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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Simultaneous Games!
Post #141 Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:25 am 
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Small update: still studying but a bit less because of work-related things. Still, I do Level Up tsumego daily (about 15 minutes), try to play a few games a week with review and additionally read other Go books for inspiration (just re-read Attack & Defense)

Becoming urgent for me are ways to break up to-be-territory and moyo's. Because right now I usually push against them and actually defining them.

A nice plus I had recently is that I played a nice game, where I had to resign after 85 moves because of a broken ladder. But after the review I managed to replay the game from memory, all 85 moves. That's definitely a good sign!

Handicap Go

This is a handicap games against a OGS 7kyu I played a few days ago, but I think I had a handicap stone too much, maybe. Anyway, he resigned after a successfull attack on one of his groups, where I managed to take profit on both sides (kind of) and he didn't get many points out of it.

Definitely not my best game but it's still worth sharing.


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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Handicap Go
Post #142 Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:40 pm 
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Some comments on the fighting. :)


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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Handicap Go
Post #143 Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:46 am 
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Thank you, Bill. :)


So I am able to keep up with 2-3-4 online games a week, which is good. I also play irl once a week at the least, play Leela & Igowin a few times a week and do tsumego (Level Up) almost daily, with some other reading on the side.

Playing online is better with my floor board in front of me, I don't play blitz anymore. However, it's still not my favorite occupation and I'd probably stop doing it if I couldn't even play live. Although I can't be sure of that. Still, what I do know is that Go is so much pleasure live, while playing online is more practice than actually having a good time. (depends on the game)
I always have to convince myself "okay I'm gonna play online today. Sure? Yeah I guess, it'll be good. Okay" And then sometimes I get excited but like I said, face to face is just... you can't compare it. Let's leave it at that.

Speaking of that. Maybe a fun thing to do is to list my favorite go-things here. Instead of listing the things that are most efficient to studying, list those that I enjoy most, just for the heck of it :cool:

Ian Butler's Go List
1. Playing live games against a patient, stronger player.
2. Playing live games against beginners.
3. Playing live games against equal or slightly worse players.

4. Reading Go books (Lessons in Fundamentals, Attack and Defense, The Art of Sabaki...)
5. Watch Go lessons from e.g. Nick Sibicky
6. Replay Pro Games

7. Play bots like Leela, Igowin.
8. Play online (using my Goban)
9. Do tsumego.

10. Play online (no goban)

Although best of all is to combine everything and not stick to one item :)

I have my reasons for my top 3 being what it is and, yes, some are just plain old ego-problems. But it's also the "thrill of playing my best go, every move counts" against a better player and the "I can teach you something" playing against a beginner :)


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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Top 10 Go-Occupations!
Post #144 Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:48 am 
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10 days after finishing Level Up 7, I finished Level Up 8. I'll do the test tomorrow, I expect to get at least 50/60, so let's see. I got 60/60 for Level Up 6 and I think 60/60 (or maybe 59 or 58, I forgot) for Level Up 7. I feel I'm getting close to my actual level since I need to check the answer book more often to be sure I'm right.

Good books to learn some essential tesuji and L&D.

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Top 10 Go-Occupations!
Post #145 Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 5:13 am 
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Today I got slaughtered without mercy by a 2-dan and a 7-dan on OGS in 10 second blitz games :D

I also managed to beat down Igowin to him taking 2 handicap stones earlier today, though now I lost a few times and I'm back taking black :sad:
Hopefully I can do the Level Up 7 test later today, too!

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Top 10 Go-Occupations!
Post #146 Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:37 am 
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Ian Butler wrote:
Today I got slaughtered without mercy by a 2-dan and a 7-dan on OGS in 10 second blitz games :D


As I mentioned in another thread, such games are often full of great material to review from. Maybe you could post one?

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Top 10 Go-Occupations!
Post #147 Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:31 am 
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daal wrote:
Ian Butler wrote:
Today I got slaughtered without mercy by a 2-dan and a 7-dan on OGS in 10 second blitz games :D


As I mentioned in another thread, such games are often full of great material to review from. Maybe you could post one?


Oh yes, I'll post them and I already planned to look into them. Lost likely to see what moves of my opponent got me in trouble so much.
I don't quite have the time now, I'll definitely do it tomorrow! Maybe I'll post two or even all three of them. Though don't judge me by them, against such opponent and a few seconds to move, I don't hold up for 5 moves :D

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Top 10 Go-Occupations!
Post #148 Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:05 am 
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Here are the 3 blitz games.
I notice my grip on the game instantly slips as soon as we deal with cuts-crosscuts.






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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Top 10 Go-Occupations!
Post #149 Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:38 am 
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April Summary
Another month has passed and it's time to see where I stand right now, and what I've done in April to improve my Go playing.

1. Games
I played many games this month. A rough estimate puts me at 25-30 games on a 19x19 against human opponents, an additional 10-15 games against Leela and about 100 games against Igowin on 9x9.
Most of my games ended up being reviewed by myself, members on the site, or my opponent. I like to think I've learned something from each game.

2. Tsumego
Finally found a way to do tsumego, although I'm not sure it's sufficient and I might have to step up my game here. I finished Level Up 6, 7 and 8. I've done GGPB 2 and am currently re-reading it because there's still many mistakes I made.

3. Books
I've read other books but I've spend less time on it then the first few months. I re-read Lessons in Fundamentals, selectively re-read Attack and Defense, and am currently browsing through "All about Thickness" again.

4. Rank/Strength?
In a month's time, my rank on OGS has gone up from 14.4 kyu to about 13 kyu. Noticeable is that the real fast progression is over for now, I believe. I like to think I gained a lot of strength in the past few months, but now it's going much more steadily, but that is only logical, of course. To be honest I'm already very happy to be at the 13-14 kyu level at this point, so I don't want to rush my development.
Things'll go much slower from here on in, and I'll need to put in a lot more work to increase a stone compared to before. Hopefully that won't diminish the motivation.

5. Highlights
My live games with knotwilg. Having found such a strong player nearby, willing to play me every once in a while, has been amazing for my go-playing, I think. The games we played count among me favorite, if only for the circumstances, being able to play a strong player on a real board, both using time to play, reviewing the game afterwards. Beats online go playing any day of the week.

6. Lowest Point
I wish I could tell you studying Go is always a lot of fun but it's actually not. I have to admit that at some points, I find myself wondering: "why am I doing all this?" I got into a losing streak for a while and if you're then reading a Go-book in the evening and you see someone doing some online gaming with friends and having a lot of fun I asked myself "Is this really worth it? Did I stop gaming for this?"
Waking up the next day, I always find myself with the answer "Yes. It's worth it".
But the question returns every once in a while :scratch: :)

For now, I can't start letting my go-studying become something half-half. My efforts have already decreased a bit because I picked up my music again after a long break, so I need to be focused and aware that I keep spending at least 2 hours a day on my Go. I think that's an acceptable amount of time for the time being.
On the other hand, I have to be careful not to let Go take over my life, which I am prone to do at times. Going for a walk with good friends, or playing music with my band, or visiting my little niece, are things you should never pass up on, not even for playing Go :)

7. Trap!
One thing to learn from April that I've come to realize is that I can't fall into one particular trap: expectations.
It's true that I've progressed relatively quickly the first few months (I think so) and some people have also noted that and told me. Others carry it even further and perhaps expect me (or I think they do) to keep that progression rate going.
I have to be very careful about that and push all that aside. Remember that progression will come naturally but also that you probably don't keep improving (unless you keep spending hours and hours a day, which is unlikely in the long term), so who knows, maybe I'll become a strong player. It can be relatively fast, it can take years. Maybe I'll never be a very strong player (what's strong anyway?), maybe I'll hit a "permanent" rank somewhere.
Either way, I'll have to take it as it comes :)


8. May
One last item: what's in store for the month to come?
I am a pro at planning things and then doing something else, so I'll keep it limited and set some realistic goals.

- Keep playing games using a real board (even online) and reviewing these games.
- Keep up my Level Up & GGPB and also do some other tsumego from time to time, pick up the pace.
- Browse through a Go book at least every two days (be it A&D, Opening Theory Made Easy, Art of Settling Stones...)
- Play 100 games against Igowin to improve my L&D and close contact fighting
- Don't play a Go game if I'm not in the right mood (important!)


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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #150 Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 12:27 pm 
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Just started GGPB 3. I've tried it months ago but I wasn't ready then. Now I started out with 12/12 with max a minute per problem. Very happy about this! Even my sense of tesuji seems to be improving :study: ;-)

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #151 Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 6:29 am 
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Ian Butler wrote:
Just started GGPB 3. I've tried it months ago but I wasn't ready then. Now I started out with 12/12 with max a minute per problem. Very happy about this! Even my sense of tesuji seems to be improving :study: ;-)



40/42 so far, on a roll!

Though partly because I've done them once before, even if it's months ago. I have a pretty decent memory. Still, 40/42 ain't bad!

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #152 Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 6:54 am 
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Ian Butler wrote:
Ian Butler wrote:
Just started GGPB 3. I've tried it months ago but I wasn't ready then. Now I started out with 12/12 with max a minute per problem. Very happy about this! Even my sense of tesuji seems to be improving :study: ;-)



40/42 so far, on a roll!

Though partly because I've done them once before, even if it's months ago. I have a pretty decent memory. Still, 40/42 ain't bad!


50/100 is even better. :)

At least, the first time around.

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— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #153 Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 7:10 am 
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Bill Spight wrote:
Ian Butler wrote:
40/42 so far,Still, 40/42 ain't bad!

50/100 is even better. :)

Let's all hope he gets 10 right out of his next 58, then everyone will be happy. :)


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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #154 Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 12:28 pm 
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dfan wrote:
Bill Spight wrote:
Ian Butler wrote:
40/42 so far,Still, 40/42 ain't bad!

50/100 is even better. :)

Let's all hope he gets 10 right out of his next 58, then everyone will be happy. :)



:D I'll go for that!


Meanwhile, I've been using Igowin to sharpen my fighting and also my L&D.
For this match, I wanted to try and create 3 seperate living groups on a 9x9 board. A tough challenge for my L&D skills.
It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to go. But it made a very entertaining game, so I'll share it here :D



And let's also include this one. I did a nice L&D in the lower left corner for myself there. And it turned into a 1-point match (Igowin doesn't use komi)



(Just to be clear, I don't try to play my best Go in these games. I try out new things here and do L&D and say: can I invade that area and live or ...? So no need to criticise the direction of play or general tactics, these are games to sharpen specific skills) :)

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #155 Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 12:52 pm 
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dfan wrote:
Bill Spight wrote:
Ian Butler wrote:
40/42 so far,Still, 40/42 ain't bad!

50/100 is even better. :)

Let's all hope he gets 10 right out of his next 58, then everyone will be happy. :)


47/51, still on track! My reading has definitely improved a lot!
Now to implement things like this in my game :)

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #156 Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 4:36 am 
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Once in a while when you take a step back, you can see the long way from where you come. Playing Go, you always end up playing people in similar strength (obviously not always, but usually). So you don't "seem" to improve, because you keep losing about half your games.

But then you can step back and see how much you've grown in just a few months studying Go. And it feels pretty good.


Still studying hard and still extremely motivated after re-discovering Go earlier this year in January. From then, I've steadily progressed from 20 kyu to 12-13 kyu. The progress (concerning ranks) is going slower, but I feel I'm still growing every day (figure of speech). In those few months my memory, concentration, visualisation skills, focus and even creativity have all improved. I've met new people, played wonderful games, dominated games and got totally destroyed. I've read book after book, started my own go-club, started teaching in my class at school and here at the Go club.

So in short. It's been a great journey and I look forward to continuing it!


PS. A friend of mine wanted to buy a magnetic Go-board to practise, so I ordered some books along. Those are:
- Get strong at the Endgame
- Jump Level Up 1-5 (for later)
- The Power of the Star Point, he Sanren-sei Opening.
- Go as Communication

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #157 Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 3:02 am 
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Just finished Level Up 9, and I've already got a better grasp on seki.
Finished the final test with 59/60, so moving on to Level Up 10 now!

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Blitz Games & April Summary
Post #158 Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 6:17 am 
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Still studying like a crazy person!

Trying to keep the weekdays for tsumego (Level Up, GGGuru problems) and reading (Attack & Defense, Tesuji...), while my weekend (and Wednesdays) are the days to play games. Either online or irl. I play some games during the week, too, but your concentration on a Saturday noon or a Monday evening after a work day is quite different :lol:

I've gotten into the good habit of reviewing every single game I play, and after every game I also feel the need too. So it's really become a 2nd nature for me. It wouldn't feel right to just go off and play another one, or just forget about it. And often I keep thinking about it at night before I go to sleep, too.

So this weekend I played a few games.
- One game which went fairly well, I used influence quite well and that's always a success for DDK. My opponent ran out of time with the game still fairly even.
- Another game was against a sandbagger (my sensei thinks he's probably a dan player), but I actually played okay-ish. I lost, but I didn't make too many technical errors, my strategic decisions were okay. I just wasn't forceful enough in the end. But still a good quality game.
- And the last game, I just played it, didn't go so well. Against an 8 kyu. I came into a weird opening, handled it completely wrong, gave my opponent exactly what he wanted, made a failed invasion, lost a fight and went on to lose by a large margin.

Luckily we still have many things to learn from :)
I'm still on the road to becoming a better player, though, and my motivation/focus/determination is iron strong at the moment :cool: ;-)

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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Bags of sand
Post #159 Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 12:50 pm 
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And that wraps up Level Up 10

Time for the review book and then on to Jump Level Up!

I think I am steadily approaching SDK level and my goal of teaching it before summer may well be achieved!


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 Post subject: Re: The Story of a Loser - Bags of sand
Post #160 Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 2:53 pm 
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I think at this point the one thing you have to do to achieve SDK level is to decide that you are SDK level. I bet if you created a new account at 9k you'd win half your games.


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