I've decided to start a study journal for two reasons. Number one is the obvious one: I want to get stronger and I think this will help me. Number two is that during my struggles with go I stumble upon things that are funny or amusing (or annoying and disastrous) that I'd like to write down/share but it seems stupid to create a new thread every time. So this thread is going to contain my advances and victories as well as my defeats and go rants.
A short history of my Go experience
I first learned about go while reading Hikaru No Go when I was 14. At the time we were playing a lot of 4 in a row during class and it got boring. After reading up on the rules online, I challenged some of my friends to some quick matches on a 9x9 with pen and paper. I also downloaded igowin and got up to 12k. At the end of the month I was successfully beating all my friends and they didn't want to play anymore. That and the fact that the magazine that was running the manga went under, led me to lose interest in go.
This summer, while traveling the USA, I finally got around to finishing the manga and my desire to play was reawakened. Luckily the one family I was staying with also played. I asked the dad, boasting that I was a 12k. He of course, being 1k, wiped the floor with me. After that I started an intense week of study and managed to work my way up to 18k. Back in Germany, I joined the local club and hit the 10k mark on KGS after just over 3 months of playing.
Then I was forced on a 2 month hiatus due to starting College and finding and renovating a place to live. I started playing again at the end of December and am working my way up to sdk.
An overview of my "strengths"
I would say I am basically the strongest ddk (<- not something to be proud of
) Because I play a lot (too many?) games against weaker players (roughly half of my club are 15k or worse 
) I am pretty strong at punishing mistakes at or below my level. I am also strong at exploiting weaknesses in my opponents formation and halfway decent at killing groups.Since I have also studied a fair amount of joseki my opening is probably stronger than that of opponents of similar rank.
My weaknesses
Reading. When playing against weaker players I can rely on my better shape and more experience to carry me through a game, but I very often get slaughtered by stronger players. Even if I force myself to read I get crappy results (as anyone can see in my Malkovich
)Other than that I have picked up several bad habits because I play too many weaker players. I don't have a very good feel for the priority of stones, because I usually play a "forcing" move first and then play both points of interest. This turns out to be disastrous against stronger players. Another thing I don't quite appreciate is sente, because weaker players often don't know what to do with it, even if they get it.
Current study goals
Short term goal: 9k by the end of February
Mid term goal: Getting strong enough to represent my club (mid-sdk by July)
Long term goal: Getting strong enough to beat my US sensai in an even match.
For example this problem I did last night:
, because white b is then self-atari.
. On against a 3k with 6 stones, one against my arch nemesis the 1k (I finally beat him in a 9 stone game, even though he killed a huge group of mine) and 2 more against a ddk friend of mine.
