*Did Elementary problems #51-97
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #217-233

Hopefully in 12 hours I will be playing Go in person for the first time.

Well, I went; about 6 people in total showed up and I got to play 3 games in two hours against the same guy. I won all 3, though mainly because he tried to take a big point before an urgent one and I ended up killing the group. Or, you know, save two stones about to get cut and lose the whole group. I've done that plenty of times before. Or he ignored a leaning attack and decided to jump out again when the leaning attack really threatened to hurt his shape. rip 12 stones.

I also really liked the stones and bowls that were used even if they were slightly old and weathered. The weight of the stones is much nicer than my plastic ones which are fairly light.

*Did Elementary problems #98-123
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #234-264
*Watched Starstorm3 [AGA 5dan/KGS 4dan] - KGS Go Lecture (Baduk/WeiQi) on "3-4 Probes" (#21)

Time to actually get back to work tommorow, probably.

*Did Intermediate problems #230-240
*Did Elementary problems #124-150
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #265-306
*Watched Starstorm3 [AGA 5dan/KGS 4dan] - KGS Go Lecture (Baduk/WeiQi) on "Choosing Fuseki" (#19)

Won a game against an 8k. I've now won 75% of my games since I reached 8k, but there aren't that many games, to be honest. 2-4 more wins should push me to 7k if I can even manage that without losing.

I think I'd like to point out that this book may become useful very soon; I've always tossed it aside as some kind of misc book for when I was very bored. GGG sent it to me for free, so it wasn't like I had any interest in it to begin with.

http://i.imgur.com/lOcsVBd.jpg

That being said, the book is called "Korean style of Baduk" and it's mainly focused on the large avalanche and mini-chinese. What it does is provide various variations and then gives professional game examples for that variation, usually to about 80 moves at most. In short, I have a lot of easily acessible pro games from 30-80 moves that deal with the mini chinese, and explanations on some of the variations. The translator's English is not native, but certainly fairly good. Besides that, the comments are brief and to the point.

I didn't really feel like L&D today.

*Did Intermediate problems #241-242
*Did Elementary problems #151-185
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #307-360



You ever make a really stupid mistake that costs a game and then go on tilt trying to make up that win with even more wins but only find your frustration causing more lost games while you struggle to get back to a 50/50 W/L ratio for the day? Yeah, don't be me. I wonder how long it's going to take to undo all the damage to my go playing ability from blitzing all of the ones after Justin9202. At least I can playing 2-10 second move blitz at an 8k level. That's something, right?



If you look closely, you can even see the frustration wearing off!

Play a game. Play to win. Then study it. Then play again.
Playing to recover from an alleged rank dip is probably the worst reason for playing. You end up with randomness around your current level.

Books can be a source of inspiration but there's only so much inspiration a mind can take at a time. In particular, opening patterns are fun to explore but do almost nothing to the winning percentage of an 8k. If winning percentage is what really gives you the goose bumps, here are a few tips:

- only play when your mind is healthy (no alcohol, sleep deprivation or 10th game in an hour ...)
- think about 3 alternatives almost every move (avoids automatic play)
- don't resign
- play opening and middle game according to basic principles (connect & cut on a large scale)
- reserve your energy for the endgame and try to make a difference there

Source of inspiration: get strong at the endgame, by Bozulich. It will do more to your winning percentage than any openings book.

Good luck!

*Did Intermediate problems #243-245
*Did Elementary problems #186-205
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #361-390
*Watched Shusaku review #29 (vs. Ito Showa, Castle Game #4)

There's also this post:

Taking a break from those L&D problems, mainly; the tesuji ones are so much more fun.
*Did Intermediate problems #246-249
*Did Elementary problems #206-214
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #391-426
*Watched Shusaku review #30 (vs. Sekiyama Sendaiu)
*Watched Batt's lecture in the Enclave
*Read Lessons chapter 1

Think; don't think - there's no difference in my play.

Note that B5 was sente from on to . If you play it and white doesn't respond to make his group alive, you can force it down into an L-group. If your opponent does take gote to make life, then b5 makes your outside a lot stronger.

I think the L-group is one of the most important shapes to know in the entire game. If you're able to recognize when you can force your opponent into it I guarantee you'll start killing corners of other people at your level who don't know the shape. Situations involving the L-group come up all the time.

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Hi Dusk Eagle,

Indeed that shape is very important. It's interesting
Sensei's basic shapes have most of the outside libs filled.

Is this a slightly more general shape ?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . O . X . X . .
$$ | . O O O . X . . . .
$$ | . . . . . X . . . .
$$ | . X X X X X . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . X . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Yes, the number of liberties doesn't matter for the default shape. I'd say that you need to also know how to kill the basic L+1 groups in your example, as white can form either of them. However, killing either of them is really easy (when there aren't extra stones around) - just hane on the first line on whatever side the leg is on, changing the L+1 group back into an L group.

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Guess I'm going to be reading up on the L group tommorow.


*Did Elementary problems #215-234
*Did Get Strong at Tesuji problems #427-432
*Watched Shusaku review #31 (vs. Sekiyama Sendaiu)
*Read Lessons chapter 2

After all, "there is death in the hane."

My break from L&D is basically only doing elementary


*Did Elementary problems 235-255
*Did Get strong at Tesuji problems 433-462
*Read Lessons Chapter 3
*Went over http://gokifu.com/s/m6b-gokifu-19041015 ... 8d%29.html

*Did elementary problems 256-265
*Did get strong at tesuji problems 463-498
*Read Lessons chapter 4

I want to finish get strong at tesuji by tommorow.