Ember trains for Japan

[Marcus]

Good luck on your quest! If you see me on KGS sometime, maybe we can play a game!

[PeterN]

Good luck on getting in the alloted games this time round, though I can't really give any advice on what keeps me playing, you looked at my games played and saw even silly losing streaks don't stop me! But just think, 50 games in a month isn't even two games per day.

If I see you on KGS I might try to be one of those 48 games as well

PeterN

[Ember]

@ Marcus: Sure, let's play! I guess our game would be fun because, looking at that last game you posted and the commentaries (at least the first 50 moves), I think we have a bit in common - e.g. I really like the Kobayashi Style, too. It would surely be interesting. I look out for you when I'm online!

@ PeterN: Thanks for your post! Well, my "loosing streak" extended to four losses of pretty much the same pattern on one day and I must admit that this made me a... bit angry. (triping over the same things time after time is very annoying) But at least it did one good thing to me: I want to play again and show that I can do better than that! Let's hope that this state will last for a bit.
Yes, it is not even two games a day, but after work two games is the very most I'm able to play and also there'll be quite a few weekends where I'll have other commitments than Go, so it will be tricky to get to 48 games. Right now, I still have only 4 games played - but that will change today after work. If you see me on KGS, of course we can play a game! I'll look out for you, too.

Thanks to both of you for your support!

[Ember]

Small update:

So far, this week has been no good. I have done nearly no tsumego, have watched no lesson yet (although I cancelled any plans to do so regularly) and - most importantly - I have only played 5 games so far in June. I should have have played about three times as much as that by now... Well, fortunately, it's weekend AND Monday is a holiday, so I hope that I'll be able to catch up on my number of games - 20 games total by monday evening will be my short-term goal for the next three days, more if possible. Then I'd be back on track (or even better than that depending on how many games I get to play).
Hopefully, my winning quota will be better then, too. So far, I lost all the games I played this month which I have to admit irritated me after the first four games a great deal, although four or five games isn't really that much. The last months have been so successful that I wasn't really used to that anymore. Maybe I have reached another point from which progress will be much slower, we'll see. Anyways, since the last game I'm back on track and simply happy to have played another game, just as it should be.

Well, I'll be off to you-know-where. Have a great weekend!

Ember

[Ember]

Weekly Update #19

Thanks to my boyfriend, who played five games with me tonight (on a real board for a change), I made it and played 20 games to this day (thanks again!!). First week, first step to reaching this month's goal! But since it is only the first step, I can't be too happy about that now. The hardest part, keeping up with the schedule and playing 1-2 games a day on average, is yet to come, especially in such a busy month as June and during all that summer heat that has crept out of nearly nowhere...

Let's see how this will work out! The goal for next week will be 12 games (or more, if possible) - a little more than what would be the average of the remaining games to be played. However, since I'll be going to a Go meeting on Saturday and Sunday, it is definitely doable (and being a little ahead is always a good thing ).

That's it for today with a very short update. I wish you all a nice week!

Ember


+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

+++ Playing statistics +++
Date: 9 June 2014
Games played/to be played: 172 / 228
Days passed/to come: 160 / 205
Games won total: 97
Games lost total: 73
Jigo: 2
Winning percentage total: 56%
Landmarks: First win against KGS 3k on 5 January 2014 (unrated game, own rank: 4k, color: black, no komi), first win against KGS 3k in a rated game on 19 January 2014 (own rank: 4k, color: black, komi: 0,5 points), first time hitting 3k by playing and not by not-playing (25 January 2014), January: succeeded in playing the 34 games needed per month to reach 400 games by the end of the year, first win against a KGS 1k in a rated game (11 February 2014, own rank: 2k?, color: black, Komi: 0,5), first win against a KGS 2k in a rated game (12 February 2014, own rank: 3k, color: black, Komi: 0,5), scoring five wins out of six games in a tournament as 6k (February 2014), first win under tournament conditions against a 3kyu (10 April 2014, own rank: 5kyu), got a solid rank of KGS 3k (April 2014), scoring four wins out of five games in a tournament as 5kyu (April and May 2014), first win in a tournament against a 3kyu (11 May 2014, own rank: 5kyu), first reached KGS 2kyu by playing (18 May 2014), stabilised at KGS 2kyu (June 2014)

[Ember]

*dusting off the thread* *cough*

Hello everybody, I'm back!

A lot of time has passed since my last post here... a lot of time indeed. 2014 is already over and - to make it short - my "Rat Race"-goals have not come true. I had to take a break last June because I got sick - nothing bad, but I had been feeling exhausted and sick for weeks and finally decided to take a short break until I felt better again - which led to (let's be honest here) me getting lazy. That's why I didn't reach my goal of playing 400 games in 2014, I finished the year at "only" 241 games - which still is a LOT for me, probably as much as I played the last 2 or 3 years together.


+++ Looking back at 2014+++
A few weeks after my forced break in June I tried to get motivated again and in the end also started to take online lessons. I liked them a lot and I can tell that they really helped me but unfortunately they also led to some great frustration on my part. If you really feel that you're getting better and also get this feedback but are STILL loosing all your league games for several months in a row, this can be a real killer for motivation.. Of course, winning is not everything, but it led to me playing less and less games until I only logged in to get my weekly slaughter - which is not the way to improvement. Tournament results also went down towards the end of the year after a really good start in the first half of 2014, so the year ended not as positive as it started. Not everything was bad, of course: as I already said I still played a lot (for my standards) and I FINALLY broke through my 6k barrier and now play as 4-5k EGF! However, I wanted to feel happy about Go again and continuing to play in that mindset wouldn't be of any help. That's why I decided in December that I wanted to take a break. Since then about 4 months have passed again... how time flies!


+++ 2015 so far and beyond +++
For this year, I haven't yet aimed at such a goal but - you might have already guessed it - have been lazy AGAIN. "Taking a break" is such a comfortable excuse! However, summer draws near quite quickly and with it the Osaka Go Camp for which MagicMagor and I registered. In about 10 weeks we are off to our first trip to Japan and I really want to use the remaining weeks until then to get back in shape: No tournaments so far this year and only some 10-20 games in 2015 with little to no tsumego training definitely won't have helped me so far out of my slump. But I don't want to make a fool out of myself in Japan! And since warming up before you exercise is always recommended I thought about a few goals until June 15th:

• for reading practise do 50 (or more) tsumego per day from Cho Chikuns Encyclopedia of Life and Death starting with part 1 - elementary (after that continue with part 2, etc., I might add problems from other books like 501 Tesuji Problems, etc., too)
• play at least 50 games until then
• review at least 1 mistake from each game and take a quick note about what I learned from the analysis
• 30-60 minutes of study of various topics (starting with joseki) per week together with MagicMagor on a real board

I don't have a lot of time to put into studying Go at the moment and I really hope that I can make it. But I already was in a similar situation last year and therefore know that establishing a study routine is vital here. This can take as much as 3 weeks of daily commitment, so the first three weeks will be crucial to the plan. After that I'll make a little review to see how far I've come with that. Until then I'll try to give short daily reports in a fixed form tailored to my goals above including a game here and there, like Abyssinica did here on 19x19 for quite some time.

And now I'm off to work!

[Ember]

Didn't get to post it but I started. Even though work was crazy yesterday and I longed for nothing more than something to eat and the couch I motivatedly dashed at my tsumego book when I got home and did the rest of my daily dosis (while waiting for the sushi to arrive). The first two days in a short version:

Preliminary / Day 1: Sunday, April 12th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 51/900)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 0/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

Week 1 / Day 2: Monday April 13th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (51 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 102/900)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 0/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

I doubt that I'll be able to start playing before thursday which is the next day our team plays in the German Go-Bundesliga. I'll have to face a 3k, so it will definitely be a hard game. I hope that it will be an interesting game, too - if so, I'll post it here.

I'll be back tonight for today's report!

Best wishes

Ember

[Ember]

Week 1 / Day 3: Tuesday April 14th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 152/900; plus 6 Daily Problems from the TsumeGo Pro App)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 0/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

[Ember]

Week 1 / Day 4: Wednesday April 15th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 202/900; plus 6 Daily Problems from the TsumeGo Pro App)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 0/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

Week 1 / Day 5: Thursday April 16th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 252/900; plus 6 Daily Problems from the TsumeGo Pro App)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 1/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

[Knotwilg]

Hi Ember

It is perfectly normal that a poor winning percentage kills motivation. This is why I advocate for such cases to include short term improvement goals that have a radical and proven impact on your winning percentage, generating a positive feedback mechanism beyond mere "understanding". These focus areas include mentality, playing conditions and time management, areas of improvement which are often neglected in study paths. In particular:
- refrein from early resignation, even don't resign ever as An antidote
- don't lose on time, as a corollary play games with decent time settings
- as a counterpart, use the time you have
- enquete a good network connection
- don't play when sleepy, drunk or high on caffeine, or doing other stuff
- avoid playing on small gear

In case you are tickled by this perspective, I'll offer some more

This doesn't mean you should not study any real go stuff, but these measures will boost your winning percentage regardless and reduce frustration about not playing up to your study level.

[Ember]

@ Knotwilg: I didn't actually expect anyone else to write something here, so I want to say sorry that my answer took so long. ^^; Anyways, thanks a lot for your comments, they are much appreciated! I thought about what you wrote and what happened at the end of last year and I think I already tried to implement all of the points mentioned (apart from early resigntion, but if you're like 60 points behind after 90 moves because of a blunder and even without it you wouldn't have had a good chance I think it's ok to resign here - I don't want to win because I bored my opponent to death. )
What I really liked about your tips is the thing about taking small steps that help you get motivated again. I'm already trying with how I'm "training" at the moment although I'm not sure that I'm setting the right goals. But one has to start and maybe I'll stumble over a good one in the near future!

I'm a little behind with posting my progress due to crazy work and private life - and me doing the problems mostly late in the evening before I go to bed. Maybe I should try to find another timeslot for that next week...

Short playing log:
This week I only got to play two games - thanks to my work which keeps me really busy at the moment and thanks to another hobby that needs some attention too.. Hopefully, next week will be better!
Thursday I played my game in the German Bundesliga and it was a horrible game indeed including 3 large blunders on my side.. Even after the first one - a corner sequence which I though I had read out correctly but which turned out to include a fatal mistake (the famous one liberty problem) - I think I was not extremely behind. But the other two blunder broke my neck then, even though I don't think that my opponent was really much stronger than me. If it hadn't been for the blunders, I think I'd have good chances to win the game. Of course, pondering over that is futile now, the game is played. But next time I'm sure I'll be able to play a much better game and we'll see who will win that time.. Although I'm sure that I for my part will not write silly comments when my opponent makes a stupid move then..
The second game was played todax. It was a scheduled game, too, for a league a fellow Go player from our town set up for everybody's enjoyment. Settings are: no handicap, 60 Minutes basic thinking time, 30 stones in 10 minutes Canadian byoyomi and 7,5 komi. It was the fourth of five games in this season and my fourth win. However, this one was not something to be proud of, because normally I should have given my opponent handycap (since I neither know his name nor his declared strength, I cannot really say how many but I guess it'd be... maybe 3 stones). So I'll just think about the last game of the season next month and start bracing myself the looming promotion to the first league - where I'll surely be beaten to a pulp by players of 1d to about 3k. Another reason to not let things slide and continue the training! Unfortunately, that is easier said than ddone and I failed to do my weekly study and didn't really look into the games played. -this calls for twice the effort next week....


Week 1 / Day 5: Thursday April 16th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 252/900; plus 6 Daily Problems from the TsumeGo Pro App)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 1/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

Week 1 / Day 6: Friday April 17th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 302/900; plus 6 Daily Problems from the TsumeGo Pro App)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 1/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

Week 1 / Day 7: Saturday April 18th

• at least 50 Tsumego: not check (45 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 347/900)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 1/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

Week 1 / Day 8: Sunday April 19th

• at least 50 Tsumego: check (50 from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia, start tomorrow at 397/900)
• play 50 games until June 15th: 2/50
• review at least 1 situation from each game and write down shortly what I've learned: -
• weekly Go study: -

[Ember]

Oh my.. many weeks have passed since my last post. And as you might have expected, nothing much related to Go has happened, other hobbies and my job have distracted me from my plans. I somehow continued with tsumego training here and there while commuting, but it was neither coordinated in any way, nor did I solve many more tsumego from Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia - I mostly switched to Tsumego Pro on my smartphone instead (point and click, mostly, to be honest...).

Still, there are a few noteworthy things to report: Although I didn't really train at all in the last 3 months, I won all my (very few - what was that about playing 50 games in 10 weeks...? ) games in the last few weeks - among them some quite important games. Last Monday was the day of the fifth and final game of a league a fellow player from Berlin organized. It was my fifth win and secured my top spot in the league. Which means that I'll get beaten to a pulp in the first league next season. However, next season won't start until next year, I guess, since the first league has many more players than the second and third league (the whole system is still in experimental stage) and they still have to play 4 or 5 games (it is 1 game per month). Until then there's still the Osaka Go Camp and much more time left to (maybe... ) study some more. we'll see!

The second and much more noteworthy experience was last night when our team in the German Bundesliga won the final game of the season - which meant that we earned a straight promotion from the fifth (and lowest league) to the fourth league for the first time ever! We never really focussed on getting to the fourth league, our goal was always to enjoy one serious game per month and see where that would lead us to. I'm excited and really looking forward to September when the next season starts!

This week an e-mail from the organizers of the Osaka Go Camp arrived in which they wrote that nearly 60 (!!) people already registered for this summer's camp. That's a lot! Last year there were less than 30 participants if I'm not wrong, so this is great news.

While whatching the first game of this year's Meijin title, I also noticed that the sixth game of this title will be played in Toba, a town a mere two hour's travel by train from Osaka. Since the second day of play is a free day in the camp (apart from an optional Osaka Castle trip), we decided that if there will be a sixth game, we are going to skip the Osaka castle trip (for this day) and travel to Toba instead to see if we can get a live commentary or a glimpse on the players or anything of the like. And if not (although that's not what we expect because there usually is an event for Go players there, isn't it?), we're going to have a nice day at the Pacific Ocean in a town with great tradition (for all like us who didn't know before: Toba and the reagion around is well known because of the invention of round cultured pearls and because of the ama, the women shell divers. These women have been diving for pearls for many hundreds of years already - of course without any gear whatsoever and until they reach a high age).

Although there is much left to organise before we leave for Japan in a few week's time, I'll try to fit in as much Go training as I can. I'd like to start with this game, it is my game from yesterday's Bundesliga match. Although it is a won game, I'd like to ask for a few mistakes I made since my boyfriend wasn't able to notice anything grave. But I'm sure I must have messed up something, like inefficient moves like L8. But maybe there's something on a larger scale? I hope you can give me some clues. Thanks in advance!