I've been continuing with 1001 Life and Death problems, almost through the 5 moves to live section. I feel this has increased my strength by several stones. Even after a two week break due to outside issues, I've been playing better. Also, most of the way through Get Strong at Tesuji. I'll move on to GGPFB vol 4.

Hit 7 kyu after playing a handicap game against a 4k.

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Back to 8 kyu for now after a couple of losses. Just started the kill in 5 for 1001 L&D problems.

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Some comments:

A few comments.

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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.

Thank you both for the reviews! I'm not sure why I decided to try to split at B39, afraid I was losing grasp of the game at this point?

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Still on the edge of the 7k/8k barrier. I feel more confident, and after a game, I usually can point out my big mistakes. Lately, it has been to attack a group to kill instead of just to profit, which created too many weak groups for me.

I haven't made much progress on the last 200 problems in 1001 L&D - they take me a long time to read out, if I can read them. I need to start doing more tsumego problems daily. I've fallen behind my original plan. I think by switching to easier problems for a while, it'll re-establish that routine of doing 20+ problems before bed every night.

Current plan:
Finish Get Strong at Tesuji
Redo all the problems in Tesuji, Graded Go Problems for Beginners v3
Come back and finish 1001 L&D after those two, before moving on.

Went a bit crazy with books, and added a bunch of additional tsumego and tesuji problem books. Making Good Shape, 501 Tesuji, 501 Openings, Get Strong at Openings, BadukTV Classics (paper is extremely thin, similar to reviews of Changho's selected problem books, but its a paper copy of two classics - Guanzi Pi and Xuanxuan Qijing), Rescue and Capture, This is Haengma, Intermediate problems, All about life and death, Weiqi Life and Death 1000 Problems. This is in additional to all my current books (Graded Go for Dan, Get Strong at Endgame, and a few others.) As I said, went a little bit crazy with books. Can't find a copy of Gokyo Shumyo, but maybe BadukTV Classics will include that in the future (though, I'm not a fan of their paper quality)? I also can't find Changho's Selected Tesuji/L&D without paying $20/book via amazon, and none of the Chinese/Japanese sites ship to the US. But I think I have enough problem books to get me to 1 dan for now anyways.

I watch a couple of dwyrin's professional game reviews per week (they're entertaining) and listen to a few lectures by Guo Juan's internet school. I'm half way through the new step by step, and I've watched all the shapes. I don't know if Guo Juan's lectures has helped, but they do provide new ideas and ways of looking at different problems.

And of course, I make sure I play at least 8 serious games per week. Half those games are usually on KGS, but I also play on Tygem or IGS.

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Lost a game by a large margin (40+ pts), and won a game by an early resign today, both on KGS. I really need to get better at counting, and to do it more often. I feel as if I'm terrible with any game that relies on influence.

Also, started tracking my daily progress through a written journal. I liked what Abyssinica was doing with the daily tsumego.

Continued through 1001 L&D. I'm a completionist and really want to get through that book before moving on, but the problems take me a while to solve, so still debating on going to easier problems first, but will probably finish 1001 L&D before I do so.



Edit: and another game I lost by 1/2 pt on IGS.

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Finished 1001 L&D problems and Get Strong at Tesuji. The 5 moves to kill were taking about 3 min to solve on average...I'm a pretty slow reader, and that's going to my main focus. Lots and lots of tsumego. It's a good thing I enjoy it. Just started Elementary: Life and Death, my first read through.

Won a few games on KGS. With the exception of today, I feel like a lot of the games I've won I didn't deserve to win...like, my opponent makes a large late-game blunder, or (once) resigned when he was ahead by a few points (like 4-5). Maybe he misjudged?

I need to play more often. Seems as if I can only get about 4-5 games in a week.

Anyways, here's tonight's game. Comments were made on gokibitz.com, it was not in-game chat.

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Here are some thoughts:

And some thoughts on the igs game:

Thanks for both those reviews!


Didn't have the chance to study this weekend, but I'm half way through Elementary series Life & Death.

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Right on the border of 7/6k. Lost a game against a 8k by 4.5 pts today, then won a game against a 7k.

Here is the 8k game. I made a couple of comments via gokibitz. Definitely don't think I have board awareness.

I have a long list of tsumego books to get through. So, less time on the forum, more time solving problems.

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Just a few comments from my side, as always - since I'm not much stronger than you - take them with appropriate suspicion...

- "good sente" vs. "bad sente" moves are often discussed in this forum. IMHO "bad sente" means that the opponent needs to reply thereby solidifying his position (and taking away aji). Here, I think replying at R7 is a "good sente" (maybe almost urgent sente) as it keeps a base for your lower stones. At the moment black gets R7 himself, your stones became baseless and had to live in another way, which costed time.
- This was "practically sente" because black responded, however it seems he actually didn't need to. It was also "bad sente" because after black playing S4 all remaining aji (maybe in connection with the O4 cut...?) has vanished.
- If you push through but then don't cut, you just help black solidifying his position. Instead you could have peeped at B13 (if black C13 then B14 connects).
- Normally black would respond at B15 here, and his group is fine.
- This defends territory, but you can also think of splitting (e.g. at G14). When black runs away with his H15 stone, you can play B14, where black should have responded. The black group would have to run and you would get profit.

Thanks schawipp for the review! (I do look at them here, just don't always reply...)

Just hit 6 kyu after winning 2 (close) games tonight (both I would have lost if I was 6k at the time, the irony is not lost on me). Working on 5k before Christmas, and maybe 3 kyu before March (1 yr mark since playing on KGS). Maybe. But first, stabilize as 6k.

I've started doing Cho's elementary on tsumego.tasuki.org. I've completed the first 100 already. Also, to the Carpenter's Square in Elementary series Life and Death. My study plan has turned mostly to tsumego. Helps that I enjoy it.

Anyways, here's the two games below. Again, comments are from gokibitz (where I have the same username, so it looks like I'm commenting in game, but...its not, there were no comments in the games).

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Some thoughts on the second game

Just an update. I've begun Graded Go Problems for Beginners volume 4 and This is Haengma. The first part of This is Haengma covers the basics, stuff for DDK, but the mid-section is focusing on some interesting fundamentals, concepts I'm aware of, but I'm still not solid on. I think this is a book that can be read at 10k easily, but I'm also enjoying it as a SDK.

Don't know if I'll hit my goal of 5k by Christmas, but now that I can focus entirely on Go for a while, maybe its still possible. I hit a snag after 4 losses in a row, but won 2 games tonight which boosted my confidence a little. I need to remember to take my time to read. There's plenty of time on the clock. I also have to curb my frustration with (over?) aggressive opponents.

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No 5k by Christmas, but that's okay. The past couple of weeks, I haven't had a chance to play many games or study. Hopefully, during the new year, I won't be quite as busy, and I can dedicate more time towards tsumego and games.

I'm not going to set any time goals for the near future, just dedicate time towards playing and studying. Strength will come.

And I'll be back to my daily tsumego. 30 minutes a day, minimum. Even if I don't play games.

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And back to playing after 2 months off due to anxiety (and a host of other issues). 1 win and 5 losses...way too many reading mistakes and quick play. But hey, playing again.

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Hey do not give up! You are a huge inspiration for me in fact. I want to solve/play as much problems and games as you! Maybe i can improve faster this way.. I study books too much.. This month i will finish Tesuji again and solve daily tsumegos, then we'll see where it goes.

edit: grammer

Thanks PlaySlow! I probably work on too much (easy) tsumego and not enough games...which I'm going to try to combat by changing it up a little bit.

In order to get over my anxiety (ladder anxiety...there's been a few videos about it), I'm challenging myself to 100 games of play. I'll record the win/loss ratio and review the games, but I'll stop worrying about whether I win or lose a given game. The goal is just to play 100 games, even if they're not to my best. Doesn't matter how many I win or lose, just play 100 games.

And I've been doing tsumego regularly. Re-reading 1001 L&D problems. I'm getting about 80% accuracy on the 5-move problems.

As such, I can already record 2 games down (both losses).

AlphaGo v Lee Sedol! So awesome watching those two games. Sad that Sedol is 2 games down, but the games are fantastic to watch. I'll miss game 3, but should be able to catch game 4.

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