"Improvement" is an ambiguous term.

1. On one hand, improvement can mean added knowledge or ability toward any particular aspect of the game. An example of this might be learning how to calculate endgame values. If you never studied endgame, and then learn how to calculate the values of endgame moves, it's "improvement".

2. On the other hand, improvement can mean an increased ability to win games. Since Go is a zero-sum game, I think this is a valid interpretation. Many factors contribute to win/loss: endgame performance, middle game performance, the opening, psychological factors, the strength of your opponent, and many more.

If you study and learn new things, you're probably going to improve from the standpoint of #1. But if you lose all of your games, you are not improving in the sense of having an increased ability to win games. #1 is easier to control than #2 since #2 has many external factors that may not be easy to control.

You might argue that by improving by means of #1, you will eventually aid in improving by means of #2 (i.e. increasing your win rate). But practically speaking, you are not improving at winning games if you are not winning games

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be immersed

But this is simply not true, if your opponents are also improving at the same rate or faster than you. You still have increased your ability to win games, just not against that small sampling of opponents.

For a small sample it may not be true, but as the sample size increases, it becomes a true statement. If you play against the entire population of Go players and don't win since they're getting stronger, you aren't increasing your ability to win against that population.

For that matter, even if you play the same small group of people, if you keep losing, you aren't increasing your ability to win against that group of people.

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be immersed

Unless you are hopeless or careless, it is almost impossible to play a game during your first year of play without learning something, in the sense of improving your ability to win games. Up to 7 kyu, I don't think I won more than a game or two.

One point is that when you play (unless you are hopeless or careless) you form subgoals and meet them or not. If you improve in setting or meeting a subgoal, you have improved, even if you do not win the game.

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The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Regarding not winning as a beginner, I'd say that it's due to the opponents. If you always play a 5k and keep losing, you are not improving at winning against that 5k until you have won against the 5k.

But you might be improving at winning against, say 20k players.

I think the distinction is useful, because it handles the case where someone is 5k for 20 years. They are not improving at winning games, because their win/loss ratio is the same against similarly ranked players.

That 20-year-long 5k might be improving in terms of knowledge, or maybe they have more experience and depth in what they know about the game. But they are not getting better at winning.

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be immersed

Here's three more games, against 5ks now! I'm also going to start playing against more opponents of my rank, and lower rank (albeit on free games), to familiarize myself with playing as white. Now if anyone has some other suggestions for the opening as black, I'd greatly appreciate it. The Low Chinese is starting to boring as hell.

First, the loss. My first ever game against a 5k. Really should have won this one.


Next, two wins. 1 was a fairly easy victory - The other had some tough fighting, and a couple strokes of luck involved.




Also Kirby, i think the distinction you make is very interesting - and most likely true. But I have a question - If the 20year 5k learns more into depth.. are they really improving? If they did wouldn't they become higher than 5k?




And lastly, thank you xed_over! I really appreciate your comments! And yes, I am trying my best to become more accepting of losses! I'm trying to just neglect results/rank and try to focus on improving. If i focus on learning and playing my best, i'm sure the wins will naturally follow

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My Baduk Journey

Move 15: White ignored your shoulder hit and approached your corner. Did you consider J3?

@hl782:
I don't know for sure. Many factors affect the result of the game. As someone gets older, their skills may shift. For example, after many years, someone might get weaker at reading, but maybe they know joseki better. And they might be 5k throughout.

You might say they improved, since they are better at joseki, now.

But you can't say they improved at winning - maybe they win and lose for different reasons, now.

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be immersed

General comment: your opponent made numerous mistakes of style and shape. This is apparently infectious. To become strong, don't get dragged down to your opponent's level.

After . you don't get an adequate result on the lower side. I think has to be at J3, contesting the key space ("base of both groups"). Your stones to the left are light and flexible, so draw this line and fight now.

- I think C16 is more interesting here. The usual line leaves something to aim at on the top side. loses the chance to cut, so has to be wrong here.

Black 103: doesn't N18 just cut?

Black 123: this is needed?

At Black 149: you need to count, and read the lower left, in that order. Black C6 then D7 can be interesting to cut, but what is then the status of the corner? How much can Black allow White in the centre?

Black 167: again the status of the lower left corner. A play such as J7 might be enough to win.

Worth repeating.

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The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Here's two more games, 1 against a 6k, and 1 against a 5k. I felt that I outplayed my opponents mainly in both of them.

Vs. 6k - Familiarizing myself with white is going rather well.


Vs. 5k - I was pleased with this game.


For problems, I am still recycling 1001 L&D, GSATesuji, GGPB Vol. 4 and LCH Vol. 3.



That's fantastic advice. I'll keep it in mind

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My Baduk Journey

Rightly. Not perfect, but you held it together against a disruptive opponent. Felt like you morally had sente.

Here are 3 more games - 1 win and 2 losses.

First, the win - I was pleased. this was convincing!


Second, the first loss - I was a bit disappointed because I had beaten this guy before twice.


Thirdly, the second loss - I was very mad at myself that I had lost this game. I mean look at the 2nd move - I couldn't tell if he was trolling or not.


I didn't have time to make comments/reviews so any would be greatly appreciated, particularly for the losses!

As for problems, I am now going through my 3rd runthrough of 1001 L&D. Thankfully, I am now correctly answering a majority of the questions that I had missed beforehand - i definitely feel that my vital point spotting has improved. Hopefully this will translate to more good games in the near future.

I am also highly considering getting an actual mouse - touchpad on my laptop is so skin sensitive, the lightest brush of the side of my palms causes it to click and play a move sometimes...

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My Baduk Journey

A few comments on the early part of the second loss:

is a strange tenuki, large but not vital. I would prefer to keep pressing in the upper left corner. Presumably W intends to repeat the pattern he played on the other side, crawling along the second line, which would be great for B. When you tenuki, W could cause trouble by pushing and cutting immediately. Fortunately he prefered to crawl, so you got a good result anyway. (Tesuji practice: if W pushes through and cuts after the B14-C13 exchange, how does B capture the cutting stone?)

is normal, but seems like the wrong direction here -- the left side is narrower and has less potential than the bottom side. How about a pincer instead?

has something of the same feel -- neither B nor W can make much territory here. Maybe invade the 3-3 point directly? Or invade/attack around J3? Or develop the top moyo with K16? You could even play N11 to mess with W

is a wasted move. What can W do here? If you are at all worried and want to play locally, pressing at C7 is a fine way to punish the last low W move.

is aji-keshi. After W connnects, you have gained nothing. Without this exchange, there is at least a remote possibility of a later invasion at R3 (perhaps after a P4-P3 exchange), and even a simple descent to S6 becomes larger. Better to just play Q9 for safety and center strength. Similarly, would be better at Q9. The center is much more important than this tiny side territory. Besides, you really want to harass that W stone at O10

W is far behind at this point, so is a good attempt to create complications and get back into the game. You treated this threat too lightly and got into trouble, perhaps lulled into a feeling of superiority by W previous play. at S9 or at S8 look like safe connections.

After getting cut off, seems very risky. It is not too late to give up three stones on a small scale. Enlarging the group like this risks a big loss if they die, and W is pretty strong locally. But hey, its just a game, so go for it if you like. Through you got a fine result. Now K9 and O11 are miai, so you are out of trouble and have a good center position.

is an endgame move, much too small now. (Tesuji practice: if W connects at D1, how do you make eyes in the corner, without risking ko?) K9 and O11 are incomparably larger.

After W passed with :w102: and you cut at P10 (which could perhaps more safely just block at O11), you should win any fight in this region. Maybe someone else will comment on the fighting.

1) A common trap to set for oneself: opponent plays strange opening, so I'm morally entitled to win. No, you have to look at the board continuously and try to convert any possible advantage at any stage into a win. No mean feat for even the strongest player.

2) Yes, remove all possible noise from your major positive feedback mechanism: winning games.

here is a game i played last night.

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My Baduk Journey

Key points:

ways to take advantage of White's deviation from the usual pattern
did you consider the cut?
contrary to your 99% White is not dead
w130 this weak spot in Black's entanglement can still be exploited for White to live

You won this fighting game, probably by just being lucky with the number of liberties, but also because of good fighting spirit. It was White who tried to make the game complex all the time.

You correctly identified the place where you gave your opponent free 4th line territory.
Good game, good self review.

So today, I played a 5k in an even game and lost pretty badly. It was late, and i very tired after work but it was a rather poor game. I'll post a commented review sometime later in the day.

For problems, I finished my 3rd runthrough of 1001 L&D problems and scored 940/1001 (94%). I missed 30 out of the 60 on the 5 moves to live section - so much harder than killing! I also suck at situations where the eyespace is big/wide. Overall though, I noticed a definite improvement in my vital point spotting, and reading. It's just a matter of spotting these stuff in game, and playing out the right moves.

My biggest weakness though still lies in the middlegame - Fights, proper shape, contact moves, cuts, etc. To fortify this a bit, I'm going to study Get Strong at Tesuji very very thoroughly throughout the week. I went through 60 problems today (in roughly an 45 min or so), and missed 4. I am trying very hard not to cheat/not read through all variations, even though when I am sure that I have found a solution that I believe is to be correct. This habit of 'half-assing' will not do for me anymore. It worked at 10k but not now.

My goal of 3k by Christmas is still very fresh in my head, and I can't wait to get stronger and get better at the game. Until then, happy baduk-ing everyone ^_^

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My Baduk Journey

Here's 2 games - the loss from yesterday, and the win from today - For the win, my opponent resigned really early (after 100 moves or so), so I couldn't exactly do a full review of it but i commented on what I was thinking about near the end.

- The Loss -


- The Win -



I am now in my 2nd day of going through GSATesuji. I am scoring approximately 86%, and I am through about 200 problems. It's a bit frustrating because I wanted to hit the 90% range, considering this is my 3rd runthrough of it. However, this is really confirming that i have a terrible sense of shape/what to play during contact fights - because the problems I'm getting wrong are not the corner l&d problems, but the problems regarding thickness, shape, extending, basic atari, etc.

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My Baduk Journey

Also, a very big question i have - How can i play more severely/less passively? It almost feels like I shy away from fights/playing severe moves because I have had too many occasions where I made too many weakpoints and got destroyed afterwards.

Any advice from stronger players will be appreciated.

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My Baduk Journey