So, since taking go up a couple of months ago, I've tried to make a fair effort in improving how I play.
A continuation of that now is starting this journal, hoping that I'll be able to get feedback, advice, reviews etc. from stronger players, or at least cement some of my thoughts by writing them down.

EDIT- so I can remember later on where I started this journal, I was only just 9k.


At the moment my study consists of;

1. Solving problems. I think this is vitally important. Reading strength, recognizing shapes/patters/vital points, concentration etc. Also I find it's an enjoyable activity; I probably spend more time solving problems than playing. I find I enjoy fairly "easy" problems the most, i.e. problems that take me a minute or less to solve.
At the moment I'm solving problems from Graded Go Problems for Beginners- I've worked through vol. 2 a couple of times, right way up, upside down, trying to do the first 150 or so a quickly as possible. I get 95% or more right in that volume, so I've moved on to vol. 3. L&D, endgame, opening problems seem fairly easy to me, but after the first level the middle game problems are frustratingly hard.
I'm also starting to work through 1001 L&D Problems and love it, it's a greater variety of shapes than GGPB, and there's lots of nice easy problems for me to drill through.
The next plan is to get Get Strong at Tesuji, I feel this might help me with those pesky middle game problems- and no doubt improve my ability to see tesuji in games.

2. Reading books. I learnt the basics from the Janice Kim books, and Iwamoto's Go for Beginners. Soon after that I read Opening Theory Made easy, and found that extremely useful. Should probably re-read that. At 11k I read How Not to Play Go, and, although short, was great.
Now that I'm (just) into SDK I though it was time to read Tesuji and Attack and Defense. Tesuji I find hard going- so I just try and read a section or part of a section every other day, and do my best with the problems, most of which I find pretty tough. Interestingly enough, now that I've been through some sections multiple times I'm starting the see some tesuji in my games, so it must be working.
Attack and defense I've read most of- but my eyes glaze over a bit during the examples, and especially glaze over in the section about invasions into three space extensions. I think I like being given general principles rather than specific examples, or at least, not too many examples. Maybe I should take those sections a little like I do Tesuji- just repeat them over every couple of days and hope they sink in. Another note about A&D is that at times, the author talks about a particular move threatening something, say, an invasion, but I can't see it

3. Play games, of course. Usually 30mins or so + byo yomi. I always look over my games later, and if anyone stronger than me is kind enough to look over the game with me that is very helpful.


Well, that's enough of a wall of text but I think gives a good overview of where I'm at.

Thanks in advance to anyone who drops by!

Hey!

You are (in my humble opinion) doing everything right. I would have recommend you the same steps and the same books, so all what you have left me with is: Good game and have fun! =D

And keep us updated : )

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Thanks for dropping in SoDesuNe,

I have had a look at your "guide" to getting strong- along with others, and yours is part of the reason I want to get a copy of "Get Strong at Tesuji". I might order that today, actually...

How did you (and others, if they are reading this) find Tesuji and Attack and Defense at around my level? Did you feel you "got" most of it, or am I not alone in feeling like some of it is beyond my level? Regardless, I still feel it's useful to be reading at this level and will re-read as I get stronger.

Just an update on how things are going;
I've finished the first 100 problems in 1001 L&D, and got most (90%+) right. I find I'm being much more thorough in my reading. Before, I was much more lazy. I think this is having a very positive impact on my games. I've skipped over the next 100 problems to do the first 100 of the "black to kill" problems.

I've played 7 games so far this month (including two against bots ) which isn't too bad considering how busy I've been. Early on I tried to play a game a day, now I try to play one GOOD game a week. So far I'm well on my way to 8k, winning 6 of those 7 games, the other one I lost on time- usually I play 30mins + byo-yomi, that game was 20mins and I was well ahead on points but didn't realize how much time I was using.

Actually, using time is something I wanted to mention to other beginners out there. Very often in the games I win, I use very close to all my time, but sometimes my opponent uses as little as 5 minutes! Now, I know they get my time to think as well, but I see this in other games I watch of people around my level. Today I watched a game between a 10k and 9k, and in the first 100 moves they each used an average of 6 seconds per move, with 30 minutes on the clock.
My advice, and I don't always follow this myself but should, is to take your time looking at your move; is there a bigger move, what is your opponents biggest move, what is the followup expected, what are you trying to achieve, is there a better way to achieve your goal?

I have heard people give ranks from 16k to 2k for the proper time to read Tesuji and Attack and Defense. I think I first read Tesuji around 10k and found it fascinating, although I understood it better when I reread it at 4k. A&D I read at 6k, benefitted a huge amount, need to reread now (at 2k). But anyway - you're definitely not alone if you can't get into them. If you prefer tsumego and games, solve tsumego and play games, and you'll learn a lot.

Tesuji and Attack and Defend is okay for your level, and I think your approach is the right one. Read them, don't frorce yourself to understand everything, try to apply things from the books and later on read them again and see what you missed.

Concerning games, in my opinion it does not really matter how much you play (as long as you play at all ^^), it's more important to take the games you play seriously and give your best.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Feeling a bit frustrated.
The last couple of games I've played I feel like I haven't played as well as I could, made simple mistakes and couldn't read well.
Feeling a bit the same trying to work through problems 100+ in 1001 L&D.

I think I'll have a break from playing any games for at least a couple of day... which is hard to resist because I've got quite a few days off work.
I'm also going to leave 1001 L&D problems for a couple of days and work back through GGPB vol.2 starting from the start- last night I did the first 150 problems in about half an hour, I got three of those wrong. I think it's very beneficial to my confidence, and I have heard it suggested to do lots of easy problems regularly. Then I'll come back to 1001L&D and start from the start again.

I'm expecting Get Strong at Tesuji to come in the mail early next week, too, so I'll have something a little different to work on. I'm hoping that the one star problems there are somewhere around GGPB vol. 2 level, and will help me work up to the middle game problems in vol. 3.

I was also hoping to get a copy of Fundamental Principles of Go as well, but they were out of stock. Probably a good thing, as I don't know if I really need any more 'strategy' books. I think solving problems is the way for me to get stronger and between GGPB, 1001 L&D and GS Tesuji I should have enough to help me improve for quite a while.

Just a random though about why my play might have deteriorated- I've just finished reading A&D, and perhaps I'm concentrating too much on looking for opportunities to use what I've read about. This means I'm forgetting about the basic stuff, or trying to use concepts in the wrong context, or not in the best way because they are new to me. Perhaps once I internalize the concepts a bit better I'll actually see a sudden jump in skill.

I think different people respond to different things, but I at one point heard that you should do maybe 90% tsumego that you can solve completely (reviewing all likely variations before looking at the answers) in a minute, and 10% brain-teaser tsumego that take 15 minutes or more. (In terms of time, not number of problems.) I found that that was quite productive for me. Here's a pack of easy tsumego (without solutions) if you're bored of GGP2: http://tsumego.tasuki.org/cho-1-elementary.pdf

Thanks for the reply jts,
and the link. I had a quick look at the first page, looks like they are fairly easy problems, around the level of the first 100 from 1001 L&D, or the first 3 sections of GGPB vol. 2.

I'm not sure about not having solutions. I know some people say, well, you have to be 100% sure of your answer. But sometimes I feel 100% sure of an answer to a problem and then find I made some simple mistake- like a shortage of liberties on one of my groups or something.

I sort of feel that problems without solutions will still strengthen my reading in some ways- being able to quickly visualize stones and variations, regardless of whether I get the problem right or wrong. But I feel like maybe if I get the problems wrong and don't know it, when I come up against a similar shape again I'll start reading in the wrong place- or worse, get it wrong in a game.

On a similar note, with tesuji problems, I feel like I still learn a lot from getting them wrong, or even trying to read out the problem and getting no solution at all, and then looking at the answer. I feel that these problems are more about the technique, or teaching you where to start reading. I feel like I need to hardwire the shapes in which the tesuji appear more than I need to be able to read deeper. I'd like others input on this and general comments on how they approach both L&D and tesuji problems.

That's interesting, I have the opposite feeling - I think I learn more from L&d when I'm forced to work for it, and less when I can just skip to the back and say "Oh yeah, I was thinking something like that." With tesuji problems I learn a lot even if I'm just skimming solution diagrams.

Anyway, check out the problems in the 700s. Maybe my memory is rusty, but I think that PDF is much harder than GGPv2, on average.

I think it's normal to jump a bit in strength after reading a major strategy book, for exact the same reasons you already identified ; )

For doing Tsumegos: I'm now quite fond of making a cycle of problem books (the less problems one book has the more books you need to not start memorizing the answers). Starting with easy ones and increasing the diffculty. I feel this really drills vital points due to constant repitition (I'd say at least three times or just two times if you can solve every problem on sight).

Regarding answers: I always look when I think I solved a problem and I always look when I don't know the answer after an "appropriate" thinking time (I will just pick my best guess then for reference). Of course if I was wrong I will check the problem again and try to understand the sequence and also check other lines of resistance for the opponent (if I can come up with any).
I think solving problems is a training tool and should be handled efficiently. For me, it's more efficient to be exposed to more problems (more vitals points, Tesujis etc.) and therefore to solve problems as fast as I can (while still being quite thorough).
In a real game you will have to do the real work anyways and if you know your shapes then, you will most likely have an easier time reading the correct line. (That being said, I have heard quite a few times now, that you can't solve a Tsumego in you real games if you can't solve in on sight in a Tsumego book - cycle ohey : D)

I also think that Tesuji problems teaches you a lot about where to start reading and that it is useful to remember the shapes different Tesujis appear in. But my approach is the same as with Tsumegos. Constantly solving them : )

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

SoDesuNe-
My approach to problems is similar to yours- spend what I feel to be a reasonable amount of time, then I look at the answer. I then read through all the possible responses to the answer to see why it is correct. If I ever get a problem wrong I do the same- read through the answer, and also try and work out why my answer was wrong.

Despite saying I wasn't going to play any games for a couple of days, I felt good after going through a few problems and played a game against a 10k, winning fairly comfortably. I made a few big mistakes towards the end but overall I felt I played much better than I have been. Then again, it could be that it was a peaceful game, and I always seem to win peaceful games, and lose and feel bad after a game with lots of fighting...

During the game I even managed to spot a tesuji, I think in Davies book it's called a loose ladder. Very happy about that.

Get Strong at Tesuji came.
I looked through a heap of the 1, and some 2, star problems, and could solve very few of them.
The ones I could solve were similar to shapes/problems that I had seen in either GGPB or 1001L&D.
I'm hoping that by constantly going through the (one star, for the moment) problems, looking at the answers and trying to understand why the answer is best will still help me improve.
I've been a bit slack at looking at the Davies Tesuji book in the last couple of weeks too, that needs to come back into my regular study routine.

Maybe if I write down a plan I'll actually stick with it;

Daily;
-Solve 8 problems from 1001 L&D problems.
-Solve 8 problems from GS at Tesuji, or spend up to a 2 minutes thinking about the position, possible answers, then look at the answer and try and understand it.
-Read a section of Tesuji, and try and solve the problems.

Weekly;
Play a serious game, 30 mins + byo yomi, and review it myself. If I can't understand what went wrong, get a review from a stronger player.

Sticking pretty well to my study plan, not always reading through Tesuji like I said I would, however, I'm finding I'm getting more of the problems from GS @ Tesuji right the more I do them. I think a large part of that is getting use to those types of problems. I've also added back in GGPB3, doing 1 or 2 pages a day, so 6-12 extra problems of various types.

Played a handful of games so far this month. I won a game early in the month which pushed me up to 8k. After that, I've had trouble being in the right mindset to play. I feel like reading out too many sequences is going to be so tiring, or I that I'm going to read them wrong or something. The clarity in seeing what I want to do just isn't quite there. Lost a game today purely through being lazy with my reading once I thought I had the game won.

I know that this condition is temporary and that I just need to work through it again. My passion for playing waxes and wanes. However I'm still really enjoying the problems. I like that I can go through my problems in about half an hour, get a sense of victory and accomplishment and the satisfaction of knowing that it improves my playing. So, I'll still try to get in about a game a week but I'm not stressing about that too much at the moment. After-all, it's a game, and it's meant to be fun.

Signed up for Tygem today, just to see what it is like. I usually run OSX but my wife has a laptop running windows so I though; why not?

I didn't really know what to put as my rank- from what I had heard, kyu level ranks there vary more than on KGS and, in general, are much stronger. As I wasn't really in the mood to play my best game, I put myself as 15k (currently a shaky 8k on KGS) just to test the waters. I won both games I played- but only by very small margins. The players I played against both had several thousands games too- does that mean that this is the general standard of playing? In which case Tygem seems much stronger than KGS.

General thoughts on the server-
Very easy/quick to get a game, much easier than KGS. I like the auto-match and how you can choose time limits after someone accepts. The layout, graphics, sounds are all ok. I like the winning animation, although the novelty will soon wear off I'm sure. Might alternate games between KGS/Tygem for a while and see which I enjoy playing more on (if either). Will be interesting to see whether all games at this rank are as difficult as the two that I played today. Feels a little sad to be back into mid-DDK ranks

Have played a couple more games on Tygem, both of which I lost. I enjoy the style of games played there, it's living up to it's reputation for having players that like to fight. For some reason now I don't feel so bad about the rank I have there, the main thing being that it's very easy to get a good, exciting game quickly. Also played a game on KGS last night, an even game against another 8k. I was behind right up until endgame, until my opponent made a mistake and I made a capture worth around 15 points in sente- actually a position that had appeared in a problem that I had (re)solved that day!

I did what I said I wouldn't do and bought another (non-problem) go book, Fundamental Principles of Go. I haven't had a chance to really look at it yet. Maybe now I need to make a commitment- no more theory books until I go up a rank. Being such a bibliophile that is pretty good motivation to improve.

Been reading through Fundamental Principles, and enjoying it so far.
At first the book seems to be very cluttered, i.e. not formatted very well. However key principles/summaries are put into boxes which will help with reviewing the information later. Also the contents page is very thorough, with each chapters' sub-sections listed.

The first two chapters are very helpful at my current level. The first chapter largely builds on Opening Theory Made Easy. The ranking of opening moves is interesting/informative. Although I guess these rules can't always be followed perfectly it gives me some idea of how I should be thinking or what I should be thinking about. Plenty of examples are given, the explanations are clear and the problems at the end of the chapter really cement the ideas in your head.

The second chapter was largely new information to me. Although I had some vague ideas on high vs. low, short vs. long, speed and flexibility vs. solidity and strength, it was good to have these ideas fleshed out a bit. Again this gives me concepts (or principles!) to think about during the play of my games. I imagine if I can start to get a grasp on these first two chapters my play will improve quite dramatically. Again about a dozen problems are given at the end of the chapter and these compliment the chapter well.

I've started looking through the third chapter, "effective use of joseki", and have to admit being put off a little by the statement about only needing to know about 300 of the most common joseki sequences. To an 8k player this seems a little crazy!

Regardless- the first sub-sections on choosing an approach move and choosing a pincer were again largely new information to me- I almost always approach low, and very, very rarely pincer. I feel like I'll be able to start thinking more constructively now during the opening and actually consider my approach move more carefully and consider pincers.

Once the chapter got into 'whole board perspective on joseki' I felt quite lost. The variations shown were mostly joseki I was not familiar with. Similar experience when looking at the problems. One particular problems gives a variation of the small avalanche joseki as the answer. I can't say that I have any knowledge or experience with this joseki. Although the basic ideas seem good, without a fairly thorough knowledge of joseki it will be hard to apply much of this section to my games.

I'll update this post once I've looked through the remaining two chapters, which deal with invasions and reductions.

Never really got to reading through the final chapters of Fund. Principles. Might get back to them. Seems like similar information to what is in Attack and Defense- another book that I haven't fully absorbed.

Somewhere else on this site I read a quote by a professional player, something like "You have good theories. Now I kill you." I'm pretty convinced that my play will improve mostly through solving problems and playing, theory books have their place but I also have limited capacity for focusing on go.

I've been playing a few games on Tygem, and a few on my two accounts on KGS. Lost a few, won a few. My concentration has been a bit off, I've been lazy with my reading. I think I might have mentioned I go through cycles like this. Sometimes I like to play very seriously, playing to win, playing to improve. Sometimes I think it's ok to play just for fun- and possibly better to do that than not play at all.

My secondary account on KGS is usually a couple of ranks off my "serious" account, and I never feel bad playing and losing there. Sometimes I even indulge a guilty pleasure and play bots. Tygem account is still sitting at 15k.

Finished all the 1 move problems in 1001 L&D, and now starting them all over again. Still solving GS @ Tesuji. Can very occasionally solve a three star problem now. And occasionally don't get the majority of the problems that I attempt wrong

Hmm, that's about all for now..

Still playing and studying.

Playing more this month than last month- and losing more! Haven't played on my primary account at all, and my secondary account is going 9k/8k/9k/8k/9k. It's OK because I'm enjoying the games I'm playing. Although a few I've lost through (among other things) simple mis-reads, which is always frustrating. I'm a SDK now, I should leave poor reading behind!

Played a couple of games on Tygem too, and now my rank there is 14k, which felt like an achievement! I've won three in a row there. I think I'm getting a little more use to the 'style' there, meaning I can't let myself feel that because my opening feels 'strong' that I've won the game- I've got to use careful reading to capitalise on my strong positions.

Playing against handicap with a friend of mine fairly regularly now, he's just beginning and I think is around 15k. I lost by ten points with him taking 7 stones yesterday. The games are entertaining and it's nice to play over a real board. I hope that he sticks with playing/learning/improving so that I can have a real life rival of sorts.

Had a few learning opportunities over my last few games. One person I played opened by immediately doing a large knights approach to my star point stone, and when I didn't respond, did the same to my next star point. I played very poorly, thinking 'Ha! This player is weak and stupid, I will win easily'. After the game I looked over many variations of joseki based off the large knights approach. Also played against a player who used the Low Chinese opening, something I personally find very hard to play against. Looked over the variations given in 'Attack and Defence" for invading their high one point enclosure. In the game I duffed it but my opponent missed it and let me live.



EDIT; Annnd, I've found plenty of Pro games where my 'wrong' B11 is played, B either blocking at q3 or r4, not r5 .

Been mostly playing on Tygem, it's so quick and easy to get a good game there. Been playing more often than I had been the previous month. Playing most days rather than once a week-ish. Will not be long I think and I'll be 13k there, having won 4/6. My short term goal is to hit SDK.

Got torn to shreds in a game today, resigned after about 100 moves but probably should have resigned earlier. Then won a very easy game by about 40 points. Goes to show that strengths within ranks vary a lot more there than KGS but it doesn't bother me. Generally the games are close. Even when it's not though players seem to have good fighting spirit.

Signed up for next months ASR League. Not sure how hard it's going to be to get the required number of games in, I check the room every now and then and there's never many, if any, game offers up. I'll give it a shot anyhow as it might be a good opportunity to play even games against stronger players- not that I don't get that occasionally on Tygem. Hopefully people will be nice and give me reviews too.

Still solving problems, mostly from 1001 L&D. On to the 3 move problems and something rather magical has happened. The first time I ran through all the 1 move problems when I tried the 3 move problems I found them very difficult. Now that I've run through the 1 move problems twice, suddenly the 3 move problems aren't so daunting! I'm spotting vital points much quicker and reading out variations much more accurately. Not that I'm not still getting problems wrong

Been reading back through "Tesuji", a chapter at a time, most days. The problems at the end of the chapters still kill me. Once I finish that I'm going to re-read "Attack and Defence", I don't feel like I absorbed even 10% of that the first time through.

Although I said I wouldn't buy anymore theory books until I gained a stone, I'm thinking about buying "The Endgame". I'm usually at a loss in that stage of the game- no idea how to decide what order to play moves in, other than- "hey that looks big-ish and it's "sente"." Sticking with my idea that the formula of playing/problems (and reviews) helps my game the most I'll pick up a copy of "Get Strong at The Endgame" at the same time to practice the theory. Might try and find a couple of other cheap problems books to chuck into the order like "Step Up To a Higher Level" which is meant to be for players around my strength.

Still dawdling along.
Playing a game a day consistently for about 2 weeks now, mostly 20 or 30 mins + 5x30 sec. Mostly ASR League games so far this month. A few against stronger players, a few against weaker. The ones against stronger players feel immensely helpful, especially with a review straight after. Seems like my worries about getting league games were a bit unfounded, although after having played on Tygem a lot last month even waiting 15 mins for a game feel like a long time!

Still studying other things. L&D problems are really the only thing I'm consistently sticking to, anywhere from 9-25ish a day. Mostly coming from 1001 L&D problems but occasionally from the GGPB books. Hmm. Haven't been solving my tesuji problems. Might go do a handful when I finish typing this.

Studying other things too. Read a few chapters of 'Tesuji' over a few days. Read a chapter from 'Lessons in the Fundamentals.' Might continue to read some of that actually, haven't looked at that book since I was about 15k or so, can't even remember if I read it all then. Looked up some variations of the orthodox fuseki given in 'Dictionary of modern fuseki, korean style'. Looked at a few variations of invasions into three space extensions given in 'Attack and Defense'.

So basically still playing/problems/reviews and then a little bit of this and that on the side as I feel like it. Still at KGS 8k, and Tygem 14k- on a winning streak on Tygem and have only played two ranked games on KGS in about 3-4 weeks- a late night loss to a 7k that was extremely close until I made two massive mistakes in endgame, and a 50+ point win against a 9k- but feel like I have a way to go before I'm 7k on KGS.

Well, off to do some problems from GSA-Tesuji