Life In 19x19

Regarding Get Strong at Tesuji: I was pretty clueless the first time I solved this book, even though I went through Tesuji by Davies beforehand. The thing is, Tesuji has its focus on capturing and connecting Tesujis. Get Strong at Tesuji is a bit broader then that. You have also shape problems, problems to get Sente, even a few endgame problems. So, I'd recommend giving Get Strong at Tesuji a go, especially if you just solved Tesuji by Davies.

Getting problems wrong is good, you can question your own move and your thoughts, which let you believe this was the correct one and so on.

Some quick ideas about your game:

Tenuki is good but I would play a two-space-pincer here (high or low). I feel the left side is more important than the top. This is overly defensive, I think.

With C12 in place, it's now not so easy to get good, solid shape on the left. An idea would be to hold back with a C6-approach and if White takes the corner you extend (check) towards White's stones at the top. This seems a bit more active. But White could also pincer this far approach and things could get dicey : D

I feel like this is the wrong direction with White already having a presence at the bottom.

D6 is the shape move, if I'm not mistaken. White has a good game after the cut.

I think the cut is not important, you can just sacrifice the next stone and get a strong shape in the center. I would play M3 to maybe activate the Aji of Black's bottom stones.

Aji-Keshi?

After playing and this a pretty inconsitent because it harms those stones. Maybe still M3?

I'm torn here. I really like to play this at O16. Then on the other hand, I really like to play first in the top left corner, because there White is not so strong and this could give your C8-move more meaning.

Wrong direction. Attaching at O16 makes the right side bigger and swallows the White stone on a large scale. Another possibility (probably better giving the situation) is to play P17 and go for an attack on both stones.

P12 seems to be the only move.

P14 is the right way to capture because it takes away a liberty.

Wrong direction, the corner is bigger.

Still the corner.

Jumping to L16 is the common shape here. Your sequence weakens your top left corner.

Again wrong direction, nothing is attacking this group. But you should attack White's right side stones via O9, also mapping out your right side.

Thanks for the review! I'm going to spend some time reviewing through these later this weekend.

I've still been working through 1001 L&D and Get Strong at Tesuji. I'm finding the GSAT book easier as I go through it, though I'm only on problem 175. 1001 L&D I'm on problem 560.

Here's a recent game. I prefer territory, but the past couple of opponents have been invading, so I try to take influence instead, and end up losing instead.

Another loss last night, by only 1/2 a point. I realize with the past couple of games, I'm facing a couple of problems:

• * Not paying attention to whole board position (looking for big or urgent moves)
  * Worrying more about my stones instead of attacking weak groups (especially when there are multiple weak groups on the board, see game in post above)
  * Hopeful play - I need to read better, and look for multiple counter moves by my opponent instead of reading just what I want my opponent to do

Posted the game on gokibitz, but will also include it here.
https://gokibitz.com/kifu/419WBr_u

A few comments.



Main focus: Think about development.

I've been continuing with 1001 Life and Death problems, almost through the 5 moves to live section. I feel this has increased my strength by several stones. Even after a two week break due to outside issues, I've been playing better. Also, most of the way through Get Strong at Tesuji. I'll move on to GGPFB vol 4.

Hit 7 kyu after playing a handicap game against a 4k.

Back to 8 kyu for now after a couple of losses. Just started the kill in 5 for 1001 L&D problems.

Some comments:

A few comments.

Thank you both for the reviews! I'm not sure why I decided to try to split at B39, afraid I was losing grasp of the game at this point?

Still on the edge of the 7k/8k barrier. I feel more confident, and after a game, I usually can point out my big mistakes. Lately, it has been to attack a group to kill instead of just to profit, which created too many weak groups for me.

I haven't made much progress on the last 200 problems in 1001 L&D - they take me a long time to read out, if I can read them. I need to start doing more tsumego problems daily. I've fallen behind my original plan. I think by switching to easier problems for a while, it'll re-establish that routine of doing 20+ problems before bed every night.

Current plan:
Finish Get Strong at Tesuji
Redo all the problems in Tesuji, Graded Go Problems for Beginners v3
Come back and finish 1001 L&D after those two, before moving on.

Went a bit crazy with books, and added a bunch of additional tsumego and tesuji problem books. Making Good Shape, 501 Tesuji, 501 Openings, Get Strong at Openings, BadukTV Classics (paper is extremely thin, similar to reviews of Changho's selected problem books, but its a paper copy of two classics - Guanzi Pi and Xuanxuan Qijing), Rescue and Capture, This is Haengma, Intermediate problems, All about life and death, Weiqi Life and Death 1000 Problems. This is in additional to all my current books (Graded Go for Dan, Get Strong at Endgame, and a few others.) As I said, went a little bit crazy with books. Can't find a copy of Gokyo Shumyo, but maybe BadukTV Classics will include that in the future (though, I'm not a fan of their paper quality)? I also can't find Changho's Selected Tesuji/L&D without paying $20/book via amazon, and none of the Chinese/Japanese sites ship to the US. But I think I have enough problem books to get me to 1 dan for now anyways.

I watch a couple of dwyrin's professional game reviews per week (they're entertaining) and listen to a few lectures by Guo Juan's internet school. I'm half way through the new step by step, and I've watched all the shapes. I don't know if Guo Juan's lectures has helped, but they do provide new ideas and ways of looking at different problems.

And of course, I make sure I play at least 8 serious games per week. Half those games are usually on KGS, but I also play on Tygem or IGS.

Lost a game by a large margin (40+ pts), and won a game by an early resign today, both on KGS. I really need to get better at counting, and to do it more often. I feel as if I'm terrible with any game that relies on influence.

Also, started tracking my daily progress through a written journal. I liked what Abyssinica was doing with the daily tsumego.

Continued through 1001 L&D. I'm a completionist and really want to get through that book before moving on, but the problems take me a while to solve, so still debating on going to easier problems first, but will probably finish 1001 L&D before I do so.



Edit: and another game I lost by 1/2 pt on IGS.

Finished 1001 L&D problems and Get Strong at Tesuji. The 5 moves to kill were taking about 3 min to solve on average...I'm a pretty slow reader, and that's going to my main focus. Lots and lots of tsumego. It's a good thing I enjoy it. Just started Elementary: Life and Death, my first read through.

Won a few games on KGS. With the exception of today, I feel like a lot of the games I've won I didn't deserve to win...like, my opponent makes a large late-game blunder, or (once) resigned when he was ahead by a few points (like 4-5). Maybe he misjudged?

I need to play more often. Seems as if I can only get about 4-5 games in a week.

Anyways, here's tonight's game. Comments were made on gokibitz.com, it was not in-game chat.

Here are some thoughts:

And some thoughts on the igs game: