DharmaBum's Journal

DharmaBum · Post by **DharmaBum** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 9:23 am

Hey Everyone,

I'm Currently around 15 kyu and I would like to plan to move up 10 ranks by the time my birthday rolls around in July. This may be a bit of a stretch, me being a university student and not having tons of time to commit to things such as playing every single day.

My current plan:
-Try and play a game once every other day online
-Play a game in person once a week
-Finish the books I currently have (In the Beginning and Basic Techniques of Go)
-With the Smartgo Iphone app do as many life and death problems as my spare time will allow

My University has a Go club started by myself and one other student allowing me to play weekly in person. He is about a 2 dan so it will allow me to play teaching games. I think posting games I play on here for some helpful advice would also be beneficial.

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:35 pm

Good luck! Which university?

DharmaBum · Post by **DharmaBum** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:31 pm

Thanks, I'm at Ottawa University

DharmaBum · Post by **DharmaBum** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:24 pm

I finally have had the time to play a couple of games on KGS. The first of which I won and the second I lost.

Here is the first game.

I feel like my opening was much stronger than my opponents, which resulted in me having an easier time with the game.

The second game was not the same case...

To name one problem with this second match I don't think I dealt with my opponents invasion very well and I think my game was basically sloppy. I have a bad tendency to play before thinking my moves out thoroughly. The timer stresses me out.

If anyone has and specific criticism (I'm sure there's a lot) I would love to hear it!

As far as studying goes, I'm reading into counting which I am not very good at. I'm going to hopefully borrow Attack and Defense from one of my friends at the local club. I also am doing life and death problems on my Iphone instead of paying attention in class hahaha. I'm not having too much trouble with problems graded 15 or 12 Kyu. I haven't made it out to the local Go club lately due to my hectic work schedule but I plan to make it out this week.

Hopefully my updates will be more frequent now that school is a little more relaxed for me!

topazg · Post by **topazg** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:02 am

Good luck with the studies

Don't worry about the big loss in the second game, your opponent was sandbagging badly, and is a lot stronger than his rank suggests.

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 4:45 am

topazg wrote:Don't worry about the big loss in the second game, your opponent was sandbagging badly, and is a lot stronger than his rank suggests

Thanks, topazg.

DharmaBum, I deranked your 2nd opponent's account and his other sandbagging accounts on KGS,
one of which went as high as 6k, so don't feel bad.

Tsuyoku · Post by **Tsuyoku** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:26 am

Some small remarks about the first game:

5: take the other corner when white does tengen on second move.
7: white played a second silly, you can still take that corner.
9: corner... corner... corner...
11: actually, both this and the previous move are out of place. Both of them would be better in the middle, so at K16 or K17, and R10 or Q10.
13: far too small. Consider D10
Remember: Corners, then sides, then anything else.
43: This cut forces white to shut you in.
45: How about C4?

Looks like you've got way better reading skills than your opponent, though. Play a few more and see if you can't gain a rank or two.

Second game is sandbagging. EdLee to the rescue!

topazg · Post by **topazg** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:18 am

EdLee wrote:
topazg wrote:Don't worry about the big loss in the second game, your opponent was sandbagging badly, and is a lot stronger than his rank suggests
Thanks, topazg.

DharmaBum, I deranked your 2nd opponent's account and his other sandbagging accounts on KGS,
one of which went as high as 6k, so don't feel bad.

Ooh, you have uber KGS adminny privileges? I never knew

Congrats on your vigilance!

DharmaBum · Post by **DharmaBum** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:23 am

I kind of thought my opponent was a lot stronger than his rank suggested.

Thanks for the feedback and thanks Edlee!

Loons · Post by **Loons** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:47 pm

How's sticking to your daily/weekly game schedule going?

Unrelatedly, Kerouac's book has been sitting on top of a pile of books not that far from where I'm sitting now. I've yet to open it; what's the urgency with which I should address this situation?

kaimat · Post by **kaimat** » Tue May 03, 2011 7:54 am

Loons wrote:How's sticking to your daily/weekly game schedule going?

Unrelatedly, Kerouac's book has been sitting on top of a pile of books not that far from where I'm sitting now. I've yet to open it; what's the urgency with which I should address this situation?

Read it immediately, it's a short book.

DharmaBum · Post by **DharmaBum** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:05 pm

Well my first attempt turned out to be quite the disaster. Now that I've moved across the country I'm ready to take another swing at my goal of hitting single digit kyu!

I played a game tonight, it was the first one in a while. I would appreciate any criticism

jts · Post by **jts** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:48 pm

Hope this is helpful.

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:08 pm

A few ideas early on. 100% basic shape problems.

DharmaBum · Post by **DharmaBum** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:26 pm

Thanks for being thorough Edlee and Jts. I've taken a look at your comments so now i'll try and imporve my shape problems

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