"Anyone who cannot solve it at all has a doubtful future." ; )


flOvermind
I will definitely give the book a new reading when I make Shodan (at least on KGS), just to see, if it really makes any difference.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

I agree, if we are talking 20+ kyu. If you don't see snapbacks, your game can fall apart at any time.



The strategy of the chinese opening is not that advanced. And there are plenty of more general strategic concepts to learn.



When I was learning go in Japan, there were plenty of dan players whose strategy sucked. OC, they were good fighters. That was less the case in the West, because, without good competition, the route to dan level involved book learning for most people.

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Sheik Yerbuti -- if that really is your name --

Well, the answer is simple then

Don't have a doubtful future.

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Let my comments be as eggs thrown on stones... explosive and hard to wash.

I find Kageyama's writing style to be hilarious, but I agree, I don't gain as much from him (right now) as other books or studying.

"Become strong before worrying about theory." But how does one become strong?

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall.... (=

Personally speaking, the biggest road block or "stall" I've encountered thus far is human emotion. When I was weaker, I'd lose a lot of games and quickly get frustrated and discouraged. I didn't ask myself why I lost. I didn't ask myself why my opponent won. I didn't even look over my games, for the most part. And all of that factored in to me getting stuck a lot when I was a DDK.

Now, however, I've learned to accept losses. When I play games nowadays, it almost feels like I search for ways to lose. That might sound confusing, so I'll explain. Instead of playing moves that feel safe, I try new things. I try to kill more, ect. This doesn't always work, of course, but I can learn from failures like that.

I think another roadblock has been my, ahem, instinctual style of play. Here recently I've been trying to adjust that.

Again, sometimes I get frustrated. It's easy to look at my 4-21 record this month and think "why do I play this game?" except now, I don't let that bother me as much. Instead I try to focus on how I can learn from those lossses. That's not to say human emotion isn't a factor in why I'm still an 8k (that and not playing many ranked games this month, haha), but I think losing bothers me a lot less than it used to.

And I think that's what demotivates a lot of beginning players. In Go, I've found you tend to lose more than you win. But perhaps that's my own experience.

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"I got an idea, an idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about."
- Peter Griffin

that's a lot like Takamiya's advice to "play where you want to play"

there was a thread about it (don't recall if it was here or on godiscussions)

I think it adds more enjoyment to play where you want to play rather than always looking for places you think you should play. I think that's one of the greatest things about Go is discovering new things for yourself.

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"I got an idea, an idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about."
- Peter Griffin

It doesn't sound confusing. It sounds like rationalizing.

Hmm, I would have to say my biggest problem is not playing enough, I mean I have a hard time staring at a computer screen to play so I cant concentrate on the game properly lol and I prefer to play on an actual board, problem with that is no go in my area the closest go club to me is over 2 hours away. But ya for the most part my road blocks is not having anyone to play.

In games I often problem with this...but when I realize that I'm not truly analyzing the position, I'm just justifying to myself I'm going to make the move I'm looking at, that's when I stop and just go ahead an play...might as well save the time. I think this type of mentality is (for me at least) one of the big roadblocks to improving...Also a great quote I read in another thread (but apparently not great enough to remember exactly where) was someone talking about considering move A vs. B for some time...then rejecting both for C with only minimal thought...that's the other thing to work on...

Hi,
I feel the same. But it usually gets me in trouble .

In a recent game, I invaded but failed badly. My opponent thwarted my attempts to make two eyes. But I did enjoy trying !

Cheers
tezza

I've been stuck at around the 2 kyu mark on KGS for about a year now. This is the most common rank on the server. This large sample size results in a high variation in actual strength in this rank. Some games are a cake walk to me, while others have me feeling horribly outmatched.

Besides my current situation, I've never felt like I've stayed at any previous rank too long. 5 kyu took a little while to get past, but I still managed to do it in just a couple months time.