Yes, this is how I feel. Just one of many past and present go players wanting to get better. Thanks to the Internet I don't have to live in Japan to get a go interested surrounding and improve though. Actually, I should have it a lot easier for a lot of reasons. Well well my plan is as follow

Play a minimum of 1 game a day, 2 or more if possible.
Always do tsumego/tesuji for 30-45min a day.
Replay pro games on my real board once in a while (imprinting good shape in my mind)
Upload games here and hope someone is kind enough to review them. I think getting games reviewed is what is the most effective way for me to learn. In return you get to be part of a noobs improvement I guess, and I will forecer be greatful

I'm actually in a race of sorts right now. Me and my friend who also recently started out are racing to be the first SDK so please take my side and help me I think we are around 15-17kyu right now. Surely games between us will be posted (i love this rivalry, its pushing us both)


Hope you will have fun reading!

Here is a game against my friend earlier this week. Although I won I mostly want to test to upload SGF with my iPad so I'm not really looking for a review (unless you badly want to point out my mistakes, go ahead, I'd be really greatful)

Btw, is there any particular book I really should read? I am reading tesuji and in the beginning at the moment. Thanks

Welcome to the forums, Sundaay. I hope we can help you in meeting your goals.

It is wonderful to have a rival. Sadly, my rival fell far behind me several months ago when he lost motivation to study. With any luck, both you and your rival will rise through the ranks together. If you can always press each other to improve then you should always be desiring to get better.

Here is a review of your game up through that massive fight on the right side. I reviewed for both players, so if you want to show this to him I also made note of his mistakes.

_________________
"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

Hi there!

Thank you very much for the reply and the review. Two great tesujis to remember (I've already looked them up in Tesuji for further investigation ;D ). I will make sure to show my friend the review too. As of now I feel I have an edge on him, but if I slack off for a minute I'm sure he will be ahead of me in no time I too hope we both will keep rising together. I mean, we help each other out as much as we can but getting reviews from good players is priceless so many thanks again

Oh geez where do I begin... I sat in automatch for quite a while without getting an opponent. So I tried playing against Many Faces of Go in the Computer Go-room on KGS. Played against the 12kyu version. Somehow I won, all because I killed a big group in the middle. Black basically got every corner. I feel awkward playing so seemingly small moves in the corners in the beginning, but I kind of feel I need to be more careful than this at least..

In other news, an EGF shodan called me this morning, telling me he was in town over the weekend so he will drop by later tonight to play some games. Going to be really motivating.

Oh, and I will probably update this thread every single day, for the purpose of keeping my goal of playing and studying every day. Go is so much fun!

Update on how things are going.

I've managed to play at least two games a day for the past few days. I also got SmartGo Kifu for the iPad, great app. I've been solving go problems on it, and I'm half-way through the 20kyu problems at the moment. My reading is getting better, though I still miss stupid things sometimes during longer reading sequences. Got to keep at it, I guess. Also good for recording games I play on real boards so I can review them afterwards.

I've discovered that I am really bad at blitz, so now I'm going to play many (blitz) games a day on kgs to force myself to read faster and also just get more experience overall. I'll report how that goes...

I think I'm devoting half of my time to playing games, and half to reading books/solving problems. Not really sure if that is optimal...

Aaaaanyway. Here is my first ever ASR game, against a 10k. I made a stupid mistake because of losing focus, so I lost a big group in the middle though. I would very much like a review though, if anyone has the time. Could I have killed that bottom group?

Thanks. As you point out I'm way too defensive. I'll work on that. Thanks!

A little update...

I have been mostly idle on KGS, though I've been trying to do problems every day (but I need to do way more each day...) and I have lots of games on DGS running. But you know, sometimes life gets in the way (lame excuse, I could devote more time if I tried and planned better).

However, here is a game from asr-league I played, actually against a friend of mine. Any comments on this game would really nice, since this is how most games looks like against even opponents when a dragon doesn't die.

Hi Sundaay, see Toothpaste and Small gaps --
both you and your friend have many basic shape problems, including absolutely no feeling of these bad shapes.

Sure has been a while since the last post. Since then I've played on and off and managed to get myself to 8kyu on KGS, but right now I'm floating around 9-10kyu. It has become obvious that if I want to keep progressing I really have to put in some effort. So from this day and for the rest of the summer I will devote as much time as I can every day. Once uni starts again I won't have all this free time, so I better make the most of it now.

I 've currently just started working my way through Tesuji (James Davies), Five hundred and one opening problems and Graded go problems for beginners vol 3 (I also have vol 4 but it's pretty difficult). I need to work on my reading (I tend to miss ataris when reading ahead too far... ) and I guess doing problems is a great way to do that The opening problems is also very helpful, as I often find myself behind after the opening. Hopefully that will be better now.

My friend the dan-player also helps me out from time to time, which is very helpful. He thinks I need to study joseki (yes study not memorize, let's skip that discussion shall we? ^^) so I have ordered the 21st Century of Basic Joseki-dictionarys, will probably arrive next week.

But most importantly, I will play more games! I have 7 weeks until uni starts again. Until then I have a goal of playing 250 games on KGS. It will amount to around 5 games a day. This will be my main goal I guess ^__^

From now on I will update this daily to document my progress through the problems and games.

Enough writing, gotta play. Cya!

Welcome to go, and good luck on your quest.

One of the things that you do not have on your to do list is to play against stronger players. An opponent at your own level will simply not be able to punish most of your mistakes, and they can easily become bad habits which are hard to break. Play a lot of teaching games where you are taking 5 - 9 stones.

Again, good luck!

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Very true! Luckily I have both an EGF 1 Dan and an EGF 4 Dan in my club that I can play sometimes. They sure know how to punish my bad moves ^^

Lucky you. Consider to post your games with them here, if not reviewed already.

Day 1 summary:

Problem 1-100 in Graded go problems for beginners vol 3.
5 games on KGS.
Couple of moves on all the games I have running on DGS.

Some thoughts: My reading is baaaad. Worse than my sense of good shape, which is horrible. I hope all these problems will pay off soon Tomorrow I'm also starting the 1001 life & death-problems.

Anyway, the problems are about right, some I can solve instantly, some I need a minute or more. Even if I can spot a shape point to kill, I force myself to read out the sequence (the whole point is to train reading anyway right?).

I also played a teaching game with a 4 dan. My lack of joseki knowledge became quite apparent. Can't wait to get my hands on those books I've ordered.

Now I'm off to sleep. Lots of go players coming over to my place tomorrow for a lot of playing. Should be fun