SDK here we come

Suji · **#21**

Suji wrote:

I'm finally breaking down, and I'm going to set out a study plan. Inspired by SinK, here, I'm going to improve with him. I'm incredibly competitive, and I'm not going to go down in the Malkovitch Game without a fight, so I'm going to improve.

The story so far:
The story begins when I first began to get good at chess. I couldn't beat one of my friends, and he beat me about 30 times in a row before I beat him for the first time. During the time that I was failing to beat him I was studying chess non-stop. Now I really only play for enjoyment, not for the rating. Improvement stopped when I didn't have a target to reach for.

I first saw Go several years ago on Yahoo! Games, while I was looking for other strategy games that were different than Chess. I was bored of chess, and from time to time I need a breather from Chess. I played eight games, and said, "This is so stupid. Chess is better.", and went back to chess. So, two years ago, I was bored and remembered a conversation that I had with a friend of mine, and she said that I'd like Hikaru No Go. Well, I watched the anime and in January of 2009 I played my first game on KGS. Again my play was uninspiring, and I lost every game that I played that month. Slowly, but surely I've improved to 12K. I don't play much online, but when I do it's about 50% win 50% loss.

Obviously, I can't spend 24/7 on Go. I'm much older than I was when I could play and study chess non-stop. I'm a poor starving college student

. I've got to go to class, do homework, study for tests, look for a job, and buy a new car (I unfortunately totaled my car recently). I've got competing interests for time, so I can't spend all of my time on Go. But what I can do is play all I can. Preferably, one a day. Also, I have the books Tesuji and Life and Death that I plan on working through. Also, I downloaded the Cho Chikun Tsumego Collections without answers available online. I will be working on problems as well as playing games.

So, putting all of this together the plan, starting Monday, is:

1. Play at least one game per day. If I can't log in to KGS, then I'm going to play the computer. I know that playing the computer isn't the greatest thing to do, but I like the option of always having an opponent handy. I don't know anyone that is on my level personally, so the computer is going to have to do.

2. Do 50 Tsumego a day. This will be the difficult part of the plan. I don't like doing problems, and I don't see how they're going to help me improve. However, I'm willing to try it out. I haven't done a lot of tactical chess problems in my life, and that could be why I'm stuck. I don't have the answers to Cho Chikun's Encyclopedia of problems and I want to be able to eventually solve all of them, so I have a lot of work cut out for me.

3. Review the games that I play, win or lose. I'm going to do this in two passes. The first pass, a cursory look for both sides and the mistakes we made. The second pass a more in depth look at my moves and why I made them. This means that I'm going to actually have to think about my moves. I play way too fast and I need to change that.

4. Ask any questions that I have about the game on this forum. Most of you guys are willing to help answer the weaker players' questions. You've been very helpful so far. I even want opinions of people weaker than I am.

4a. Try to absorb the information that the stronger players present.
4b. Weaker players have the tendency to charge blindly into some situations. I want the courage they possess when they play in those situations. If I can't read something all out, then I'm going to need the weaker player's courage to actually play the move if it's the right one.

5. Keep playing my Malkovich Game with SinK and compare my progress with his. I'm not going down without a fight. For now, SinK is going to be my rival, so I'm giving myself the same deadline: December 31st at 11:59 p.m.

6. Have fun. This is the most important thing on this list, since if I'm not having fun, I'm not going to improve.

Bring it on. :rambo:

Okay, so obviously this didn't exactly happen. Right about the time I posted this, I got really busy with school and my religious group put on a huge play. The play was taking most of my time in the evenings and most weekends. We did the play at the end of October, and I had to focus on school. Ugh, so this kind of died, as did my Malkovich game with SinK. Sometimes, life catches up with you, and it definitely caught up with me last fall. I'm in school again, and hopefully this time I can do better.

Since I'm playing 10 correspondence chess games at this point (playing in a tournament on chess.com), and I'm going to school full time, all my new study plan is is just to play 1 or 2 games a night. I might resurrect my Malkovich game with SinK, I might not. I'll decide in the next few days. As long as I'm keeping up in my classes I don't think that I'll have an issue.

I'll post my games here in this thread, and/or in the game analysis sub-forum.

Suji · **#22**

My studying is just going to consist of games at the moment as I'm trying to ease into Go again.

This is a humorous game that I played last night. Both me and my opponent made huge mistakes in the game, but I came out on top. I ended up marking him as a friend on KGS, since he was friendly. Here's the game.

Suji · **#23**

I played two games tonight. Lost both. Dropped down to 14k after the second loss. Ugh, didn't know returning to Go could be this painful.

The first game, I got slaughtered. He/she seemed way stronger than me, too, which is slightly annoying. The second game ended up being a lot closer than I thought. I need to get better, hence, why I'm playing games. I still need to find a rival that I can play regularly either in person or online.

Here's the first game:

And here's the second:

jts · **#24**

Hey Suji,

I looked through all the games you just posted. Let me offer three suggestions.

1. It looks like you have trouble with reading (and even some problems with atari-blindness). This would normally lead me to suggest tsumego, but it looks like you've already thought of that, want to work through Cho's Elementary problems, but aren't enjoying it. I wonder if that set isn't too hard for you. Have you done the beginner tsumego on Sensei's Library yet? There are also good beginner packs on GoChild, and one of the volumes of Graded Go Problems for Beginners might be appropriate. --- Doing tsumego should, imho, be relatively quick and painless. --- You might also want to look for a book of tesuji problems. Those tend to provoke the "Awesome!" reaction and sustain interest.

2. You play quite fast. When you reach a crucial turning point you'll frequently spend a minute thinking - which is good, many people don't even have the focus to do that - but then you'll spend 2 seconds on each of your next dozen moves. When you're playing a slow game, there's no reason not to spend a minute on nearly every move. When you get into byo-yomi you'll still have 30s to think, i.e., 15 times more than you typically use.

3. You seem to play contact moves when you should be attacking your opponent, or at least preserving the aji so that you can think about attacking. Maybe you think that contact moves are a good way to attack? In general you want to attack by reducing the size of the potential eyespace from the outside, or making a placement on the inside.

Suji · **#25**

jts wrote:

Hey Suji,

I looked through all the games you just posted. Let me offer three suggestions.

1. It looks like you have trouble with reading (and even some problems with atari-blindness). This would normally lead me to suggest tsumego, but it looks like you've already thought of that, want to work through Cho's Elementary problems, but aren't enjoying it. I wonder if that set isn't too hard for you. Have you done the beginner tsumego on Sensei's Library yet? There are also good beginner packs on GoChild, and one of the volumes of Graded Go Problems for Beginners might be appropriate. --- Doing tsumego should, imho, be relatively quick and painless. --- You might also want to look for a book of tesuji problems. Those tend to provoke the "Awesome!" reaction and sustain interest.

Yeah, I have a hard time doing problems in general even when I'm getting them pretty easily. I find them to be relatively boring compared to playing games. I do have the Davies' Tesuji and Life and Death books as well as the two preceding those (38 Basic Joseki, and Opening something or other and I do want to eventually have Attack and Defense, The Endgame, and Handicap Go.) but every time I crack either two open and try to solve problems I get bored quickly. It's the same with chess, I've played more games than solved problems.

I've done a few of the basic problems on Sensei's, and I've done a few on GoChild but I get bored quickly too. Also, I know problems help you get better, so at some point I'm going to have to do them.

How does one make Tsumego fun? I'm open for ideas here.

jts wrote:

2. You play quite fast. When you reach a crucial turning point you'll frequently spend a minute thinking - which is good, many people don't even have the focus to do that - but then you'll spend 2 seconds on each of your next dozen moves. When you're playing a slow game, there's no reason not to spend a minute on nearly every move. When you get into byo-yomi you'll still have 30s to think, i.e., 15 times more than you typically use.

Yeah, this carries over from the habits that I made playing chess online. I don't know why, but I have a fear of losing on time, and if that happens I won't get to finish the game. I know that it's illogical and stupid to fear the clock like that.

jts wrote:

3. You seem to play contact moves when you should be attacking your opponent, or at least preserving the aji so that you can think about attacking. Maybe you think that contact moves are a good way to attack? In general you want to attack by reducing the size of the potential eyespace from the outside, or making a placement on the inside.

Hmmm...Now I'm going to have to start paying attention to this.

jts · **#26**

Suji wrote:

Yeah, I have a hard time doing problems in general even when I'm getting them pretty easily. I find them to be relatively boring compared to playing games. I do have the Davies' Tesuji and Life and Death books as well as the two preceding those (38 Basic Joseki, and Opening something or other and I do want to eventually have Attack and Defense, The Endgame, and Handicap Go.) but every time I crack either two open and try to solve problems I get bored quickly. It's the same with chess, I've played more games than solved problems.

I've done a few of the basic problems on Sensei's, and I've done a few on GoChild but I get bored quickly too. Also, I know problems help you get better, so at some point I'm going to have to do them.

How does one make Tsumego fun? I'm open for ideas here.

Personally, I really like to look at something, think it's impossible, and then be shown it *is* possible. It's boring to do tsumego that are too easy (as in, you recognize the outcome on sight) or too hard (as in, after 5-10 minutes you think you've gone through all the variations but you're still not sure what the answer is), but the key thing is to have a "wow" moment at some sweet spot between those two extremes. Before even thinking about solving the problems - do you think the content of the Davies' Tesuji book is mind-boggling?

Suji wrote:

Yeah, this carries over from the habits that I made playing chess online. I don't know why, but I have a fear of losing on time, and if that happens I won't get to finish the game. I know that it's illogical and stupid to fear the clock like that.

Well, maybe you should make yourself a checklist to slow yourself on down. Like "choose three possible moves for every tenuki before move 100" or "count the score every 50 moves" or "try to completely read out a life and death/ capture sequence before I make the first move". Sometimes when I'm getting too into the game I need to go get myself some water as a sort of a speed bump. But ultimately, there's no chance of losing on time in a slow game. Can't happen.

gaius · **#27**

Woah, the guy from the first game was big-time sandbagging. Don't worry about that loss, he should be giving a big handicap rather than taking black... Looks like the play of a (drunk) strong SDK, maybe weak dan player trying to boost his ego by kicking the crap out of weaker players on KGS.

Suji · **#28**

gaius wrote:

Woah, the guy from the first game was big-time sandbagging. Don't worry about that loss, he should be giving a big handicap rather than taking black... Looks like the play of a (drunk) strong SDK, maybe weak dan player trying to boost his ego by kicking the crap out of weaker players on KGS.

He was unrated, and the game wasn't rated so I'm not too terribly worried about it. It was just annoying that he was so much stronger than me.

Suji · **#29**

<rant>
I. HATE. LOSING. I played another two games today, and I lost both games. In the second one the guy invades my top of the board and manages to live, and to add insult to injury he killed a huge chunk of my stones, too. Why can't I be like Joaz or Araban now? Where's the magic pill that takes you to 9p instantly?
</rant>

As per jts and Li Kao, I might do some tsumego to supplement my playing...First, I hate doing problems. Second, I'd rather be playing another person than doing problems as I find problems to be excruciatingly boring. Does anyone know how to make problems less boring?

And here are the games that I played: :-?

Any comments are welcome.

First:

Second:

moonrabbit · **#30**

In the second game, at move 93, Black to move can save his stones. Think about it for a minute.

jts · **#31**

Look at the times in the second game. Your opponent spent 13 minutes thinking about the crucial sequence (21:00 to 8:30); you spent two minutes (22:00 to 19:30). Towards the end, you began playing really fast, as though you were hoping to trick him into doing something sloppy, or had given up hope.

Tsumego would help too. That false eye/snapback/shortage of liberties would look glaringly obvious if you had practiced it more. But you should try to give yourself time to read things out, too.

Suji · **#32**

jts wrote:

Before even thinking about solving the problems - do you think the content of the Davies' Tesuji book is mind-boggling?

Sometimes, yes.

jts wrote:

Look at the times in the second game. Your opponent spent 13 minutes thinking about the crucial sequence (21:00 to 8:30); you spent two minutes (22:00 to 19:30). Towards the end, you began playing really fast, as though you were hoping to trick him into doing something sloppy, or had given up hope.

Yeah, I really need to slow down. It's a really bad habit. I like your idea of a checklist, so I'm going to try and see if I can come up with a decent checklist.

jts wrote:

Tsumego would help too. That false eye/snapback/shortage of liberties would look glaringly obvious if you had practiced it more. But you should try to give yourself time to read things out, too.

Okay, I see your point, and I *might* have to be beaten with a sludge hammer here. I'm stubborn, but you have made the point beautifully that tsumego is actually a necessity in order to get better. I may not like it, but I'm going to have to do tsumego.

Suji · **#33**

moonrabbit wrote:

In the second game, at move 93, Black to move can save his stones. Think about it for a minute.

Thanks for pointing this out. It gave me a chance to actually find the >correct< move.

Also, Tsumego - 1, Suji - 0. Argh.

Tami · **#34**

Hi Suji,
As the others said, you need to get stuck into the tsumego. If you get a book of easy problems and just do 2 or 3 at a time, but often, you should not find it too hard or boring. Do you have James Davies Tesuji? If you read that little and often it should have you in the SDKs in no time. I hear the Graded Go Problems for Beginners are also really good.

Suji · **#35**

Okay, my new study plan. My goal: 9k at the 1st of December.

1. Play at least once per day. The most important ingredient. Practical knowledge is always good to have. Playing will help hone the skills that I will hopefully develop.

2. Do 5-10 minutes of Tsumego daily. Although I absolutely hate problems, I'm going to do them. The reasoning is simple. I want to improve, and the fastest way to improvement is to do tsumego. Just to draw a parallel with chess, I've rarely done tactical chess problems. I've also not improved in years. Basically, my chess rating on FICS would skyrocket if I did tactical problems, but the fact that I'm too lazy to do problems means that I'm stuck at my current level. I don't want to be the eternal DDK who never advances past 10k and bounces between that and 15k. My desire to improve is starting to outweigh the dislike of problems. Also, I don't want to burn out, so I'm not going to overdo this part.

Another thing, I'll learn patience doing problems, which will be worth it's weight in gold.

3. Slow down while playing games. This is the biggie. I'll admit that I'm scared to lose on time. I need to slow down and think during the game. I, also, need to learn to calculate and evaluate rather than just use my intuition. jts suggested a checklist, and I find this to be a good idea so I'm going to make a checklist and follow it.

This has roots in my exclusive chess days. When I made the switch from Yahoo! chess to FICS, I made up my mind to never lose on time. To this day, I've never lost on time (while at my computer) in a game 15+ minutes long. I'm also afraid of making a mistake in time trouble. Another related thing, too, is that if my opponent plays fast, I feel that I have to play fast as well. This is going to be probably the most challenging thing for me.

4. Obviously, have fun. ALL of the forum members, I feel, are pretty good about being willing to help. This creates a sense of community that, I feel, that the chess community lacks.

Without further ado, here are my latest games:

Game 1: My laptop decided to blow up (It couldn't detect the processor. It probably cooked itself to death.) just hours prior, so even though that my friend was letting me borrow a laptop for a few days I wasn't in the mood to give 100% this game, so I eventually resigned.

Game 2: Meh. I won though I still played too fast.

Game 3: Again meh. I'm still playing too fast. Yes, this was right after the last one. I was behind at the end, but he resigned since the coffee shop that he was at was closing.

I still have a lot to improve on.

Suji · **#36**

I played once today. I'm using automatch for my games, so I'm sometimes going to play people weaker than I am. I don't see this as a problem, but I "need" to lose to someone stronger to get better. Oh, well, I'll play people like that 50% percent of the time.

I've also bought Go Grinder for my iPod touch. I'm going to go through the beginner problem set that they give that has 150 problems. After looking at the first three problems they seem to be acceptable. I'm going to do them, but here's the catch, I'm only going to do a few per time. That way, I don't get sick of it, and I can get better at Go.

Here's the game.

I still need to work on slowing down and doing tsumego. Though I'm glad that I won this, I still want to get better. Hence, the study journal.

Li Kao · **#37**

21 Just capture the ladder stones
39 extent to O19. keep him seperated. Also notice that N12 is now useless and you captured anyways. So move 21 was wasted completely
J17 doesn't gain you much.
121 at D15. Then his stones are simply dead.
143 why take the ko? If you play at B17 he will have only one eye
147 Why take another ko? Defend at C18
150 Now he's alive
151,153,155 all very small. Three moves which gained you only a few points total. How about atari on the outside?
173 J10 kills his for stones. Connect and die.
195 Very small. Perhaps 1 or 2 points.
201 Very small

Suji · **#38**

I didn't make time to play last week and I've played two games this week. The second one was the L19 tournament game with gurujeet, which he won. The first one was some random person who tried to mass undo right in the middle of the game. I granted him two and decided that I wouldn't do anymore, so I clicked on never allow eventually.

Here's the first game.

Top things I need to work on is to slow down, and play simple moves.

Here is the tournament game with gurujeet, whom I immensely enjoyed playing. After he lived in the lower right, I kinda went on an aggressive spree. I eventually resigned.

I have a plan for doing tsumego. I'm going to treat them as math problems, and write down every variation that I can think of. Obviously, I'm going to do this from the initial position, and as I get better, I'm just going to do stuff in my head. I'm going to start off with five ish a day (Don't know when I'm going to start doing this, but it's at least in the works). As for playing games, I just need to slow down.

jts · **#39**

Just a quick note on your first game: you should capture with :w20:

. The sort of move you're making only makes sense if a black move at G6 is extremely valuable. Because you don't capture, black gets two more sente moves locally, and you still don't capture, so then the ladder becomes broken a few moves later (although I don't think either of you realize).

I get the sense that many players learn "when you have meaningless stones in atari, don't waste a move capturing until the endgame", and then somehow get the idea that it's a crime to ever take stones off the board if they can come up with some complicated plot to keep them dead without capturing instead. More often that not, if your opponent makes a threat and one way to defend against the threat is to capture some stones, capturing the stones is the best move, robbing him of all possible forcing moves, peeps, ladder-breakers, and other miscellaneous aji in the future.

Suji · **#40**

jts wrote:

Just a quick note on your first game: you should capture with :w20:

. The sort of move you're making only makes sense if a black move at G6 is extremely valuable. Because you don't capture, black gets two more sente moves locally, and you still don't capture, so then the ladder becomes broken a few moves later (although I don't think either of you realize).

I get the sense that many players learn "when you have meaningless stones in atari, don't waste a move capturing until the endgame", and then somehow get the idea that it's a crime to ever take stones off the board if they can come up with some complicated plot to keep them dead without capturing instead. More often that not, if your opponent makes a threat and one way to defend against the threat is to capture some stones, capturing the stones is the best move, robbing him of all possible forcing moves, peeps, ladder-breakers, and other miscellaneous aji in the future.

Okay, that's nice to know. I don't think I understand the concept of aji very well. In fact, I *know* I don't.

SDK here we come

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