SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Charles Matthews · Post by **Charles Matthews** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:47 pm

SamT wrote:Really, this victory feels very strange to me, like I was just lucky. And I may have been. I expect time will tell me what my true rank is.

You were more efficient than your opponent. Cut out plays like :w54:

and

that don't do much, and you'll be a little stronger.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 7:48 pm

Here's a quick review:

Knotwilg · Post by **Knotwilg** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 2:28 am

1. You made no big mistakes at this level
2. You played on a large scale at several occasions
3. You fortified your comfortable lead by playing connecting moves

That makes for a solid 9k

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:38 am

Charles Matthews and Knotwilg - thank you!

S2W - great analysis. It jibes very well with the feedback I got last night at Go Club. I'll definitely be studying this game again; there is a lot to learn from it. Even my good moves are only good locally, not globally.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:56 am

SamT wrote:S2W - great analysis. It jibes very well with the feedback I got last night at Go Club.

Cheers - if you keep ranking up like this, I'm looking forward to your reviews.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 1:25 pm

S2W wrote:
SamT wrote:S2W - great analysis. It jibes very well with the feedback I got last night at Go Club.

Cheers - if you keep ranking up like this, I'm looking forward to your reviews.

Why, thank you. Really, I expect my rank to bounce back and forth quite a bit on KGS before settling down.

I am starting to actually read some theory books too, not just do problems. So that might slow me down as well.
---

To all:

There's a 4 Dan at the Go Club who can look at a move near the opening or a joseki mistake and eyeball and estimate if it's a 6, 8, 15, 30, or 40 point mistake. That seems like a very valuable skill, one I should endeavor to develop. Honestly, I feel blind without it.

He recommended a book, but I believe that it has been so long since he read it, it may not actually cover this. Anyone know where to look for that kind of info?

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 1:48 pm

Update: Mostly I have been reading Go books since Sunday.

I've finished Janice Kim and Jeong Soo-Hyun's "Learn to Play Go" #1 and #2, and am nearly done with #3.

In addition, I've begun:
-"The Elementary Go Series, Vol 1: In the Beginning" by Ikuro Ishigure - easy to understand, about 1/5 done with it.
-"Opening Theory Made Easy" by Hideo Otake - not as easy to grasp for some reason. 1/2 way done, not sure if I understood all of what I have read.

On tap for later:
-"Elementary Go Series, Vol 2: 38 Basic Joseki" by Ikuro Ishigure - I am tired of slogging my way through rarely used Joseki, and would like a toolkit of common ones before I go back and learn the uncommon ones. This looks like the ticket.
-"Learn to Play Go" #4 and #5

I think what I'm after here is the illusion that I understand what I'm doing.

Without the drilling constantly on the problem sets (I can either read a ton or do problems, not both! No time!), my go skills are slipping. Because of the move and STILL not being in the house, I've had only sporadic internet, so MFG is my only opponent, and it is destroying me on 15 kyu. Of course, I am playing lightning fast, just as fast as the computer, too, and making stupid mistakes because of it. But still. I expected to be better even going fast, by now.

Because of my love of drills and the benefit I've seen constantly doing different types of problems, I think I have run into a set of books I would dearly love to buy:

"Speed Baduk" by Sung Rae-Kim -- All of them!

This will have to wait until I have mo' money and am actually at my house (so they don't get lost in the shipping vortex that is UPS/DHL/USPS (only Fed Ex seems to make it to my house with any regularity))

Anything else I should be looking at? The "Level Up" series looks interesting, but I've seen some mixed reviews?

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 6:43 am

Tesuji by James Davies might be good given your love of drills.

Knotwilg · Post by **Knotwilg** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:29 am

SamT wrote:Update: Mostly I have been reading Go books since Sunday.

(...) MFG is my only opponent, and it is destroying me on 15 kyu. Of course, I am playing lightning fast, just as fast as the computer, too, and making stupid mistakes because of it. But still. I expected to be better even going fast, by now.

Nope. If you want to improve, you must take your games seriously. Better play 2 games in which you invest, than 10 games during which you have a drink, smoke, listen to music and chat with your beloved.

The above is also inconsistent: it is impossible to apply what you've learnt, even think about it, if you play lightning fast. You will enjoy both the reading and the playing but the two activities are only very remotely connected. Playing fast games is another anti-pattern and mostly an excuse for your games not reflecting your increased wisdom.

Of course, if joy is what you're after, not study and improvement, it makes perfect sense.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:28 am

Books
Honestly, I haven't picked up any of the books I was reading since the last post. I've browsed a couple of others, but mostly I've been jumping around.

Of note: I opened up Bruce Wilcox's Sector Fights again (I've already completed Contact Fights), and I finally, after the third time trying, completed the Elementary section. Basically, I think he's trying to teach how to attack and defend and build a moyo and invade -- and well, lots of stuff -- all at the same time. And the Elementary section doesn't always seem to have real-world implications, because it specifically disallows contact on all invasions, even when they're invading your third line base. I'm sure this changes later, as you become more advanced, but I've been so frustrated with trying to apply it that I've given up on it several times.

Still, the ability to visualize sectors and how to tear them apart is extremely valuable. I definitely need to get over my frustration and buckle down and finish it.

Teaching Games
Two teaching games at my Go club. The first was by a 5 dan visiting from out of state. He seemed surprised that I knew the Chinese Opening 4 months in (why wouldn't I?), and humored me by showing several variations of different situations, so I could see how badly things turned out when I chose wrong, and how good they go go if I chose right.

I learned a little about the Avalanche joseki from him; small avalanche and how to turn down the avalanche if I don't want to participate. He showed me some large avalanche stuff, but I'm more interested in having a few tools in a lot of situations rather than deep knowledge of one situation, for now. What good are 20 avalanche josekis going to do me if my opponent chooses to play another way and I don't have an answer?

After that game, which took most of my brain power, the 4-dan at the club gave me another teaching game. I learned from it that people don't invade early enough, because he really did a number on a double-base extension I'd made after I'd half-secured it.

A good night, really. I didn't want to play a real game because I felt my skills had slipped dramatically due to lack of doing problems.

Talking about Problems
I started doing the EasyGo Basics again, but I've had a bit of sabotage:

My 5yo daughter watched me doing the exercises, and she has taken over. I mostly just tell her what kind of exercise it is, and she finds the answer. It's amazing to see her progress, even in just three days. Thursday she couldn't do the double atari problems at all -- they frustrated her. And on the single atari problems, whether or not she atari'd in the right direction was random. Wednesday she had no problem atari'ing in the right direction, and double-atari also became easy. Today we did a couple of Ko problems, and they frustrated her, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of them soon.

I'm sure ladders and nets will be very frustrating when we start them, but they, too, will eventually be conquered.

It's quite wonderful having her snuggled up next to me as we go through problems together, but the main issue is -- I'm not getting much of a mental workout from it. I will have to find some other time of day for my own study, I guess.

Games
Only one big game. It was against a computer because the house is still not done, and I still do not have internet. Taking Knotwilig's advice, I decided to play slow. To raise the stakes, I decided to play hard so I would have no choice but to read as deep as I could. MFG on 2 kyu, no handicap, 5 hours per player.

Note: Somewhere around 2? 4? hours in (time flies!), my wife interrupted me and made me save and shut down. When I returned to the game, it had switched the computer to "human". When I switched it back, the computer was 4 kyu. I also could not quite get my head back into the game, despite really trying hard.

Comments on what I was thinking (delusions and all) are in the file, so you can see exactly where my brain goes haywire.

Charles Matthews · Post by **Charles Matthews** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:34 am

Knotwilg wrote:Playing fast games is another anti-pattern and mostly an excuse for your games not reflecting your increased wisdom.

I agree, that for some kyu players, a wish to play too fast holds them back. But there are also disadvantages in playing too slow, I think, up to good amateur level.

A casual game for a 19x19 board taking an hour implies about 15 seconds average per play, which may be classed as neither too fast nor too slow in a club. But I think the median should be lower, i.e. take your time over a few key plays.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:45 am

Charles Matthews wrote:
Knotwilg wrote:Playing fast games is another anti-pattern and mostly an excuse for your games not reflecting your increased wisdom.

I agree, that for some kyu players, a wish to play too fast holds them back. But there are also disadvantages in playing too slow, I think, up to good amateur level.

A casual game for a 19x19 board taking an hour implies about 15 seconds average per play, which may be classed as neither too fast nor too slow in a club. But I think the median should be lower, i.e. take your time over a few key plays.

Good point.

And in line with Rin Kaiho's advice to reserve as much as 1/3 of your time (10 min.) for a single crucial play.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:43 am

I actually worked on the novel for the first time since I started playing Go. My wife is very excited. She thinks it's a sign that my go-passion is cooling off. I hope not.

However, I've been unable to plug in a lot of time to go the last few days. Between problems with the house, training for a sword fighting event, family life, etc, I've only managed one or two hours of study per day, half (or less than half!) my usual.

Books
I started "Learn to Play Go" #4, but was put off by the invasion/reduction stuff since I'd heard a lot of it before. I've heard a lot about book 5, and I've been itching to get there because it sounds really cool, so I started reading it as well, simultaneously. Slow going so far.

If I can get through these two last books, then I will circle back around to "In the beginning" and "38 basic Joseki". I should then have a pretty good foundational skill set to advance with.

Problems
Any day I don't do at least 50 problems is a day I feel like I'm backsliding. If they're truly basic problems, I need to do at least 100, or 120 to feel like I've exercised my brain.

I've just barely been keeping up with these.

Yesterday: 30 or so problems on Ladders, 40 or so problems on nets, 20 or so Fuseki problems.
Today: 54 problems on or so problems on Oiotoshi

Other Learning Stuff
Yesterday: Went through a Nick Sibicky video on basic opening theory with Drago open, really trying to get a feel for the stuff.

I'm really tired of being dramatically behind at the end of the Opening and then having to catch up, so I hope this fuseki study will start helping soon.

Games
None. This lack of internet for most hours of the day sucks. I had to pick between playing and Sibicky, and I picked Sibicky. But, honestly, if I had internet/tv, I'd probably be watching the new season of Doctor Who.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:01 am

I went on a camping trip last weekend and came back ill, and I still have not recovered. This has put a crimp in just about everything I do, including Go.

Problems:
Not many. I need to get back on this horse.

Books:
Same as problems, q.v.

Games:
Three Thursday night at Go club, the first ones in a week in a half.

My Go club is typically composed of one 4 Dan 1 or 2 lower dans, several 1-4 kyus, two or three 7 kyus, and me.

I am therefore thought of as the "newbie" (and, I technically am). So when we had a new player come to Go club last night, one who had only played a handful of games total, but who had been studying and was excited, my club automatically assumed I would be on near even footing with him, as we were both "new".

I requested that he take 9 stones, but he decided to only take 5, and it was not pretty. I tried to show him a few things as we went. We played again at 9 stones, and I still destroyed him, but I made several mistakes in reading cuts and capture races, and these really annoyed me. The guy was really nice, however. I hope he comes back.

I told him that a combination of Tusmego, Tesuji, and Joseki had worked wonders for me, and I recommended he follow the same course, as it's the only one I know. I didn't mention that I also study a lot of pro games, nor did I mention EasyGo -- if he comes back, I will try to touch on these.

Especially EasyGo. I think it's "basics" problems are really amazing. Half of learning to play go is being able to see what is happening on the board, not being blind, and these problems teach you HOW TO SEE AGAIN.

The captain of the go club came around and was shocked to see me giving 9 stones to the new guy, and said maybe he had made a mistake matching us up, but -- really -- I don't know who else the new guy would have played.

I sadly do not have any game records. I seem to have misplaced my Ipad Mini (which also puts a crimp in my EasyGo plans).

After these two games, I got to play against the new 2-3 Dan who joined the club recently. I took 9 stones, and he was still toying with me, testing me to see what I would do in different circumstances, but he was also kind, and let me know when I had made truly terrible mistakes, and why they were terrible. He focused mainly on polishing up my thought process. According to him, every move I should:

1) Look at the opponent's move. Determine if it can hurt me. If not, plan to tenuki.
2) If the opponent's move can hurt me, determine how badly. Figure out how to stop it and if you want to stop it.
3) Look elsewhere on the board. See where the opponent can hurt me, and how bad. Figure out if you should stop it or not, and how.
4) Look at where you can hurt the opponent. Figure out how badly. If it is better to hurt the opponent, hurt him.

or something vaguely like that. I'll work on it. It's not supposed to be computer logic, just some guidelines to stop me from following the opponent around, which I am still doing.

PS - The 2-3 dan also thinks I am a 9k player. I think everyone that thinks that must be insane. Especially after all the stupid reading and capture race mistakes I made in the 9-stone game against the new guy. Sure, I still won by 30 points, but the sheer idiocy of some of my moves was horrifying.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 9:28 am

Training
As I am now writing another novel, and since work is crazy (it is Disaster Recovery Test season, and I am the DR Manager), AND since we are still moving back into the house and dealing with construction issues (yes, STILL)... I have not had much time to practice.

At most I get a handful of simple problems a day, or I can play through part of a pro game, but with very little time to analyze it.

Last night I made some time to sit down and study problems again, and it was amazing how much I had forgotten. I'll try to do better, but real life (TM) is such a hassle.

Games
Not many of these either. I'm suffering from online game anxiety again, probably because it's been so long since I was playing online seriously and I don't believe I am 9 kyu. I'm having problems pulling the trigger and joining online games at all. This does not extend to games in real life.

Game 1: KGS

I did manage to pull the trigger on a game once. I knew I was out of practice, and I could tell I was playing poorly. Very poorly. My hands were shaking from thrill and panic, and I found it nearly impossible to read anything but one or two moves. I don't get it. Why is playing Go so terrifying and thrilling? I need to get some emotional distance, desensitize myself or something.

Coming out of this game, I was certain that I did not deserve my 9k rank, and this was proof.

Game 2: At the Go Club
I went to Go club last night and played against the first person I ever played against, a guy named Mark. He floats between 7-9k on KGS. My first game with him, I needed 9 stones, and he still beat me. This game, I took no stones, but got black because we were not sure what my rank truly is.

I remember that when I first met him, he said he had reached 9 kyu in one year, and I was very impressed by how fast he had done it. I will guiltily admit: I enjoyed the shock on his face when he heard that I, who had started only 4 or so months ago, had already reached 9k. I know I shouldn't've enjoyed it. I know that my advancement is due to an unhealthy habit of obsessively focusing on a new hobby to the exclusion of everything else. But I did enjoy it. I've worked very hard and struggled with a lot of inner demons, and for a moment I really felt like I had accomplished something.

I wish I had recorded this game, but the strange personal-to-person dynamics of a real life game threw me off, and I felt like I was going to be annoying learning new technology as I played. I need to get over myself and just record all games, period.

I opened with a micro Chinese, and he opened Chinese. He approached my star point, and I countered with a large knight, inviting him in to 3-3, but he never took it and I ended up sealing the corner off later later in the game.

Early game went well for me. I approached his 3-4 with an avalanche that I played incorrectly, but he didn't know avalanche at all, so I made it work. He threatened the group several times, but I had eyespace, so I jumped out and extended the micro chinese and developed a massive framework taking up almost a quarter of the board.

He of course countered this, and invaded, and lived small, and later I made some mistakes and let him reduce the moyo quite a bit.

I might have won, but I had two dragons going. I made one live under severe pressure, but the other one I did not read correctly. I thought it already had 2 eyes, and it did not. The death of this dragon, sealed my fate, but I made several other bad reading errors near the end.

The problem is that I normally go to bed at 8:30 or 9:00pm, and there is just no way around it, that's when Go club is. So near the end of all my games there, I start crumbling. I crumbled more than usual, though: I completely and utterly misread at least three attacks, not seeing an entire enemy liberty for 5 moves, until my eyes suddenly clicked on.

I feel I could have won this game, or at least gotten very close, had I:

1) not misread those moves and
2) realized that my second dragon did not have two eyes when I thought it did (I could easily have had the second eye if I had tried; this second issue had its roots in reading/strategy before the 8:30pm threshold, and likely was just me making a terrible mistake!).

I ended up losing by 60 points instead. It was very frustrating to lose because of that dragon dying, but my opponent said that he felt like he was on the ropes for most of the game, and complimented me on my "great attacking style" over and over again.

The dragon was about 44 points, I think, and my other misreads were quite large as well, wasting 6-7 moves on an impossible chase and giving him free captures as well. I think I could've easily won this game if the dragon hadn't died, and I had played even 3 of those 7 stones where they mattered instead of throwing them away and giving him free moves.

Strategic note: I focused on mutual damage in this game; when he threatened to hurt me, I would threaten to hurt him even more. It felt like a perpetual Ko fight, and, in fact, when we dove into the OPGMKF (once-per-game mandatory Ko fight), I noticed little difference, other than a slightly wider palette of moves. It's the first time I got Mutual Damage to work consistently and felt comfortable with it. I also got to build the biggest moyo I've ever built. That was fun.

After this game, I feel at least a little more confident that I might be close to 9 kyu. 11? 10 maybe? So I count it as a success.

Life In 19x19

SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

Re: SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey