My week in numbers (was "Tiny steps towards shodan")

[RBerenguel]

GMT+1, but we can probably play some afternoon in the weekend? Your morning, my afternoon, that is. You're doing better with YCH tsumego than I'm doing... I have only moved it around more times

By the way, I was watching one of Bat's lectures (I think about the chinese fuseki) and I saw you on the chat section in the KGS window

[speedchase]

Oh yeah i remember that! This weekend sounds good. how about Saturday. I am playing in my first in person tournament on Sunday, so a game with you will be good preparation!
By the way I have stopped doing LCH tsumego for a bit to work on 1000 life and death problems.

[RBerenguel]

Saturday is perfect, I'll open KGS after lunch and hang around there.

[RBerenguel]

Code: Select all

| Orientation   |        0º      |      90º       |     180º      |     270º   |

| Book          | #wrong |     % | #wrong |     % | #wrong |    % | #wrong | % |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tesuji  1 |     23 | 18.70 |     16 | 13.01 |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tsumego 1 |     25 | 20.33 |     10 |  8.13 |     12 | 9.76 |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tesuji  2 |      7 |  5.69 |        |       |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tsumego 2 |     44 | 35.77 |        |       |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| 1001LD 1-100  |     12 |   12% |        |       |        |      |        |   |

I think I'm currently in a plateau in my tsumego solving. I saw an improvement after finishing YCH Tesuji and Tsumego 1 (I went from 23 to 16 and 25 to 10 wrongs), but now I'm more or less in the same number of mistakes. I guess I have to keep hitting this reading wall until it breaks. I'm currently at Tesuji 1 (180º) with 5 wrong out of 48 problems. Maybe I can improve a little my previous mark, but will anyway be "too much", still.

[RBerenguel]

Code: Select all

| Orientation   |        0º      |      90º       |     180º      |     270º   |

| Book          | #wrong |     % | #wrong |     % | #wrong |    % | #wrong | % |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tesuji  1 |     23 | 18.70 |     16 | 13.01 |     12 | 9.76 |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tsumego 1 |     25 | 20.33 |     10 |  8.13 |     12 | 9.76 |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tesuji  2 |      7 |  5.69 |        |       |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tsumego 2 |     44 | 35.77 |        |       |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| 1001LD 1-100  |     12 |   12% |        |       |        |      |        |   |

[RBerenguel]

Showdown today! Clash of titans, speedchase vs rberenguel!

Quite a few things happened since a few days ago. First, yesterday I played a simultaneous game (we were 5, all members of the Nordic Go Academy) against smartrobot 9d (the Chinese 2 dan pro Jack Jin). I played black with 7 handicap (yes, I don't know why either), lost of course. I was doing quite bad during the game... And then missed a snapback worth 20 or 30 points. Maybe more (the L&D of a nearby chunk was at stake after this). Resigned. It was an interesting experience.

This morning I played a game of the NGA-league, won by 14 points. It was an interesting game, rather long although had not many complications.

And this afternoon... We had the 6k showdown (well, speedchase is 7k currently, but his graph is already tangent to it). It was a quite peaceful game and our mistakes were evening out until luck decided I won by 0.5 moku. I think this is the first time (except for 9x9 or computer engines) that I've won (or lost) by 0.5 moku. Since we both are in Delta class in the ASR league, we made it into a league game. This has helped me reach 4 games! Woo! Another month in the league

I paste the game below, if some good soul can spare a review (even if we reviewed it afterwards) we will be more than happy.

http://files.gokgs.com/games/2012/1/14/RBerenguel-speedchase.sgf

[RBerenguel]

This morning I took again YCH tesuji 2, and before-after supper tackled the remaining 90 problems. So (counting a few more tsumego I did on the side), more than 120 in a day. Neat.

Code: Select all

| Orientation   |        0º      |      90º       |     180º      |     270º   |

| Book          | #wrong |     % | #wrong |     % | #wrong |    % | #wrong | % |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tesuji  1 |     23 | 18.70 |     16 | 13.01 |     12 | 9.76 |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tsumego 1 |     25 | 20.33 |     10 |  8.13 |     12 | 9.76 |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tesuji  2 |      7 |  5.69 |     10 |  8.13 |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| YCH Tsumego 2 |     44 | 35.77 |        |       |        |      |        |   |
|---------------+--------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+--------+---|
| 1001LD 1-100  |     12 |   12% |        |       |        |      |        |   |

[Tami]

Hi there, I can offer a few observations on the opening of your game with speedchase, if that's of any help.

C14 might be premature - there was still a big point left at C8. Invasions and reductions are middlegame, not fuseki, generally speaking.

Black's F17 led to a bad result. D14 is usual, although the fight is unattractive for Black. But that's what happens when you invade prematurely

After move 31, white was extra-thick on the outside and had sente. However, 32 (g14) was unnecessary - it would have been much better to play C6 or Q13. Unnecessary moves are blunders every bit as much as letting a group die unintentionally - it is like saying "pass".

[RBerenguel]

Thanks Tami, insightful! And indeed, G14 was quite a "brain fart"

[RBerenguel]

Not a lot of news lately. I got to 5k, mostly due to speedchase promotion to 6k (since I won him just a few hours before his rank improvement). I think I'm not yet strong to be 5k, but I have not played since then, so let it be.

I've been on a tsumego break since Sunday. Well, more or less. On Monday I did something like... 70 tesuji and tsumego problems, which come as bundle in the new iOS app, EasyGo without much thinking. For a change, it was refreshing to just read 1-2 moves and just aim for the shape point. I got a fair deal correct and served a mind-refreshing purpose. I almost started again YCH tsumego 2, but I got the second problem wrong and I decided to shelve it for a while. I'll do the first 100 of 1001 LD problems again, or the next 100. I still feel too weak at tsumego, I guess some more basics drilling can help. I also recovered Graded Go Problems for beginners, vol 3 from my parents' house. I think it can quite fit for my current level to pick it up again (I think I did like 50% of it 3 or 4 years ago, when I was playing) start to finish.

I also got a review from my game against smartrobot... In short: I'm a coward with handicap! I found it nice that the reviewer from the Nordic Go Academy was clear and sharp in telling me: no nice words whatsoever. He told me to fight my ass next time

I also loved these quotes in the review:

Remember 9d is stronger, sure, but his one stone is still just one stone, it doesn't have 5 liberties, and his group still needs 2 eyes to live

On the Go board please remember there is such a tendency: the more passive you played, the more the opponent will gonna ask, exactly like how terrorists work against civilians. So the only way is to say no from the start, otherwise there is just no end

I have to clean my game from passive moves, but I find it veery hard. Suggestions?

[quantumf]

I also loved these quotes in the review:

Remember 9d is stronger, sure, but his one stone is still just one stone, it doesn't have 5 liberties, and his group still needs 2 eyes to live

On the Go board please remember there is such a tendency: the more passive you played, the more the opponent will gonna ask, exactly like how terrorists work against civilians. So the only way is to say no from the start, otherwise there is just no end

I recognize the voice of Jeff Chang. He does great reviews.

[RBerenguel]

Haha spot on! Indeed, he has reviewed two of my games so far, and both have been excellent.

[quantumf]

I have to clean my game from passive moves, but I find it veery hard. Suggestions?

I don't think you need to overthink this one. You'll find if you turn into all out attack, your next review will criticize your "overplays". Just try and remember the advice in your next game, and always ask yourself, "Am I being too passive here? Can I defend my weakness in a more aggressive way? Is there a way to respond to my opponent that does more than just defend?"

The other obvious advice is play the board, not the opponent. Don't let the "9d" on the screen prevent you from considering the cut. However, as I too suffer from this problem, I don't personally think its terribly practical advice

[karaklis]

I also recovered Graded Go Problems for beginners, vol 3 from my parents' house. I think it can quite fit for my current level to pick it up again

Definitely. GGPB Vol. 3 is an excellent choice. It is about the same level as 1001 L&D problems (except for the "7 move problems"), but has a more varied set of problems. I enjoyed it very much working through them.

[Knotwilg]

If you're looking for a book, then "Killer of Go" can be very inspirational to shed your soft skin and trade it for a rougher instance.