My Study Journal: Shodan in 800 days?!

[ach3son]

Way to go making it to SDK! I'm hoping to get there soon myself. Your effort is inspiring, please keep it up!

[Jujube]

Ok, I hit 8 kyu today. I really don't feel like an 8 kyu player yet!! I kind of fell into 8 kyu by default, I had one player resign after 30 moves, then I had a player disconnect who already had escaper points on his account so I won by forfeit, then I won this game. Bam! 8 kyu!

If I actually end up staying at 8 kyu, I'll take it. Time to work extra hard to prepare for 8 kyu opponents.

I've reviewed the game and asked some questions. Thanks for taking the time to look at my game.

(I'm on an 8 game winning streak. I'll gladly post a more useful game when I lose one!)

[Knotwilg]

By move 150 you're well ahead.

I'd mention the goodies of this won game:

16 - good shape; straight against diagonal is strong
44 - good technique: you reduce liberties by hane at the head (and foot)
44 - good tactics: you sacrifice a stone and pressure the opponent to finally capture a more important stone and make territory
150 - good shape: you jump out to strengthen your cutting stones and surround the opponent

Keep it up and I'll gladly comment more in detail on the next game.

[Jujube]

Thank you for the nice comments

[Jujube]

There was once a tennis player (on the telly). They were asked "what made you save that set? Your opponent broke your serve in the closing games". To which they replied: "It ain't a break of serve until they win the next game, too".

The goal I set myself is like this: I have to get to the next kyu, then I have to win a game at that level. Only then will I consider myself as having attained that level.

After a while bobbing around between 8 and 9 kyu, I won a game at 8 kyu - so today I became 8 kyu.

Question: if you win a game, and you know you played heavy go, you did a joseki wrong, you let them get too much thickness, you allowed them to spoil your potential, you went into a ko fight without adequate preparation... and so on. But, you win it, and so, what's your feeling afterward? Do you become sad? I became a bit sad after this game. Maybe I'm being hard on myself. I feel I played poorly.

One last thing before posting the game. It's about the book Attack and Defence. I might collect my thoughts together before posting about it in detail. It's a very good book. It's just... I always feel that I play heavy after reading it. Maybe I'm trying to apply its concepts too "consciously", and forgetting my fundamentals and forgetting "light" play that doesn't make the opponent strong.

Anyway, here's the game with which I reached the next level.

[EdLee]

I have to get to the next kyu, then I have to win a game at that level.
Only then will I consider myself as having attained that level.

Not quite.

If you play the next 30 and win ~15, that's a better benchmark.

If you merely win 1, then lose the next 10, you'll likely drop back --
that's not even borderline; you're simply not there yet.

To stay at a particular rank means you win/lose ~50/50, by definition.
A handful of games (say, under 10) are not enough data points.

[Bill Spight]

I have to get to the next kyu, then I have to win a game at that level.
Only then will I consider myself as having attained that level.

Not quite.

If you play the next 30 and win ~15, that's a better benchmark.

If you merely win 1, then lose the next 10, you'll likely drop back --
that's not even borderline; you're simply not there yet.

To stay at a particular rank means you win/lose ~50/50, by definition.
A handful of games (say, under 10) are not enough data points.

What I used to do was to wait until I achieved the next higher rating to call myself a certain rank. (Ratings are more variable than ranks, and ranks rarely go down, while ratings do.) So I did not call myself a 5 dan until I reached a 6 dan rating. (Needless to say, I did not hang onto the 6 dan rating.)

[Knotwilg]

Summary

Opening

64: opening is good for Black, due to a couple of slow moves and a bad hane at the head

Middle game

66 & 74: play away from thickness
96: surround first to strengthen the outside; kill if you must

107: roles are reversed and both players miss the fact that White's big group can be cut off

Endgame

158: cutting points aside, there are bigger moves than this small endgame
168: you successfully continue bullying the opponent and strengthen your group
174: good move to get ahead in territory

198 & 202: you get the biggest remaining endgame (but 204?)
211: Black's capture allows for a ko which has been there for a long time but now becomes a picknick for Black

223: Black destroys his last opportunity

[Jujube]

Summary

Opening

64: opening is good for Black, due to a couple of slow moves and a bad hane at the head

Middle game

66 & 74: play away from thickness
96: surround first to strengthen the outside; kill if you must

107: roles are reversed and both players miss the fact that White's big group can be cut off

Endgame

158: cutting points aside, there are bigger moves than this small endgame
168: you successfully continue bullying the opponent and strengthen your group
174: good move to get ahead in territory

198 & 202: you get the biggest remaining endgame (but 204?)
211: Black's capture allows for a ko which has been there for a long time but now becomes a picknick for Black

223: Black destroys his last opportunity

Thanks for the great review as always

Yeah the game was a bit lucky for me. I felt that Black lost some big points in the late middle game/endgame and didn't use their thickness. I was struggling for quite some time in that game.

I wasn't sure what to do against the 4-4 knight's approach, one space high pincer joseki. It's a modern one and I felt that Black got a lot of strength. I didn't like my position very much.

I Fully agree about the sequence on the left side, I knew the cap was good but then I wasn't sure on the follow-up. The hane is a kind of automatic move, you say that I should push instead? I'd find that a difficult move to make.

The game had quite a few sequences that I was not happy with. E.g. around move 100, black pushes right through the centre and splits me in half. That did not feel good. Also, my group in the centre didn't develop as well as it should have.

Anyway, it was an interesting game, and useful for me I think.

---

I've been working through the problems from Lectures on Go Techniques vols 1 and 2 by Cho Hunhyeon and they are great books. Learning types (the methods by which a player best learns) are a very in-depth topic that I'm not familiar with, but I've been described as a theorist, by such people who know about these things.

So, I learn best when a concept is described to me and given in a lecture format, so these books are quite perfect for me, because they combine this style while giving problems at the same time. The content is at a lower/more fundamental conceptual level than a book like Attack and Defence.

By the way, about Attack and Defence, if asked 'what level is the book Attack and Defence suitable for?', I would find the answer difficult. I think it's ultimately an SDK book as some of the material is either complicated or at a very high conceptual level. I think the book is recommended for a somewhat lower rank than should be the case, in my opinion.

Hopefully there are a few sparks in my recent games that a stronger player would say 'ah, this person is starting to know a bit about where to put the stones'.