Not being a well-orgnized person, I think it would be useless to write : 20 tsumegoes per day, 5 games per week. But i want to start a journal first and see what I can do then.

I am currently 5kyu, I play in ASR league. Today is friday, maybe i should start with a book.

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Chaos style! I like it. Good luck!

(Perhaps you should add your name to the title, so we can spot whose study journal it is instantly.)

Yeah, thanks for the advice, I've changed it. I think i'll come every morning to post what I did the day before, and after a while, I should see what I need to do more or do less.

The book I'm reading now is The Path to 5 kyu by Otake Hideo 9P. I have always a love towards Japanese Go books. The reason why to 5kyu not to 1kyu (another book) is that I could soon write 'done' here and give myself some confidence.

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Good luck on your journey

Feel free to post some games for reviewing :3

Friday

It was not a very good start. As perdicted, no tsumego, 1 tesuji today. But the good thing is before i went to bed i read some pages. The reason I did it was that I suddenly realised that I had nothing to write in the Journal if I did not read any pages. I'm still in chapter 1. There are three chapters, Tesuji, Joseki and Fuseki.


Tsumego 0
Tesuji 1
Books The path to 5kyu -Chapter 1. Tesuji
Games 0
Pro game study 0

Give an example of what i learnt from the book today.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Corner
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X . . . . .
$$ | . . d c . . . . .
$$ | . a . O X . . . .
$$ | . b . O X . . . .
$$ | . . O X X . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . O X . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ ------------------[/go]

It is interesting the correct move is black a, white b, black c. I used to think black a welcomes white d, so it's dangerous to play so.



Thanks!

_________________
长考出臭棋.

My question is about the book you mention here. Is it an (in) japanese book? I found nowhere any sign of any book that matches.

Mine's in chinese. I don't know the original name of the book, and i did not find a match in amazon.co.jp neither. It was transalted in 1986, quite old one. It's a set of three books, written by three different Japanese pros for beginner.

_________________
长考出臭棋.

The Chinese name should be 围棋初级指导(二) 通向五级的捷径. Published by 北京科学技术出版社
One of the miscellaneous Chinese go books I don't have. It doesn't cost much on the Chinese used book market. But for me to buy it, I'd have to pay too much in associated costs such as foreign exchange, bank charges, shipping, etc.

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

I always thought so, too, but:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Corner
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . 3 . X . . . . .
$$ | . . 2 . . . . . .
$$ | . 1 . O X . . . .
$$ | . . . O X . . . .
$$ | . . O X X . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . O X . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ ------------------[/go]

You are leaving cutting points behind, but as long as you read them out, White's group is in mortal danger. Furthermore White can't push and cut through immediately because he will get short of liberties and then C5 might become a Snapback.

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Corner
$$ | . a 6 . . . . . .
$$ | . 5 4 X . . . . .
$$ | . 3 2 . . . . . .
$$ | . 1 8 O X . . . .
$$ | . 9 7 O X . . . .
$$ | . b O X X . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . O X . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ ------------------[/go]

I wasn't sure where should black 3 respond. Studied with a shodan on KTL room yesterday, and he showed this varation. I don't know how to post 10 and 11, it always splits into 1 & 10 and 1 & 1, so using hexadecimal, a and b instead.

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Saturday

A busy day. Did not read many pages. I should really start either my Tesuji book or Tsumego book.

I did give many teaching games yesterday. It is frustrating to teach total beginners, who just want to know 'what is this' for fun and never come back later. Hikaru no Go may be their better teacher than I am. I'm always happy to teach those who at least are willing to improve, not those who want to know it for fun. Not any more.

Tsumego 0
Tesuji 0
Books The path to 5kyu -Chapter 2. Joseki
Games many teaching games to weakers
Pro game study 0

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Wednesday

Have not updated last two days, because only spent some time to read the book, but not played any game. I have finished the book, will write a review later. Will play a tournament game with LiKao this friday, hopefully then I can have a serious game. I think about a little goal for this month: to play as many ASR League game as possible.


围棋初级指导(二) 通向五级的捷径- The Path to 5kyu

The book contains three parts: 1. Tesuji 2. Joseki 3. Fuseki. It gives only a general idea, rather than into details. The Tesuji part introduced some useful tesujis and explains quite clearly. The Joseki part, I'd rather say isn't that good. Often it just shows a joseki without explaination, and ask the reader to memorise it, which i find isn't that useful. And some of them, even only given the first 5 or 6 moves, and then 'the reader could refer to other books for details'. I'd advice to skip this part. The Fuseki part, on the contrary, is quite nice. It gives 5 or 6 principales of what should be done during the opening, and each principale is presented with an example.

This book is suitable for a 5kyu player using as a review book, rather than someone who wants to be a 5kyu.




The book i'll read next is Yi Chang-ho Endgame Techniques
http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2010/06/1 ... echniques/
According to other people's review. The first part of the book wasn't written by Lee, but later he points out how to do score estimate in the mid game, which is quite unique among other books.

Tsumego 0
Tesuji 0
Books The path to 5kyu
Games 0
Pro game study 0

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Corner
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . 5 3 X . . . . .
$$ | . 4 2 . . . . . .
$$ | . 1 . O X . . . .
$$ | . . a O X . . . .
$$ | . . O X X . X . .
$$ | . . O O . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . O . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ ------------------[/go]

In cases where the cut at a does not affect the life and death of the corner group, the usual idea is to just sacrifice the stone with and . I leave it to you to appreciate how solid this wall is.

_________________
My homepages: http://senseis.xmp.net/?Unkx80 and http://yeefan.sg/.

Thanks unkx80! This looks much better


Thursday

Still no tsumego, no tesuji today. I think I need to set up a little plan for it. Otherwise I'll never do it.
And also it's funny I put Pro game study on my list, as I never know how to study pro game. Maybe I should delete this.

Good thing is that I played a game, with MagicMagor. He gave me 2 stones, and I think I made some mistake in the opening, but still keep the advantage until end of mid game. I was trying to play thick, as I recieved two stones. But still, there's two weakness that later brought me trouble. MagicMago used the weakness and succesfully snaked in my territory. But he was too greedy and lost the group, otherwise I think he's good.

Have two questionable moves in the game, if anyone could help

Tsumego 0
Tesuji 0
Books Yi Chang-ho Endgame Techniques
Games 1
Pro game study 0


Question one is the black triangle stone, is this move too passive? As white still has 3.3 in the corner (this is my second question), is it better for black to play S16 and chase white out? 'Coz this black looks very over concentrated in this corner, and still leave aji.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c This is a label for the diagram.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . Y . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . O O O . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . |
$$ | . O O X . . . . . O . . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . X O . . . X . . . X . |
$$ | . . O X . . . X . O . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . . O . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The second question is about the same corner, when white come to 3.3, from 2 to 8, white's alreay alive. Does black has better way to attack?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c This is a label for the diagram.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . X . . . . . 5 2 . 8 |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . X . X 3 4 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X . O X X X X X . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . O X X O X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X X O O O O O . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . X O O X . . . . . |[/go]

_________________
长考出臭棋.

This move is not passive at all. It not only captures the two stones, it also connects the two black groups. Black becomes very strong because of that. Just imagine the situation when White plays there: the black heavy group would be split off and weak.

Do not worry about overconcentration too much. First come strength and weakness, which are closely related to connecting and cutting.

_________________
A good system naturally covers all corner cases without further effort.

Thanks for the comments!

Monday

Another step forward, played a H4 game with Shaddy. And he kindly reivewed it after the game.

I feel myself still weak in recognizing the difference between a strong shape and a heavy group. I kosumied and peepped his stones to make them 4 in a row, which i felt heavy, but in fact I hurted my own stones. Also I need to learn how to leave aji in my opponent's group. Another thing is to balance the time, i spent too much time in the opening reading, while in the mid game, when stones and groups twisted together I seems lost my patient in reading at all. In this way, I need to do more life and death problems. But looking from last week's record, I did none!



Tsumego 0
Tesuji 0
Books Yi Chang-ho Endgame Techniques
Games 1
Pro game study 0

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Saturday

Finally played a game, a L19 tournament game. I made a mistake at the begining, because i'm not confidence on my reading. And then, he made a mistake on joseki, also when i invaded 3.3, he made a group of mine, which was alive-on-ko, unconditional alive. And he made himself gote. I think I'm ahead from that time.

But as usual, my mid game is terrible. End game is even worse. I cannot find anywhere sente for me. So i need to read harder the Endgame Technique

Tsumego 0
Tesuji 0
Books Yi Changho Endgame Technique
Games 1
Pro game study 0

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Monday

Study two pro games. Still no game. I might drop from Gamma class if I don't play the ASR League game


Tsumego..................0
Tesuji.......................0
Books.......................Tesuji Dictionary
Games......................0
Pro game study........Super Meijin Lee changho vs Gu li
......................................& Iyama Yuta vs Gu li

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Wednesday

Played a lot of game today, and lost all of them. I did not know how i simply missed such an important atari. And I get very nervous when my opponent plays slow. Also why I like to play bot, they keep on moving in a same pace. I did not review it later though, as I played too bad. Sad, but at least I start to play.

Tsumego..................0
Tesuji.......................0
Books.......................none
Games......................4
Pro game study........Super Meijin Lee changho vs Gu li (Final)

_________________
长考出臭棋.

Good luck breaking your losing streak, I know they`re always painful. Hopefully you're just absorbing a new concept into your play, and when your losing streak ends, you will have a great winning streak.

I don't personally like playing bots like gnugo, btw - I could win reasonably reliably at 4 stones last I tried, but I don't feel its play correlates well to real go players.


Anyway, work hard and catch up to me on 3 kyu ! Though I will have to make 2 kyu in record time to not fall too far behind Sodes and redundant...

Man, it takes all the running you can do just to stay in the same place.

Again, Good luck

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.