Path to 9Dan, step by step.

[Bill Spight]

It seems you work your way up playing only stronger players.
First, that is not nice.

I disagree. hI782 has only been playing go for a few months. Do we criticize 4th grade students for not teaching 1st grade students? Yes, after he has been playing for a year or two it would be churlish not to play and teach weaker players, to repay the favor to the game. But right now by not playing weaker players he avoids picking up bad habits, which will make him a better player and teacher in the end.

[Knotwilg]

Sorry all for apparently being too harsh on our friend. I didn't mean it to sound so severe. And Bill is right: he's only been playing for a few months. It struck me as becoming somewhat of a bad habit but indeed it doesn't really matter all that much.

I apologize and retract. (maybe we can remove this subthread in his nice blog altogether?)

[Abyssinica]

[hl782]

Quite the discussion we have going on. And no worries Knotwilg, no offense taken.

I only play against people above me because that's actually what my dad highly recommended. He said there's no point in me trying to play people of same level or weaker until I hit at least 3-5 dan.

The one thing i was concerned about playing people 1 level above me was that I was only playing as black but I realize that i can change the color of stones on kgs now when I challenge (Yes i had no idea i could do this....) so that should be okay ^_^


I'm also making this a rule for myself - If i lose 2 games in a day im not gonna play any more. If i win 2 games in a day im not gonna play anymore. If I win 1 and lose 1, then ill play 1 more. I want to make the quality of my games GOOD.

[hl782]

Hi everyone - a little update.

I am still getting used to playing against 4k level. I think I am winning about 45% of my games versus them. It is somewhat difficult but it doesn't feel impossible like the barrier I had when i was trying to get to 6k.

Attached are a few of my games

First, 2 losses- One was a classic ddk mistake costing a won game, and another was 2 mistakes, and a missed opportunity


The Win



Aside from this, I think I am going to go through GSATesuji again, and go through a quick rerun of LCH Tesuji Vol 1-4. Then.. I think I'll start the Segoe Tesuji Dictionary. By then, I feel that I will be more or so ready.

[hl782]

Redid GSATesuji again with 95% accuracy. I got a 10 hour bus ride tmorrow up to NYC, aka 10 hours of problems to solve. Fun stuff.

Still around 45-50% against 4ks. I am slowly but surely going up.

[Abyssinica]

How could you stand doing problems for 10 hours straight? Usually I can only focus for a few minutes at a time.

[Charles Matthews]

Hi everyone - a little update.

[...]
The Win

Seems that and are both questionable: if White captures instead Black loses control of the game. Clearly by you had a lead, though.

Up to , which shows power, your stones fall into place. And again up to , though I suspect that at S5 would be a more active way to live. If you were already thinking about R7 to peep, I'm impressed.

So White dies: more power. A fine game.

[hl782]

Back! I had a great weekend up in NY - chilling with friends, getting a new job, and had a few days away from Go. And Abyssinica, I managed to do around 400 problems combined on the way and back - but these were very easy problems so... it didn't take too much effort. And Charles, thank you for the compliments

I am still 50:50 ish against 4kyus. Progress is a bit slower than I had hoped, but they don't feel impossible anymore. I actually won a few very convincing games against them, but the losses are also very convincing losses. I'm getting there!!

Also, I finally started to work on the tesuji bible - Segoe Kensaku's Tesuji Dictionary. I am just going through the C-Level problems, and so far they are pretty easy. I have additional books, such as the harder volumes of LCH Series, Making Good Shape, and 501 Tesuji Problems, but I'll save them for later. As soon as I hit 4kyu, I plan on starting on the LD Bible - Gokyo Shumyo as well.

Attached are 3 games, 2 wins, 1 loss for inspection & review.

1st, the Loss - i think even after the capture of my gruop on the top right, i had a shot cuz i was so thick, but i failed to make use of it and i crumbled. Any help on this game would be great.


2 wins - These were probably my two most convincing wins!

[Knotwilg]

On the lost game:

1) the fact that your loss of a big group was a direct consequence of an opening sequence, shows that the level of this game was quite high. White played really well in the corner there to start with. I'll leave treatment to better players.

2) Black 113: make territory while attacking. Exercise. (your move was too close to thickness already)

3) Black 117: how to keep sente? Exercise. (after 118 White is already alive)

This game was not far from dan strength I'd say.

[Charles Matthews]

I'm getting there!!

The second of the wins: you win in the fighting, but there are some strange shapes earlier.

Compare this with a play around E6, if you need to defend. (I'm not convinced you do.)

Omit this, and just play P11. And shortly your play at looks ridiculous.

[Bill Spight]

A few comments on the loss.

[hl782]

Hi everyone, hope you all have had a good week.

I started working at my new job, so this week has been incredibly hectic - as a result, I completed 0 problems this week! I am now more used to the pattern though, so I'll definitely be going back to solving problems again.

As for games I've had 4 wins, 5 losses - and it was really frustrating because in all of those 5 losses, I was ahead and I failed to close the games out properly. That, and I think added fatigue made me less focused. I feel confident against 4 kyus. This isn't like the mega tilt i was in when I was at 7k, where the game felt impossible. It's the subtle things that need refining. I feel like I am about 4k strength now, just taking a while going through the rank of 5k.

Attached are a few for inspection. I have about 2 months and 1 week to hit my goal of 3k. It will be tight but hopefully I can make it.

Game 1 - W - I botched the left side and top pretty hard, but I pulled something out of my butt and forced a ko on the bottom left that really sealed the game out. I played the Ko realizing that the upper right corner could live (i just wanted to kill the top), and I dont think my opponent realized what I was going after.


Game 2 - L - Yeah, i was well on track to win by 60+ until I missed a tesuji and game was lost. Frustrating.


Game 3 - L - I saw the variation to kill the corner in the bottom left to win, and... for some bizarre reason I didn't play it.

[Charles Matthews]

Game 1 - W - I botched the left side and top pretty hard, but I pulled something out of my butt and forced a ko on the bottom left that really sealed the game out. I played the Ko realizing that the upper right corner could live (i just wanted to kill the top), and I dont think my opponent realized what I was going after.

Yeah, OK, a conservative style and then mutate into a ninja. This is more like a dan player than SDK. Though not in detail.

Not an obvious joseki choice. Your options at R6 and S5 mean that you can allow White some framework on the right side.

I wouldn't play here, but many ama 1 to 2 dans perceive the game this way.

Extension at F13 looks right to me. But I'm glad you extended.

is somewhat slow.

and are the main teaching points of this game. Neither invasion is quite right.

(1) destroys "territory" that is open on both sides (see ). So the issue is why you didn't play on the fourth line with Q8. The clamp at R6 is still good news, and White's Q10 stone is in more trouble.

(2) On the lower side, only the H3 invasion looks like anything at all to me. Keep as a far as you can from White's strength on the right. Go in deep enough that life is a local victory. You could try G4 to see if White is a wimp, but White then at F5 is just thick everywhere.

In brief, you got your third and fourth line invasions swapped round. Black 103 and onwards is resourceful. And luck was on your side. White didn't play for safety with N18.

[hl782]

I've gotten to play 3 games in the past 2 weeks. So busy. So little time. So minimal progress on go :/