Hi everyone! I don't know what exactly should I write here so I'm just going to sketch something and we'll see how it goes.

I've started playing in 2004, played on and off. I think I was most enthusiastic in 12k time(before the ridiculous kgs rank system reboot). My first and also the best book I've read was usagi's 30-20k Study Book(and I find it so cool that he's also on this forum!). I started playing Go after watching Hikaru no Go so naturally I dreamed of becoming a pro. I don't anymore.

At the moment I consider myself solid [3k] on kgs. I don't read when I play, that has always been my biggest weakness, but I like to learn and received numerous reviews from stronger players(mostly in KTL) for which I'm endlessly grateful. I also watched many great lectures by shygost, he's not much of a reader himself so his lectures fit me perfectly. I also love to teach and have given tons of reviews which I think was also very beneficial for my progress. So eventually in 2008 I've made it to [1d] with my non-reading go and for some reason stopped playing. So I'm back after 2 years and I'm starting to think that there actually is something in the phrase "you can't quit go".

What I think I'm going to do is try to attack my main weakness. I've never really worked on my reading so I'm not sure where to start. Anyways I've decided to go through Elementary Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia of L&D from tasuki's website.

As for my goal, just get stronger.

Thanks for reading!

I acutally think one's go level won't decrease permenantly after dropping from the game for one or two years. So soon you'll be back to 1 dan.

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长考出臭棋.

Game against [2d] from 2 years ago, I'm black.


Today's game against [2k].


I think I'm much weaker now.

Interesting that you say that you play without reading and could make it to 1d. I thought the limit would be around 7k - that's where I am stuck for about a year. What have you done to get to 1d without reading?

I really only lose about a stone or two when I play from intuition (i.e. no reading). I can definitely see someone being 1d without reading.

Mostly focusing on fundamentals, first- defend weak groups, second- attack weak groups, third- play biggest moves, also basics such as having a clear goal for attack i.e. gain territory or influence while attacking. Then I used to count fast and did that 5 times or more during the game so that I always know if I'm ahead or behind, so I win my won games more often then your usual 3k-1k, not playing recklessly while I'm ahead. And I think Davis' book on the Endgame helped a lot, so again my Endgame used to be stronger than my normal opponent's. I don't know much about josekis but I have some understanding on direction of play mostly from shygost's lectures, Otake Hideo's Opening Theory Made Easy. Also reviews, I used to get a lot of them. KTL <3

I don't know how that happened, but in my last 3 games I played as white against 2k, 1d, 1k, won all of them by resign and was promoted to 2d. Feels weird.

As for my studies I solved about 20 problems from Cho's Elementary Encyclopedia of L&D, and ~30 30k problems from goproblems.com. I'm also thinking of hardwiring all the problems from Davis' L&D and Tesuji and after that go to hardwiring 2 volumes of All About Life and Death by Cho Chikun. I want to do that by transferring all the problems to sgf and putting them into my cellphone, I have a program like go grinder so I'll be able to solve problems anywhere anytime. I don't know how much time will I need to finish this so I can't really give myself any deadline but lets put end of 2010 as some checkpoint. As for my reading I plan on keep doing problems from Cho's Encyclopedia of L&D, for now half of the problems from elementary section give me trouble so I think it's very good practice, I'm planning on working through intermediate and advanced as well. Hopefully after I finish what I've planned I'll be a strong 3d

Thanks for reading!

sorry for a stupid question but what do you mean by "hardwiring problems"?

Not at all a stupid question I mean solving a problem so many times with looking at the solution so it becomes etched in your memory.

That means, if you see a go problem, you don't have to read it out. You can solve it immediately, because you know the solution.

Also, DrStraw wrote a very nice article on the topic: http://senseis.xmp.net/?SteveFawthrop%2 ... feAndDeath

Worked through 52 problems today from Cho's Elementary. Now if I see a very simple solution I think I'm being tricked and start searching for more complicated alternatives, and in 10 min, when all possibilities are excluded I still feel slight uneasiness.

No problems solved, was out camping. Played couple of games and I'm still 1d. Kind of weird. Has kgs gotten weaker?