Path to 9Dan, step by step.

hl782 · **#321**

Another game I played yesterday vs a 1 kyu. Narrow win - sorta botched endgame - and Perhaps I should have just taken the group on the right in exchange for one of his Ko threats.

hl782 · **#322**

Here's a game I played against a 1dan. I actually did a self review since i had some time.

How kgs thinks i am a 2 dan after 2 wins against 1kyus lol their algorithm is terrible.

Shaddy · **#323**

Think more about the value of a move. You and your opponent both played a lot of moves that should have been gote, but you both treated them as sente.

hl782 · **#324**

2 games, vs a 1kyu and a 1 dan (Okay actually questionable because I dont think he was)

Win

Win

hl782 · **#325**

Here's two games I played against 1kyus - 1 win and 1 loss due to time.

The Win - Ranked game! Thought he really caught up lots in the endgame but.. managed to eek out komi plus.

The loss - Free game! I lost trying to read out all the vars of a joseki in the corner and I ran out of time. Welp. x)

hl782 · **#326**

3 games - vs 3, 2kyus and a 1dan.

Win - vs 3k

Win - vs 2k

Loss - vs 1dan

I feel like I got it against 3-2kyus. 1kyus& dans - Somewhat playable, but I have a mental barrier against them. Whatever I'll break it soon.

About half way through Graded Go Problems for Dans, Vol. 1 (L&D). The problems are starting to get tricky.

hl782 · **#327**

1Kyus are a wall.

How does anyone review the fundamentals? I just feel like I am lacking the basics of the game.

aiichigo · **#328**

hl782 wrote:

1Kyus are a wall.

How does anyone review the fundamentals? I just feel like I am lacking the basics of the game.

What do you consider the basics you are lacking?

You've mentioned you are studying Graded Go Problems for Dans, how are you studying? Do you find the answer and move on, how many variations do you read out?

You've probably heard pro's recommend studying much easier tsumego than your level, the reason being that it is much easier to read out many alternatives in simple tsumego, and completely study an easy tsumego, than something more challenging. This complete understanding of a simple problem helps improve reading, and broadens your reading skills, it also allows you to consider things such as not following the best result, which may be good locally e.g. allowing your opponent to live, but building thickness, which may be bad locally but could be good globally, how to make the best result for the other player in the problem. Think about the best result that the player not playing first could get, is sente important, canm black still kill, or connect if white plays first, does the solution end in sente or gote? Is there a result which ends in sente, which may be slightly worse but gives sente?

hl782 · **#329**

aiichigo wrote:

What do you consider the basics you are lacking?

You've mentioned you are studying Graded Go Problems for Dans, how are you studying? Do you find the answer and move on, how many variations do you read out?

You've probably heard pro's recommend studying much easier tsumego than your level, the reason being that it is much easier to read out many alternatives in simple tsumego, and completely study an easy tsumego, than something more challenging. This complete understanding of a simple problem helps improve reading, and broadens your reading skills, it also allows you to consider things such as not following the best result, which may be good locally e.g. allowing your opponent to live, but building thickness, which may be bad locally but could be good globally, how to make the best result for the other player in the problem. Think about the best result that the player not playing first could get, is sente important, canm black still kill, or connect if white plays first, does the solution end in sente or gote? Is there a result which ends in sente, which may be slightly worse but gives sente?

I don't particularly think GGPD Vol. 1 is overly difficult. I am scoring roughly 65-70% through the first 200 problems. I try to solve it within the time limits provided by the book (IE, 10 minutes if the problem says something like 'Solve In 10 Minutes - 1dan')

Here's a sentence from Kageyama's Lessons in the Fundamentals Of Go - "Go is the type of game where, in which if you are an expert, you can just keep on making ordinary moves."

This - I feel like I am lacking. Sometimes, I don't know what the correct & solid move is (In fact I have no idea where I should play). Do I Hane? Do I Cut? Do I jump?

It's somewhat hard to explain in to words what I mean by 'lacking the fundmentals' - but I do feel like I'm missing something

I did order Master of Haengma, and This is Haengma from a European Book store. Hopefully when it gets here, It will help me a bit.

Note: It may just be a mental thing - since I'm winning rather comfortably in most games vs 2/3 kyus.

hl782 · **#330**

Update - I am still not winning as often as I'd like vs 1kyus but they don't feel impossible now. I am playing much better than I did throughout most of the summer. I put up a decent fight vs them more or less. I've had my wins, but slightly more losses in between.

I am finally returning to Cornell as a student in 3 days (after a 2 year hiatus). I'll be at the same school as Yunxuan Li 7-Dan (he's going to be a freshman) - and i hope to learn from him as well. In the meantime, I've decided to try out lessons from Yilun Yang 7P. Hopefully they will be helpful.

New Goals
1) Break even against 1kyus soon
2) Hit 1 Dan by next February (ish)
3) Hit 2 Dan by end of school year

School Study Regime
- 15 Problems a Day
- 1 Serious Game a Day
- 1 Pro game per week
- Lessons with Mr. Yang

let the journey continue!

Kirby · **#331**

hl782 wrote:

New Goals
1) Break even against 1kyus soon
2) Hit 1 Dan by next February (ish)
3) Hit 2 Dan by end of school year

I admire your ambition. I think I hit 1d on KGS for the first time around 2010, 6 years ago. I went back to 1k a few times, but 2d always seems impossible. A couple of times, I made it to 2d on KGS, but then after playing a single game as 2d, I always lose and go down to 1d (or sometimes back down to 1k).

So in my mind, there is simply a barrier there, and I don't have any sort of thought now that I will ever be 3d on KGS, for example.

But your attitude seems different (and appears to be working for you). You even mentioned that 1ks seemed impossible to you at one time - but now they don't. And you are aiming to hit 2d by the end of next school year. Judging from your progress, I think I could learn from your attitude.

Good luck. I hope that you continue to rise quickly.

hl782 · **#332**

Thanks Kirby. Maybe its just cuz i still have a goal of wanting to play my dad even in mind? His health has been deteriorating a bit recently - so its a motivating factor. Having this attitude and actually breaking it are different stories..but yeah i hope i can keep improving too.

Kirby · **#333**

hl782 wrote:

Thanks Kirby. Maybe its just cuz i still have a goal of wanting to play my dad even in mind? His health has been deteriorating a bit recently - so its a motivating factor. Having this attitude and actually breaking it are different stories..but yeah i hope i can keep improving too.

Good luck, and may your father's health improve!

Knotwilg · **#334**

Kirby wrote:

hl782 wrote:

New Goals
1) Break even against 1kyus soon
2) Hit 1 Dan by next February (ish)
3) Hit 2 Dan by end of school year

I admire your ambition. I think I hit 1d on KGS for the first time around 2010, 6 years ago. I went back to 1k a few times, but 2d always seems impossible. A couple of times, I made it to 2d on KGS, but then after playing a single game as 2d, I always lose and go down to 1d (or sometimes back down to 1k).

So in my mind, there is simply a barrier there, and I don't have any sort of thought now that I will ever be 3d on KGS, for example.

But your attitude seems different (and appears to be working for you). You even mentioned that 1ks seemed impossible to you at one time - but now they don't. And you are aiming to hit 2d by the end of next school year. Judging from your progress, I think I could learn from your attitude.

Good luck. I hope that you continue to rise quickly.

Me too I struck a barrier at 1d-2d, about 15 years ago and it seems impossible to get past it even with renewed interest. In those days, the internet wasn't there. It took me a year to become 6k and another four years to 2d. For someone who made it to 1k in a year, it should be just a small bump on the road to 5d.

Bill Spight · **#335**

Kirby wrote:

in my mind, there is simply a barrier there,

All barriers are in your mind.

Knotwilg · **#336**

This game has a perfect theme: sacrifice a few stones to gain influence and take the initiative

27: good start of a sacrifice; perhaps the variation would have been more severe but giving a strong group a bit of stones to swallow is simple and effective
69: small gain; offer the small gain as a bait and take sente to play the big move
71: heavy: the variation gives an idea how to sacrifice stones to gain influence and sente
85: heavy: the variation gives an idea how to sacrifice stones to gain influence and sente
(in between: very good shapes while defending & living; you fight well, but you fight too often!)
108: white's splitting attack is the consequence of too many weak groups
125: good trade offer (which White refuses)
131: good sacrifice of 3 stones to get influence & sente
147: sacrifice 3 stones to live with the big part

Full review (but not much more added)

hl782 · **#337**

Last game before I return to school.

a win vs a 1kyu. It's been a while.

hl782 · **#338**

Hello to everyone. It's been a very long time (roughly 3 years) since I've last posted on this journal.

I intended to continue on my go journey while attending school, but taking 20 credits per semester (for an early graduation), working remotely for an internship during the school year, and having a part-time job as a waiter at a restaurant made that virtually impossible.

On a more positive note, I graduated from Cornell with a degree in computer science in 2018, and I've been a full-time software engineer for a year. In addition, my dad's health turned around much for the better (he's started working again since 2017), and I now have more time to play again.

I've made some accounts on KGS and started throwing around stones to see where I am, and I think its safe to say that I'm anywhere around a 3-5 kyu. I am nowhere near polished as I was 3 years ago - but hopefully only way to continue from here is up.

Lastly, I realized a few years ago I may have angered a few people on here regarding my attitude for torrented books. I am still a believer that go is a dying art and that E-books (of rather expensive hardcopy versions) is one of the best ways to spread the knowledge of the game. However, I was wrong to suggest piracy (or at least be so open about it) on a public forum, where some individuals here are go authors themselves. I should have been a bit more careful, and cautious in trying to enforce my claims as 'correct' towards others. For that I apologize.

Bill Spight · **#339**

May I suggest that if you want to spread go knowledge, it is necessary to have go knowledge in a well presented form to spread. That is a sine qua non, isn't it? Without support, who is going to create those books, articles, or other presentations? Why not buy a bunch of go books and send them to people or donate them to libraries?

hl782 · **#340**

I understand my opinion will be unpopular/controversial. This will be the last reply I give towards the subject.

Bill, I believe you are correct and incorrect. Although it is necessary for go knowledge to be in a well presented form, I don't think that alone justifies the $25-50 prices that most books are out there.

1) The game of go constantly changes over time (this was accelerated through the development of AlphaGo), and the materials in theory books will become outdated. The ones that stand the test of time are the collections of life and death problems, and most of those are already well beyond the copyright date (70 years after death of author in Japan, 50 years in Korea and China).

2) There is a ton of available go content (ignoring the piracy) in the public due to the development of the internet. Youtube lectures, game records, mobile apps, and much more. It doesn't make much sense (at least to me) from a financial, and educational perspective for any player to buy a book, unless they just really want the book. It also doesn't make much sense for the authors and publishers to hold up high prices.

3) For financial support, I believe a donation of money to Go Associations would be a better for spreading information of the game as that money would be put into youth tournaments, more public events, and building of better infrastructure. As I mentioned above, go is a dying art. The money should be used to spread awareness in the best way as possible. The best thing that happened to go in the past 50 years was the AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol matches for this reason.

To wrap this up, I'm not endorsing piracy in any way. From a legal perspective, intentionally torrenting books that are still within copyright is wrong - that's what I did a few years ago, and I apologize for that. However, there is plenty of go material beyond copyright dates that can be easily downloaded for free, which I don't think should be condemned. In addition, people who aren't aware of copyright laws may end up downloading available content for their own reasons (perhaps they couldn't afford it, or the book is out of print), without being aware. To those, I'm not going to point fingers at them and say that they should delete it and buy a hardcopy. I'd rather hope that they make the most of those resources, become better players, and contribute to the go community elsewhere. We're a very small niche community, that's getting smaller and smaller every year, and any spread of the news is good in my eyes.

Some may agree with me, some may disagree with me - but hopefully we can respect each others views and move forward from here. I'm looking forward to filling my journal up with more go content and progress from here on out

Path to 9Dan, step by step.

Who is online