This was a tournament filled weekend. I played in two KGS tournaments (Asian day time and American daytime), in the open division, because I have had my rank turned off for a while now. The open division means that every one can enter, and pairings are random. This was an elimination tournament, so the moment you lose, you are out. I knew I wouldn't make it to the end, but figured it would be a good way to play stronger players.
In the Asian one, I made it to the third round, where I had to play against a 6k. So that was the end of the tournament for me. In the European one, I got a 3k for my first game, so that was the end too. I lost that one by only 34.5, which I thought wasn't too bad. Looking back, I did too many nonsense moves though, I should give up on making those.
Yesterday, I went to a real life tournament, in Boston. I decided to enter as AGA 8k (my official AGA rank is 12k at the moment). I figured I could do ok on that level. Well, I did play 2-2, but it was a lot harder than I expected. Because the tournament is rather small, I only played handicap games. Which isn't too bad, apart from the fact that I ended up giving high handicap 3 out of 4 games. If you add up my handicap stones, I gave a total of 25 stones over the day, and received 3. This seemed a bit unbalanced. Oh well :-)
First game was against a 15k, I gave 7 handicap. This game was just a mess. Too many weak groups, and one super heavy group, which he managed to kill. Wasn't hard either. Can't say that this was my very best game ever. Giving 7H is just really hard, I felt too overwhelmed from the beginning.
Second game was against an 18k, I gave 9 handicap. Better game, but she played very solidly. Making iron pillars the moment I played close to a corner. Connecting all of her stones as much as she could. She made some mistakes, but nothing big enough. There was a lot of aji in a certain position, but I couldn't figure out how to make use of it. A friend later told me how I could have done it, too bad. That might have given me the game. Even although I lost this game, I still feel I played better than during my first game.
It was halfway the tournament now, and I had lost all my games so far. I started to wonder whether I should have entered as an 8k, or whether that had been overly optimistic. On the other hand, high handicap games are so different from normal games, maybe I shouldn't worry too much yet, and hope for some more reasonable games next.
Third game I got lucky, finally I received some handicap. I got 3H from a 5k and it was really easy to win. He kept making nonsense invasions late in the game though, I think hoping for a mistake. At some point I was so tired of them (and my time was really low) that I just gave him 10 points in a corner, so I could live easily with the rest of my group, instead of preventing him from connecting, but being able to stir up more trouble. By that point I was around 50 ahead, so I couldn't care less about those corner points, just wanted the game to be over. End result was 35 points or so. Phew, I finally won a game!
Fourth game was yet another high handi game. I gave 9H again, and kind of expected to lose again. I made too many mistakes, but luckily, he made more. I ended up winning by 30 or so, but I don't feel I played that well. Mostly that he made more mistakes than I did. But hey, I'll take the win.
After the game, my friend came over and pointed to a position 'Why didn't you play here? That would have killed B!' I told him I didn't because B was dead already. My opponent agreed. We both considered it a dead group. Of course, it turns out that yes, there was a way to live for B, just one that the both of us hadn't seen. That's why we aren't dan players yet :-) It was on the board for ages too, I think at least 150 moves. Bad, bad, bad.
I feel that my play this tournament wasn't as good as it should have been, I think giving high handicap so many times kind of threw me off. My best games were my second against the solidly playing 18k, and the third against the 5k. The first and fourth game still had too much room for improvement. Learning opportunities.
The other members of our go club did well too. They both played 2-2. Looks like we all entered at the perfect playing level.
After the tournament, there was a blind go exhibition. That was fun to see. Mind boggling how he could do that though. We stayed for a bit, but then had to go back home. It was a long day, but I am glad we went. Hmmmm, wonder when the next tournament within driving distance will be...
Monday, July 18, 2005
Friday, July 08, 2005
Teach and Be Taught
One thing that has struck me in the go world, is how willing stronger players are to share their knowledge with weaklings such as me. An amazing number of players on KGS have helped me out, reviewing my games, giving pointers towards getting stronger, so many people giving lessons in the teaching ladder room. So much knowledge and such willingness to share.
Naturally, I have been reciprocating the favor towards weaker players. And I have discovered that I very much enjoy teaching people, endlessly talking about go, helping some one get stronger, give them insights about their play and how to improve it. I have joined The Go Teacher account on the Dragon go server. It is a group teaching account, teaches players from about 12k to 30k. It has been enjoyable to teach there, but it also has been very valuable and teaches me a lot. It helps to deepen my own understanding. It is very useful to verbalize things you were only aware of on a more intuitive level. Not only that, but reading through the comments of the other teachers has helped me too.
I take paid lessons too, with Sendol and zalmoxe. Sendol is an amazing teacher. I love the way he can change the whole board situation by putting just a few stones differently. He also is fond to point out the huge move I missed, first time playing it out and showing me why. After that, every few moves he might go back to it. 'Still'. Makes me more aware of looking for moves like that. And more aware of how bad it was to miss this particular one :-)
Fun to compare teaching styles, most people seem to develop their own style over time. Where one of my old teachers tended to use a lot of yelling when she got excited, another one wouldn't do more than say 'tsk' at a particularly bad move, making me think for myself why this was a less than optimal move. Yet others will say 'This is no good.', taking away my move and showing how much more effective just one space to the left would have been.
Today, I managed to beat The Many Faces of Go for the very first time on level 10 (the strongest level). I hadn't been playing it at all for ages, somehow robots just aren't as much fun as playing humans. But I was curious to see how I would do against it, since I felt that I had gotten a bit stronger since then. And yes, I have gotten stronger. I beat it by thirty something today, and didn't even have to focus that much on the game. It was a day time game, with the compulsory 5,000 kid interruptions. So I am happy about knowing that I can beat TMFoG now, guess I can start using it for handicap practice. Although that is more fun on people too. I might just keep using it for problems and joseki study.
Talking about problems, I have done at least ten thousand problems since January this year. Of course, a lot of those are simple ones (Korean Problem Academy and such), but it still feels like a quite respectable number. Guess I should do my daily problems for today, haven't done much yet. I also want to work more on memorizing that Honinbo game, I have 200 moves or so down.
Naturally, I have been reciprocating the favor towards weaker players. And I have discovered that I very much enjoy teaching people, endlessly talking about go, helping some one get stronger, give them insights about their play and how to improve it. I have joined The Go Teacher account on the Dragon go server. It is a group teaching account, teaches players from about 12k to 30k. It has been enjoyable to teach there, but it also has been very valuable and teaches me a lot. It helps to deepen my own understanding. It is very useful to verbalize things you were only aware of on a more intuitive level. Not only that, but reading through the comments of the other teachers has helped me too.
I take paid lessons too, with Sendol and zalmoxe. Sendol is an amazing teacher. I love the way he can change the whole board situation by putting just a few stones differently. He also is fond to point out the huge move I missed, first time playing it out and showing me why. After that, every few moves he might go back to it. 'Still'. Makes me more aware of looking for moves like that. And more aware of how bad it was to miss this particular one :-)
Fun to compare teaching styles, most people seem to develop their own style over time. Where one of my old teachers tended to use a lot of yelling when she got excited, another one wouldn't do more than say 'tsk' at a particularly bad move, making me think for myself why this was a less than optimal move. Yet others will say 'This is no good.', taking away my move and showing how much more effective just one space to the left would have been.
Today, I managed to beat The Many Faces of Go for the very first time on level 10 (the strongest level). I hadn't been playing it at all for ages, somehow robots just aren't as much fun as playing humans. But I was curious to see how I would do against it, since I felt that I had gotten a bit stronger since then. And yes, I have gotten stronger. I beat it by thirty something today, and didn't even have to focus that much on the game. It was a day time game, with the compulsory 5,000 kid interruptions. So I am happy about knowing that I can beat TMFoG now, guess I can start using it for handicap practice. Although that is more fun on people too. I might just keep using it for problems and joseki study.
Talking about problems, I have done at least ten thousand problems since January this year. Of course, a lot of those are simple ones (Korean Problem Academy and such), but it still feels like a quite respectable number. Guess I should do my daily problems for today, haven't done much yet. I also want to work more on memorizing that Honinbo game, I have 200 moves or so down.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Memorizing Pro Games
A few months ago, Nachtrabe got me interested in memorizing pro games, but somehow I never actually sat down and did it. Well, I half heartedly started on one, but life and other go studies kept getting in the way, and I don't think I can still do more than 30 moves or so of that one, if that much.
Then last week, two things happened. First, we finally got IGS working with our firewall (had to set up some proxy stuff) so I could watch the last game of the Honinbo finals. It was quite an experience, very intense game, and it was a lot of fun to discuss moves while they were being played. Black (Cho U) was ahead most of the time, but White (Takao Shinji) managed to pull off a .5 win with extremely skillful play. I spent most of a night watching the game, but had to go to sleep at 5am or so. The game was still in full swing when I logged off.
The next morning, I wanted to know who had won, and spent quite some time web surfing trying to figure it out. Amazing how even CNN doesn't cover important events like the Honinbo finals! Finally found a Japanese newspaper which had covered it and then used Babel Fish to translate it. Now I had closure. Of course, still had to find the kifu and play the game, but at least I knew who had won. I had hoped for Cho U to win, because that would have given us one or two more games.
Second thing which happened was a few days later at go club. Our dan player was talking about the game, and commenting on it, and playing it from memory! He said he hadn't even tried to memorize it, just had been replaying it so many times, that it got stuck in his mind. Hmmmmm, well, if he could do that, I figured I should be able to do that too.
I seriously started memorizing this game a few days ago, and even although life and other studies still are getting in the way, I have been able to memorize the first 150 moves so far. Shouldn't be too hard to memorize the rest. The game has amazing depth, every move has so much meaning. And I have to admit that it just is fun to memorize it. I am also hoping that it will help me with memorizing my own games, which I have been wanting to do for ages. I can sometimes recreate the first 20 to 40 moves or so, but that's it. And I am not able to do that every game anyway. So much to work on, so little time!
Then last week, two things happened. First, we finally got IGS working with our firewall (had to set up some proxy stuff) so I could watch the last game of the Honinbo finals. It was quite an experience, very intense game, and it was a lot of fun to discuss moves while they were being played. Black (Cho U) was ahead most of the time, but White (Takao Shinji) managed to pull off a .5 win with extremely skillful play. I spent most of a night watching the game, but had to go to sleep at 5am or so. The game was still in full swing when I logged off.
The next morning, I wanted to know who had won, and spent quite some time web surfing trying to figure it out. Amazing how even CNN doesn't cover important events like the Honinbo finals! Finally found a Japanese newspaper which had covered it and then used Babel Fish to translate it. Now I had closure. Of course, still had to find the kifu and play the game, but at least I knew who had won. I had hoped for Cho U to win, because that would have given us one or two more games.
Second thing which happened was a few days later at go club. Our dan player was talking about the game, and commenting on it, and playing it from memory! He said he hadn't even tried to memorize it, just had been replaying it so many times, that it got stuck in his mind. Hmmmmm, well, if he could do that, I figured I should be able to do that too.
I seriously started memorizing this game a few days ago, and even although life and other studies still are getting in the way, I have been able to memorize the first 150 moves so far. Shouldn't be too hard to memorize the rest. The game has amazing depth, every move has so much meaning. And I have to admit that it just is fun to memorize it. I am also hoping that it will help me with memorizing my own games, which I have been wanting to do for ages. I can sometimes recreate the first 20 to 40 moves or so, but that's it. And I am not able to do that every game anyway. So much to work on, so little time!
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Halfpointer
Last night, I played a game in the Iwamoto Tournament. I have been doing about average in this tournament, winning 3 out of 6 games so far, placing me 42nd for the moment. I like that number anyway :-)
The game was going ok for the most part, apart from helpfully making him fix his shape at some crucial point, and some other less than optimal moves. My big mistake was giving him way too much of the center though, way more than I should have given him. Which made the game extremely close, even although I didn't realize how close. We were fighting one of those one point kos, when he passed, even although he still did have ko threats left. He thought I was ahead, so it wasn't important anyway. He was shocked when he saw the end result. Black +0.5. Yes, he was white. Gotta love those half point games.
It was a fun game, full of learning opportunities, as usual.
The Wings Go Club June league is over, I never got around to playing six games, only played three this month. Still tied for third place, so not too bad. I will try to play six games again this month.
I really like having my rank turned off at KGS. Suddenly I was able to beat 10k's who I had never beaten before. I feel stronger already :-)
Finally finished the first volume of my Korean Problem Academy books I had been working in it on and off, but never sat down and methodically did a bunch of them every day. Three weeks ago, I finally did and book one is done now! I think there are about 700 or 800 problems in them.
They don't have answers, which I first wondered about, how useful they would be because of that. It turns out I didn't have to worry. I actually think it is better not to have the answers because it forces me to really read out every sequence, and to be extremely sure about the right answer, as opposed to slapping a stone at the vital point and hoping for the best. Which is the way I often do the problems where there are answers available. Yes, I do realize that is not the best way, but sometimes it is mightily tempting.
With those problems, I have to actually sit down, concentrate and decide which solution is the best, and why another move does not work. Most of them I can do pretty fast, but some do stump me for a while. I do believe this helps to improve my reading power though.
This week at go club we had a beginner whom I gave nine stones. He turned out to be much less of a beginner than I thought he was, so that was a pretty hard game. I did manage to win, but only barely. I lived where I shouldn't have and killed some things which shouldn't have been killable. Always interesting to play against high handicap. I started a bunch of high handicap games on Dragon just to practice it more.
The game was going ok for the most part, apart from helpfully making him fix his shape at some crucial point, and some other less than optimal moves. My big mistake was giving him way too much of the center though, way more than I should have given him. Which made the game extremely close, even although I didn't realize how close. We were fighting one of those one point kos, when he passed, even although he still did have ko threats left. He thought I was ahead, so it wasn't important anyway. He was shocked when he saw the end result. Black +0.5. Yes, he was white. Gotta love those half point games.
It was a fun game, full of learning opportunities, as usual.
The Wings Go Club June league is over, I never got around to playing six games, only played three this month. Still tied for third place, so not too bad. I will try to play six games again this month.
I really like having my rank turned off at KGS. Suddenly I was able to beat 10k's who I had never beaten before. I feel stronger already :-)
Finally finished the first volume of my Korean Problem Academy books I had been working in it on and off, but never sat down and methodically did a bunch of them every day. Three weeks ago, I finally did and book one is done now! I think there are about 700 or 800 problems in them.
They don't have answers, which I first wondered about, how useful they would be because of that. It turns out I didn't have to worry. I actually think it is better not to have the answers because it forces me to really read out every sequence, and to be extremely sure about the right answer, as opposed to slapping a stone at the vital point and hoping for the best. Which is the way I often do the problems where there are answers available. Yes, I do realize that is not the best way, but sometimes it is mightily tempting.
With those problems, I have to actually sit down, concentrate and decide which solution is the best, and why another move does not work. Most of them I can do pretty fast, but some do stump me for a while. I do believe this helps to improve my reading power though.
This week at go club we had a beginner whom I gave nine stones. He turned out to be much less of a beginner than I thought he was, so that was a pretty hard game. I did manage to win, but only barely. I lived where I shouldn't have and killed some things which shouldn't have been killable. Always interesting to play against high handicap. I started a bunch of high handicap games on Dragon just to practice it more.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
The Joy of Eyes
Have been happily playing and messing up. But yesterday was a big mess up, even for me. I was playing an even game against a much stronger player, and was doing pretty well in the opening. It wasn't till middle game, when disaster struck. I had this nice center facing wall, which I knew was safe, so I didn't have to pay attention to it anymore, just needed to use it. Which I did not do correctly, instead played some moves at different locations of the board (Tenuki! Trying to play tenuki more, but still haven't found the right balance :-) Got distracted and carried away, chased a white group, was having a great time, while W was busy taking away all my eye space. Now it's one thing if that happens if I notice and can fight back. But in this case I truly had not noticed it at all, till I started counting to see how far behind I was. Counted the top, got a decent number of points. Then wanted to count the number of points in my dragon, and came up empty. Oops!
Funny how I totally lost track of the big picture while focusing on the small fights. Shows very clearly one of the many areas in which I still have room for improvement. Quite the learning experience :-)
Well, at least it wasn't a self atari. Grateful for small blessings.
Needless to say, the game result was W+Res.
This all happened a few days after I missed a totally obvious ko, which would have killed my opponents huge group. At least that one was at 4am, so I can claim that I was tired. But didn't have a good excuse like that in the eye less game.
So many avoidable mistakes to correct. Well, at least turning off my rank worked in a way, because I was able to beat a 10k whom I had never beaten before. So maybe there is some improvement in between the screwups :-)
Funny how I totally lost track of the big picture while focusing on the small fights. Shows very clearly one of the many areas in which I still have room for improvement. Quite the learning experience :-)
Well, at least it wasn't a self atari. Grateful for small blessings.
Needless to say, the game result was W+Res.
This all happened a few days after I missed a totally obvious ko, which would have killed my opponents huge group. At least that one was at 4am, so I can claim that I was tired. But didn't have a good excuse like that in the eye less game.
So many avoidable mistakes to correct. Well, at least turning off my rank worked in a way, because I was able to beat a 10k whom I had never beaten before. So maybe there is some improvement in between the screwups :-)
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Runnerup
Last weekend, I played in yet another KGS tournament. I had decided to enter the Asian day time division, because at that time my kids usually are asleep and I can concentrate on my games. I had been losing a lot of games lately, so I didn't really expect much from the tournament, I was actually tempted to only play the first three games (1am, 2am, and 3am) and then go to bed instead of playing the 4am one. I kind of expected to lose most of my games anyway.
Of course, reality was different, and I won my first three games, so couldn't resist playing the 4am one too. And to my utter surprise, this was another win! I ended up second place because my SOS (Sum of Opponents Scores) was just 0.5 points lower than the first place winner. Still very happy about it all. I won a crown next to my name on KGS, lucky me.
I decided to turn off my KGS rank for now. I hadn't been playing ranked games for a while because I wanted to experiment. But a few weeks ago, I decided to start playing them again, and just experiment in R games too. I found out that that might not be the best idea, because I immediately lost a stone. And I also found out that I did not particularly liked playing ranked games, even although I am still not sure why not. Because I can't say that I particularly care about which rank I have next to my name at KGS.
One theory is that it's all about focus. I was really focused on my tournament games, and did just fine. But my R games, I just wasn't as focused, had a lot of kid interruptions and other things going on. So I would miss things that I did not miss in my tournament games.
Yesterday, I got myself back to my old rank and then decided to stop bothering with R games. So I turned off my rank and that felt good. Now I can concentrate on playing, and studying, and getting stronger, and not on my KGS rank. I'll measure progress by which level players I can play even and do well against. Or the number of handicap stones I am getting from stronger players. I just played a even game against a KGS 10k and won. Haven't won from him before, so that was nice.
Of course, reality was different, and I won my first three games, so couldn't resist playing the 4am one too. And to my utter surprise, this was another win! I ended up second place because my SOS (Sum of Opponents Scores) was just 0.5 points lower than the first place winner. Still very happy about it all. I won a crown next to my name on KGS, lucky me.
I decided to turn off my KGS rank for now. I hadn't been playing ranked games for a while because I wanted to experiment. But a few weeks ago, I decided to start playing them again, and just experiment in R games too. I found out that that might not be the best idea, because I immediately lost a stone. And I also found out that I did not particularly liked playing ranked games, even although I am still not sure why not. Because I can't say that I particularly care about which rank I have next to my name at KGS.
One theory is that it's all about focus. I was really focused on my tournament games, and did just fine. But my R games, I just wasn't as focused, had a lot of kid interruptions and other things going on. So I would miss things that I did not miss in my tournament games.
Yesterday, I got myself back to my old rank and then decided to stop bothering with R games. So I turned off my rank and that felt good. Now I can concentrate on playing, and studying, and getting stronger, and not on my KGS rank. I'll measure progress by which level players I can play even and do well against. Or the number of handicap stones I am getting from stronger players. I just played a even game against a KGS 10k and won. Haven't won from him before, so that was nice.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Rengo
Last week, finally played rengo for the very first time. It was interesting. And a bit frustrating. And challenging. And lots of fun! I managed to get myself positioned immediately after the strongest player of our group, which meant that I had to try to figure out how to reply to his vicious attacks. Well, I guess it will help to make me stronger :-)
This week has been a week of go blunders. Lost a lot of groups, totally avoidable. Made all kinds of other silly mistakes. This all culminating into a self atari on the Dragon Go Server of all places. Yes, it is a turn based server. So yes, you can think about your move. And yes, you can see it on the board before submitting it. But I still managed to do the 'Oh, simple endgame move, plunk, glance, submit, really look, ARGH!!!!, trying to stop the submitting' thing :-) It is a vital part of a group too, will lose that game now. Oh well... I could call it a learning experience, apart from the fact that I don't seem to be learning from it.
Thinking about it, it seems like my main issue still is playing too fast. I click and then think, instead of first thinking and then clicking. In real life play, I have gotten better at thinking by not having stones in my hand while playing (thanks, Tristan) I have considered sitting on my mouse hand while playing, but it seems like too much of a bother. Still...
My other issue is byo yomi. Once I enter byo yomi and that time thingy starts blinking at me every 20 secs or so, I start panicking. Which is not a good thing. I have made major blunders just because I get the 'Have to put down a stone, ANY place, can't think about it!' madness. Not sure what to do about that, sitting on my mouse hand would only make it worse I think. Maybe I should play more blitz, so I get more used to the time pressure. Or maybe I should get good enough that even my panic stones still are well placed. I think I like that last solution.
This week has been a week of go blunders. Lost a lot of groups, totally avoidable. Made all kinds of other silly mistakes. This all culminating into a self atari on the Dragon Go Server of all places. Yes, it is a turn based server. So yes, you can think about your move. And yes, you can see it on the board before submitting it. But I still managed to do the 'Oh, simple endgame move, plunk, glance, submit, really look, ARGH!!!!, trying to stop the submitting' thing :-) It is a vital part of a group too, will lose that game now. Oh well... I could call it a learning experience, apart from the fact that I don't seem to be learning from it.
Thinking about it, it seems like my main issue still is playing too fast. I click and then think, instead of first thinking and then clicking. In real life play, I have gotten better at thinking by not having stones in my hand while playing (thanks, Tristan) I have considered sitting on my mouse hand while playing, but it seems like too much of a bother. Still...
My other issue is byo yomi. Once I enter byo yomi and that time thingy starts blinking at me every 20 secs or so, I start panicking. Which is not a good thing. I have made major blunders just because I get the 'Have to put down a stone, ANY place, can't think about it!' madness. Not sure what to do about that, sitting on my mouse hand would only make it worse I think. Maybe I should play more blitz, so I get more used to the time pressure. Or maybe I should get good enough that even my panic stones still are well placed. I think I like that last solution.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Smartgo
Last week, I turned out to be the happy winner of a copy of the Smartgo combo in an AGA drawing for the Shodan challengers. I have been playing around with it for a bit, and I have to say that it is a really cool program. It came with more than 30,000 pro games, so that should keep me out of trouble for a while.
I used the analyze game option, it's very interesting to see what professionals would have done in a certain situation. Usually something else than I had been doing :-) I know this program is going to be very useful in my go studies.
I used the analyze game option, it's very interesting to see what professionals would have done in a certain situation. Usually something else than I had been doing :-) I know this program is going to be very useful in my go studies.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
KGS Tournament
I have been playing in the May KGS tournamentI have been wanting to play in those tournaments before, but never actually got myself together enough to sign up in time and play. This time is different!
This tournament stretches over five days, and there are four rounds per day, six hours apart. So there will be a total of twenty games to be played, but you can request byes for 15 of them. This means that you have to play a minimum of five games over those days, which isn't too bad.
For me, the games are at 3am, 9am, 3p, and 9pm local time. I tend to be on the go server at 9pm and 3am anyway, so those rounds are easy to make. The day time ones can be harder, because of real life getting in the way, but so far I have been able to make them. Played seven games so far, which means 42 hours of a tournament game every six hours. Funny how 42 always pops up everywhere.
Out of those seven games, I have won 4 so far, so pretty average. I have played my share of good games, and my share of less than good games. My last game was cool where my opponent gave me ¾ of the board in the first fourteen moves, so nice of him. One of my reviewers is that this is where the game was won.
Another fun game was my first one. I had misread a fight, and things got kind of iffy, and I lost a string of 8 stones. It still had three liberties though which I thought I might be able to use. So while I was playing, I looked and found this great tesuji, which basically sprang the string of stones back to life, killing sixteen stones of W in the process. This swung the game from 30 or so behind, to an endresult of +13.5. I love making up tesuji! I did read and re-read and triple-read this one though, just to be sure it really would work. And then I read it some more :-)
We'll see how long I can keep up the pace of a tournament game every 6 hours. So far so good though, and I should be able to play at least the next three too.
Oh, current results for the tournament puts me at 11th place out of 108. Not that it really matters, but I still like that I am not that far from the top. My sum of opponents scores (SOS) is the second highest for now though. I first thought that was because I got nice, tough opponents, but then my common math sense kicked in and I realized that it was because I played more games than most :-) Amazing how other people sometimes have to sleep!
This tournament stretches over five days, and there are four rounds per day, six hours apart. So there will be a total of twenty games to be played, but you can request byes for 15 of them. This means that you have to play a minimum of five games over those days, which isn't too bad.
For me, the games are at 3am, 9am, 3p, and 9pm local time. I tend to be on the go server at 9pm and 3am anyway, so those rounds are easy to make. The day time ones can be harder, because of real life getting in the way, but so far I have been able to make them. Played seven games so far, which means 42 hours of a tournament game every six hours. Funny how 42 always pops up everywhere.
Out of those seven games, I have won 4 so far, so pretty average. I have played my share of good games, and my share of less than good games. My last game was cool where my opponent gave me ¾ of the board in the first fourteen moves, so nice of him. One of my reviewers is that this is where the game was won.
Another fun game was my first one. I had misread a fight, and things got kind of iffy, and I lost a string of 8 stones. It still had three liberties though which I thought I might be able to use. So while I was playing, I looked and found this great tesuji, which basically sprang the string of stones back to life, killing sixteen stones of W in the process. This swung the game from 30 or so behind, to an endresult of +13.5. I love making up tesuji! I did read and re-read and triple-read this one though, just to be sure it really would work. And then I read it some more :-)
We'll see how long I can keep up the pace of a tournament game every 6 hours. So far so good though, and I should be able to play at least the next three too.
Oh, current results for the tournament puts me at 11th place out of 108. Not that it really matters, but I still like that I am not that far from the top. My sum of opponents scores (SOS) is the second highest for now though. I first thought that was because I got nice, tough opponents, but then my common math sense kicked in and I realized that it was because I played more games than most :-) Amazing how other people sometimes have to sleep!
Thursday, May 12, 2005
The End Game
I have been studying some end game, trying to figure out how big moves are, working on keeping sente, finding nice tesuji to grab a few more points. Sometimes things go ok, sometimes I just am not paying enough attention, playing the first sente move that I see. Or the first move I think is sente, but turns out to be gote anyway. It is nice to have yet another area where I have room for improvement.
Today, I tried to keep sente during the end game, ignoring small moves to play some bigger or equal-sized sente move instead. Doing really well, until I think that yes, I can ignore this pushing into my group. It's only one point, right?
I am sure you can guess where this is leading. Yes, it was a bit more than one point. It exposed a connection weakness in my group (which would have been totally fine if I had replied to his pushing move) and he could put 4 stones in atari, which I couldn't save. This was about 10 points. Instead of just taking this minimal damage, I decided to make a second wrong move, and lose another 16 points... Two totally avoidable mistakes. It's amazing how often I get this learning experience. I am starting to wonder whether it will actually lead to real learning some day.
All this happened while I was in byo yomi, so I can try to use that as an excuse. But frankly, it's a lame excuse and I can't say that I believe in it. It was purely a matter of focus and attention. It was game losing too, I was ahead till it happened. Such are the ways of the double digit kyus :-)
Yesterday, my Korean Problem Academy books arrived, all the way from Korea! So exciting! I recognized a bunch of the problems from on line, but there are more than 700 problems in each book as opposed to only 200 on line. I worked through the first 100 pages of volume 1 already, so that must have been about 400 problems. I can see already that those books are going to be very helpful.
Also working on Getting Strong at Tesuji. I gave myself a challenge to try to do as many as I could in a day. I managed to get the first 150 done. Not bad, they are not that easy. And I had my normal 3,511 interruptions by life. Excellent reading practice. Maybe some day I will be able to read deeper than just one move :-p
Today, I tried to keep sente during the end game, ignoring small moves to play some bigger or equal-sized sente move instead. Doing really well, until I think that yes, I can ignore this pushing into my group. It's only one point, right?
I am sure you can guess where this is leading. Yes, it was a bit more than one point. It exposed a connection weakness in my group (which would have been totally fine if I had replied to his pushing move) and he could put 4 stones in atari, which I couldn't save. This was about 10 points. Instead of just taking this minimal damage, I decided to make a second wrong move, and lose another 16 points... Two totally avoidable mistakes. It's amazing how often I get this learning experience. I am starting to wonder whether it will actually lead to real learning some day.
All this happened while I was in byo yomi, so I can try to use that as an excuse. But frankly, it's a lame excuse and I can't say that I believe in it. It was purely a matter of focus and attention. It was game losing too, I was ahead till it happened. Such are the ways of the double digit kyus :-)
Yesterday, my Korean Problem Academy books arrived, all the way from Korea! So exciting! I recognized a bunch of the problems from on line, but there are more than 700 problems in each book as opposed to only 200 on line. I worked through the first 100 pages of volume 1 already, so that must have been about 400 problems. I can see already that those books are going to be very helpful.
Also working on Getting Strong at Tesuji. I gave myself a challenge to try to do as many as I could in a day. I managed to get the first 150 done. Not bad, they are not that easy. And I had my normal 3,511 interruptions by life. Excellent reading practice. Maybe some day I will be able to read deeper than just one move :-p
Monday, May 09, 2005
I'd Rather Die...
... than live this way.
One of my many weaknesses has been to make weak groups, and then spend an unfortunate amount of time and a huge number of stones to defend them. Not only that, but the struggle for life, even if successful, gives my opponent a huge advantage all around me. Not a good situation.
Some one pointed out to me that I seemed to enjoy the challenge of making them live, because it reminds me of my life/death problems. She might not be too far off the mark. There is something satisfying about snatching a group from the gaping jaws of death, who cares whether the opponent gets way more out of it than I did. I did live!
Slowly, it is beginning to dawn on me, that this might not be the right attitude. Not the right playing style. That same person has been urging me to run before live, to not let myself being enclosed. But despite my best intention, I still ended up being enclosed way too often, only to find myself in yet another fiery life/ death struggle.
Things had to change. I had had enough of shameful life, enough of helping my opponent build huge moyos, enough of spending half of my game figuring out how to rescue those 42 stones which had been 'almost alive' for too long.
Last night, I made a resolution to not let myself being enclosed anymore, and if by some unfortunate event it happens anyway, to just give up on my stones. Usually it's only a few of them when it happens, my real problems start when I add more and more stones to those enclosed stones and end up at a huge disadvantage.
Yes, I might lose too many groups for a while when I am trying to figure this out. Yes, I might lose a bunch of games till I master this. Yes, I might have been able to save this group if only... But I am going to be strong and not live shamefully anymore. I'd rather die than live that way.
I'd better get real good at running. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I played one game like this last night, gave up two groups, but was able to reach out from the outside towards them, and revive them. I didn't even want to save them, it just happened. I was trying to get some profit from their aji. So that might not have been the best game to teach me that losing groups isn't the end of the world. I am sure that most of the time I will not be able to resurrect my dead stones though. It will be interesting to see how this will work out. Fun experiment.
One of my many weaknesses has been to make weak groups, and then spend an unfortunate amount of time and a huge number of stones to defend them. Not only that, but the struggle for life, even if successful, gives my opponent a huge advantage all around me. Not a good situation.
Some one pointed out to me that I seemed to enjoy the challenge of making them live, because it reminds me of my life/death problems. She might not be too far off the mark. There is something satisfying about snatching a group from the gaping jaws of death, who cares whether the opponent gets way more out of it than I did. I did live!
Slowly, it is beginning to dawn on me, that this might not be the right attitude. Not the right playing style. That same person has been urging me to run before live, to not let myself being enclosed. But despite my best intention, I still ended up being enclosed way too often, only to find myself in yet another fiery life/ death struggle.
Things had to change. I had had enough of shameful life, enough of helping my opponent build huge moyos, enough of spending half of my game figuring out how to rescue those 42 stones which had been 'almost alive' for too long.
Last night, I made a resolution to not let myself being enclosed anymore, and if by some unfortunate event it happens anyway, to just give up on my stones. Usually it's only a few of them when it happens, my real problems start when I add more and more stones to those enclosed stones and end up at a huge disadvantage.
Yes, I might lose too many groups for a while when I am trying to figure this out. Yes, I might lose a bunch of games till I master this. Yes, I might have been able to save this group if only... But I am going to be strong and not live shamefully anymore. I'd rather die than live that way.
I'd better get real good at running. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I played one game like this last night, gave up two groups, but was able to reach out from the outside towards them, and revive them. I didn't even want to save them, it just happened. I was trying to get some profit from their aji. So that might not have been the best game to teach me that losing groups isn't the end of the world. I am sure that most of the time I will not be able to resurrect my dead stones though. It will be interesting to see how this will work out. Fun experiment.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Tournament!
Today, I went to the Vermont AGA Spring Tournament. It was perfect!
The drive up there took longer than anticipated, so I did stress a bit about arriving too late. Luckily things did work out, I was late, but the organizer knew I was coming, and had saved a spot for me. He set it up so I could play him for my first game.
I decided to enter as an 11k, which turned out to be just right. He was 2k, so I got nine handicap stones. I played a nice, solid game, he was muttering something about me playing too strong for an 11k. I proved him wrong when I managed to play a brilliant sel-atari in yose though... 25 points worth of self atari! At least it was sente :-p Thanks to that, I ended up winning by only ten or so.
Second game was against an 8k, where I got three handicap stones. The game went well, till I neglected one of the basics, the one where you keep your weak group connected or alive... So I ended up with a nice, big, but very dead group. I thrashed around for a bit, made my opponent think, did a series of very nice tesuji's. But in the end, I was just one tiny liberty short... So I resigned. Was a fun game anyway, with all the fighting. And my opponent turned out to be a KGS player, who I had played before! When he realized who I was, he immediately asked me about the hedgehog song... Such a small world :-)
Third game I had to give eight handicap against a 19k. Quite overwhelming. The board was just so majorly dominated by all those black stones. She played nicely, and solidly, and didn't let me get away with much. I still played a decent game, and in the end lost by 8. I was happy about the way I had played that one, even although I lost the game.
I did realize that I must have been about 19k when I started playing again last December. So I have improved quite a bit if I can give eight handicap now, against the level I was only four months ago. That felt good.
Last game I gave three handicap against a 14k. My last official AGA rank was 14k (in January), so I was curious to see how that one would turn out. I started out behind (obviously :-) He built nice big territories, I built smaller territories. I started reducing his territories, he allowed me to. I poked and prodded, and slowly his territories got smaller, while mine got bigger. Not only that, but I ended up with about half the center. As in a nice big open space in the center, not one of those mostly-dame centers. Pushed him around in the end game, and ended up with a 33 points win. Another game where I was happy about playing against my own old rank, and seeing that I must have improved a bit.
All together, there was a nice variety of opponents, and I think I played pretty decently. Two wins an two losses make me an official 11k AGA now.
Good things I did
The only bad thing of the day is that I got lost on the way home. Three full hours on Vermont 'scenic roads'. In the dark, in the rain, in the fog. Oh joy!
The drive up there took longer than anticipated, so I did stress a bit about arriving too late. Luckily things did work out, I was late, but the organizer knew I was coming, and had saved a spot for me. He set it up so I could play him for my first game.
I decided to enter as an 11k, which turned out to be just right. He was 2k, so I got nine handicap stones. I played a nice, solid game, he was muttering something about me playing too strong for an 11k. I proved him wrong when I managed to play a brilliant sel-atari in yose though... 25 points worth of self atari! At least it was sente :-p Thanks to that, I ended up winning by only ten or so.
Second game was against an 8k, where I got three handicap stones. The game went well, till I neglected one of the basics, the one where you keep your weak group connected or alive... So I ended up with a nice, big, but very dead group. I thrashed around for a bit, made my opponent think, did a series of very nice tesuji's. But in the end, I was just one tiny liberty short... So I resigned. Was a fun game anyway, with all the fighting. And my opponent turned out to be a KGS player, who I had played before! When he realized who I was, he immediately asked me about the hedgehog song... Such a small world :-)
Third game I had to give eight handicap against a 19k. Quite overwhelming. The board was just so majorly dominated by all those black stones. She played nicely, and solidly, and didn't let me get away with much. I still played a decent game, and in the end lost by 8. I was happy about the way I had played that one, even although I lost the game.
I did realize that I must have been about 19k when I started playing again last December. So I have improved quite a bit if I can give eight handicap now, against the level I was only four months ago. That felt good.
Last game I gave three handicap against a 14k. My last official AGA rank was 14k (in January), so I was curious to see how that one would turn out. I started out behind (obviously :-) He built nice big territories, I built smaller territories. I started reducing his territories, he allowed me to. I poked and prodded, and slowly his territories got smaller, while mine got bigger. Not only that, but I ended up with about half the center. As in a nice big open space in the center, not one of those mostly-dame centers. Pushed him around in the end game, and ended up with a 33 points win. Another game where I was happy about playing against my own old rank, and seeing that I must have improved a bit.
All together, there was a nice variety of opponents, and I think I played pretty decently. Two wins an two losses make me an official 11k AGA now.
Good things I did
- Paid attention to my endgame, kept sente during most of it and managed to score quite a lot of points that way
- Didn't just reply to opponents move, but evaluated it and thought about whether I needed to reply or could tenuki
- Counted a few times during every game, and ended up pretty close to the final score
- Tried to keep sente as much as possible. Not perfectly yet, but at least I was aware of the issue, and was looking to get and keep sente
- Didn't let the stronger players get away with much overplay
- Did more creating than i did destroying.
- The 25 points self-atari has to be put on the top of this list. Still can't believe I did that! OK, I can believe it, it just annoys me, yet at the same time amuses me. Great learning opportunity!
- Didn't pay enough attention to connections, which lost me the second game
- Totally misread a life/death situation in that second game. I need to do more tsumego!
The only bad thing of the day is that I got lost on the way home. Three full hours on Vermont 'scenic roads'. In the dark, in the rain, in the fog. Oh joy!
Friday, April 29, 2005
Life is Good!
Things seem to be falling into place. At least some of the time :-) Once in a while I even make a good move.
I won the Wings Across Calm Water Go Club April League!!! It was a shared first place. It's just a fun and friendly self paired league, but still happy about winning. Maybe there is hope after all :-)
Also managed to win a game against a much stronger player, one who usually wipes the floor me. Most likely a fluke, but I'll work on making it happen again.
And third good thing, I am going to a real life go tournament! Tomorrow, in Vermont, which is pretty close to where I live. Just need to figure out which rank I will enter at. I played our local AGA 5k at 5 stones for the first time this week, and beat him twice. Easily. But my KGS ranking still is only 15k, but I have not been playing many rated games. Mostly free so I can experiment. Oh well, I'll decide tomorrow.
Of course, I still lose tons of games too, but every one of those has presented a bunch of nice learning opportunities. Sometimes a bit painful learning opportunities, but I can only blame myself for getting into those messes :-) I am just having so much fun playing, that losing doesn't seem to matter. Enjoying the game does matter, and I sure do that every single time I play.
I won the Wings Across Calm Water Go Club April League!!! It was a shared first place. It's just a fun and friendly self paired league, but still happy about winning. Maybe there is hope after all :-)
Also managed to win a game against a much stronger player, one who usually wipes the floor me. Most likely a fluke, but I'll work on making it happen again.
And third good thing, I am going to a real life go tournament! Tomorrow, in Vermont, which is pretty close to where I live. Just need to figure out which rank I will enter at. I played our local AGA 5k at 5 stones for the first time this week, and beat him twice. Easily. But my KGS ranking still is only 15k, but I have not been playing many rated games. Mostly free so I can experiment. Oh well, I'll decide tomorrow.
Of course, I still lose tons of games too, but every one of those has presented a bunch of nice learning opportunities. Sometimes a bit painful learning opportunities, but I can only blame myself for getting into those messes :-) I am just having so much fun playing, that losing doesn't seem to matter. Enjoying the game does matter, and I sure do that every single time I play.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Goproblems.com
I have always had problems with the Goproblems.com website. The stones won't display for me, and it is just very annoying. It seems like such a wonderful resource, and I can't use it!
I know you can download them, but that didn't work as easy as I had hoped either. So I decided to look into trying to solve this issue. I found some pointers to java problems with the site using windows XP, so I went to the web site and downloaded the very latest version of java. Spent some time installing it today, and lo and behold, suddenly the stones were visible if I changed the stone size at the start of a problem. Not optimal, but better than nothing.
Was extremely happy, till suddenly all the stones disappeared again! How annoying. Tried all kinds of different things, and I am now at the point where it sometimes works, and sometimes it doesn't. Well, I guess it's better than it not working at all. I just wish what makes it work or fail, so I could recreate the right circumstances. It is a very useful collection of problems, I think it will help me a lot.
Down to 14 minutes at the Korean Problem Academy level 1. Still made four mistakes though. So at least I reached my time goal, now I just need to reach my perfection goal. And then, on to level 2 of course. I did 60 level 2 problems today, it will be a while before I can do those as fast as level 1. Will be a good challenge.
Got two new go books in the mail today. One about the Chinese opening, which I desperately need. I so totally hate playing against chinese, often do disrupt it while it is still building. But I recognize that that isn't the right way to deal with it, I should be able to play against it, or to play it myself. This book will help me.
The other book is called 'Direction of Play' and just from reading the intro, I could tell already that it is going to be very useful.
I know you can download them, but that didn't work as easy as I had hoped either. So I decided to look into trying to solve this issue. I found some pointers to java problems with the site using windows XP, so I went to the web site and downloaded the very latest version of java. Spent some time installing it today, and lo and behold, suddenly the stones were visible if I changed the stone size at the start of a problem. Not optimal, but better than nothing.
Was extremely happy, till suddenly all the stones disappeared again! How annoying. Tried all kinds of different things, and I am now at the point where it sometimes works, and sometimes it doesn't. Well, I guess it's better than it not working at all. I just wish what makes it work or fail, so I could recreate the right circumstances. It is a very useful collection of problems, I think it will help me a lot.
Down to 14 minutes at the Korean Problem Academy level 1. Still made four mistakes though. So at least I reached my time goal, now I just need to reach my perfection goal. And then, on to level 2 of course. I did 60 level 2 problems today, it will be a while before I can do those as fast as level 1. Will be a good challenge.
Got two new go books in the mail today. One about the Chinese opening, which I desperately need. I so totally hate playing against chinese, often do disrupt it while it is still building. But I recognize that that isn't the right way to deal with it, I should be able to play against it, or to play it myself. This book will help me.
The other book is called 'Direction of Play' and just from reading the intro, I could tell already that it is going to be very useful.
Friday, April 22, 2005
Creation versus Destruction
Yesterday, I played a good game against our local 5k and got promoted to only 5 handicap against him. Was feeling good about that, till I started playing my nightly KGS games. First two were just fun and friendly games, but my play totally sucked. I had a lot of kid interruptions, but I don't think they were the whole picture. For the third game, the kids had gone to bed anyway, so can't blame them for that loss :-)
Lost three out of three. Not good, so I started thinking about them. Some analysis made me realize what had happened. A few days ago, I played a few games where my opponent built a nice big moyo, and I would either invade incorrectly, or be too late to invade. So I vowed that wouldn't happen again. From now I would make sure my opponent was not going to make huge moyos.
So I played to disrupt the opponents development, but paid almost no attention to my own positions. Which got worse and worse. I would jump in at the wrong time, wrong place, wrong tesuji. Reduce the wrong way. Everything wrong! I felt so annoyed with myself.
But it did teach me to not just go for destruction. Creation is ok too, even if the opponent is creating things. So today, I changed my playing style. I did my own thing, and let him do his own thing. I got behind (he was better at creating things),but in both games, he made some mistakes I could use. And lo and behold, I managed to win both of those games! Even although he had a whole side both times. Amazing how well that worked. And he was a stronger player too!
Now I have to find the balance between creation and destruction. I think my last two games were not enough of reducing moves and such, but I still came out ahead.
Down to 16 minutes at the Korean Problem Academy level 1. Still made six mistakes. But I am getting closer!
Lost three out of three. Not good, so I started thinking about them. Some analysis made me realize what had happened. A few days ago, I played a few games where my opponent built a nice big moyo, and I would either invade incorrectly, or be too late to invade. So I vowed that wouldn't happen again. From now I would make sure my opponent was not going to make huge moyos.
So I played to disrupt the opponents development, but paid almost no attention to my own positions. Which got worse and worse. I would jump in at the wrong time, wrong place, wrong tesuji. Reduce the wrong way. Everything wrong! I felt so annoyed with myself.
But it did teach me to not just go for destruction. Creation is ok too, even if the opponent is creating things. So today, I changed my playing style. I did my own thing, and let him do his own thing. I got behind (he was better at creating things),but in both games, he made some mistakes I could use. And lo and behold, I managed to win both of those games! Even although he had a whole side both times. Amazing how well that worked. And he was a stronger player too!
Now I have to find the balance between creation and destruction. I think my last two games were not enough of reducing moves and such, but I still came out ahead.
Down to 16 minutes at the Korean Problem Academy level 1. Still made six mistakes. But I am getting closer!
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Go Geocaching!
After seeing the The Ancient Game of Go cache, hidden by Anton Ninno of the Syracuse Go Club, I decided that I would love to hide a local go cache too. It took me a while, but with some help from Anton, I got it all together.
As a little side note, for people who have no idea what the heck geocaching is, it basically means using a GPS to find caches hidden all over the world. We got our GPS last August, and have been hooked ever since. More information can be found at Geocaching.com.
On Sunday, I took my ammo box and the baby, and hiked up on one of our local mountains. It was a lovely day. Saw lots of chickadees and other birds, heard the distant sounds of frogs in a pond, and I enjoyed the solitude. I have to admit that I did do a bunch of joseki in my head while hiking, but that's only appropriate for a go cache, right?
Found the perfect hiding spot, took coordinates, and went home to list The Ancient Game of Go II. The box has the usual trading items, and I also put in 9x9 boards copied on card stock, which can be used to create a $2.41 simple go set. There are flyers about go, with the rules of the game, and an explanation of capture go, to get people started. It also contains links to the AGA and some go web sites.
Looking forward to having people find this cache, and maybe get them interested in playing go.
Last night, I played a guest on KGS, who seemed a bit stronger than I was. In the middle game, he started making mistakes though, and even although I still was behind, things were getting closer. It must have worried him, because he disappeared. Annoying, but I had a good game up till that happened. I guess it's a risk of playing guests. But I also have had very good experiences playing them, so I'll just shrug and find some one else to play :-)
Today, it took me 24 minutes to get through the first 200 problems of the Korean Problem Academy. So there is some progress, but I still make way too many mistakes. Good exercise!
As a little side note, for people who have no idea what the heck geocaching is, it basically means using a GPS to find caches hidden all over the world. We got our GPS last August, and have been hooked ever since. More information can be found at Geocaching.com.
On Sunday, I took my ammo box and the baby, and hiked up on one of our local mountains. It was a lovely day. Saw lots of chickadees and other birds, heard the distant sounds of frogs in a pond, and I enjoyed the solitude. I have to admit that I did do a bunch of joseki in my head while hiking, but that's only appropriate for a go cache, right?
Found the perfect hiding spot, took coordinates, and went home to list The Ancient Game of Go II. The box has the usual trading items, and I also put in 9x9 boards copied on card stock, which can be used to create a $2.41 simple go set. There are flyers about go, with the rules of the game, and an explanation of capture go, to get people started. It also contains links to the AGA and some go web sites.
Looking forward to having people find this cache, and maybe get them interested in playing go.
Last night, I played a guest on KGS, who seemed a bit stronger than I was. In the middle game, he started making mistakes though, and even although I still was behind, things were getting closer. It must have worried him, because he disappeared. Annoying, but I had a good game up till that happened. I guess it's a risk of playing guests. But I also have had very good experiences playing them, so I'll just shrug and find some one else to play :-)
Today, it took me 24 minutes to get through the first 200 problems of the Korean Problem Academy. So there is some progress, but I still make way too many mistakes. Good exercise!
Monday, April 18, 2005
Playing fast or slow?
I have been trying to play a bit slower lately, actually sometimes thinking BEFORE putting down a stone. I tended to just put down a likely stone, without really evaluating all the options. It's good for my reading, because I read out more sequences now than when I was just plunking down random stones. But I have found myself over-thinking things too much sometimes, spending lots of time to make a very sucky move. Oh well :-)
One thing I am starting to realize, is how the choice of joseki influences the rest of the board. I knew that was true, but never really 'saw' it while playing. I still have a hard time seeing it while playing, but at least I am starting to recognize it in hindsight. Geez, did I really have to use that fancey and fun joseki, which then utterly destroyed the influence of one of my other stones? Couldn't I just have used the simple version of the joseki, which would have been fine?
Some games I am playing ok, other games, I get too caught up in local fights, and ignore the whole board situation. And there have been too many games, where I lost the game within the first 10 moves, looking back at it. Lots of room for improvement :-)
Still doing problems, working my way through Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol 3. It is not going as fast as I would want it to go, guess I am not patient enough. Some one gave me a nice problem challenge yesterday, about the Korean Problem Academy. He said I should be able to do level 1 (200 easy problems) within 15 minutes. Without mistakes too. I looked back at my notes, and the last time I did level one, it took me 26 minutes, and definitely was not spotless. I was curious to see how I would do now.
Found out that not only had I become slower at them, but I also made more mistakes. I think trying to do them fast made me first click, then think. And I don't think that's what this is all about. This is a perfect exercise for me. I ended up taking 30 minutes, and made way too many mistakes. I guess I am going to work on this every day now till I do get it perfect :-)
One thing I am starting to realize, is how the choice of joseki influences the rest of the board. I knew that was true, but never really 'saw' it while playing. I still have a hard time seeing it while playing, but at least I am starting to recognize it in hindsight. Geez, did I really have to use that fancey and fun joseki, which then utterly destroyed the influence of one of my other stones? Couldn't I just have used the simple version of the joseki, which would have been fine?
Some games I am playing ok, other games, I get too caught up in local fights, and ignore the whole board situation. And there have been too many games, where I lost the game within the first 10 moves, looking back at it. Lots of room for improvement :-)
Still doing problems, working my way through Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol 3. It is not going as fast as I would want it to go, guess I am not patient enough. Some one gave me a nice problem challenge yesterday, about the Korean Problem Academy. He said I should be able to do level 1 (200 easy problems) within 15 minutes. Without mistakes too. I looked back at my notes, and the last time I did level one, it took me 26 minutes, and definitely was not spotless. I was curious to see how I would do now.
Found out that not only had I become slower at them, but I also made more mistakes. I think trying to do them fast made me first click, then think. And I don't think that's what this is all about. This is a perfect exercise for me. I ended up taking 30 minutes, and made way too many mistakes. I guess I am going to work on this every day now till I do get it perfect :-)
Monday, April 04, 2005
Reading
I seem to have made a jump in reading ability. Not sure how it happened, but suddenly, I am able to see things that I wasn't able to see before. While doing life and death problems, I now actually read more of the sequence before jumping in with the 'likely move'. This has increased my problem level in the Many Faces of Go considerably. Of course, it has slowed down the tempo in which I can do my daily problems, but I think that is a good thing in this case.
The scary thing is that I find myself playing sequences out in my head when there isn't even a go board near. I go to bed thinking about go, and I wake up to myself going over a bunch of joseki in my head, getting really annoyed with myself when I can't picture a certain move perfectly or am forgetting a certain continuation. I play sequences while driving my van. I consider the merits of good and bad shape while loading the dishwasher. Yes, I think I can consider myself officially obsessed now :-p
Of course, I still have tons of room for improvement, and of course I still do way too many moves where I realize one micro second later that this was a big mistake. But it still is nice to feel some progress happening.
By the way, thanks to Tristen's advice, I stopped holding go stones in my hand while playing. Yes, it does make a difference, it helps me to prevent some of those 'I wasn't thinking' moves. Not all of them, but obliterating even a few of them does help my game.
The scary thing is that I find myself playing sequences out in my head when there isn't even a go board near. I go to bed thinking about go, and I wake up to myself going over a bunch of joseki in my head, getting really annoyed with myself when I can't picture a certain move perfectly or am forgetting a certain continuation. I play sequences while driving my van. I consider the merits of good and bad shape while loading the dishwasher. Yes, I think I can consider myself officially obsessed now :-p
Of course, I still have tons of room for improvement, and of course I still do way too many moves where I realize one micro second later that this was a big mistake. But it still is nice to feel some progress happening.
By the way, thanks to Tristen's advice, I stopped holding go stones in my hand while playing. Yes, it does make a difference, it helps me to prevent some of those 'I wasn't thinking' moves. Not all of them, but obliterating even a few of them does help my game.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Progress?
My ranking finally seems to reflect my progress. I was so tired of being an eternal 16k, that I played a bot with less than proper handicap, and won, so that finally made me jump to 15k. Of course, I immediately went on to lose my three next games as a 15k, but hey, at least I learned a lot.
My DGS ranking went to 13k for a day or so, but now is up to a more reasonable 15k. I still feel that I am getting stronger anyway, reading is starting to get easier. I know much faster when I have gotten myself into trouble :-p
I find myself replaying sequences and joseki while driving my car. It has, at least once, resulted in me arriving at a different destination than where I was supposed to go. I think I am officially obsessed :-)
Some games, the stones seem to have a flow of their own, and they just magically move to the right places. Of course, in other games, they manage to move to just the wrong places. But at least I do have some games where I can feel the flow happening :-)
Took a break from contact fights, but I have had quite a few opportunities in my games where I could have used the info. So will go back to it, maybe tonight or tomorrow. I like the way Bruce Wilcox gives very mathematical rules for all those contact fight opportunities. I know it will help me a lot in my play.
My DGS ranking went to 13k for a day or so, but now is up to a more reasonable 15k. I still feel that I am getting stronger anyway, reading is starting to get easier. I know much faster when I have gotten myself into trouble :-p
I find myself replaying sequences and joseki while driving my car. It has, at least once, resulted in me arriving at a different destination than where I was supposed to go. I think I am officially obsessed :-)
Some games, the stones seem to have a flow of their own, and they just magically move to the right places. Of course, in other games, they manage to move to just the wrong places. But at least I do have some games where I can feel the flow happening :-)
Took a break from contact fights, but I have had quite a few opportunities in my games where I could have used the info. So will go back to it, maybe tonight or tomorrow. I like the way Bruce Wilcox gives very mathematical rules for all those contact fight opportunities. I know it will help me a lot in my play.
Monday, March 28, 2005
The Curse of the Empty Triangle
Yes, I have been guilty of making them, I am sure that is why I am still stuck at 16k. I have been reading books about good and bad shapes, so it's not like I have an excuse for still making them. But sometimes my old bad habits surface and I plunk down a stone without even thinking about it. One second later, I realize that I have just made yet another empty triangle. Worse is when it's not only an empty triangle, but if there was a perfectly good other reply which would have been just as effective and better shape.
Just started on 'Lessons in the fundamentals of go' and 'Lectures on go techniques' Very interesting books, and they have made me think a lot more about my moves and what is good and what is bad. Not that I have any much more clue than I had before reading those books, but it is fun to try to apply the knowledge I gain from those books.
I am down to 17k on the Dragon server, but my rank graph on KGS is getting closer to 15k. Maybe, just maybe, some day soon, I will hit the 15k and be able to stay there longer than one or two days I did last time. On the one hand, I feel like my rating doesn't matter, I just should enjoy playing and studying. Which I am doing for sure. On the other hand, I would like to become shodan at some point, so rank does matter a bit.
Oh well, back to studying and playing :-) Without empty triangles :-p
Just started on 'Lessons in the fundamentals of go' and 'Lectures on go techniques' Very interesting books, and they have made me think a lot more about my moves and what is good and what is bad. Not that I have any much more clue than I had before reading those books, but it is fun to try to apply the knowledge I gain from those books.
I am down to 17k on the Dragon server, but my rank graph on KGS is getting closer to 15k. Maybe, just maybe, some day soon, I will hit the 15k and be able to stay there longer than one or two days I did last time. On the one hand, I feel like my rating doesn't matter, I just should enjoy playing and studying. Which I am doing for sure. On the other hand, I would like to become shodan at some point, so rank does matter a bit.
Oh well, back to studying and playing :-) Without empty triangles :-p
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