From DDK to who knows where

[SoDesuNe]

Well, 9*9 gives a much more immediate feedback. One bad move can literally cost you the game, whereas on 19*19 (especially as a 8-kyu) you can compensate via other parts of the board.

So, I wouldn't say 9*9 is simpler. It is more manageable due to less space but that also means less room for errors.

I think, one of the important points of 9*9 is keeping the initiative (even more than on 19*19), so (counter-)attacking instead of defending.

Maybe you can show some games and I try to give sensible comments? : )

[joellercoaster]

After a blip where I had a losing streak that further highlighted my somewhat-wishful approach to the liveness of groups and got busted back down to nearly 10k, I read the first half of Life and Death.

Since then I've won about a dozen games in a row, some by resignation after the death of groups (admittedly not all against equal opposition, but with a few 9k-7k players in there) and have (re)gained a stone in strength. Even 9x9 is going OK.

Maybe I should read the other half?

Other things that have helped: a couple of Sibicky videos to do with joseki where one adds liberties to a dead group in order to get "free stuff" (I haven't been using the joseki, just found the concept repeatedly useful), and a general feeling of improvement in local fighting.

Feeling motivated again.

[joellercoaster]

It turns out that the better results I am having in 9x9 are because I got bumped down to the bottom bracket in the McMahon correspondence tournament I am playing in. So there's that.

I'm definitely feeling better though and am winning 19x19 games consistently. Re-reading the first half of Life and Death to make sure I've taken it in properly (I don't really think I did, though it helped a lot already).

Repeating the mantra: stay connected, disconnect the opponent's stones. Seems huge.

[Knotwilg]

"Life & death" by Davies is one of the fundamentals. I'm not surprised your rank gets a boost after reading (and applying!) it.
"Tesuji" is another such book and "Attack & Defence" is probably the best of them all, a lifetime companion for any go player. I'd do well rereading them. Last but not least, let me mention "Get strong at the endgame" by Bozulich, which in my opinion will double your winning percentage in those games that reach the endgame (and that should be nearly all games).

One shouldn't swallow all these books right away. Take your time. "Life & death" is a great starter.

[joellercoaster]

So.

My study habits have been almost nonexistent, and my time to play live games has been effectively zero (other than very occasional handicap games with a friend) - I just started up a big pile of correspondence games, and read through Robert Jasiek's Easy Learning Joseki.

While I don't think I have really absorbed the book - and I certainly haven't properly learned even half the joseki therein - some of the ideas have already been extremely helpful. I appear to have gained three stones [edit: to 6k - realised I am not recording this in the thread anywhere] in the course about 20 games.

My immediate plans are: Work through the book again more carefully and review it here, and start playing through pro games mostly because it seems an enjoyable thing to do, that will hopefully drill some of the shapes and plays I got from ELJ. I've played quickly through a couple of games of Takagawa Kaku, and feel like I'm getting something out of them, so I've accumulated about a dozen promising-looking SGFs and will set aside one night a week to play through one and try and digest it. I nominate Wednesdays, which means tonight's the night

Also: time to venture forth to the City of London Go Club in search of live games, I think. Can't just play correspondence on the Internet forever.

[edit: I still haven't gone back to the other half of Life and Death, but that seems like a good idea. Cheers Knotwilg for the other two recommendations; I have copies and am looking forward to them assuming I ever get time to myself ever again ]

[joellercoaster]

So.

Time for Go has been limited; I've played fewer games than I'd like and read no books, but I've been trying to improve my reading by doing the "ridiculously easy" 150 stock problems on GoGrinder over and over again. And it seems to be helping. I can now see little sequences I couldn't before without playing them out. It might seem weird to some people that I have got to this point without really being able to read, but there you go - my strengths have been elsewhere. I've also gone back and tried to watch as many of the Nick Sibicky lectures as I can, since I am commuting every day and have my phone. Nearly caught up now, and I get a lot out of them (I've compiled a list called "Sibicky Lectures To Rewatch" - should make a YouTube playlist out of it).

Playing only correspondence and at a reduced rate, it's hard to tell progress or otherwise, but the OGS rank graph has gradually been drifting towards 5k.

Last night something anticlimactic happened - a 2k player timed out and bumped me up 30-some rating points to a comfortable 5k. I feel like my new rank is not fully earned, and somehow expect to lose it. But then, I have felt that about every rank increment since 10k, and mostly it hasn't come true.

My collection of Go books is looking at me accusingly. In order, this time I swear, honestly guv:

Life and Death
Tesuji
Attack and Defense

Maybe this winter I'll find time to play some live games. But then we have a baby on the way... somehow my weird, sideways Go progression will have to keep doing its thing.

PS I still haven't lost 100 games. This is getting slightly ridiculous. But I'm nearly there

[joellercoaster]

Have been trying to improve my reading a little bit by doing between 20 and 50 "super-easy" tsumego a day on the train.

It's interesting. First, my accuracy stayed the same (I am fairly terrible at them) but my speed went way up. So maybe at least I know what I know and don't have to think so hard, but the stuff I don't know, I really don't know.

Now I am forcing myself to never guess, working through the same 150-odd problems. I have found a weakness in my brain - after a while I am overcome by impatience and have to exert a massive effort of will not to just click where I think the answer might be to find out. Sometimes this works, but frustratingly, sometimes it does not. Guess I now have something I can get hold of, a genuine "character flaw" for want of a better word, that I can hammer away at. In the meantime my accuracy is gradually increasing again.

Have just picked up GGPfB 3 again - I am still getting them wrong fairly often, but at least now when I see the solution and go back to look at the problem, I can always read my way to the right answer. This is tiny, but actual, progress for me.

Learning to read is proving to be hard. But I think other parts are getting better?

Won my first even OGS game at 5k, so I don't feel quite so much of a fraud.