Shodan Goal

When I started this blog, I had just entered the AGA shodan challenge, and was very, very rank obsessed. I was only 16k, and not a strong 16k at that, but felt it would be easy to reach shodan in a few months. I was wrong ^^

I remember being extremely focused on my KGS rank, since that seemed to be an external measuring-stick to measure my abilities. I soooo badly wanted that number to go down, I could almost taste it.

Rated games got more and more stressful for me, I often would even avoid playing just so that I wouldn't have to lose a rated game. It was turning into A Big Deal, and somehow that felt wrong. The stress definitely was influencing my game.

By that time, I had been on KGS long enough to get to know people and I played more free games than ranked games. I looked at myself, I looked at the stress the stupid ranking number was causing me, and I decided to turn off my rank. That felt good!

I realized that rank is only one way to measure go ability and not a perfect one at that. I was able to focus on improving and not on rank, and I could see progress anyway. It turns out I can measure progress quite well just in my play, I start beating stronger and stronger people, and the flow of my stones is a little less sucky.

A friend told me a few weeks ago 'You certainly fight much better. Before, I could just steam roll over you :) Now, you punish/fight back appropriately.' I can feel this in my games, I don't need a number to tell me that.

The funny thing is that reaching shodan isn't a big deal anymore either. Heck, I don't even care about it, like I did at the start. Sure, it will be nice to 'officially' reach it, but it feels like such a small and unimportant thing. What I really want is to get strong and to get a better flow to my stones. To find the right direction of play. To know when to attack, and when to draw back. To find beautiful and simple moves.

Over time, shodan has gotten a lot weaker in my perception. It used to be almost god-like, now it feels like almost nothing. Interesting how perceptions can change. Of course, it doesn't help to hear a 4d say (paraphrased) 'When I got to shodan, I realized it was just a certificate stating "Yes, you indeed still do suck at go."' And Tristan's blog post 'Since getting the sacred 1-Dan rank, my play has devolved to the point where I can only win because my opponent happens to commit suicide. I can only surmise that in those rare occasions, my moves must have sent my opponent spiralling into a state of utter horror and total loss of faith in human logic after witnessing a succession of blunders, bad shape, and opening sequences that mock joseki.'

I guess I could change the title of my blog, but I am kind of used to it now. So the blog might be called Go Shodan Challenge indefinitely, even after I pass that milestone. I'll have to think about it.

Pro Pro Handicap Go

I have been studying pro versus pro handicap games, and it is helping my handicap play. Both when I am playing White and when I am playing Black. Still making tons of mistakes, but at least I can see improvement.

Last week, I finally managed to beat minue at 9H (plus -30 neg komi ^^) and have been promoted to 8H. We'll see how that goes. I seem to be very good at being pounded into dogmeat.

All the handi games have helped me study more hoshi joseki, which is helping my even game too. Still know too little, but again, seeing some improvement is nice.

Today is a rainy day, so forced to stay home and study go, too bad ^^ I am replaying a bunch of pro games I have memorized over time, seeing how many have stuck in my memory and which ones need refreshing.

^

When to Submit?

Interesting quote from shygost review. 'I like that feeling you have about 'hating to submit' From 4d to 6d, I hated to submit. But then at 6d, I was like 'when it's reasonable, it's fine to submit. And you start learning this and when it's time to step back, you step back and you're happy.'

This was after I ignored an endgame move I shouldn't have ignored. I just hate to follow my opponent around in endgame and try to find 'See if I care!' and 'My sente is bigger than yours!' moves. This time it wasn't very successful, should just have replied to the darned move. Oh well ^^

At least it helps me to figure out which move I can ignore and which ones I can't. Lose and learn :)

Learn to Lean

Lately, I have more and more discovered the joys of leaning attacks. Sadly, most of those times it was in review. It is definitely something to work on. Here is a position from my last game with shygost.



The last move I played was A, which (in hindsight) clearly is what Guo juan in her audio lessons calls an empty move. The corner is still open and it doesn't quite attack the W group.

This is where the leaning attack comes in. Look at this alternate sequence.



Simple leaning attack and suddenly B can play a way more severe move against the W group. Too bad I didn't find this in the game. Maybe next time ^^

Group Tax

On Wednesday, I played a game against a friend, which turned out to be an exercise in itty-bitty black lives. Black ended up with seven groups on the board, most of them small. Five of them had a total of 17 points, not a terribly good stone efficiency.

Later, someone mentioned: "with 7 groups, if one isn't dead you need to do more tsumego." I have thought about that and decided that I didn't need to kill to win, so why bother going through the whole killing thing. Like I said before, killing always seems like such a commitment. I enjoyed seeing tiny group after tiny group find yet another miserable life.

Someone else said that Black suffered heavily from group tax, and I have to agree on that. It just takes a lot more stones to make seven groups live, than if you have less of them. Interesting. I knew the principle, but never had seen noticed it so clearly in one of my games.

New Study Organization

This is not as much a new study plan, since I am studying the same things, but a new way of organizing my studies. Yes, I have been doing problems every day and other studying, but somehow I still felt like I suffered from a lack of direction.

Last night, I talked to a friend about studying, and this morning I woke up, knowing just what to do. Thank you, Rob ^^.

I created a week's worth of study plan, showing exactly what I want to cover on a day, and providing me with space to check off and add remarks. ('Review some haengma, check; Review pro game, check; etc) It is very simple, but the visual helps me to see what I have done already and what I still should do on a single day. The same way it's easier to get things done when I make a list and cross off things.

We'll see how this works out, but somehow it feels right. I think I will be able to study more effectively with help of this study plan.

Rengo

With the new KGS beta has come the ability to play rengo with time settings. Very good interface, the days of five-hours rengo games are over!



This week, I played two games of rengo already. Very enjoyable! I like how the rengo records are kept in your user profile instead of at the rengobot's profile.

First rengo was fun, opponents decided to lose the game at move 4. Second rengo it took them longer to lose. One of our opponents did censor us though, which feels like it should be reported as a bug. I mean, how can you play proper rengo without trash talking?

Still studying handicap games, still being pounded into dogmeat by minue. My reading is very slowly improving, but still a long way to go. But more and more often I find myself reading sequences out almost automatically, which is new. Naturally, it is not often enough yet, but hey, I'll take what I can get ^^

Territorial or Cosmic Play?

For a while I tried playing more territorially oriented, but somehow I still end up with huge center moyos way too often. It just is a lot of fun, but it seems harder to play that way than just to grab territory everywhere. Sometimes I can pull it off, sometimes I can't. But always enjoyable to try.

I am going to try to play more territorial for a while, just will need to remember during my games. For example, had to decide between the two lines of play during this game.



And yes, I knew the prudent decision would have been to play at B and take the inside. I am sure you can guess what I did instead. Indeed, I played at A and took the outside. Peanut gallery commented:

Stormer [7k?]: nanny can never resist the joseki that give power.

Yes, will have to work on it, I am getting too predictable.

Shygost Lectures Video now Online!!!!

Happy to announce that we managed to get nine of the shygost videos available using bittorent. Here are the two bittorrent files for shygost's lectures.

1. Shygost lectures for Azureus
2. Shygost lectures for other bittorrent clients

There are two because azureus is incompatible with other bittorrent clients. So you must use the torrent labeled 'azureus only' if and only if you have azureus. All other clients should use the other torrent. If you don't know much about bittorrent, it's a rather painless process to get involved. We recommend the utorrent client http://www.utorrent.com .This client is lightweight and featureful. After you have downloaded it, you more or less just open the torrent file, and off you go!

Thanks to hlamonde for getting the lectures down to a reasonable size and to gryn for helping set up the bittorrent.

Enjoy!

Preserving the aji

I have been working on it for quite a while, but still manage to play aji keshi too frequently. Today I was looking back at some old teaching games, and found this quote by Minue, reinforcing what I should know already.

Minue: "To be sure, weakness at A and B is "potential trouble " for w. But, presently, not clear for b how to exploit these weaknesses of w, then just let them be weak state.. It's what u should do for opp;s "bad aji" (bad taste)...
As long as u let that aji to be weak, it smells bad for ur opp"

I have to keep reminding myself of this. It's so easy to play a harmful sente without thinking. This reminds me of one of the shygost lectures, where he was sharing this story. (paraphrased)

"When I was 5 or 6k, I discovered sente. I played sente all over the place. I felt so powerful. My whole game I played sente. And I lost all my games... "

Let that be my lesson for today.

Well, in addition to hoshi joseki and tesuji and how to be pounded into dogmeat pound opponent into dogmeat.

Phew, I passed

I can keep my username ^^

You scored as Gytha (Nanny) Ogg. You are Nanny Ogg! A talented witch, able to make yourself at home wherever you are, and insist that Greebo is just a big softie. You enjoy drinking, a lot, and singing about a hedgehog. You have a huge family, and get your daughters-in-law to do most of the housework. You are kind and gentle, and help put people at ease.

Gytha (Nanny) Ogg		75%
Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax		69%
Lord Havelock Vetinari		63%
Commander Samuel Vimes		50%
Carrot Ironfounderson		50%
Greebo		31%
Death		25%
Rincewind		25%
Cohen The Barbarian		19%
The Librarian		13%

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Killing is Such a Commitment

I keep falling into the 'trying to kill' trap way too often. I have realized that killing is kind of crude. It is way more fun to torture and hassle and make him live with 40 stones and 2 points. Preferably in gote. But sometimes... my greed gets the best of me and I try to kill anyway.

While I am killing, and smelling blood, I forget to take care of my own weaknesses. I am sure I am invincible, and I am going to win big, because he is going to DIE! Naturally, my opponent does not always agree. Not only does he not die, he also manages to turn around and kill part of me!!! Very annoying.

Of course, there is only one person to blame for the weaknesses in my shape, and it's not my opponent.

Most of the time, I just surround and let live small. But once in a while, I still go for the unreasonable kill, often leading to a predictable loss for me. Such great learning opportunities :p I need to get rid of my blood lust and just stay strong and let them live in gote. One day I'll get it.

Still studying hoshi joseki and handicap go, it's fun. Even if I am still being pounded into tiny pieces of dogmeat by Minue. Also studying a recent pro game, I want to experiment with that fuseki. Bonus points if you recognize the game.

Shygost Public Lectures

Most people know about the Shygost public audio lectures. If not, they are a great thing to check out. He gives them every Friday night on KGS. They are aimed at kyu players and show you how to think during your go game, how to find the next move.

We have been recording most of those lectures, but the files are just too darned big to share easily. So volunteers have been transcribing the lessons to get them into a more accessible format. We are woefully behind doing it though. Having more volunteers would not be a bad thing.

I just finished transcribing the February 11th lecture on the Chinese Opening. Every time I transcribe one of those lessons, I realize how good of a teacher shy is. I always learn something from every single lesson. This Chinese Opening lecture is available here.

Links to all of the transcribed files so far are available on senseis. I recommend anyone to take a look at those, there is a lot of helpful information in them. And as always, if the lectures and/or the transcriptions are helpful to you, please consider donating some money towards keeping them going at http://tengen.bur.st/.

Strength and Good Moves

After discovering the simplicity secret, I now am slowly starting to realize that strength is not only about making good and simple moves. It seems to be even more about not making bad moves. Making simple moves isn't that hard, but refraining from bad moves is difficult.

Differences in strength is about playing good moves consistently. You can play a superb opening, but one bad move in middle game can throw away the whole game. I have lost so many games by playing a good game with one or two fatal mistakes. Stronger players just play calmly and wait for opponents mistake. The opponent will make them.

When I review my games, I usually have a few moves I HATE. Those are the moves I need to get rid of. The moves which lost me the game. Or even if I won, I don't feel good about the game because of those horrible moves.

A few days ago, I gave 9H and was behind most of the game. I didn't know how I would ever catch up, unless he made a mistake. Lo and behold, he did! A won game thrown away by one huge mistake.

To keep cosmic balance, I did the same when Minue gave me 9H today. I did ok most of the game, until I made a few fatal mistakes. Very fatal. And yet again, I got pounded into dogmeat.

My goal is to play simple and calm go, and to refrain from bad moves. The worst thing is that I often know when I am making a bad move, but I am compelled to do it by jealousy, greed, or panic. So much for playing calm go. Maybe my new go motto should be 'Don't panic!' Or I should just sit on my hands till the urge to make a bad move passes.

Middle Game Fighting

This week, Minue went deeper into middle game fighting techniques with me, which was very helpful. He verbalized a lot of things which make total sense, but which I never really applied consciously.

He was reviewing my game against him (yes, I got pounded into dogmeat at 9H), and this position came up.



He took this as an opportunity to teach me more about middle game fighting (which is one of my many weaknesses)

"Here, my point is simple. W cut black. Then, don't panic. Whenever you are in complex contact fight, where your opp tries unreasonable cut, don't play atari blindly. First thing to think are these questions.

1. Read if u can kill its cutting stone. Can i kill it by ladders or net? If u can kill it by ladders, kill it by "atari". If u can not kill it by ladders or net.
2. Don't panic, and dont play harmful atari.
   In this position, these are examples of harmful atari.
   
   
   
   
   
   Usually, atari move is bad when u can not kill white by atari play. See this is cross cut pos, in general, atari just hurts one of ur stones.
   
3. Check if ur stone is "important cutting stones". If so, u should not give it up. Here, both of black A and B is very important stones, so black should save both of them.
4. Next, find which one is "weaker stone". In this pos, black B is weaker than black A. Then, increase its libs. Since, black center stones are in danger, (with less libs) black jumps toward to center, to increase its liberties
   
   
   

If u keep this basic point, ( middle game fight as "liberty competion"), direction of stones in middle game is not so hard. Fundamentally, any move which increases ur libs, and reduces opp's libs effectively is good move in middle game, no matter what specific shape it is. If empty triangle is really best, to do it, then empty triangle is good middle game fight move. "

Amazing how simple it is when you look at it this way. Yet another example of how go is all about simplicity. I just will need to find this simplicity in my games.

Mini Chinese

I have been playing mini Chinese for a while, or at least, attempting to play it. Often, W will prevent me from playing it, so I haven't gotten as much practice with the mini Chinese formation as I would like.

Today, I noticed that the audio go lessons site has a lecture up about mini chinese. I was interested enough to spend some time listening to it and studying it. I learned a lot and now understand more of the history of this opening.

I had been playing the mini chinese with 2 komoku's, but after this lecture, I think I'll go back to the more traditional one with hoshi. Now just need the kids to go to sleep so that I can actually play and try it out.

Other studying today included pro game, handicap tactics, and some joseki. So much to study, so little time.

Lumpy, The Go Playing Travel Bug

In addition to playing go, I like to go geocaching. One of the fun elements of geocaching is finding, and sending out so called travel bugs, whimsical little items which travel from geocache to geocache. Last cache we did, we found this cool travelbug Lumpy the Plasticine Stoat. Lumpy is a very special travel bug, he is a weasel who likes to act on whatever people dare him to do. Naturally, I requested a go playing Lumpy and the owner did a wonderful job putting him on a go board.

There are a bunch of other fun things Lumpy has done on that page, but I have to admit that go playing Lumpy is my favorite. Thank you, AuntieWeasel!

My New License Plate

Yes, I do realize it's a bit over the top. But I still love it ^^



But how could I resist when I discovered that nobody had taken this license plate yet here in New Hampshire?



Now let's see how many people around here actually know what it means. So far, my neighbor has asked me why I put 'Bad duck!' on my car...



I guess I'll have to carry those trifold 'Go: an ancient game for the new millenium' leaflets around, to hand out to interested parties.

Study Day

Today, my van had to go into the garage for an inspection, and life finally calmed down enough that I could actually study go. As in, study most of the day, instead of five minutes here, ten minutes there. Well, at least when I wasn't dealing with kids interruptions :D

I got quite a lot done, but not even half of what I had hoped. Somehow studying always takes more time than I think it will take. I did half of my tesuji homework, reviewed some haengma, did problems, reviewed some handicap techniques, looked at a pro game. Only thing I didn't do yet is actually play. Guess I need to get on line and find myself a game.

I have been experimenting with my playing style. Trying to put less emphasis on territory, and more on attacking and surrounding stones. Let's just say that I still have a lot of room for improvement ^^ Minue pounded me into dogmeat at 8H, so I'd better try to get more handicap study in this week. Next game will be 9H, which sounds like a lot, but can evaporate amazingly fast against a strong player :D

Dogmeat

Minue has been working on how to use handicap stones to pound White into dogmeat. The goal is to get me to win at least 50 % of my 7H games against him by October. It's an interesting way of studying. I have studied some about how to use handi stones, but not much. This is good. My study material looks like this:



Naturally, I haven't been able to find perfection like that in my actual games. My last 7H game against Minue looked like this:



White is everywhere and the only one being pounded into dogmeat is Black ^^. I still have a lot of room for improvement, this is typical for my games against him. I will have to study a lot to be able to beat him at 7H occasionally.

Studying handicap go made me think back to the advice Kipawa gave me about a year ago. His handicap advice:

1. How can I split White?
2. How can I stop White from splitting me?
3. How can I attack White (preferably while protecting myself)

This fits in very well with Minue's statement that go isn't around surrounding empty space, but it is about surrounding opponents stones/groups. I still fall into the 'desperately trying to hang on to territory' trap too often, need to get over that.

It seems so simple on paper, but somehow amazingly hard in real game play.