Jedo's Study Journal

[Jedo]

Here's a game I lost recently as black. Would appreciate any comments.


Some questions: Was I right to tenuki the top group at 29? MY attack with 45 just sort of fizzles out, what would be a better way of attacking? 115: Biggest on board? 117 is safe but feels a little flat, what would be more constructive? Right to end ko at 169?

[Shaddy]

Here's a game I lost recently as black. Would appreciate any comments.


Some questions: Was I right to tenuki the top group at 29? MY attack with 45 just sort of fizzles out, what would be a better way of attacking? 115: Biggest on board? 117 is safe but feels a little flat, what would be more constructive? Right to end ko at 169?

Some thoughts.



And answers to the questions: I don't like the tenuki, I think black should respond on the bottom right. 45 could be f16, then w will connect under and you can h16. (that's a variation that works when you have k17) 114- l4 is bigger. 117 could be high. You were right to end the ko at 169 but didn't defend properly.

[ethanb]

I'd play 45 at F15 - double threat to cut through the knight's move or separate the single stone from the wall.

[Chew Terr]

I've also been reflecting on my game as a whole. It sometimes seems to me that for every go player, there exists one of those charts that shows what specific skills a player is strong or weak at. Like the groove radar in ddr!

I was just rereading through your journal and remembered how much I liked this way of thinking of things. As a side note, I was thinking how cool it would be to have a program that could search search through a library of games and identify aspects. For example, the number of invasions, contact plays, large kills, abnormal fuseki plays, et cetera, and display it in a graph, potentially just like the groove radar. While invading often doesn't necessarily tell you whether you're good or bad at them, it seems like an interesting (if likely useful) bit of flavor. Lacking a program to do it for me, I should start analyzing my own weaknesses and consider ways to improve at them. I've already identified that I like playing fast a bit too much, and end up with too many thin shapes. I'm trying to get a SLIGHTLY more solid style as a result. I wonder what other weaknesses I can find...

How has this been going? Have you managed to improve any of the specific areas you identified as weaknesses when you posted this previously?

[Jedo]

I think I have been making slow but sure improvements.

I hardly do any tsumego, just a handful a week. I am playing/reviewing/getting my games reviewed a lot though, which is a lot more fun for me anyway. I had a nice run at the NJ Open, winning all games. TBH though, I was sorta underranked

Here's a hearbreaker I lost to a 2d on kgs today. If only I didn't have to give him komi! I lost my lead at the end, damn his endgame...

W+1.5

[Magicwand]

hope it helps:

move 21: finish the sequence with atari.

move 27 ???
capturing one stone was fine.

move 35: C7 better?

move 53: R3 better?

move 61: Q8 better?

[Jedo]

So I just came out a slump of unprecendented proportions. I lost something like 15 of 20 games and bombed my ratings down. It was pretty frustrating to go from playing well with shodans to having such a terrible win percentage with 1ks. Still don't know what that was about, but I took a break for a few days and now seem to be doing better, although it will take my rating a little while to recover

I do think I come out of my slump slightly improved though, so on with the games!

[Shaddy]

Happened to me a lot, I'd win a streak of 6-10 games and then lose a ton. Keep on truckin'.

[Jedo]

Hey guys. I continue to be a sold 1K, but can't quite seem to breakthrough to shodan. Luckily I've been getting a lot of games from some very strong players in person, which I think has been very helpful. I also should probably bite the bullet and hit the tsumego books again

I will be away from the forums for a while though, because in two days I'm actually going to China! The Chinese Ing Foundation has organized a trip for American college go players. We have to pay to fly in and out, but room and board are provided. It's only ten days, so it's not some kind of go cram session, more of a combination of sight seeing and friendly matches with chinese college students. I'll be flying in to Shangai, and then heading over to Beijing. I'm psyched

Maybe this will be what I need to step up my play!

[rubin427]

Wow, what an awesome opportunity. Congratulations!

[Chew Terr]

Good luck, if you don't mind, please tell us how it went after!

[Solomon]

I will be away from the forums for a while though, because in two days I'm actually going to China! The Chinese Ing Foundation has organized a trip for American college go players. We have to pay to fly in and out, but room and board are provided. It's only ten days, so it's not some kind of go cram session, more of a combination of sight seeing and friendly matches with chinese college students. I'll be flying in to Shangai, and then heading over to Beijing. I'm psyched

Maybe this will be what I need to step up my play!

Oh? I'll be in Beijing in 2 weeks, maybe we can bump into each other. It's for non-Go related reasons, but I plan on visiting the Experience Go group because a Go player I befriended from a previous Go trip in Beijing 5 years ago is there, as well as Peter Liu who I got along well with then.

[Jedo]

Thanks for the good wishes guys! Araban, I'll be in Beijing from the 25-30 of July, so it sounds likes we'll miss each other right?

[Jedo]

Haven't updated this in a while, but I've been busy!

I realized that I never posted anything about my amazing trip to China. Experiencing Shanghai and Beijing was very memorable, but perhaps greatest of all was the fantastic treatment that my group got from the Ing foundation. They got us hotel rooms, a tour bus with a few dedicated very friendly guides in their 20s, the flight from Shanghai to Beijing, and perhaps most surprising of all took us to top quality restaurants for amazing meals twice every day. In addition to all of this they took us to some great go sites, like the Ing foundation building and the chinese Weichi center. One of my greatest memories is getting to be in the room where they play the Ing Cup and even getting to play on a board there (for the icing on top, they even gave us the watches that all entrants into the Ing Cup receive)! We also meet some great people, like the president of chinese weichi association as well as two chinese professionals who played us in simuls (my first ever game with a pro).

This isn't even counting all the great sites we saw or the fun times we had playing friendship matches with the chinese college students and talking about our different life/college experiences.

It really was the trip of a lifetime! Here's one photo from it:

In other news, the account that I've been using on KGS for the past few months has been solidly ranked as 1D for a while, so I figured I'd update my rating here! I've been trying to play stronger players as much as possible both on and off the board, even if that means losing a lot

So goals? I guess my main one now is to reach 2D KGS by the time I go to Japan (early Jan.)

[Tami]

Let me know when you and where you'll be in Japan. I'd like to meet you and play go with you. I might be able to take you to visit Honinbo Shusaku's grave and museum in Innoshima.