Life In 19x19

My KGS rank is in the low 20's. I've been able to get games through automatch. Sometimes it takes a few minutes.

MY FIRST (technically) WON GAME (I think)

It is very hard to to find anyone on KGS that is around the same rank as me (early 20's). So when I found one, I was pretty excited. However, the player is what I have now learn, an "escaper".

Here's my "point of view" on this whole thing.
- When he (I assume given the name) said that he'd been playing for a while, I was like, whoah.
- But then he start making some "unorthodox" move and I was like, hoah.
- But then near the mid-game and I feel like I was (finally) the one who seems stronger and I was like, yo!
- And then the game ended and we got to counting and removing dead stones and he tried to mark all my living stone as dead and I was like, nuh-uh no-no.
- So I refuse to end unless it was count correctly, but the he just blink out and I was like,







If you could bother enough to look at a weak game like mine, please, by all mean. I'm sure you'll enjoy a good laugh out of this.

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On other news and update on my progress.

I lost about 10 games
Should have won 1

I'm in VN now. So next monday I'll be swinging by a go club and check it out. I know for sure that I'll be the weakest but that's expected.

My current struggle right now is to choose between a kaya board or iPad(leaning toward this one).

I'm steadily reading and absorbing more books, one chapter at a time for proper digestion.

I can say I'm a solid-ish 23k now, trudging toward the "teens-kyu" steadily. I'm hoping to reach 18-15kyu by the end of summer (cue hyperventilation since I have a severe fear against leaving VN and summer behind and school and stuff and *brreeeeaaaaattttthhhhhh*)

Well, that's about it. Sorry for lacking in eloquentness, I never possesses any in the first place but it has been particularly worse now that I'm juggling two languages at the same time.

What a game !

Just a quick warning, your move 216 at A8 is self atari, black can now kill your group with C8.

Indeed, my heart stop a beat when I realized that. Fortunately, my opponent didn't. Wheew

Did you realize that during the game ? seems risky to me not to fix that weakness ...

oca wrote:Did you realize that during the game ? seems risky to me not to fix that weakness ...

Oh hush; it's only 14 points.

e: I just noticed e10.

Summer slump

I attended a small go club in VN yesterday after reading CarlosViet post in Introduction. And for some weird reason, after that two hour session, I have a strange feeling that my playing...decline. I went to the club not knowing anybody except for the direction there. Apparently, I went when it's a studying night, so all of the player are 9kyu+. Intimidating is one among the many words to describe that night. The club head were a really nice dude who played 2 "games'with me, both on 13x13 board. Then I "played" 2 more dude. There was only one other girls, but she's a 2K, so she was busy teaching the rest of the guys there. I got a half of the Level Up series( book 1-5 plus review 1) for the equivalent of 5 usd, granted, they're all copies, but damn good one. If I had bought even one book through YMI, it would've been $13 per book, so I'm really happy with that.

But back to the main point.

My playing somehow decline, as in I felt like my moves were soo...lifeless. I lost to a 24kyus, losing stones. NOT OK So unless that 24kyus is actually a 10kyu+ that have just joines KGS, I really don't have a good reason to lose other than the half-asses one that I somehow just, suck... It's a strange phenomena. I should've improved instead of decline post club-attending.

Haiz...

TheCatLver wrote: My playing somehow decline, as in I felt like my moves were soo...lifeless.

Maybe it is not that your play is declining, but that your judgement is getting better.

Nah, if one were to be able to make better judgement. It's expected that they should be able to make better moves....

TheCatLver wrote:Nah, if one were to be able to make better judgement. It's expected that they should be able to make better moves....

Would it were so!

Let me expand on that a bit, as I do not mean to be discouraging.

Indeed, improved judgement will help you to play better. And noticing that your play is not very dynamic indicates that your judgement is improving.

However, recognizing that some plays are bad, particularly in retrospect, does not mean that you will find the best plays, or even good plays. Nobody plays up to themselves all the time. We all see more clearly during reviews.

Just keep on keeping on. You'll get better more quickly than you expect.

Bill Spight wrote: Indeed, improved judgement will help you to play better. And noticing that your play is not very dynamic indicates that your judgement is improving.

However, recognizing that some plays are bad, particularly in retrospect, does not mean that you will find the best plays, or even good plays. Nobody plays up to themselves all the time. We all see more clearly during reviews.

There are studies that show that your skill at judging in a particular field, like art or a sport or go, increase at a faster rate than your actual ability in that field, which is why in the absence of direct comparison of ability, high performers often underrate themselves in their specialty. Feeling like you are playing poorly is the beginning of your judgement improving, and it follows that your actual playing will get up to that point as well.

Bill Spight wrote:However, recognizing that some plays are bad, particularly in retrospect, does not mean that you will find the best plays, or even good plays.

Indeed:

• (1) identify an imperfect circle; (2) draw a perfect circle freehand.
• (1) smell rotten food; (2) cook a 5-star meal.
• (1) spot a lousy movie; (2) shoot an Oscar picture (or even just an OK one!)
• (1) squeeze toothpaste out of the tube; (2) put it back in.
• (1) break open a raw egg/shatter a wine glass; (2) put it all back together.

The list is infinite.
The 1's are easier, sometimes much easier, than the 2's.^(*)

See also Toothpaste .




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^(*) May have to do with the Second law of thermodynamics