(former name(s): Ember's Rat Race)

Hello everyone!

I thought it might be a good idea to start my own study journal as a part of my commitment and to prove my intent to finally overcome the wall that I rebounded from rank-wise several times already.
My goal is not being xdan/kyu in y months, but establishing a regular study routine and by doing so steadily enlarging my knowledge of this wonderful yet sometimes cruel but still fascinating game (yep, it's a weird game). Ok, I admit it would be nice to be 2k as quickly as possible because I want to finally catch up with someone (or 1k to overtake him), but I'd already be more than happy to get from 6k to 5k after four long years for the moment.


Some quick and short information about myself for those who want to know:

So now you know a little about me, I'll sum up what I'm already doing and what I plan to do to reach my goal.


What I'm already doing:

• 30 minutes of daily Tsumego. I started with 1001 L&D Problems, then did Graded Go Problems for Beginners (GGoPfB) 2, 3 and 4 (still at it). It's not hard to incorporate this into my day as I usually do them while commuting to / from work. No wasted time anymore! And after… maybe 6-7 weeks (a guess) it definitely already shows…
• Playing regularly. This is one of my main flaws.. Due to OGA and other stuff I never really played that much over a longer period of time and it shows in my games in that I lack experience. That's why I want to play a fixed number of games per week. Until the end of November I want to play a minimum of 7 games a week as part of my tournament preparation, after that it will be adjusted to the amount of time I have. But a minimum of 3-5 games is doable. For now, I usually play on OGS/Nova and KGS, but I also like to play on IGS because I can play on my tablet. And sometimes I play live games at the Go club. Until now it's mission accomplished!
• Analyzing the games I played. I never had much of a problem with that as I really enjoy doing so (and have someone stronger than me to take a look at them at hand). But one should never abandon good habits so it stays on the list!
• Regular study of changing topics. I thought it might be a good idea to choose a topic that I'm struggling with at the moment and study it once a week for one month. Even if I'll only be able to grasp a few concepts during that time, this is still an improvement. Also, I want to study up to three Joseki a week that showed up in my games (using Takao Shinji's Joseki dictionaries). This was until now the least successful part of my routine… :-/ Which is strange, because I always used to like reading books on Go and have amounted.. ahem.. a few (aren't you addicted to buying Go books, too?). Still, it is kind of hard for me to get into the study mode again.

Well, that's it for now, nothing too fancy yet. But there's more to come which will be incorporated into this routine. Whenever I feel like it, I'll also study / replay kifus of my favorite professional, Iyama Yuta. I might also adapt that routine if there are elements that deserve more or less attention.


What I plan to do:

• Keep that routine or rather get into it when it comes to studying from books. I hope to get some pointers of what to read about by
• Studying again in the Group Classes with Guo Juan. I already did that once and think that it was really helpful but couldn't go on with it because I lacked money and time. I already registered for the first term and plan to study the whole next year with her.
• Play 10-12 tournaments during the next year. Due to the really active tournament scene in Germany and me living in one of the cities with the highest Go activity (there's a possibility to play live every day of the week somewhere and 7-8 tournaments a year in the city) it's not really hard to accomplish this goal.
• Visit the first title match of the Kisei tournament played in Madrid in January 2014. I'll be playing in the side tournament for amateurs, but I think that this trip is more important for my motivation than for improving as I'll be able to see my favorite pro live and in action. Kind of my "Woodstock" if you know what I mean. Plus I might be meeting one or two of you guys there, which is something I'm looking forward to as well.
• Keep a record of my progress and everything else concerning me and Go here in this journal about once a week, post some games, interesting problems i stumbled upon and the like.

I hope that a few of you take a little interest in my "rat race". You're also more than welcome to add your thoughts and ideas and write a line or two in here as well. It's always nice to know if there's someone out there and it's a good thing to exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions.

I'll post a game or two next time (this post is already more than long enough) so you can take a look at all my ineffective moves and laugh (together with me) about my blunders. Until then have a good time and some good games!

Ember

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EDIT January 2014:
Go-related goals for 2014: Playing 400 games in 12 months

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Good Luck Ember, I hope you stick with it and make go a part of your life.

Welcome to the Study Journal Club! Sorry, I ate the last cookie before you showed up otherwise you could have one...

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

That sounds interesting. We are stuck around the same level. I once had a study program that didn't work well: mainly thousands of tsumego over 3-4 months, and the improvement from 8k to 7k could most probably *not* be attributed to this study program. Currently I am watching the go scene a bit from outside to see which study programs actually work, because some day (not this year, not next year, but some day in this life) I want to get active again and the way to get back would include a study program that does actually work. That's why I'll be following your study program and observe your progress. Oh, and maybe we'll meet at a tournament, too. That would be interesting. (If you are the one I think you are, then we haven't played each other yet, even though we have already played in the same tournaments, i.e. Bonn 2010 and 2012, and EGC 2012 of course. But maybe I am wrong.)

Good luck with your studies.

Sounds really good! : )
I especially like the focus on playing and the pro tuition. Looking forward to read how it goes!

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Wow, I'm overwhelmed by so much positive feedback and encouragement, thank you, everybody!

@ moyoaji: No problem! On the contrary, I'm a bit relieved, because my favourite Go club, which meets in a pastry shop (with absolutely delicious, handmade cakes!), is already extremely dangerous for me anyways.

@ karaklis: Uh, that sounds a bit like am I already kind of... notoriously known already?! I hope that's not the case.. Yet I definitely know who you are, too, and yep, we have never played before against each other. But we can catch up on that in the near future if you like, I'm looking forward to it!
And if you allow me to say my two cents about analyzing study programmes: I think there is no perfect, universally valid study programme one can follow because every person is different and has different likes and dislikes as well as different strengths and weaknesses and different backgrounds. Also, everybody learns in different ways so what works for one person maybe won't work (at all) for another. Probably a look at the past helps to find out what worked well for you until progress stopped. Maybe you stopped doing something around that time?

@ SoDesuNe: Yes, I'd like to know that, too.. Stay tuned and we'll eventually find out! But I can already say that a few weeks of Tsumego already have had some effect, at least that's my personal impression (in the like of "Oh, he won't play that because in 12 moves I would be able to catch his cutting stones in a net" - plays a few moves - "Oh neat, he still played like that!" - and I caught those stones and had no worries anymore).


Well, as promised here are two games from last week. I'd love to post a game I played with no handicap (but black stones) against a 3k, but I played it at the club and I didn't record it.. It was a fun and pretty close game until late in the middle game when I overlooked something really obvious and I lost about 12-15 points. I resigned right away. But until then it was a really nice game.
Well, here are two games I played on KGS last week, one is from the German Go-League and the other was played with my new old account - I already had an account with taht name but lost it because I didn't log in for 6 months, then re-registered shortly afterwards but misspelled it (uppercase first letter was missing, which annoyed me a lot) and I had to wait another 6 months until recently it was free again...


Here's the game from the German Bundesliga including me misreading something SO obvious near the end (who said that doing lots of Tsumego helps with reading...? ). I played black against a 10-12k:



Probably more interesting: A rated game on KGS - I'm white and really didn't think that black 85 was so meaningful.. That was a good one to learn from!:


I'd have loved to add some comments myself, but life is dancing mambo around me right now and I have to take care of a few things.. But I promise I'll do it next time. Then I'll also post a lost game, promised!

Until then have and some interesting games!

Ember

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Some comments on game 1:

This was a poor joseki choice. This joseki has its uses, but it really is only good when the bottom is hard for black to develop and the bottom left is the most interesting part of the board for white. It builds a framework but, very importantly in the opening, it loses sente for white.

This slide into the corner seems slow. Taking white's corner would be big, but I think white should tenuki from here. If black takes the corner white is happy to extend further on the side to help turn it into points.

I'm not sure about this pincer. I think pulling back high is enough on its own. This pincer doesn't seem to work too well with your lower 3-4 stone.

This pincer, on the other hand, looks perfect. White should have played a pincer here himself.

- I don't think this was a very good idea for white. There are a lot of flaws in that "wall" and black has been given a lot of points the right. On the plus side though black's framework has not been able to encompass the center.

This move is interesting. I am wondering what the purpose was. It isn't great for building the top, but it does do something to threaten invading the left, which is what you do when you next get sente.

This move is painful for black and the reply you gave feels slow and over-concentrated, but also needed.

- This sequence is interesting. It looks pretty good for black considering how weak white is on the inside while white's thickness doesn't seem that useful.

Move 123 That clamp is so painful for white and he chose the hard way...

Move 265 Nice seki. However, I think you might have gotten more out of the ko at T19. You have a good threat at N1 and white has nothing as big as this ko.

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Some comments on game 2:

Good standard response to an Orthodox Fuseki.

This move is interesting. On the one hand it goes against the "5 steps in the opening" by playing a large side extension before an enclosure on your 3-4 stone. On the other hand it does work to limit the possibility of black getting a framework on the bottom. Perhaps and are more like miai?

Given your two star point stones on the bottom I like this pincer. It seems to work to help you build up a framework.

This move seems very slow. I think a pincer against the C10 stone would be better.

If the normal joseki had been played out black would have already had his base on the side so you couldn't have even finished before black had sente. I think this should be treated as a weak stone - no touching.

- Good job on killing that group. I'm pretty sure white has won by this point.

This move is actually not slow because it takes away the chance for black to make an extension here.

Oh dear... I think you know why this was a mistake. D3 still kills the cutting stone as well as keeping the black group dead. This was a big chance for black to come back.

Move 168 And then another good kill ends the game.

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Looks like your life and death is good. Your opening is also pretty good. Try to look at the whole board when you think about your moves. Consider tenuki as an option at all times.

Also work on choosing joseki. This is a hard thing to work on, but I think it would be useful. Consider how the board will look and all the relevant stones in the area. Consider the whole board as you pick a joseki.

To be honest, these are two things that I'm working on at the moment so I'm not one to talk, but it seems like these are relevant to you.

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

It's not the Orthodox Fuseki because Black has a Komoku at the lower right. The split at R10 is not good because after Black approaches from the top, White can just make a safe two-space-extension gifting Black the second Shimari (induced). If White approaches R5 in response to Black R12, there will be most likely a big fight and Black has more stones around.
If you want to split then R9 is the common choice, I assume. With this move you can approach R5 reasonably safe, when Black plays from the top.
In my opinion: Just playing Q5 is the simplest - seems to be the favourite pro move.

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Thanks a lot for the comments, moyoaji and SoDesuNe!

@ moyoaji: Yeah, slow moves are one of my main problems. Although that already improved a great deal since the EGC 2012. Still, I definitely have to keep up the work on that. Same as with Joseki. You're absolutely right in that I have to put some real work into learning more of them to become more flexible. I want to work on that and I hope that step by step I can enlarge my Joseki knowledge. Or rather, at first, repeat what I still know about the basic ones. I nearly didn't play at all between November '12 and last July/August due to my bachelor thesis. After that, I even had to re-learn the 3-3 invasion.....
What kind of surprised me was that you thought that my opening was "pretty good". Many times when playing I feel like I really play a bad opening and have to fight my way back into the game during the middle game. Must have been a coincidence that I happened to choose these games to show you.

- On the Seki-Ko-situation in the first game: I was aware of that Ko but counted and knew I was winning anyways. So, after the proverb "A rich (wo)man should not pick quarrels" I was more than satisfied with the seki. Otherwise, it would have been Ko-time.

- On 88 in the second game: Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking in that corner. Maybe I was too confident already. When I look back it seems like I was asleep and only awoke just after I had played 88. I think it all began with me not getting suspicious when he played the hane. I thought that it was a normal move, nothing more. I have to learn to be always suspicious (I hope I won't get paranoid when I work on that )


@ SoDesuNe: Thank you for the commentary on W6 in the second game. I always have a hard time choosing between splitting and approaching and then if a high or low approach, a close or a far approach is appropriate (same goes with pincers). I'm working on that already, but that knowledge needs time to sink in - and helpful comments like yours of course.


I don't have any new games of mine to post and I doubt that I'll be able to play before saturday or sunday at all.. I'll post a game or maybe two (as promised with a few comments from me) then. Concerning the other study topics I'm happy to report that I finished GGoPfB volume 4 today. The last about 40 problems in there were pretty much over my head, I got about 90-95% wrong (that's a guess, and I didn't honestly spend a lot time on each of them.. ) - with the remaining 5-10% being super easy. Kinda weird... Anyways, I'll start with the elementary problems of Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia of life and death tomorrow. 900 problems will keep me going for a while. And I'm already excited to find out if the intermediate part is finally doable for me after that. It's been a long time since I last tried it.

What I did today (apart from the problems) was replaying a pro game. As you know if you have read my first post, I'm a huge fan of Iyama Yuta. So I had to replay the game he played today, especially after I saw the final position of the game on the homepage of the Nihon Kiin. It was the second game of the Oza title match against Cho U (Iyama had won the first game). How devastating for Cho U! It looks like he lost every major fight in the game... I wonder what's wrong with him, he hasn't had a major success in the last few months apart from becoming the challenger for the Oza title. He always seemed to be good at fighting and to have a sharp reading but it doesn't really show in this game I think. Now he's facing kadoban after the second game already and the third game will be played on thursday. Will it be the final game of the match already? Well, we'll see. For those interested, here's the SGF for you to replay (I got it from the wonderful igo-kisen) to pass the time until then. If you replay it, have fun and enjoy!

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Your opening was definitely better than your opponent's in the first game. Had your opponent made fewer mistakes in the second game perhaps your opening would have been weaker. I do think the attachment joseki would have been a bad mistake. Looking at only wins is probably not the best way to judge someone's ability in any part of the game really. I should clarify to say that, in those games, your opening was pretty good.

As for that Iyama Yuuta, Cho U game... 5-4 and a long-knight's enclosure... That's rare in the pros. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a modern pro game where the professional made a long-knight's enclosure by itself - only when the move was multipurpose (like removing a potential base for a stone on the side). I almost thought this was one of your games until I read the names and the rest of your post. Those moves just scream KGS 5k to me.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

@ moyoaji: Yeah, you're right there about judging someone on won games (and playing against someone whom I should have given at least 3-4 stones of handicap anyways). I'd have loved to post one or two of the lost games, but I have only 2 games in the last week which I lost and one is over extremely quickly (and I know why..) and the other one was so horrible style-wise (not only because of my mistakes) that I resigned because I was kind of disgusted. I was behind, too, but what I like about Go very much is it's beauty and that game had nothing of that at all (You know that proverb about wrestling with a pig? I think I got very dirty there... ^^;). Well, I'm sure there'll be better material in the near future.

On the pro game: Yeah, the opening is pretty unconventional, too. Just as the rest of the game, actually. I mean, who would have thought, that it would end so badly for Cho U? But I think it's great that pros play such unexpected moves even in their title games and do not play too conventionally / conservatively.

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It's sunday and the first week after opening this journal is over, so it is time for a little update.

Weekly update #1

Unfortunately, this week was not as successful as I would have liked it to be. I'm still (and will for the next two weeks at least) frantically busy with lots of other things than Go. However, I dutifully solved my tsumego while communting from / to work. since I started to take another route to work this week which is quicker but involves more changing trains, I have less time for tsumego. But the "quality" of the problem solving has improved, I think. As I wrote before, I finished GGoPfB volume 4 and started the first set of Cho Chikuns life and death problems. I think these are better for me and my reading because no answers are provided. Before, I'd look at the solution pretty quickly all the time and wouldn't spend much time on each problem (yeah, the lazy, impatient (wo)man's approach.. But I think this is still better than doind nothing at all). Now however, I once even spent about 15 minutes on one problem, reading out different variations. I think it was problem 64 or around that. Very good training. It's something I somehow can't do it when I have the solutions readily available.. But this journal is about learning so maybe I'll learn that someday, too.

I also didn't find the time to study joseki and attack and defense.. Although I did a bit of joseki stuff by commenting a game here in the forums. I haven't reviewed another person's game in a while and was pretty unsure about my ideas and my moves at times. Still, I think I found some good points and, more importantly: It was fun to comment the game! I'll try to review regularly in the future, it's a good repetition of principles, joseki moves and much more and others are able to benefit from this type of studying as well.

As you might imagine from the things said above, I didn't get to play much, either. I only played one game this week (on OGS) and I won it, breaking through to 6k there, too. Because I promised to post a lost game next, I won't post it here. But I'm sure that the tournament next week will provide some lost games, so I'll make up for it next week.

Oh, and I bought another Go book (as if I hadn't enough Go books I didn't read already.. ). I simply couldn't look away from After openings by Kim Sung-rae because I really really liked his other book After joseki. I'll get my hands on it next week and I guess I'll write a little review then.

EDIT: I nearly forgot to add that I replayed a bunch of pro games this week. Title games of Iyama Yuta, of course (who else? )


Forecast:
The next week will be packed. Packed with a lot of stuff not related to Go, again, but I really hope I'll be able to squeeze in more Go activities as wwll. Next week there'll be Go activities every day organized as the Berlin Go week (it's taking place every year between the tournaments Go to Innovation and the Berliner Kranich) and I'm planning to visit at least one event, presumably a multiple simul game event tomorrow (three dan players go around in a circle oh other players and take turns playing). I'd also like to go to a workshop held by Hwang In-seong on wednesday, but I'm not completely sure I can go yet. Then, there is the (probably) last tournament of the year coming up next weekend.

I'll be back for the next weekly update on sunday after the tournament. Have a good week and wonderful and exciting games!

Ember

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Weekly update #2 - Part 1: Pre-tournament

Hello everyone,

I thought I might write a (hopefully) short update on this week before playing the tournament tomorrow and the day after. As expected, time for Go was pretty short this week. Unfortunately, I didn't go to any event of the befor mentioned Go week here in Berlin, although I really wanted to. But my real life was so packed, that I was actually happy to be able to do a little tsumego here and there.

I also didn't study a lot, but I remembered today (I had a day off from work <3) that I still hat a few Euros on my account at Guo Juans Internet Go School, so I decided to spend at least one of them to watch a lecture on something I could use in the tournament this weekend. I decided on typical mistakes (10k-1d Lecture 3). However, most of the mistakes weren't really hard to figure out for me. A good sign or the wrong lecture? Maybe I'll watch another lecture of that series later to find out. There must be more typical mistakes that I'm making that I can learn about!

Talking about making mistakes: I'm quite happy that I got to play two games this week until now (playing in general is not a mistake, of course, but my play is full of them ). The first one I played with someone I know on OGS but who didn't know it was me because he doesn't know my account name (I recognised his account name and am absolutely sure it was him as he put his name in the profile as I found out after he had left). That was really funny! *g* Although I thanked him for the game using his first name, he didn't suspect a thing as he had put his whole name in his profile - which as I mentioned before didn't know at that moment. He left with a thanks and I haven't seen him since then. What may he have been thinking about that strange player on OGS? *g* I still think it's funny. Oh, and I won that game by 8,5 because I was lucky enough to catch a group of his. If I hadn't been able to do so, it would have been a game I could post here now.

Still, you'll finally get the lost game I promised today! I wanted to play at least one game today before the tournament so I tried to play live on OGS again. Since the merge with Nova, the server the server became more interesting for me (being able to play turn-based AND live games is a great thing!) but it definitely has some major faults in my opinion, too. I usually try to play there for now, because I'm already logged on there for my turn-based games anyway and because it has great potential, at least if some of the major flaws would be ironed out, so I don't want it to die before the ironing out (finally!) starts.
Anyways, I pretty quickly got a game and started to play, but my opponent disappeared before his first move... and didn't come back. Which meant I had to waste a whole 40 Minutes waiting for him until he lost the game on time. Oh, and of course I didn't gain anything from that, the game was annulated. Extremely annoying! At times like these I wish there was an "abort" button or something like that so I could leave, too. (which is something that I would love to have on KGS, too, as this is not a problem that can occur on OGS alone) Or that at least I can put the name of that user on some kind of list that forbids him to join my open games again. Grrr...

Well, but I had decided to play today, so I logged onto good ol' KGS and had a game going after... not even 3 minutes. Yay! As I'm playing 4k there, I looked at the 3-5k range and found a 3k who wanted to play with a reasonable thinking time. I really think he played pretty strange a few times, but who am I to judge his moves when I play like I do I'm really happy that I only lost by 1,5 points! I guess I could have won a few times if I hadn't played quite a number of questionable moves, too, but it's always easier to see them after the game has ended. So here is the game, as promised with a few comments from me. Although I already reviewed it, I'd be happy if one or two of you shared a few thoughts.



Now I'm KGS 5k again, but I'm neither sad nor mad nor anything negative, but I'm positive that if I play a few more games there, the 4k rank will eventually be back. I kind of feel a little elated at the moment, like I actually might be improving right now. I hope that this is really happening and not only something I feel because I really do want to become stronger. Actually, because of this I can't wait for the tournament to start, to prove myself and to find out!

But I have to be careful, though. The last time I felt like this I really crashed down, especially emotionally, which is someting I definitely do not want to experience again. Keeping the right attitude and your emotions under control is really hard for me and maybe that's the largest challenge for me when playing Go. Even though there are thousands of josekis and principles and other stuff to master. But keeping a clear head is a decisive part of the game, too (as Benjamin Teuber wrote in his blog on Senseis library, as well). So I'll have to work on that although I have no idea on how to start. So, how do you control your emotions? If you have any pointers for me like what helps you to keep calm and a cool head, I'd really love to hear about it, especially if you had problems with this before, too!

If you have read until now: Thank you for sticking with me! I'd love to hear your thoughts so please post them here, be it comments on the game, on emotional control or if you want to tell me that the lengthy gibberish I write here is too boring to bear. Unfortunately, I guess I wont be able to write more concisely, sorry. I tried it for years, but to no avail. It must be in my genes to write like this.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend with lots of interesting games yourself! Maybe I'll post a little update on the first day of the tournament tomorrow evening. If not, I'll surely be back on sunday evening.

I hope to "see" you then!
Best wishes

Ember

P.S.: Oh, and I also replayed a few more games of Iyama Yuta today. I especially liked the first game of this year's Kisei. I hope that next year's first game will be at least as interesting!

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Some comments on your lost game =)

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

@ SoDesuNe: Thanks a lot for your comments, they were really helpful!
In the future I'll try not to play my beloved Kobayashi blindly without considering possible weak points like the one you mentioned. Also, your comments show pretty good that I'll have to do even more tsumego so that I'm able to read sequences out more calmly and accurately so that I can see that there's nothing to fear there. Oh, and you also reminded me of Guo Juan in your comments, did you ever study with her? She repeats that part about bumping your head A LOT, I remembered that when I read your comments from the term I took lessons from her.

Well... Now that I'm already writing here, I might as well write a little mid-tournament-report.


Weekly update #2 - Part 2: Mid-tournament

Hard facts first: I'm back on earth from cloud number 9 (ok, I wasn't THAT euphoric. Let's say it was cloud number 7 ). I played four games today, one warm-up game before the first round against someone of about my strength and then of course the three tournament games. To keep it short: I lost three of them. In one game I played too timidly (the warm-up game), two more games were lost because I played in similar situations recklessly (round 1 and 3) and won one insane, crazy fighting game with an enourmous ko by the komi of six points - although I could have won easier as a review with my boyfriend a couple of minutes ago showed - but, as Hayashi Kozo would have said: "No mistake, no fun!". And I must admit that in this game there was one move (ok, maybe two) that really were very enjoyable for me to play and use (they're in the upper left corner). I like it when my opponent groans when he has to defend where he really doesn't want to. Maybe that's what I miss when I'm playing online?

The thing that disappointed me most was how I lost the two tournament games: I played WAY too quickly. In the first game I used only 20 (out of 60) minutes of my time until I resigned and in the third round I even only used 15 minutes. Which is quite surprising because a few years back, when I was still playing quite a bit (at least tournament-wise) it wasn't unusual for me to use all my time and get into byoyomi. I guess that's the side-effect of internet playing, clicking away is just SO easy! I'll definitely have to stop this tomorrow, although I doubt that I can handle this so quickly. To be honest, it would surprise me if anything concerning improvement in Go would be quick. But I'll have to start to make this effort as soon as I can because when I take my time I CAN win by playing reasonably well (at least against opponents of my calibre, of course. ).

As I was already blessed with a review by a dan player who commented the first round (reckless loss), I'll post the (at least for my standards) exciting game of round 2 and the second reckless loss from round three. I would really, really appreciate comments on that last game (on the second round, too, of course ) because I don't really have a clue why my position looks so badly at move 63. Whether it is wrong choice of joseki or many many small mistakes I cannot really say, so I'm counting on you guys here! Some of my thoughts on the third round: I felt that I had to try something crazy to come back after move 63 and then made the mistake of degiri instead of the block in the upper side (I thought not for even one second here ), so that pretty crucial stones got cut off (ok, and then I found out that black's cut indeed works - of course, it was only after she had played the cut). So how I definitely lost the game is crystal clear. But any comments on the opening until move 63 are - as already said - greatly appreciated.

Round #2: Fighting near (or rather at?) the limit



Round #3: Reckless loss #2



Oh, and I also got my copy of Kim Sung-rae's After Openings today. I already started to study the moves in there and I LOVE this book. Just like After Joseki this is a really helpful book for everyone who wonders why stronger players always live in their enclosures and they themselves keep on dying all the time. Like the last book it not only points out where the aji in corner enclosures is, but also what good AND bad moves both players can make there and how to refute the (at least most common of many possible) bad moves. I'll post a longer review maybe next weekend or maybe even after that because the next week will be so full of other things (a "date" with the dentist, among other things, urgh...)

Thanks for dropping in, for reading and thanks in advance for any helpful comments! I'll be back tomorrow and hopefully I can report some more positive results then.

Have a nice sunday and some good games!

Ember

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No, I sadly did not have the chance to study with her but I still make this shape myself and get scolded for it =D

Here is my take on your lost game ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

@ SoDesuNe: Thank you very much, again! Yeah, the opening was really bad overall, maybe that's the reason why it was so hard to pinpoint especially bad moves? Kind hard to decide what was worst..
Lately I somehow feel that my limited knowledge of joseki is some kind of source for my cluelessness and sometimes even for unnessesary kamikaze or overly defensive moves. I kinda feel like this in every game and in this game it was especially bad. Hopefullystudying After Joseki (of course including the joseki discussed) and After Openings will help me to get some ideas and help me to calm down a little as well as being able to assess the situation better.


Weekly update #2 - Part 3: After the tournament and summary of the week

Today was the second day of the tournament with two games remaining. The positive things first: I was able to win another game by playing ok (I guess) and I again had some (okok, QUITE some ) of the delicious food at the tournament side which, as in the last years, was prepared by "the" Japanese housewives (they are already pretty famous here). Yeah. Oh, and I was able to play more slowly, using at least about 40 minutes per game. So.. that was good.
But sadly, that's about it already concerning positive things. After I was able to win the first game (against a 7k by 13 points with black), I played against another 6k and I really wanted to do my best so I could beat at least one 6k in this tournament. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to withstand him when he took my side (had to give it up but got very nice, huge influence toward the center which worked quite well with another side I had played on) and when I built one large territory (my other two groups were small, about 10 points each, against his about 50 points where he destroyed my side and another 20-25 points on the upper side plus a probably weak group on the right side) he bluntly played deep inside my sphere of influence near the corner. I was positive that I could kill him, but in the end he lived and I had to resign. Unfortunately, I cannot post the game here. I was sure I had saved it, but when I looked at the list of files again, the file for this round was missing. This is really irritating, as I hoped for pointers on where I could have killed him. I managed to put up the end position nearly correctly, but of course the sequence of moves is lost, so it's of practically no use.

So, to sum the tournament up: Playing as a 6k I lost against three 6k players and won against two 7k players. I played against 4 people whose rating was (on average) round about 100 points lower than the rank they played with, so my own rating plummeted by round about 75 points. I guess I'll have to play as 7k in Madrid again. What's worse than that is that I don't feel that the training I did in the last two months had any positive effects at all, at least in the tournament. Of course that's partly because I was playing too fast yesterday, too, so I kind of gave away many opportunities. But even in the games I won I didn't win by playing so much better than my opponents but by kind of scraping through somehow.

To be honest, I'm quite disappointed. Even though I was able to play a (very) few nice moves and read a few sequences more clearly, I don't feel that what I did in the last two months had any effects at all. Maybe I was too optimistic thinking that the few things I did would be effective at least in some ways after not doing anything for quite a while. Maybe I put the wrong emphasis (although I'm happy to have done anything at all). I don't know.. What I do know is that the next week will be packed, with lots of stress and little free time. Also, I have a deadline coming up for something I really need to do in my free time, so a one week pause might be a good idea for now. A game or two here or there might be played if I have the time, but otherwise I'll take a little pause to get a breather and try to get over it all. So probably there'll be no update next sunday - but I'll be back the week after that for sure. Stubbornness-issues, you know (cited freely from one of my favourite moves from the last years).

I wish you all a good time until then!

Ember

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Some additional comments on your lost game:

I agree with SoDesuNe that should be at R10 to make a base. For the same reason, should pincer or press the R7 stone, before W gets to make a base.

I like , which is both an extension and a pincer. When B entered the corner, your response was fine, and I think the result was equal.

As SoDesuNe noted, a W move at N15 becomes an extremely good follow-up after the corner joseki. This move expands the W moyo considerably, while limiting the B territory above. Compare this to the sequence where B pushes up at O16. Plays like this at the border of competing moyos are very large.

was great, expanding the W moyo while attacking some B stones.

W could consider ignoring since the W shape is already strong here. As a purely defensive move, Q2 is too small. Approaching the LL corner first (or just jumping in to C3) is much larger.

Blocking at Q2 makes sense if W can follow up by attacking the B corner, but that never happened. Well, it did happen at move 36, but the botched attack only helped B. Blocking at O5 would be an interesting alternative for . It looks like this confines B to the corner, with no way to break out.

After the game still looks fairly close to me. After I think W is actually ahead, provided the W right side moyo becomes territory and the B top side is kept in check.

The forcing moves through were fine, but is heavy and thin, leaving a serious cutting point. Maybe just M15 is better, treating the forcing moves lightly? This is where you started to get into trouble.

Still, at M15 looks like a win for W. B still needs to defend above, then W gets M12 to complete the moyo, with what looks like enough territory to win. The exchange through was good for B and finally won the game.

Thank you very much for your comments, mitsun! Yeah, I quickly found out that 78 was really bad. I shouldn't be playing without thinking first.. At least as long as it's not a blitz game. ^^;

So far I wasn't entirely successful from taking a break this week, as After Openings is so interesting I keep reading little bits in the morning and in the evening befor going to bed. Oh, and of course a little celebration for Iyama to defend the Oza title was kind of obligatory. Although I still have to take a closer look at the game.. Well, it looks like I have little success in whatever I try to do Go-wise, at least at the moment.

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Hello everybody,

just as promised, I'm back after a little break.

Weekly update #3

I was a little surprised to find the last week to be just as busy as the week before, so it was hard to get back into my study routine. Honestly, I doubt I'll be able to get back into it before the middle of January, so until then everything will be a bit more unstructured. But I don't care as long as I still can get some time in for Go and do something.
What I did this week: I think I only solved one tsumego (this afternoon ^^; ) since last sunday, but I played five games this week and tried to study a bit by watching / listening to some of Guo Juan's Online Lessons (Typical Mistakes, Opening Training and Common Opening Lecture 1). I liked the lessons a lot and will definitely watch more of them. At the moment, it feels easier to learn this way than to stick my nose in the books.

As for the games, it was two wins and three losses this week. Two of the losses were especially hard. The first, because I misclicked in a game I played for "my" team in the German Bundesliga (first time ever! >_<). Not that it would have changed the outcome significantly, he was just too strong for me, but it buggs me that I couldn't play the move that I wanted to play. The other loss was really bad for me because I simply couldn't find any sente moves at all. Ok, I found a very few, but most of them were not really sente as at the end of the sequence I had to defend and therefore lost it again. My opponent on the other hand pushed me around all the time, getting all the big endgame moves and the like. It reminded me of the last tournament I played in where in some games it was just the same. I'll have to go back to analyse these games so that I hopefully find out what gets me in that awkward situation and can prevent that in the future. Playing like this is no fun at all.

What was strange this week (when I leave that Bundesliga game out) was that I had 2 losses on OGS in which I had a really really hard time agains people of similar strength (I'm 6k there) , while the games I played on KGS against people of around my rank (I'm 4k there) were a lot easier for me. It might have been a coincidence or maybe these two cannot be compared because the games on OGS where ranked while the ones on KGS were free and the people care less about them, but I still think this is a bit weird. Oh, and I played a few games in the last week on both servers so the ranks should be about right.

The good news is that, most unexpectedly, I recently started to enjoy playing online. A few months back, I was still suffering from OGA (which I had for years) and had to virtually force myself to get a game started on a server. Now I look forward to every (half an) hour I can play games on OGS or KGS (whenever I can't get a game on OGS). I still like playing over the board a lot more, but playing online does have it's advantages. My only fear now is that I start playing too quickly and that this will transfer into my live games. I'll have to pay attention here.
I credit the new OGS/Nova for this change. Being able to play live games while I wait for my turn based games to continue seems to be a perfect combination for me. Maybe it's because it is the same interface? I don't know, but I'm sure that I wouldn't have played that much in the last weeks (yep, that's much for me) if the merge hadn't happened. So, it is thank you very much, OGS! However, I'm not completely happy with the situation of the server as it is now (as I explained in this thread) and I hope that there'll be some changes at the beginning of next year (it would be silly to expect anything this year, I guess). *crosses her fingers* Then, it will be the perfect place for me.

That's it for this time, thanks for reading! Have a great week, some good games of Go and don't get swept away by stressful christmas preparations.

Ember

P.S.: 26 days to go until Madrid. Can't wait!!

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