and I need to play handicap games. Some heavy handis both ways, really, but especially with some stronger players. Not playing enough against stronger players makes me sloppy: they catch sloppiness opponents my level often miss. So maybe Some more Get Strong at Handicap Go in there too.

Yes, I seem to really like the Get Strong at Go series. Though I've yet to find the nuclear tesuji anywhere but on each and every cover!

[Yukontodd]

I'm moving this blog to a blogger blog site. Blog.

I'm not sure if I can post sgf files there in any sensible way, so I may be using this blog to post games I can point at from my blogger blog.

I'm at http://goshodan.blogspot.ca/ That's because I'm go-ing for shodan. Get it? Find this and many other fine examples of raucous go humour, along with pointless angst and drama, and the occasionally semi-poetic insight into the game, at Go-ing for Shodan: Making the Push After Forty.

I just made my first entry: blogs are so cute when they're that age, come rattle your keys at it.