2010 has seen a major transition in my play, perhaps the biggest there'll be.

I had grown into a style of play in which I thinly and quickly span as much real-estate as possible in the opening and then brace against the opponent's attacks hoping to end the game with a positive score. I reached about 6 kyu EGF. A major problem in my game then was what I eventually diagnosed as a naïve understanding of "giving your opponent what he wants", a misguided fighting spirit that led me to give away much cash in the opening for often insufficient compensation. Because of this I was resigning many games around move 50-80 for being dozens of points behind in cash with non-existent middlegame potential. I set out to find a sense for the opening that takes early cash, settles groups early and does not give in without a real and visible compensation.

The transition is now complete and has sent my game into a crisis. The death zone has shifted forward into the range of moves 120-160, which is where my opponent pulls the rug from under my feet by hitting an unseen weakness. The pieces no longer fit together: what once compensated for these weaknesses is no longer there. Back in my old style of play the course of the game was such that if I didn't resign very early for giving in too much, I would be far enough ahead coming into the middlegame that I could afford to miss a weak spot or three and still compete and win the game. Now the game is so close from the start that I can no longer get away with it. There is a certain inevitability about this development.

Alas, it looks like the cure, and thus also the theme of 2011, is tactical study. I've long been aware that my slow and circuitous progress in go has been a top-down journey. The scenic route ends here at the bottom and I am to bring my reading to the level of the rest of my play.

Last weekend I rigged up my unused Arch Linux netbook as a GoGoD system. Yesterday night I started Get Strong at Tesuji. Out of the first thirty problems I got eleven right.

_________________
So you've got an eye?
That don't impress me much

I like to win by giving my opponent what he wants, because it mystifies him and shows that I understand the game better than he. But I would never think of "Give your opponent what he wants" as a go proverb. It only works when your opponent makes gratuitous mistakes. (Early in my go learning I tried to kill everything I thought I could. )




I can't help thinking of Hegel. We have had the Thesis and the Antithesis. Now for the Synthesis!

Much luck in the coming year!

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I am quite frustrated with Get Strong At Tesuji. Often the difference between the solution and an inferior result is not immediately obvious and can't be evaluated by reading. These problems are more about shape.

I feel like the way to use this book is to do your best to read out what you think is the best sequence, but afterwards simply memorize the correct solution, trying to internalize the shape.

But the worst part is, being wrong so often and never quite knowing why is just not fun.

Life and death problems seem better for actual reading practice. I highly recommend 1001 Life And Death Problems for that. I'm going through it myself, just started on the three-move problems. My reading ability definitely improved a bit and I actually got mildly addicted to tsumego.

Giving your opponent what he wants only works when he wants the wrong thing. When he wants the right thing, each game is a struggle.
I think that if you can win by giving your opponent what he wants, its time to start playing slightly stronger players.

_________________
- Bantari
______________________________________________
WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

Easy three star L&D problems, hairy one star shape problems—that has been my impression of the book. I love the latter: they go right to the heart of some of my anxieties, and the difference between my answer and the correct answer is always a point of interest (which I can't say about L&D problems). Evaluating them involves judging what your opponent can do against the resulting position and what sort of continuation you can have there later. Bad shape will give the opponent more moves against it or let him immediately make good shape around it, for instance. It's by no means impermeable by reading.

In the late stages of the opening I often have a need to "make something out of nothing" (to borrow a phrase on the SL page on sabaki), to find a sequence or combination that gives me leverage into the middle game. It's very distressing if I don't find one: I get frustrated and end up playing something awful and aimless. This is a big element of why I have high hopes for shape/suji problems with their emphasis on evaluation.

As far as the "give your opponent what he wants" thing goes, I think it involved a desire to not be bogged down in the opening by my opponent's approaches and a discipline to not greedily invade. There may very possibly have been an element of overcorrection, and these things were generally not backed up by much in the way of evaluation. Anyhow, it's history.

Thank you, Bill!

My list of special things to do in 2011:

• Problems: GSaT, then redo 501 TP and Making Good Shape, look at the classics at GoGoD
• Play in the ASR league
• Meditate on mamoru
• Look at games by people known for slow/thick play: Yu Ch'ang-Hyeok, Kitani, uncle Fujisawa
• Focus on in-game calm, crack down further on angry and unthoughtful moves
• Play in a real tournament (contingent on hitting at least 4 kyu EGF)

_________________
So you've got an eye?
That don't impress me much

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that has trouble with the one star shape problems. The answers are always so simple but I always make them so much harder than they need to be. Maybe the best way to study that book is to read through all the answers first to get a feel for the shapes you want, then do the problems. Most don't really require that much reading anyway.

Week -5:

Observation 1.
Get Strong at Tesuji surprisingly starts out harder than GGPfB vol. 4: My success rate with the first hundred problems is 51%, compared to 70%-ish in section 1 of the latter. It's much more stimulating. Here's a most simple model example of the kinds of basic things I don't seem to have much of a sense for:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ 94. Black to move
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X . . . . .
$$ | . . X . . . . . .
$$ | . . O X O . . . .
$$ | . . . O . O . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ -----------------[/go]

Observation 2.
The slower opening and more strict exercise of mental restraint with which I now play are revealing wholly unexpected advantages. My opponents suddenly make small but serious mistakes: now that I play from generally stronger positions, attacks against me are more likely to be unreasonable and backfire—not in a catastrophic way, but games are close. This leads me to a conjecture: The impatience I shed from my play shows up in that of my opponents.



Observation 3.
Move of the week, being an advertisement for 501 Tesuji Problems:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . X X O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X X . X X . . . X O O . X O X O O O . |
$$ | O X X O O X . . X O . O O . O . X O O |
$$ | O O O O X . . . X , . . . O . , X X X |
$$ | . X . . X . . X O O O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O X . . . X X O . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . X X . X . X . . . |
$$ | . O X . X . . . . . . . X O O O X X . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . X X . X O . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O X . . X X O , . . O . . O O . . |
$$ | . . O . O . X O O O X X O . O X . O . |
$$ | . . . . 3 . . X . . O X O . . . X X . |
$$ | . 2 O . . . . . . O O O . O O O X . . |
$$ | . O 1 . O . . . . X X . O X X . X . . |
$$ | . X X . O . . X X . . O . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . X O . . . O O , X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . X X O . O . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . . . X . X O . O . . . . . . O O . |
$$ | . . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

These "wrong side attachments" were an object of my constant admiration in 501TP. Even though I doubt I was even able to solve any of those problems when I was working through that silly-hard collection, I would not have found this table-turner without it.

_________________
So you've got an eye?
That don't impress me much

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Week -4, observations

1. I got to play one ASR game this week, against a player ostensibly 8-10 stones weaker, and he came within one move of destroying me.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . O . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . O . . . . . . X X . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O O X 1 . O . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . X O X . X . . . O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X O X O X X C . O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X O X X . X O . X O . X . O . . |
$$ | . X . X O O O O O . . X X X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O X X X X . . . X O . X . . . |
$$ | . . O . O O O O X . . . . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . X . X . X . . . . X O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . X O O O . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . X X O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

at the circled intersection kills black, as far as I can tell. I did eventually win, I don't feel like I deserved it. Not only did I make quite a few presumptuous or sloppy moves, but in the post-game review it turned out my opponent saw a few things that I totally missed.


2. I found something very nice and simple that has never occurred to me to do.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Kitani-Takagawa, 14th Honinbo game 6
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . X . . X . 1 . . . . X . . |
$$ | . O O , O . . . . , 6 . . X . X . O . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O 5 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . X . X O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . O . . . . . . O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O X X . O , . X O . O , O . . |
$$ | . O O X X . . X X . O O X X O . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . X X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

When white invades, black calmly gets thick first and only then moves in on the invasion. I would've just responded to with a kosumitsuke, powered by an unconscious assumption that you can't prepare for an invasion after it has happened.

_________________
So you've got an eye?
That don't impress me much

This is why one of my favorite ways of studying is playing through/memorizing pro games. It's entertaining and it gives you lots of new ideas.

This is how I roll in this month's ASR. The only thing I can do is laugh. I fumbled every single thing that was played.

_________________
So you've got an eye?
That don't impress me much

You're right, that was pretty bad. Luckily however those kinds of major mistakes are pretty easy to fix. Maybe even just taking a little bit more time to think on each move and that won't happen. Between you and your opponent only ~3 minutes was spent on those 35 moves, that's an average of ~5 seconds per move.

Good luck in the new year!!

Im just a beginner at the moment and trying to acquire a style (!) what you said about getting the rug pulled out from under you in the middlegame is absolutely right. Although I dont have the same level of experience, i am seeing this more and more in my games currently.

I hope your endeavours go well.

regards

markeemark