My Return to Go

Create a study plan, track your progress and hold yourself accountable.
Bill Spight
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Bill Spight »

Knotwilg wrote:
Bill Spight wrote: When I was in training as a 4 dan I worked on 4 problems per hour, 15 min. per problem. That is because I was willing to spend that much time on a problem position in a real game.
That's a lot of time. Do you think this would still make for proper practice for a 4d in today's online regime? Even pros don't seem to pause for such a long while in the modern game.

(I agreed with the rest of your post)
I was strongly influenced by Lin's (Rin Kaiho's) opinion in The Chance to Win the Game. The 15 min. is based upon a game lasting around 90 min. And I was willing to spend that much time on a single move. Usually I didn't.

As for a training regimen, I only managed to go from a new 4 dan to a solid 5 dan, so I don't know how effective it is. OC, the last dan is the hardest. ;)
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

Hi everyone before I beginning I wanted to comment on some of the comments.
I generally agree with this note. However, I do not think that you should just look at the solution and move on. You need to study the solution and why it works and how you might have found it. (And what was wrong with your thinking.) At the very least you should be able to play through the main line of the solution and and key variations in your head before moving on.


I wanted to say I completely agree with you. I feel like if I just look at the solution and move on I haven't learned anything except the answer to that specific problem. If i spend time studying the solution I am able to fully understand why the move works and would be able to apply it to other probelms.
That's a lot of time. Do you think this would still make for proper practice for a 4d in today's online regime? Even pros don't seem to pause for such a long while in the modern game.
So I have one issue with what you said, and that is there is a huge difference bettwen a 4d and a pro. A pro doesn't pause for such a long time because they are constantly thinking about the situations on the board to a higher level than other players. But I also agree that 15 minutes per problem is a lot of time, and with online play as it is 15 minutes to think through a problem is way too long.

I realize this post is comming on Tuesday and not Monday but it is a journal for Monday. I wanted to write this earlier today but got distracted at work by actually having to do work, and so I'm just now getting to write this. Yesterday I ended up working through more of the 501 Tesuji problems. I was able to work through 9 more problems over the course of about an hour. I also looked at the Tasuki problems, only the elementary ones and just worked through about 20 of them.

Results:
501 Tesuji 7/9 (77%) - I felt really good working through these problems. Most were solved in under 4 minutes but I had two that took 12 minutes each, both solved correctly though. I spent about 15 minutes reviewing through the ones that I missed but will probably go over them more today as well.

Other than that I didn't spend much time studying. Well that's not true but I didn't study much Go. I went to the public library and found some language books and studied a little bit of French and Italian, and also looked at some Chess books. Then spent some time hanging with my roomate until I decided to go to bed.

Today I want to continue working through the Endgame book and also take some time to go through a pro game from the Go World magazines.

With the hour from yesterday my total deliberate practice time is up to 4 hours, only 9,996 to go.

I will probably post again tonight, but I may switch to posting in the morning's, probably at work because I have nothing else to do. Either way I hope you continue reading and I hope to see you at the next post.
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

So I know it has been a couple of days since I posted. My roomate and I had a friend from school come and visit for the week, and I have been spending time with them. Tuesday we went to see the Minions movie and yesterday decided to go for Froyo and Bowling. Due to this and working late I on both days I haven't had the time to study much besides doing quick problems on my phone.

Yesterday I was able to work on the Endgame book more. I continued reading through the chapter and got to the first problem sets in the book. I only ended up working on the first problem, and I spent about 25 minutes working through it. The problems are created so that 3 moves are presented and you are supposed to figure out the value of each move and how the overall situation would be played. I was able to figure out the value exactly for one of the moves, but the other two I was off by 1 point each. I was able to judge which was the biggest and the smallest, which is also asked for in the problem.

I hope to work on more problems tonight, but not sure how much time I will spend. But with last nights studying I have completed another hour and am now at 9,995 to go.

Hopefully I'll be able to study tonight and if so I hope to see you tomorrow!
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

Man yesterday seemed to last forever. It seemed like the day was almost 4 years long.

That being said if you were waiting for my next post all this time your wish has finally come true. I have once again returned to my return to go? I have re-returned to go? Whatever you want to call it this is the first of my posts of my newest adventures into playing.

Honestly after my last post so much has happened that I'll just post the cliffnotes version. I got a job, moved, new project, moved, traveled for work, moved, traveled x 10, thought about moving, and traveled once again this time to Germany where I now want to move. But for some reason during the past 4 years I hadn't played a single game of Go until a few days ago when I came back.

The reason for my return this time? I decided to join the Yunguseng Dojang. It was very spur of the moment decision but it has reinvigorated my love for the game. Since I started playing again 3 days ago I have played at least 2 games a day including the first of my league games, which I won.

I'll need to go back through and assess my actual goals for my return. I think I bit off more than I could chew last time and since I stopped playing for such a long time am not where I used to be. A plan will be made and hopefully I'll have something more meaningful to post next time. This time though I have included a few games. The first being my round 1 league game, and the second a game with my newest go friend.

If you have time please take a look and make whatever comments you would like I will read them all.

League Game
Friendly Game
Once again I am happy to be back and thank you all for taking the time to read this. Hopefully when I say I shall post again soon it's not 4 years later. Good Luck with your games and studies!

Current KGS rating 11k - we shall see how this holds after a few more games
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

Work has kept me busy the past few days but I'm back again. I've spent sometime thinking about what I really want to achieve and how I want to go about it. So far I've come up with a few things.

First the goals

GOALS:
1) Play 10 games. This isn't supposed to be challenging but get me back into enjoying playing and figuring out when I'll be able to play with my schedule.
2) Win 3 of 5 league games - So far I am 1-0 so I'll just need to go 2-2 for the next games which should be a reasonable thing to do.
3) Reach Dan level - This is a long term goal but gives me something to work towards.


The goals will change over time but I think these are some good starting points.
Now like last time I'm not entirely sure where to start with my study plan, but I came up with a few ideas. I'll try them for a while and if I feel its not working it'll change. Hopefully I'll continue posting games and improvements.

Study Plan
1) Each week focus on a different topic - With my Yunguseng League I have access to lectures that I will use to learn and reinforce mechanics. I know the first one I want to work on is my opening.
2) Review games I play not including the league game (minimum 2 each week).
3) Find a book to work through - I know I have the In the Beginning book so I will probably work on that in conjunction with the lectures.
4) Go Problems - I have both books and stuff on my phone to work through, though while I'm traveling I have no clue what all the books I have are so that will have to wait until I get home to figure out exactly what to work through first.
5) Review AlphaGo games - This is something I've wanted to do for a while and while I enjoy looking through pro games I think I'm going to start with AlphaGo games and then select another pro to study after that. Purely for fun going through pro games but maybe I learn something.


Along with my updated goals and plan I have another game for review.



Please take a look let me know if you have any comments, I know there should be many.
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

GOALS:
1) Play 10 games. This isn't supposed to be challenging but get me back into enjoying playing and figuring out when I'll be able to play with my schedule.
2) Win 3 of 5 league games - So far I am 1-0 so I'll just need to go 2-2 for the next games which should be a reasonable thing to do.
3) Reach Dan level - This is a long term goal but gives me something to work towards.


Study Plan
1) Each week focus on a different topic - With my Yunguseng League I have access to lectures that I will use to learn and reinforce mechanics. I know the first one I want to work on is my opening.
2) Review games I play not including the league game (minimum 2 each week).
3) Find a book to work through - I know I have the In the Beginning book so I will probably work on that in conjunction with the lectures.
4) Go Problems - I have both books and stuff on my phone to work through, though while I'm traveling I have no clue what all the books I have are so that will have to wait until I get home to figure out exactly what to work through first.
5) Review AlphaGo games - This is something I've wanted to do for a while and while I enjoy looking through pro games I think I'm going to start with AlphaGo games and then select another pro to study after that. Purely for fun going through pro games but maybe I learn something.
So the past few days have been interesting. I've only played 2 games recently. The first was against another 11k which I won. The second game was against a 2k player that I ended up losing. I thought I was ahead for some of it but I also realized not playing for a while has made me forget many of the basics including some living shapes and counting quickly.

I haven't had a chance to really review either of the games but I plan on doing that this week. Though I did watch the review of my league game and learned a few good things from that game.

I've also started working through one of the lectures about opening though I may switch to an endgame lecture after finishing with this one. Just to give me a chance to change things up and try out the opening techniques without wanting to focus on too many.


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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

Hey everyone!

So quick update since my last post. I am currently 4-0 in my league games which is super great. I've been watching lectures and videos recently and have really enjoyed it all. One of the most fun things I've been doing has been reviewing games from old Go World Issues

So earlier today I was reviewing Game 5 of the 54th Honinbo Title Match



played between Cho Chikun and Cho Sonjin. Normally while reviewing I can follow, or at least pretend to follow, some of the decisions being made.

In the game I linked above Cho Sonjin played a peep on move #62 which is something I've seen in games before but I can't seem to figure out why it's played. In other games I've seen peeps like this played and I've really never understood the reasoning behind why they get played at seemingly random times.

Maybe it's something simple other people have learned why they occur at certain times but I can't seem to figure it out nor can I find resources specifically related to when to play peeps.

Could someone help me to understand?
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jlt
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by jlt »

I don't think the question has a general and easy answer. In the game, the peep was good because (1) Black answered (2) Black didn't gain anything from the N10 stone. However, it is not always obvious whether the opponent will answer to a peep. For instance, if White had peeped at move 58, would Black have answered with N10, or with J11, or something else?
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Bill Spight »

In this case, if Black does not connect to the peep, White can cut with atari. After Black connects there, he will have two weak groups floating in the center, neither of which has an eye yet, one with 4 stones, one with 8. So Black will answer the peep.

After Black answers the peep, White will have a single weak stone next to a strong Black wall. That may not seem like much, but it is better than nothing. :) White may be able to make hay from threatening to connect to that stone, for instance. The timing of such a peep, as with the timing of any sente, is not always an easy question to answer, as jlt says. In this case, however, early is good, for two reasons: 1) playing the peep does not kill any other play for White, which option White might want to play later; 2) if Black gets stronger so that he does not have to simply connect to a peep, that will be better for Black.

Sente against the opponent's strength is called kikashi. A peep like this is called a no loss kikashi. :)
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Everything with love. Stay safe.
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Re: My Return to Go

Post by Lanrose »

JLT and Bill thank you for your responses and help. While I still don't fully understand (I know I wouldn't be able to know exactly when the right time to make a move like that would be) I'm a step closer to potentially making moves like that.

Other things I need to report on are my goals and accomplishments of steps in my plan.

GOALS:
1) Play 10 games. - Officially I have now played 15 games on KGS. 5 of those have been league games
2) Win 3 of 5 league games - My first league season is complete and I went 5-0 I'm not sure what that will mean going forward but I think I'll keep the same goal for next month.
3) Reach Dan level - Just got to around 2k on KGS but that was by playing against a 7D bot so I'm not sure I'm counting myself as being that close.

Study Plan
1) Each week focus on a different topic - I haven't been good with doing this unfortunately. But I have been watching videos and lectures which has been great..
2) Review games I play not including the league game (minimum 2 each week).
3) Find a book to work through - I started with my Endgame book and man is endgame stuff complicated..
4) Go Problems - I have both books and stuff on my phone to work through, though while I'm traveling I have no clue what all the books I have are so that will have to wait until I get home to figure out exactly what to work through first.
5) Review AlphaGo Professional games - So I started replaying games from my GO world issues. At some point I'll come back to the AlphaGo games.


I'm also including my last league game which I think was pretty good and the game I played against the bot for review. I haven't yet really gone through either but am planning on doing so tomorrow.


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