Somehow Cho Chikun's intermediate tsumego have become far easier to the point where I ask if there's something I missed that made it so easy.



And then I come to a problem that utterly stumps me for 20 minutes.

And then rinse and repeat.

Can anyone review the first 30 moves of this game and then explain how I should go about attacking the two white stones at move 30? I am black and have little experience with 2 space high pincers.



A tewari sequence of the first 3 moves, switching the places of 1 and 3, makes me think of the chapter "Move two lost the game" in the direction of play.


I didn't know how to attack so I picked black 31. Maybe I shouldn't have taken gote on the right side?

http://eidogo.com/#NWO70jYb

Come to think of it, a peep at r2 looks interesting.

Maybe there should have been a chapter "move 9 lost the game". You must block to separate white's corner from the pincer. Move 2 only loses the game (figuratively) because a white pincer is disconnected from the corner and a weak group in your sphere of influence. Once the white pincer is strong your top side moyo all but disappears.

Gote on right (r7 or r8 also possible) was correct, you can't let white hane there.

Don't attack move 30, laugh in its face and tenuki to a larger area of the board. Your 31 is ok too though as it combines defending your rather pointless eyeless wall group to the left with attacking white's lower side group.

You could also consider some sort of capping strategy to force white to live small, but I haven't done any real reading to back it up.

Pretty much what Uberdude said.

should block. De rigeur. Divide and conquer!

But I prefer to attack with . Otherwise White has a good play at G-03, also combining attack and defense. A White clamp at F-03 is also a thought. For you might also consider the jaw strike at J-03.

If White takes gote in response to the attack, you can play sanrensei on the top side. If White takes sente, you can continue the attack.

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That's a 3-4 stone on the top side. I did end up eventually making a Chinese formation, if that's comparable. J3 wouldn't have occured to me because I still don't register attacks as things that make contact with your opponet.

I decided to start Cho Chikun's elementary for the 4th time because I was feeling lazy and intermediate problem #301 scares me. Anyways, I set a time limit for 30 mintues and got to problem #161; at this rate, I can finish the whole thing in about 2.8 hours which is only 2.8 times less the speed tasuki says dans can solve it.

Summer ends today, but what did I achieve? Well, I got from 8kyu to 5 kyu on kgs when my goal was 3 kyu, but that's okay because I didn't study and play as hard as I could have. 5 kyu is still respectable and, maybe, I'll be able to get 3k, 2k, or even 1 by the end of the year! 1d was the benchmark against which I was measuring myself anyways.

I assume anoek on ogs decided to browse L19 then change my ogs rank considering I haven't been active on ogs in a month. <_<

Apparently this game went relatively well for me considering the strength difference.



I ran into time trouble right before I invaded on the top right.
According to Aeroplane, my play there was slack and I could've killed him? But when reading that out I noticed that he could push out and split my two groups above and below and I didn't want a running battle like that. Though according to him, splitting two strong groups isn't that great for white.

I re-read after black 39 and then decided that no, I am not going to pull that stone out.

Black 75 should really be attacking white's shape instead of the one space jump, but I was too woried about being cut and didn't have enough time to read.

Black 83 is some desparation to keep a hold of as many points as I can.

http://eidogo.com/#eGL0dCur

We both played out some simple endgame and the result is a close game. I got W+3.5 once and B+5.5 in another.

Today, I asked for a quick game (10 Minutes MT + 3x20) since he had to go to class soon. This is the result:


(Oh my god my life and death in actual games is HORRENDOUS. I could've just looked at the board for 5 more seconds, killed, and then been set as W+30 or something). I also guess black could've been fine if he attempted a more severe furikawari?

Not looking for a review, but posting for comparison

Report on Graded go problems for dan players:


Volume 2 5k to 3d tesuji problems -
Tesuji appearing in joseki: Where do I even start?
Capturing stones and winning capturing races: Really easy compared to what I was expecting. It's almost like a second volume of get strong at tesuji (Which I've completed 4 times over, so that might be a factor). There's also a bit of boost to my ego when the "solve at a glance = 1 dan" I can do in 10 seconds (Since I found the solution at a glance and had to read out the continuation) and the "Solve in 2 minutes = 2 kyu" slapping tesuji I solved in the same amount of time. Even the solve in 5 minutes = 5 kyu I got in probably 30 seconds when I realised the net would only turn into a simple squeeze if white had tried to escape.

Volume 7 300 opening and middle game problems 1d to 7d -

Chapter 1 is multiple choice and is mainly urgent before big. I got most of the answers correct, and the answers I did not get correct were usually second best with comments like "Normally, this move is above criticism, but in this situation...."
Chapter 2 is entitled flexibility in the opening and oh my god I fail at this section. I'll get maybe 40% of the ones I've attempted right, another 20% I get second best, and the others I just miss the mark completely. In some problems my first intuition was correct, and yet getting fancy and second guessing myself caused me to get a second best answer or even miss it completely. There are still some in this section that are a no brainer to me.

I still love the ideas I'm getting from thinking about why the right answer is the right one and see moves I wouldn't have thought to make before.

Before I begin chapter 3 I'd like to finish 501 opening problems since chapter 3 is not multiple choice.

Only in regards to the winning capturing races and capturing stones chapters
25% of the 3d problems are easily solveable (Solve in 2 minutes = 3d. What, you mean the PLAINLY OBVIOUS two stone edge squeeze or first line peep that reduces liberties and let's me win the capturing race?)
50% of the 3d problems require some reading and sweat but generally aren't much harder than a 3 star or 4 star in Get strong at tesuji
The other 25% warp my mind.


501 tesuji problems page 1: This book is going to make me cry considering I only got half right in the span of entering and exiting the lavatory.

150 Intermediate life and death
8 games of your time settings
Finish 501 opening problems
Finish the capturing stones sections of my graded go problems
Finish 50 problems in 501 tesuji
Replay 14 pro games

To finish by 10 December 2014


I changed the reqs when I realised his steel man challenged was 14 day intervals and not a 30 day one.

The hardest part (and the most important, probably) for me is playing, more than reading anyway. Fitting many (for my standards) games in a short period is hard!

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20 second byo yomi is pain

I agree and this is one of the reasons why I really like IGS and the default Canadian time settings there. But you definitely need to have more time ahead of you for each game....

I like Black 97 and 99; Black 101 at M11 should be natural?

The cover looks like it's marked with some kind of fingerprints? But that doesn't matter to me (much).

Now begins a new era of learning at the goban in my room.

My first move instinct for problem 501 of 501 opening problems was correct. The only things that came to my mind were my sparse reading of "all about thickness" and imaging how black could spring his moyo in his fvour if he were allowed to play that point.