Hi friends,
I just registered on this forum to have a place where I can keep a study journal. I learned the rules a few years back, but I never really did more than solve a few tsumego and play a couple of games on KGS getting wrecked by DDKs. I have a background in chess, and enjoy that game a lot, but lately I wanted to have a second look at Go and try to actively improve at it. I will keep updating this thread at least once a week.

Starting earlier this month, I now seem to have stabilized at 8 kyu on KGS. It feels as if I don't really have a clue what the game really is about, and that the board is a vast sea where monsters constantly keep popping up from nowhere.

So far I have read "Elementary Go Series: In the Beginning" but I fear it was mostly a waste of time, as the book is way too esoteric, and the examples way too few, for the material to have any effect on my own games. On the other hand "Life and Death" from the same series has surely been useful, as the material I learn there keep showing up in practice.

My motivation is simply to get stronger. I try not to think too much about whatever rank KGS says I am at, but what I do know is at 8 kyu people - myself included - keep making ridiculous mistakes, like forgetting about cutting points, wasting ko threats, falling for cheap tactical shots and on the whole lacking whole board vision. I am definitely still in the beginner category as a Go player.

My plan for May 2015 is as follows;

1. Complete "Life and Death". By doing one chapter (which are fairly short) a day, this should be doable. I have had great success with spaced repetition software (in my case Anki) for language learning, and I might experiment with using it for go as well, starting by inputting basic shapes from this book into a dedicated Go deck.

2. Complete the first 8 chapters of "Elementary Go Series: Tesuji". I might need to revise this goal if it turns out the book is significantly easier or harder than I expect though.

3. Play at least 4 "long" games on KGS each week. (25min + 5x25 sec byo-yomi) Luckily I have a couple of stronger friends (2-4 kyu) who can help me with a little bit of analysis. I will post whatever interesting games I get in this thread as well.

Later on I aim to complete "Tesuji" and "Attack and Defense" as well. There are so many elements to Go that I need to take a slow and systematic approach to my own learning I feel, rather than going all out and risk forgetting things as soon as I learn them. As I have a full time job I need to manage my time as best I can.

Thanks for reading!

Hi kaikai, Welcome and good luck!

Time for an update!

Since last time I have been diligently studying "EGS: Life and Death", but rather than studying "EGS: Tesuji" I have completed "Opening Theory Made Easy", and am currently in the middle of Kageyama's "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go". I am on course to finish Kageyama and Life&Death within the month.

I've also played at least one game (25min + 5x30s) every day, and I definitely feel that solving life and death problems has helped me a lot. Unfortunately most games at my level seem to go as follows;

1. Black and White stake out some corner and side territory in the opening.
2. The players try to reduce eachother "from the side" by finding tricks to extend into the opponents frameworks.
3. The players randomly jump into the center from their frameworks to make sure the opponent cannot establish any territory there.

In short, the games tend to be dull and "peaceful". Both I and my opponents seem to count inward potential as solid territory way too early. I think I will need to start looking at reductions and invasions, as well as trying to force more fighting go where I have a chance to make gains by outreading my opponent. Go is indeed a problem that needs to be tackled by many angles.

Try to change the way you play initially to create more complications.

You might, for example, play solidly in the beginning so you don't have to worry about the safety of your groups, then jump in the middle of your opponent's moyo.

Alternatively, you could be extremely ambitious and try to stake a huge centre (or a huge side), forcing your opponent to invade.

With diagonal fuseki, there will be more groups on the board, and so there will likely be at least one target for attack.

Try to cut more.

You can also try to play joseki leading to a fight. Obviously, your opponent won't always cooperate, but there are ways to get a better result if he doesn't. For example, at one time I would play two 4-5 + tengen, because many takamoku variations depend on the ladder, so I would be able to force my opponent to play the joseki I wanted.

Also, you should really read Tesuji, as that's one of the most helpful books out there.

I've kept on studying from the books mentioned in my last post. I try to incorporate the principles into my own games, and even if I do it incorrectly or too naively, it feels like I have become better at formulating plans at least. I am attaching a game for the first time;

For you should either set up opposing ladders, or make it so that tengen become a very good move. As it was, it certainly wasn't bad, but it's not what you would have played usually either, am I right?

is terrible, though. It's cowardly, pointless, and you should feel bad for having played it. There are cases where taking the ko can be bad, of course, but it isn't such a situation. At worst, you will answer his ko threat and then play H16. It will be exactly the same, but it will have wasted one ko threat.

I have no time right now to comment on the rest of the game. I will come back to it later.

Edit :

: I think the best would be an approach of the lower left corner. Your wall is at a good distance of your stone is the upper-right, so a move on the upper side would be over-concentrated. Playing on the right side could be big, but it wouldn't really affect white at all, and more importantly there would still be too many entry points in your framework (the first one being the 3-3, which would be a good play by white if you played at Q10)

kicking at P17 would be better if you want to attack white. Q17 isn't terrible, as it totally kill the possibility of a 3-3 invasion, but it doesn't put as much pressure on white.

Q14 was also possible. The problem with P14 is that the fifth line doesn't secure territory well.

I like O14 personally. M18 would likely have been better than M17, because after M17, you really want to connect at L17.

Edit 2 :

I don't think it's what I would have played, but I can't find anything to fault this move.

You should enclose white group with something like M13

Premature

Defending was here is too small at this point of the game. Attack.

Why not Q15?

Well, it killed off quite a bit of aji in your P3 stone. It would need one more move to kill off completely, though. Given the fight at the top, though, it is certainly not the time to play something like this.

I think I would prefer to connect at L17, as white will have trouble to escape (if M13 for example, he will have to abandon half of his group, and I don't think other moves can succeed in breaking through). If you're fine with the ko, though...

White should at least take the time to do a real ko threat.

White N13 is nothing to worry about, so you were right in finishing the ko.

Good.

I think K13 would be better. White can't escape, and M14 would only make one eye (if J17, you can play J18-K18-J16) and make his eye false

Yeah, you're lucky to get away with this.

A bit sad that you had to kill by ko here.

115 : I think H3 would have been better. E6 would have been good. M10... I think instead of M10, playing O11, cutting off his lump of stone for further attack would be better.

Thank you for taking the time to go through my game and analyze. You made some important points that I need to keep in mind. Much appreciated!

Argh! Mirror Go! Something I despise as well... although at I'd have been sorely tempted to start mirroring the opponent!

Bki's already given some comments, so I'll just add a few things.

- How about F16 instead? Cut through that weakness
- Have to re-iterate Bki's point, you need to stop worrying and learn to love the ko fights
- This move is tiny, no need to play it
- So is this though

PeterN

Thank you for the input as well. I appreciate it!