Studying, Studying...

I have steadily been working my way through Bruce Wilcox's Sector Lines program. I am learning so much, Hee presents the whole sector line / moyo / wall issue in a very mathematical way, and that fits very well with the way my mind works. All those things about direction of play which I didn't even know about. Lots of tips on what to focus on in the opening. Which weak groups to attack, and how to attack them. How to reduce or invade a moyo. Yes, I am very much enjoying myself working through it and hopefully will actually be able to use it in my games.

Since studying is so much fun, I ordered a bunch of new go books today. 'In the Beginning' which I have read 15 years or so ago, and which still should be somewhere in my house, but I have given up on finding it. I figure the best way to find it, is to buy a new copy. Two books from the Mastering the Basics Series. ' Volume One: 501 Opening Problems', and ' Volume Three: Making Good Shape'. I know I skipped volume two, mostly because it has life and death problems and I feel that I have more than enough to work with at the current time. Between The Many Faces of Go, DieorLive, and the Korean Problem Academy, and my Life and Death book, I feel that I don't want to spend more money on more life/death problems for now. And I get lots of real life practice in having my groups die on me, that should count for something too, right? LOL

I also got 'Attack and Defense', I have heard a lot of good things about that one. Let's hope it will help me to not only play aggressively, but actually win a fight once in a while :-)

Then I got some of the 'Get Strong' books, I remember 'Get Strong at the opening', don't remember which other one I decided on. I am so looking forward to receiving this shipment and starting to assimilate all this information.

Still playing on KGS and DGS, still at 16k on both. Well, have not finished any games on DGS yet, so that's not very surprising. But on KGS, I seem to be stuck around 16k, but then I haven't been focusing on getting higher. I am mostly playing for enjoyment (ok, also to win, but that's second :-). Sometimes I win, often I loose, but I always learn a lot. Have been spending a lot of time reviewing games, and trying to figure out WHEN I got that group cut off and doomed it. And what I could have done to prevent such happenings.

I still try to do fifty problems every day, although I have to admit that the Sector Lines have gotten in the way some days. Still, I do get 50 problems in most of the days, so that should count for something.