There's an Spanish saying about this "Mal de muchos, consuelo de tontos" (rough uninspired literal: the fact that it affects a lot of people only reliefs the dunces)... At least I know I'm not alone with that, but I hope to get over it soon, I feel pretty dumb about it

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Today and yesterday I played two games against Igowin HD (quicker and more relaxing than firing KGS.) Won both games (by resignation, I was winning by more than 40 points in both), raising my estimated rank in the app to 5k. I wonder why the app sometimes refuses to defend about-to-die groups.

I did 5 of the problems at the end of the first chapter in The Endgame. I got them decently well, would have at least made the second best choice in all. But I still have trouble realising what really is sente and what really is gote (and worse, reverse sente). I guess I'll improve with re-readings.

I have also finished reviewing Yi Ch'ang-Ho's tesuji vol 1, got 23 problems wrong (out of... 129 or so?) Tomorrow I'll check what each tesuji was about and why I misread. I'll try to spot patterns in these failures.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

It probably refuses to defend in order to play like a 5k.

I'm supposedly worse than 5k and I do try to defend my almost dead groups

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

I'm 5k and tend to have a lot of dead groups. You might be doing something wrong.

Anyways, computers just play different. I wouldn't try to analyze it too much.

Won't analyze, it's just puzzling If he leaves the groups in the open, go for the blood!

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Seriously Igowin HD (iPad 1), what's up with you? AI Level 5k, and I was black

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

It runs on an iPad :p

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

It should be adjusting the level nevertheless.. It's not like the iPad does not have a processor (and Igowin's answers were pretty fast nevertheless)...

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Don't play computer go, it just messes you technique. Computer is nowhere near human when it comes to go.

Currently a computer player still can out-think me, and yes, a computer can only teach me wrong ideas. But I don't play against it to improve in general, just to improve my reading and sense of direction (not learning from it, but punishing it). If he does silly things, I just ignore it and keep killing groups/getting territory.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Igowin is as accurate as a broken watch at predicting rank

Trust your real ranks, thats what they are for.

Finished reviewing my mistakes in YCH's tesuji vol 1, these were 23 wrong problems out of 123 (18.7% wrong). I don't time how long problems take me, but usually I do between 15 and 20 in 15 minutes in my commute. Maybe timing them next time will be interesting.

Errors are mostly related to counting liberties (9):

* Don't realising some stones may be in shortage of liberties after a move
* Missing a liberty in counting
* Failing to protect approaches (basically defending approach hanes on the first)
* For some odd reason, making the enemy move twice when facing purely extend-and-count-problems (yes, that's odd)

The other problems were either misreads that I could solve easily this time (9), kos on the first and second line as defense for white (3) and a combination of the counting errors together with not following the simplest solution (2).

Now I'll follow David's suggestion in another thread and do YCH-Tesuji 1 again, flipping it around (so there's 3 tries ahead). This time I'll only count mistakes, I won't track which ones I failed. I have also a list of L&D problems I missed from YCHs Tsumego Vol 1, and likewise will look at my errors to see what was the cause.

My plan was to finish also book two in December, but with so many passes needed for each book, I'll probably settle for one book for month.

I also have 1001 L&D problems, and may be useful to change a little the types of problems if I feel tired of these.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Turned YCH tesuji vol1 around clockwise, this time got 16 wrong, an improvement of 7 problems since my previous try in normal orientation. Meh

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Finished solving the turned around YCH Vol 1, Tesuji and Tsumego. Below a table of results. The timeline was Tesuji 0º Tsumego 0º Tesuji 90º Tsumego 90º. I'm about to start Tesuji 2 and turn around Tesuji 1. Turns are clockwise.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Played two games today, one rated and one free (to make the 4th game in the ASR this month...). In the ASR, 4 games 4 losses. But today's game was not that bad. I lost by around 10 points against a former 3k (currently [-]). Of course, I would have lost by 30 points if it wasn't for a silly yose mistake at the end. But I played some moves I think were not that bad, which is encouraging. I paste it at the end of this post. The review process was fun, since my opponent was Russian and spoke no English. Google Translate to the rescue

The other game, rated, finished very quick. My opponent thought a ladder I was starting (as a forcing move to connect a group-make eyes) worked... and it was not the case. Anyway, he resigned and I'm again 7k.

Here comes the ASR league game.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

New year, new things to explain!

1. I've set up (although it needs tweaking before starting) the Reddit Teaching Ladder. I'm sure it will be awesome with so many willing teachers.

2. I'm registered to the Reddit Challenge Ladder, created by programmar 3k. An awesome idea!

3. I'm still in the ASR League, I've already played (i.e. lost) 2 games in Delta this month. Let's beat the 4 games from last month!

4. I've enrolled in the Nordic Go Academy for January. Looks like a very interesting endeavor, I'll keep you updated.

As for the standard stuff, I'm in problem 105 in YCH Tesuji Vol 2. So far, 7 wrong answers (making this slightly less than 7% wrong). I'm also enjoying this book, since it's about linking with induced shortages of liberties, cutting and connecting (more or less the "amputate the cutting stones" in Davies' Tesuji, IIRC, a chapter I enjoyed a lot). A somewhat nasty side effect is seeing almost cut-able shapes in my games... Yesterday I won with 4 stones against a 3k, but failed too many of these almost-cuttings, even if I was just a move short. In my defense, I was in byo-yomi when most of these backfired. I also let a killable group live, although I killed it while I was in byo-yomi (my opponent was not). All in all, a game I enjoyed, even if it wasn't great. I paste it below.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Update in the YCH problem books, I just finished YCH Tesuji 2, first take

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

I guess this looks better:

Thanks Karaklis, forgot to add the "code" tag (previously I had done it ). It will look worse when I put the stats of YCH Tsumego 2... By problem 12 I had 6 wrong ones!! (I'm at 23rd with still 6 wrong, so it may even out, but...)

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net