My study Journal of awesomeness and excitement

[speedchase]

Don't worry Shaddy, I posted that the book had the wrong answer.

[illluck]

@Magicwand:

$$B black to live
$$ ---------------------------------------
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . O O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . X 2 O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 4 X 3 1 |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B black to live
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . O O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . X 2 O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 4 X 3 1 |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

[speedchase]

Not much interesting has been happening. I haven't played any games. on my correspondence server accounts I have been thinking more before I move, which I think will help me with my "oh I probably should have thought before I clicked on something" problem. I am also slowing down and reading better on my tsumego. My accuracy is getting better, but it is taking longer, which is the way I want to learn!

[speedchase]

I finished the first section (117 problems) of [sl=WeiqiLifeAndDeath1000Problems]Weiqi Life and Death 1000 Problems[/sl].

of the 117 I got 9 problems wrong, for a correct percentage of 92.3%
8 of the wrong answers were because of not reading variations, and 1 because I missed a shortage of liberties (my own).
of the problems I got correct 108, I got 7 suboptimal answers because of ko threats.
I am going through the problems again (rotated pi/2 radians).

I also played to games today. 1 rated, 1 for the ASR. I won both, and reviewed after. I think that only doing tsumego's, and not thinking is making me get a little careless in games, so I think I should play more to avoid my play getting weird.

[Leyleth]

We shall play again sometime. I got stronger (at least, I feel like I did), so it might be a nice one! I won't let you beat me twice in a row, however

[RBerenguel]

According to SL, this particular book is aimed at 1k-3d, so this is an amazing reading work speedchase... You're doing far better in your tsumego studies than I'm doing. Let's see if we can play this afternoon!

[speedchase]

OK sounds good. I am online now.
I don't think the tsumego thing is actually that great for two reasons.
The first is I am still on 1 star problems and some of them are already pretty hard for me.
The second is that SL tends to overrate how difficult somethings are (in my opinion).

[speedchase]

Today was a good day for go. I spend pretty much all day playing games, except for going out to dinner with my dad, and doing a little bit of homework. I was home alone most of the day so no distractions, well except for the ones i made myself...

Anyway i won 3 lost two. two of my wins were against random 6kyus i found on KGS. I lost one to RB, and I won one and lost one to Leyleth. I lost to RB by .5 points, which was a little upsetting, but with the exception of a few glaring mistakes, I thought I played a pretty good game. The game I lost against Leyleth I just got destroyed. He killed a huge group and I resigned. Then we played our second game where fights erupted everywhere. I thought we were about even, but he resigned. Looking at the game after I agreed that I was ahead, but not far enough ahead that I would have resigned in his place.

despite many games, I did not do many tsumego(by which i mean i did 9 all day). This was intentional though, because I figured that learning isn't that great if you can't apply what you have learned. I reviewed four of the games (I skipped the one where Leyleth destroyed me).

I am playing in my first tournament tomorrow. I am very excited. I decided to enter at AGA 6kyu (about KGS 5kyu). It's a handicap tournament, so rating is important. If anyone has an idea that is more based on facts that what i guessed based on the chart at sensei's, advice is welcome.

[speedchase]

So the tournament...

I decide at the last moment and mostly on a whim to play at AGA 5kyu instead of 6kyu. it was a good decision.
In the first match I beat a 5kyu even. By more than 40 points. My second opponent was a 1kyu. I got a 4 stone handicap and lost by 2.5 points. I even managed to get a kill against him. After the second match we broke for lunch. I finished lunch early and when back to the tournament room. While we were waiting for round three I played a 2 dan taking 7 stones. He resigned after I killed a huge dragon.
Third round I played a 4kyu with .5 point komi. I won by 16.5 points. After that I took white against a 9kyu (who was sandbagging quite a bit) and lost by resignation.

This was my first IRL tournament so I guess that makes me undefeated in IRL tournament games with no handicap ^^

I had alot of fun and made some new friends

[Magicwand]

practice tsumego will help you reconize similar shape and narrowdown vital points so you can eleminate useless reading.
professionals read better because they can tell if some points work or not by first look.
i also like to add that tsumego will lay the foundation and real live game will build upon it.

believe me..they work.

[speedchase]

I agree that Tsumego are extremely important, but I am unsure why you are bringing this up here. is it because I said I wanted to play more games to practice applying what I had learned, or was it something different?

[Shaddy]

I don't think the tsumego thing is actually that great for two reasons.

Think it's this.

[speedchase]

Oh i see, that makes sense. Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to say that tsumego weren't important, I was just saying that the tsumego I had managed to solve weren't as difficult as RB had thought.

[speedchase]

I'm up to problem 27 on my second run through of the first chapter. only one wrong so far, so I am doing well. not much more has happened in terms of my go playing since my last update after the tournament

[speedchase]

I'm up to 52, still only two wrong. I was played against a 5kyu even today, and I lost due to a dame mistake.
not much to say I guess. I am trying to make arrangements to go to another tournament.