Direction of Play

Direction of play is a big issue for me right now. Thinking back to the walls game, that could have been avoided, if only I had paid better attention to my direction of play. Last night was a losing night, and my losses could all be attributed to direction of play (OK, maybe also a few hundred other reasons, but this was a big one :-)

My current strengths seem to be

1. Chasing an opponent's group into one of my weak group, which then has to scramble for life.
2. Chasing an opponents group so that it builds a nice wall for her, a useful wall at that.
3. Building my own wall, which is built such that it is useless from the start, or I manage to render it useless by direction of play mistakes.
4. Not noticing very elementary ataris, which is plainly embarrassing.
5. Forgetting about playing big points in the opening as opposed to fighting small fights.

A few nights ago, some one said that at our level every move is a mistake, and I feel more and more that he was totally right. At that point I was still thinking that maybe only most of my moves were, but looking at my last few nights of play, I am not so sure anymore. I seem to be awfully talented at making mistakes. Oh well.

It would be really boring if there wasn't any room for improvement, so I'll just muddle through till I finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And fervently hope it's not an oncoming train :-)

I am having fun anyway. I really enjoy all the games I am playing, even when I lose. I am studying 'Attack and Defense' right now, and am having a lot of 'aha!' moments. I feel that some day, I might actually get better at it all. But obviously not today yet :-) I just finished 'In The Beginning' which was very helpful, it was a good supplement to the Sector Fights program. I haven't been doing as much life and death problems lately, I should get back into the habit of doing those daily. So much to learn, so little time!