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Offline Christos
 Post subject: Christos' Delightful Go Madness
Post #1 Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:23 pm 
Dies in gote

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Greetings, fellow L19x19ers.

Before you start reading, please enjoy some vocaloid madness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xtEy951Dic

Past
To start this topic off I'll start with a glimpse into my Go history.
I started playing a year and a half ago or so, or rather, I became familiar with the game.
I played a little on KGS, but just a bit, I was mainly playing Chess as I was a member of a chess club
and competed in the internal and external competition. Until 3 months or so ago, go was not a lot more than just something to do
when incredibly bored, as my main focus was Chess. However the more Chess I played, the more restricted I felt. This tiny board could
never capture one's true intentions. I started playing more Go and now I have come to a point where I am truely ready to dedicate all the time
I have to this gorgeous game.


Present
I am currently 5K on KGS. I have in my possession ;

- several books on Go
- A freshly purchased year subscription to Guo Juan's internet go school
- A wonderful teacher whom will be teaching me three times a week

I intend to use all of these resources to the fullest of their potential in order to become stronger.

Future
I have no particular ranking goals as of yet, as I don't believe setting those at this particular time will help me improve.
My goal is simply to get a better understanding of the game and become stronger.

I intend to attend the 2011 EGC in Bordeaux and all of my training will be with that thought in the back of my mind. It'll most likely be my
first real life tournament and I would very much like to register as a very strong player and perform well.

Current Schedule on a day by day basis
- Solve at least 200 tsumego, or three hour's worth, whichever comes first. I may extend this depending on how much fun I'm having.
I'll be starting with One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems from the mastering the basics series
- Play at least 5 games with 10 or 20 minutes each 20 second byo-yomi depending on how much time I have. I will also spend time reviewing the games I have played.
- Complete 2 lessons on Guo Juan's internet go school. I have yet to pick a topic so feel free to suggest something.

I will also (for as long as I can afford, luckily my teacher is fairly cheap :mrgreen: ) follow three one hour lessons a week.
These could be teaching games, reviews, or anything else.

I am not sure whether or not I can start with this schedule this week, as I'm helping my family prepare for their vacation so I'm not sure how much time I'll have.
But at the latest I am going to start when they leave (peace and quiet, ahhhh great) which will be coming weekend.

I'll be using this wonderful forum to track my progress and hold myself accountable, also possibly post some of my games for help or just to brag haha.

P.S. I know this seems like a lot but I'm pretty much a hikikomori so I have plenty of time.
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Offline kokomi
 Post subject: Re: Christos' Delightful Go Madness
Post #2 Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:51 pm 
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welcome to the 5k club. So lucky to have a teacher!

_________________
长考出臭棋.
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Offline Loons
 Post subject: Re: Christos' Delightful Go Madness
Post #3 Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:27 pm 
Gosei
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Location: wHam!lton, Aotearoa
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Good luck getting stronger, with such a regime you'll surely surpass most of us in no time. If you want a game, give me a shout on KGS.


Having googled the word hikikomori though (roughly English recluse or hermit?), I'd say - I'm more of a proponent of a balanced lifestyle, though, why not try taking up going to the gym ? I've found that goes well with go as a hobby; one's taxing mentally, the other physically.

Also, while I haven't been to a real life tournament myself yet, it seems people often say they take some endurance to do well, which I guess physical conditioning would help with.

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.
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Offline Christos
 Post subject: Re: Christos' Delightful Go Madness
Post #4 Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:07 pm 
Dies in gote

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Was liked: 9
I'll be editing this post all week in order to keep track of what I have done, and rate my own performance on a daily basis.

Week 1 02-08-2010 - 08-08-2010

Monday 02-08-2010

As expected I had less time than I had hoped for, the house is in disarray because my family is leaving sunday.
There's no peace to be found in the house for my studying (not even in my own room, as my brother is playing on my xbox, which means lots of gunshots, screaming and laughing on his part, not so much on mine...), not to mention the US Go Congress and the European one. Despite this I still tried hard to adhere to my schedule.

- Played 5 semi-long and long games, reviewed four of them, I have to review the last tomorrow, it's 2:40 AM right now and my brain has shut down for the night.
- Played a couple of blitz games. I don't know if Blitz harms your progress but I sometimes simply enjoy playing some blitz whilst listening to music.
- Did 104 Tsumego. I'm trying to get through them in a fairly decent speed. I'm writing down the ones I get wrong, so I can look them over later, and see if I do better the next time I plow my way through this tsumego book, which will probably be as soon as I finish it.
- Had a 90 minute lesson, consisting of yet another review and a game against my teacher, which I will review by myself tomorrow, before reviewing it together with my teacher.
- Watched a bunch of Go Congress games.. I'm not sure as to how effective watching these games in real time is, but I really enjoy watching them play and kibitzing with my fellow go-fanatics. It can never hurt to watch more go, can it?

Not entirely happy with what I've accomplished today, but to be completely honest I didn't expect to get anything done this entire week, so all in all I'd give this study day a 6 out of 10.


Tuesday 03-08-2010
Yet again this day wasn't quite as effective as I would've hoped. The problem with watching the real-time games from the European and the American Go Congress is that you'll easily spend 3 or 4 hours just watching one or two games, I'm afraid watching them in real-time just cuts into my training time (That and Starcraft 2 -_-). However, I feel like, since I enjoy watching them I should just continue to do so, it's only for another week (the house will be in disarray until then anyway) and it's important to do things you enjoy.

- Played 3 semi-long or long games and reviewed them
- Did a 100 tsumego. I'm noticing that despite these problems I'm on right now being fairly easy, I'm making a lot more mistakes than I should. I'm still writing them down so as to compare the numbers on my second run-through.
- Had a 60 minute lesson, in which we reviewed my review of the game my teacher and I played, and pointed out things I didn't notice. I was pleased to find out that he agreed on some of the things I had mentioned in my own review. We also reviewed another game I had played and we discussed my style of play. I now often play for influence rather than territory, which is really hard, and I'm still inconsistent in my strategy, thus we will discuss possible different openings on Thursday.
- Started the "Step by Step" lessons on Guo Juan's Internet Go School, from the "A route from 30k to 5D series". Today lesson 1/15. Very basic lesson but on the site Guo Juan insists you do these "easy lessons" so as to better understand the basics, because that is what westerners lack the most.

Again I can't NOT be happy about how today went, because I had expected to do nothing, but I'm still a little sad I didn't get to do more tsumego. I think I might start doing them earlier on in the day rather than just before bed. Perhaps that's where my mistakes come from? I rate my study at 5 out of 10.

Note to self ; "If you have time to play go you have time to do problems" - Guo Juan


Wednesday 04-08-2010
Today was a weird day. I woke up late because I'm not feeling too well, I think I might be coming down with the flu.. anyhow, I woke up late and did some morning tsumego, 50 or so, when I log onto KGS and my teacher tells me to forget about Tsumego for the day. Instead he gave me the assignment to look at Vanq's games (a 9D on KGS) to see how he punishes people. I downloaded all the games I could find in the archives and looked at maybe a dozen or so, and I was amazed. His play (despite it being 10 second go) was simply amazing, he was fearless, leaving groups that to me seemed dead, not finishing joseki, never backing away and unforgiving. I hope to someday be able to play even a little like he does.

- Played 2 games and reviewed them. One was just 30 minutes or so, the latter was over 2 hours long(longest game I have ever played), and I somehow ended up winning due to an endgame mistake, which I feel really bad about, but in my defense I had let him live earlier when I shouldn't have. He was a 3Kyu and I played him without a handicap so I was quite pleased.
- Played quite a bit of blitz today, inspired by Vanq.. My games however didn't turn out aswell as his. But it was still fun for the most part.
- Did 50 tsumego. Like I said, I was told to drop them for the day, despite my resolve to do extra tsumego today due to my lack of tsumego the day before... Guess I have to do twice as many tomorrow then...
- Attended the lectue by Battousai, he showed us a game that he himself found very useful when he was still a kyu. We didn't see the entire game, but it was amazing. It was the 3rd game of the LG cup final(2001) between Lee Changho and Lee Sedol. For just short of 60 minutes he broadened our minds, or mine at least. I'll be looking for the game tomorrow to replay it in it's entirety if I have time.
- Looked over 12 or so games by Vanq. Amazing.. I'll probably go over them again in more detail later.

I'm not going to rate my study day for today just because I had a special assignment today, also I'm not feeling well. But overall I am fairly pleased with how today went.


Thursday 05-08-2008
Wont be too long before this darn flu kills me now, oh man. I woke up late, but it is currently 3:40 AM, with bed times like these I can't help but get up late.
I'll keep it short today.

- Played 2 semi-long/long games. Haven't reviewed them yet I'm afraid, I really should do so later
- Played a couple of Blitz games. Blitz really isn't my forte but I do enjoy it every now and then. I probably wont be reviewing this games, because it seems like a waste of time
- Did 150 Tsumego. Not as many as I would've liked, but I'm moving on to more complicated problems and I'm starting to realise that time-wise it might be impossible to 200 of the ones in the next chapter that'll be even harder!
- Watched a lecture by topazg. It was a 30 minute lecture on capping attacks, which was great because I've been having trouble killing bogus invasions and I'm sure his lecture is going to help me in the future. It's of great quality and very clear, I suggest you check it out (http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1178)
- Had a 1 hour lesson in which we mainly discussed the game I played against Loons yesterday.
- Watched a 40 minute lecture by Guo Juan. Lesson 2 in her "Step by Step Course". I'm making my way through the 30-20k lessons. I'm tempted to skip them but I know Guo Juan would hate me for it. Instead I'm moving through them at a faster speed than she reccomends, mainly because everything she has said so far, I already knew. I'll be trying to get in one of these lessons every day. I also saw a LOT of other lessons are available, so perhaps I'll start on another series aswell.

Today was an okay day. I should've played more games than I did but lately my games have been pissing me off beyond comprehension. I can't decide on a rating for myself today, but I'm not displeased with what I've done.


Friday 06-08-2010

I am not feeling well today at all, and unfortunately my go studies are suffering from it.

- Played an even semi-long game against an opponent whom is probably quite a bit stronger than me, and won. I was very pleased with this result. I'll be reviewing it tomorrow by myself and sunday or monday with my teacher.

At that moment severe cramps and such set in. I slept for a while.

- Did about 50 Tsumego or so when I woke up, in bed. Sadly quite a few of them were wrong.
- Watched a game review by the always wonderful topazg between two players about my strength. It lasted nearly 40 minutes and was very informative, because I recognised I make identical mistakes (Doh, we're equal strength). viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1178 You can find the video on his livestream channel which can be found by going to the link over there.
- Watched opening lecture A-1 on the internetgoschool.com. It lasted about 50 minutes and was very basic, but somehow I do feel like I learnt things. I was very pleased. Guo Juan is great.

Then I watched some Hikaru No Go from bed... I suppose that doesn't really count as training but it was fun and it's go related so what the hell ^_^.

Today was clearly an awful training day, I'm hoping tomorrow will be better but I'm not feeling any different from earlier today so I'm not getting my hopes up. I have to be strict and give this study day a 2 out of 10 points. The circumstances were clearly not ideal but taking those out of the equation it was a fairly unproductive day.


Saturday 07-08-2010
Unfortunately due to illness and helping my family pack I've only played some blitz games and did a couple of tsumego.
I discussed a game I played with a friend whom is quite a bit stronger and we ended up talking about it for over an hour. We mainly discussed yose which is something
I clearly have to work on. He gave me a bunch of useful tips and I look forward to applying them to my games.


Sunday 08-08-2010

Sadly still sick. I did manage to do a COUPLE of things though ;
- Played about 5 or 6 games. Mostly blitz. Didn't review them and probably never will. I don't care much for Blitz.
- Solved about 420 tsumego. It was hard to concentrate so instead of doing my regular tsumego I just did DDK tsumegos. Man they're fun!
- Looked at a couple of games by Vanq (as instructed by teacher), Ancientgo and milanmilan were playing a few games aswell today, so I watched those and had fun kibitzing. Sadly that's it.

Today's grade is a big fat F. But really this stomach flu is killing me. I'm hoping I'll feel a little better tomorrow. Bed time now!
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