I agree, that for some kyu players, a wish to play too fast holds them back. But there are also disadvantages in playing too slow, I think, up to good amateur level.

A casual game for a 19x19 board taking an hour implies about 15 seconds average per play, which may be classed as neither too fast nor too slow in a club. But I think the median should be lower, i.e. take your time over a few key plays.

Good point. And in line with Rin Kaiho's advice to reserve as much as 1/3 of your time (10 min.) for a single crucial play.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I actually worked on the novel for the first time since I started playing Go. My wife is very excited. She thinks it's a sign that my go-passion is cooling off. I hope not.

However, I've been unable to plug in a lot of time to go the last few days. Between problems with the house, training for a sword fighting event, family life, etc, I've only managed one or two hours of study per day, half (or less than half!) my usual.

Books
I started "Learn to Play Go" #4, but was put off by the invasion/reduction stuff since I'd heard a lot of it before. I've heard a lot about book 5, and I've been itching to get there because it sounds really cool, so I started reading it as well, simultaneously. Slow going so far.

If I can get through these two last books, then I will circle back around to "In the beginning" and "38 basic Joseki". I should then have a pretty good foundational skill set to advance with.

Problems
Any day I don't do at least 50 problems is a day I feel like I'm backsliding. If they're truly basic problems, I need to do at least 100, or 120 to feel like I've exercised my brain.

I've just barely been keeping up with these.

Yesterday: 30 or so problems on Ladders, 40 or so problems on nets, 20 or so Fuseki problems.
Today: 54 problems on or so problems on Oiotoshi

Other Learning Stuff
Yesterday: Went through a Nick Sibicky video on basic opening theory with Drago open, really trying to get a feel for the stuff.

I'm really tired of being dramatically behind at the end of the Opening and then having to catch up, so I hope this fuseki study will start helping soon.

Games
None. This lack of internet for most hours of the day sucks. I had to pick between playing and Sibicky, and I picked Sibicky. But, honestly, if I had internet/tv, I'd probably be watching the new season of Doctor Who.

I went on a camping trip last weekend and came back ill, and I still have not recovered. This has put a crimp in just about everything I do, including Go.

Problems:
Not many. I need to get back on this horse.

Books:
Same as problems, q.v.

Games:
Three Thursday night at Go club, the first ones in a week in a half.

My Go club is typically composed of one 4 Dan 1 or 2 lower dans, several 1-4 kyus, two or three 7 kyus, and me.

I am therefore thought of as the "newbie" (and, I technically am). So when we had a new player come to Go club last night, one who had only played a handful of games total, but who had been studying and was excited, my club automatically assumed I would be on near even footing with him, as we were both "new".

I requested that he take 9 stones, but he decided to only take 5, and it was not pretty. I tried to show him a few things as we went. We played again at 9 stones, and I still destroyed him, but I made several mistakes in reading cuts and capture races, and these really annoyed me. The guy was really nice, however. I hope he comes back.

I told him that a combination of Tusmego, Tesuji, and Joseki had worked wonders for me, and I recommended he follow the same course, as it's the only one I know. I didn't mention that I also study a lot of pro games, nor did I mention EasyGo -- if he comes back, I will try to touch on these.

Especially EasyGo. I think it's "basics" problems are really amazing. Half of learning to play go is being able to see what is happening on the board, not being blind, and these problems teach you HOW TO SEE AGAIN.

The captain of the go club came around and was shocked to see me giving 9 stones to the new guy, and said maybe he had made a mistake matching us up, but -- really -- I don't know who else the new guy would have played.

I sadly do not have any game records. I seem to have misplaced my Ipad Mini (which also puts a crimp in my EasyGo plans).

After these two games, I got to play against the new 2-3 Dan who joined the club recently. I took 9 stones, and he was still toying with me, testing me to see what I would do in different circumstances, but he was also kind, and let me know when I had made truly terrible mistakes, and why they were terrible. He focused mainly on polishing up my thought process. According to him, every move I should:

1) Look at the opponent's move. Determine if it can hurt me. If not, plan to tenuki.
2) If the opponent's move can hurt me, determine how badly. Figure out how to stop it and if you want to stop it.
3) Look elsewhere on the board. See where the opponent can hurt me, and how bad. Figure out if you should stop it or not, and how.
4) Look at where you can hurt the opponent. Figure out how badly. If it is better to hurt the opponent, hurt him.

or something vaguely like that. I'll work on it. It's not supposed to be computer logic, just some guidelines to stop me from following the opponent around, which I am still doing.

PS - The 2-3 dan also thinks I am a 9k player. I think everyone that thinks that must be insane. Especially after all the stupid reading and capture race mistakes I made in the 9-stone game against the new guy. Sure, I still won by 30 points, but the sheer idiocy of some of my moves was horrifying.

Training
As I am now writing another novel, and since work is crazy (it is Disaster Recovery Test season, and I am the DR Manager), AND since we are still moving back into the house and dealing with construction issues (yes, STILL)... I have not had much time to practice.

At most I get a handful of simple problems a day, or I can play through part of a pro game, but with very little time to analyze it.

Last night I made some time to sit down and study problems again, and it was amazing how much I had forgotten. I'll try to do better, but real life (TM) is such a hassle.

Games
Not many of these either. I'm suffering from online game anxiety again, probably because it's been so long since I was playing online seriously and I don't believe I am 9 kyu. I'm having problems pulling the trigger and joining online games at all. This does not extend to games in real life.

Game 1: KGS


I did manage to pull the trigger on a game once. I knew I was out of practice, and I could tell I was playing poorly. Very poorly. My hands were shaking from thrill and panic, and I found it nearly impossible to read anything but one or two moves. I don't get it. Why is playing Go so terrifying and thrilling? I need to get some emotional distance, desensitize myself or something.

Coming out of this game, I was certain that I did not deserve my 9k rank, and this was proof.

Game 2: At the Go Club
I went to Go club last night and played against the first person I ever played against, a guy named Mark. He floats between 7-9k on KGS. My first game with him, I needed 9 stones, and he still beat me. This game, I took no stones, but got black because we were not sure what my rank truly is.

I remember that when I first met him, he said he had reached 9 kyu in one year, and I was very impressed by how fast he had done it. I will guiltily admit: I enjoyed the shock on his face when he heard that I, who had started only 4 or so months ago, had already reached 9k. I know I shouldn't've enjoyed it. I know that my advancement is due to an unhealthy habit of obsessively focusing on a new hobby to the exclusion of everything else. But I did enjoy it. I've worked very hard and struggled with a lot of inner demons, and for a moment I really felt like I had accomplished something.

I wish I had recorded this game, but the strange personal-to-person dynamics of a real life game threw me off, and I felt like I was going to be annoying learning new technology as I played. I need to get over myself and just record all games, period.

I opened with a micro Chinese, and he opened Chinese. He approached my star point, and I countered with a large knight, inviting him in to 3-3, but he never took it and I ended up sealing the corner off later later in the game.

Early game went well for me. I approached his 3-4 with an avalanche that I played incorrectly, but he didn't know avalanche at all, so I made it work. He threatened the group several times, but I had eyespace, so I jumped out and extended the micro chinese and developed a massive framework taking up almost a quarter of the board.

He of course countered this, and invaded, and lived small, and later I made some mistakes and let him reduce the moyo quite a bit.

I might have won, but I had two dragons going. I made one live under severe pressure, but the other one I did not read correctly. I thought it already had 2 eyes, and it did not. The death of this dragon, sealed my fate, but I made several other bad reading errors near the end.

The problem is that I normally go to bed at 8:30 or 9:00pm, and there is just no way around it, that's when Go club is. So near the end of all my games there, I start crumbling. I crumbled more than usual, though: I completely and utterly misread at least three attacks, not seeing an entire enemy liberty for 5 moves, until my eyes suddenly clicked on.

I feel I could have won this game, or at least gotten very close, had I:

1) not misread those moves and
2) realized that my second dragon did not have two eyes when I thought it did (I could easily have had the second eye if I had tried; this second issue had its roots in reading/strategy before the 8:30pm threshold, and likely was just me making a terrible mistake!).

I ended up losing by 60 points instead. It was very frustrating to lose because of that dragon dying, but my opponent said that he felt like he was on the ropes for most of the game, and complimented me on my "great attacking style" over and over again.

The dragon was about 44 points, I think, and my other misreads were quite large as well, wasting 6-7 moves on an impossible chase and giving him free captures as well. I think I could've easily won this game if the dragon hadn't died, and I had played even 3 of those 7 stones where they mattered instead of throwing them away and giving him free moves.

Strategic note: I focused on mutual damage in this game; when he threatened to hurt me, I would threaten to hurt him even more. It felt like a perpetual Ko fight, and, in fact, when we dove into the OPGMKF (once-per-game mandatory Ko fight), I noticed little difference, other than a slightly wider palette of moves. It's the first time I got Mutual Damage to work consistently and felt comfortable with it. I also got to build the biggest moyo I've ever built. That was fun.

After this game, I feel at least a little more confident that I might be close to 9 kyu. 11? 10 maybe? So I count it as a success.

makes White feel uncomfortable, and is an interesting try.

After that, though, the sequence on the right side seems to be mostly mistakes.

would be consistent one lower. The white corner can actually die if White is careless, so making another group live isn't so easy.

is risky. The hane under might strengthen the corner in sente.

should connect solidly. Then White has all the worries.

is out of focus. Black can break the connection on the right by sacrificing one stone.

is a classic "and now I'm on the back foot" shape. Double hane into the corner is fine.

Could still break through.

Black has bad shape, above and below.

Is the wrong atari. The horizontal pair of black stones is worth much more than the vertical pair.

seems to be the wrong atari.

gives up the other atari, for very unclear chances.

makes the net above perfect, but can be wrong, because White can't escape far anyway.

Play the other side to chase White towards the wall.

Thanks, Charles!

I think I need to spend a few hours studying how to use walls. Other than building Moyos, they are a mystery to me. And even that I'm not particularly good at.

Reading exercise:

Black to win

Hah! OMG. How did I miss that? I'd intended that cut from the start, but when I got there for some reason I thought he could double-atari me in response and shut the cut down. I think I was reading one of the diagonal point as a liberty for him :/

Oh, mind, why are you so unreliable?

The game seems so much easier when my hands aren't shaking and I don't have to struggle not to panic. j/k

The problem posted was not intending to show you how stupid you were but how smart you could be. So, congratulations for finding it now in the post mortem and good luck in your next game.

Knotwilg:

That is a fair observation/comment.

I didn't interpret this as you trying to make me feel dumb, not at all. However, I was instinctively disappointed in my own reading abilities when I saw my error. I think this is natural, at least for me. Please do not hesitate to point out such reading errors/improvement opportunities in future in future; I may be disappointed in myself and my current skills, but at least I will learn.

Thank you for your generous assistance so far; everyone who has commented has helped a lot, especially you.

I have a long way to go to attain the skills level of "decent player", and every little bit of advice gets me closer, and I am grateful for each one of them.

Sat - Too sick to move. No training.

Sun - 70 problems. Smartgo basics. Way out of practice on these. Making rudimentary mistakes, missing obvious opportunities. Feverish from time to time. Bored and alone, wife is feverish too. Tried to play about 50 games with the computer, but had to abandon them after horrifying reading errors, probably from the fever. I replay one or two pro games in between passing out.

Mon - Stuck home ill all day. Replayed lots of pro games, did 50 or so problems, but it was a struggle. I tried playing some games with the computer, but even basic reading was a chore. Useless. I did read about 50-60 pages of Learn to Play Go #4, and I played out several of the shape patterns from Learn to Play Go #5.

Tues - Steroid shot and new antibiotics for my bronchitis/pneumonia/whatever from the doctor. Ladder reading drills for an hour. Moved stones around, read out a 60 move sequence with no real branches (I stumbled across a ladder that you can let bounce off one group of stones, fold back on itself, and then end on a wall -- it's a slight misread, as you can end the ladder earlier if you want, but it's fun!). I noticed that I was reading a lot faster than ever before. Could not sleep at all from the steroid shot. Did about 200 problems on SmartGo, all basics. Replayed pro games, lots of them. My brain felt like it was on fire. Then the steroid shot wore off around 2 am, and I realize my newfound reading skills and drive might have been (at least partially) chemically induced.

Wed - Very busy at work, not much time to train. Working all day so I can work all night, and I'm not paid hourly either . What did I do? Ladder reading drills. A little SmartGo basics. Busy with work, hard to get real training done.

Thurs - Antibiotics are working. Super duper busy at work. Did some ladder reading drills, but was not reading anywhere near fast as I was on Tuesday. Still, it is faster than I used to be, and with almost no errors at all. I can read sixty moves if there are no branches. This is amazing "depth" of reading for me. Until this week, anything like this has been a struggle. I guess consistent work yields eventual results. I do not think I have "breadth" though, I don't think I could read three sequences and then remember the results of each or compare them in any reasonable manner. I don't think I could read out a sequence, change a move in the middle in a few different ways, read out the branches, and compare, either. These are skills I think it would be highly valuable for me to learn.

I put together a version of that bouncing ladder I mentioned in my last post.

Reading just the ladder (I often remove the stones in the top right and read out a sequence leading to the ladder), the longest sequence is 51 moves long. It was quite thrilling when I got it right the first time!

'A' is at N16. Not sure why it isn't displaying on the forum.

I have long been a fan of overlearning, of going over corrections a number of times at different intervals to solidify them in memory. I now see that there is a non-technical reason for overlearning, which is to instill confidence. It is normal to be disappointed in yourself for making a mistake. Overlearning gives you opportunities to be proud of yourself for overcoming your errors.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Moves 1 to 1
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . X O X O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . O X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . B . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . 1 W B , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . B . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . X . O . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Over at Weak Readers Anonymous we use the trick of shifting the ladder diagonally based on the diagonal relationship of the handicap points to set up a shallower reading problem. This trick was discovered by our founder, Ohkei Sosumi.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Hey Bill,

Mentally picking up a block of stones and moving them, or even projecting an end result (such as a joseki) onto the board is a different type of reading than what I've focused on. A separate skill. And I haven't trained it as much.

So... I currently find it easier to read the 51 moves than to try and mentally move the block of stones. Honestly, when trying to slide the ladder over, I have problems even judging if I've lined the sequence up right -- even if I actually put stones on the board. Weird, huh?

I guess I should start practicing that type of reading as well; it is probably one of the extremely important components of "positional judgement".

BTW, has anyone ever really listed out all the different types of reading skills (I don't believe there is one thing called "reading", rather a group of different skills that must be combined) and what sort of drills can be done to train each? The long ladder reading, for instance, is great for depth, but there needs to be a breadth drill, where you do branches and pick one, and there probably needs to be training on projecting a finished sequence onto the board as well. Honestly, the more granular the skill list and the more focused the training, the faster the results. I just want to make sure I'm not recreating the wheel.

Anyway, here's what I have so far:
1) Non-branched ("depth") reading - loooong ladder drills
2) Branched ("breadth") reading - net reading drills, miai reading drills, alternative capture drills? need to work on this, have ideas but they are fuzzy. Help?
3) Pattern projection - joseki flashcards with finished positions, drills where you mentally project the completed joseki onto the board and pick the best one.
4) Alternative move sequence for the same pattern - big term for something you guys do that I don't know the name of, where you take a pattern already on the board and re-do the move order to see how efficient it is. This is a kind of subtractive reading where you take away and re-add stones, and seems like it would be a valuable in-between skill while developing Branched Reading

I find that for joseki and the like, I am liable to have my mental projection shifted in one direction or other if I try to just envision it directly, and that I need to feel the flow of the stones to get everything in the right place. I don't necessarily think "move 1, then move 2, then move " as a plodding thing, it may appear mentally as a quick flow, but I'm much more likely to generate an accurate mental image this way. It also helps me notice if there are branches possible due to other stones, etc.

The shifting technique for reading ladders works fine to simplify things if you have the position laid out on a board and put new stones down, but if it's all performed mentally, I too find it more difficult than following the ladder step by step. My usual technique is to follow the zigzag of the laddered stones and then start mentally placing the laddering stones as I approach other stones on the board.

As for positional judgement, I don't really superimpose things on the board. I'll look at possibilities for particular sequences, but also just feelings for things like "white should be able to invade here if he doesn't force black to solidify", counting territories and potential, and looking for forcing moves. Whole board problems often require the same sense of flow I described above to me, like "I play here so they have to respond here which threatens this so I play there, which makes them respond here, and now my two groups are strong, this one of theirs is strong, and I have sente to take that last big point." There's also consideration of whether a point is more important for one side than another, or if it's mutually important. By this I mean something like a checking extension that is only sente for one side, or is double-sente, or is miai with another big point.

Thanks, Skydr.

I've started working on my joseki again, and I notice they are much easier to remember when they are flowing, just as you said.

It seems like projecting a block of stones on the board would be useful, but I'm not sure what for.

I'm at the pont where I know that there are different reading skills and I can figure out train them, but I don't know how or when some of the skills should be applied, or even if they are commonly used enough to be worth training.

Before you begin: There may be some unfair self-flagellation in this post. Been down a bit, since I am still recovering from my illness. I will try to keep it mild.

Thursday night - Took my daughter to Dallas Go Club. Didn't really get to play a game, but I showed her off. The 4 Dan there offered to play her, but she was being shy. We ate some food and she relaxed and then she really, really wanted to play him, but he had already left. She was not interested in playing me. She wanted to watch several of the games, but she was too shy. She would watch for a moment, but when someone looked at her, she would run away.

Friday - I had to work 6 hours overnight for dayjob after working a full day Thurs, and I had to come in for Fri as well. I was not a functional human most of the day, and my pnuemonia came back hard on me, and I was miserable. I think I watched a few pro games in a daze, but mostly... Blech.

Sat - Some EasyGo basics. I don't remember how many. My 5 yo daughter asked to replay a pro game, and since I am currently looking at Ke Jie's games, we did one of those. I would press the button for the next move, and she would put the stone on the board, and I would correct her if necessary. Got about 25 moves in before she lost interest. I watched, but did not replay, about 4 games in SmartGo, just trying to get a feel for it. We also purchased and put together a lot of furniture from Ikea, and I nearly passed out in the store (the walk is so long, and I am still sick!). Once the furniture was together, I got to put the big TV up and plug the media PC in. The family watched a lot of Hikaru No Go together. My daughter loves it.

Sun - Probably about 70 EasyGo basics. Again my daughter asked to replay a game. This time it was a Gu Li game. Again, we got about 25 moves in before she went off to play with friends. Watched about 8 games in Smart Go, and replayed 1 manually. I saw some interesting tricks I hadn't noticed before; I don't know how to describe them. I don't know if I even understand them correctly. Several of the games I watched, I want to replay manually so I can look at some the exchanges in more detail. There are so many wonderful games out there. Started relearning the josekis I've forgotten from Weiqi Dingshi Daquan. Oh, and the family all watched more Hikaru No Go. And my daughter asked to play a game with me! Yay! She took 6 stones and we played 59 moves each (118 total) before she lost interest. She did some very clever things at the beginning, things that look like stuff she saw in the pro games we replayed. She played a few end game moves at the edge and when I responded, she sighed, and told me now she would have to connect so I couldn't atari. Amazing how fast she learns

Mon - I started feeling better, finally, and I had the day off. We were supposed to go down to the State Fair of Texas, but the weather was horrible and a storm the night before had knocked out the commuter trains to the fair. We all went to Chick Fil A, since we were healthier, and my daughter was stir crazy. My daughter and I played a "sample" game, which is where she puts stones randomly on the board and then moves them around, just looking at them. We replayed a few moves from a pro game, or, rather, I did most of it, as she ran off to play with kiddos. I taught a man and his 5 year old son how to play, worked on some Josekis, finished replaying my pro game, watched another. Later on, after we got home, I did probably about 500 Easygo basics, finally getting around to finishing up the basics section. Remember, these aren't life and death problems or even tesuji problems (usually - there are a few of both of those in there), these are real basic things, like atari in the right direction, capture, connect, ladder, net, etc. So 500 isn't something godlike or anything. Also, I did the problems just before bed, and I was exhausted. Knotwilig would be disappointed; I was not in prime learning mode, but it's the time I had. Before that, though, we all watched more Hikaru No Go, and my daughter asked to play another game with me. She took 9 stones this time, and we played 65 stones each (130 moves) before she lost interest. After losing her first corner, she made a really cool endgame play that made her second corner live. Very proud of her She's starting to realize that she has a lot to learn, I think, but I try not to tell her that or make comments at all. I've found that my comments frustrate her more than help, probably because I'm one of her parents and I nag her about stuff all day long anyway. Maybe I can find her a teacher, someone she can learn from that isn't dad? Who knows.

Tues - I did 436 EasyGo basics. The last dozen or so, my brain was melted. I'd intended to do more, but I wasn't learning anything, so I stopped. I came back later, and did 39 Tsumego Pro basic problems. I was really terrible at these. I realized that I hadn't done Tsumego or Tesuji for like a month or something, maybe longer! I also cranked out about 20 Tesuji problems from the same program. I really need to work on these again; my basics are much stronger, but I've lost what little Tesuji/Tsumego I had, and I... grrrr... it just makes me clench my teeth and want to punch a table. You work so hard to learn something and then it fades away so fast. Very disappointed in myself for not keeping up with it. Family watched more Hikaru No Go, though, and my daughter once again asked to play Go. Sadly, it was too late, way past her bed time. We played two fast games of capture go instead, and I promised to play a real game with her tomorrow night. Also, her mother also promised to play her at a game of capture Go, which is a huge step forward. My wife hasn't played for months.

Wed:

A few go problems, but mostly tried to reaplay joseki and learn some stuff from the "Becoming 5 kyu" video sample from GGG's Baduk TV English. It takes about an hour to do 7 minutes of the video for me, replaying enough to feel comfortable.

Thurs:

Finished the "Becoming 5 kyu" sample, and signed up for the other free video, a championship game review. Wow, it's dense. And wonderful. Lots of information on the opening. I got about 10 minutes in, and it took me 2 hours.

Ironically, at Dallas Go Club, the exact opening I studied came up, and I did well for the first 20 or so moves because of my study!

Game:
I played Mark at the Dallas Go Club again; he's 8 kyu, and beat me by 60+ points last time. Well, I cut that in half this time But I feel like I should've done much better. I was just so incredibly passive this game. Not sure why. I was too afraid of his moves, and too cautious, and too slow. I really need to get my aggressive edge sharpened.

I talked about maybe taking a stone next time, but if I can keep cutting his lead in half, I may not need to. I'd rather play the game with all it's parts, including fuseki, so I can learn and get better.

I've included my own analysis of the game, but it's not very good, I'm afraid. Just the best I can do. I'd love some actual expert commentary.