So I have been neglecting my play on the KGS, but still playing at my local club and studying.
(Remember that first post you made about stuff you were gonna do? Do you do any of that anymore?)My studies have moved primarily to lectures and looking at pro games and tonight I was humbled by a Lee Sedol game. Not by any amazing fighting move he made or some insane tesuji only Lee Sedol could see. Instead, it was by a move that was so simple I assumed he wouldn't play it. In response to the marked stone, my gut instinct as a kyu player was to play at

. However, I felt that would be too slow. White's 2 stones are in danger of being surrounded, sure. But even if black attacks them it seems pretty easy for them to link back to the corner. So I figured a move like 'a' would be better and bigger and probably what a player like Lee Sedol, who can read much better than me, would play.
(Because you would know where Lee Sedol would play in a go game...
)$$W
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$W
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X O . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . B . . O X X O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X X O . O . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . 1 . , O . X O . O O . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . O X . X X X O . . |
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Yet

is exactly what he played. And it really is so obvious. Why was I even trying to come up with a "faster" move? If black gets to attack the two stones he will split white, or get more outside thickness, or maybe even live on the side as white fights to connect around the top. I'm not strong enough to read all the possible ways black can play, but I know this much: You profit from attacking a weak group. Black is strong around the white stones. He will get something.

just works. There is no cutting. There is only glorious 4th line potential so close to becoming points for white.
(Glad you aren't calling it "territory" since you just read about that in your book a couple weeks ago. Speaking of which, are you going to read that book again?
)I just stared at that move for nearly a minute in aw of how beautifully simple it was. So obvious. This is what Kageyama is talking about in
Lessons. "Strong" amateurs just over-think moves that really need no thought yet play "good" or "obvious" moves immediately because they think they understand them. That is not to say that my idea of 'a' was stupid or totally wrong. Black's next move was 1 point below 'a' so I had the correct direction of play in mind. However, Lee Sedol's move is just better.
(So... moral of the story is that a pro is better than you? Did you really need some big "revelation" to know that one?
)I have been assuming that to get stronger I need to play the bigger moves. To make sure I tenuki more. I think I do need to tenuki more, but I need to do it at the right time. Not when I'm about to be attacked. "Make yourself strong before attacking" is an important rule. If I want to get better I need to keep sticking to the fundamentals. To make note of the big moves, sure, but not miss playing the urgent ones.
(Urgent before big and such, but again, was this really a big deal? You knew that right?)This may seem so obvious, even to me, but the fact that I made the mistake of seeing the right move and then wanting to play elsewhere concerned me, because I could have been right. It's like when you realize that your second guess on a multiple choice exam was wrong and the first guess was right. Why did you change it? This is what happened and I don't want that to happen in my games. If I find the best move I want to be able to recognize it. It's okay if I just can't find that 9-dan move, but I don't want to miss playing the 9-dan move when it was my first choice.
(Okay, fine. But get back to studying books again. And do some go problems too. You keep neglecting this stuff when you said you would do it on the first post.)Also, I know I should be getting back to my go books and tsumego, but I've been too busy recently to do everything I want with go. I find pro games and video lectures to be the most enjoyable, so that's what I've been doing. When I get some time my plan is to kill two birds with one stone by going back to Tesuji from the Elementary Go Series.
(I'm glad you want to do books and problems but would you please just call them go problems. You don't see people on this forum referring to their go books as "bukku" do you?
)