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 Post subject: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #1 Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:44 am 
Lives with ko

Posts: 183
Location: Dallas, TX
Liked others: 59
Was liked: 12
Rank: No idea
OGS: nemoutis
Online playing schedule: Mostly correspondence games.
Hi all,

I'm back. Since I'm not really a "beginner" anymore, I thought I should close up shop on my Beginner's Journey and make a new journal.

I imploded spectacularly about 8 months after I started after becoming obsessed with my rank. Every loss was like a knife. I played worse and worse (man, looking back those last few games were horrible).

I've had a couple of fits and starts at training again, but now I've finally hit a groove.

I have five items on my Go/Baduk checklist everyday:
1) Do Internet Go School Problems
- Guo Juan's site
- This is great for learning strategy and joseki, but it is terrible for reading out life and death; the temptation to click is too strong.
- Minimum 10 a day; I really need to do 100. If I get 20+, though, I am very happy.

2) Do a Baduk Class
- Usually a Guo Juan, Nick Sibicky, or Dwyrin video or reading part of a strategy book
- I'm currently quite enamored with John Fairbairn's translations and his go history books!

3) Do Baduk Reading
- This is usually a Essential Life and Death 1 or Speed Baduk 7
- Typically I get in 25-35 minutes on the train ride home

4) Do Baduk Counting
- My most inconsistent habit
- Usually one or two 19x19 games I find on line or three or four 9x9's
- I'm really bad at counting, it turns out!

5) Do Baduk Joseki
- From a book, BW-Joseki, or from Guo Juan's.
- I just keep trying to review what I know already go a little bit further every day, hoping it will all add up.

You'll notice that there's not "play a game" on the list, but most days I am in a correspondence game or two on OGS.

How I'm doing:
Overall, I've been very consistent since February. Most weekends or vacation days I do not get to check these off because my time is unstructured and, well, families eat unstructured time (as they should!). Work days I get the train ride in, lunch, and the train ride out to get as much training in as I can.

I'm not sure if I'm getting stronger or not, but hopefully it will all add up over time.

Also, I'm bringing folks into the game:
I have some RL friends I am trying to train up, and I have taught the game to about 12 people in the last 3 months, and 3 seem very passionate, but it will be a while until any of them are a real challenge.

Most of my newbies take 9 stones on a 9x9 against me, but a few have gotten down to 4 stones, and that's great! :) 19x19 games they take ~30-something stones. (4 small knight shimaris connected on the third line by 1-point jumps, a flower in the middle with 4 extra stones around it making tiger's mouths). This is only because they are so new and can't read at all, not because I am good; if they would play about 5 games close together, they would be down to a more reasonable handicap. I feel it is important that they have a well-over-even chance to win.

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 Post subject: Re: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #2 Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 10:51 am 
Lives with ko

Posts: 183
Location: Dallas, TX
Liked others: 59
Was liked: 12
Rank: No idea
OGS: nemoutis
Online playing schedule: Mostly correspondence games.
For curiosity's sake, I have attached my monthly problem totals form Guo Juan's Internet Go School going back to my implosion in Dec 2014.

Looking at the chart got me curious about exactly how long I was playing and studying, so I went back and made a timeline for my own reference.

December 2013
- My house burns down, turning my life and the life of my family upside down. This sends me into an anime spiral, where I eventually run into Hikaru No Go (cue ominous drums!)
April 26, 2014 Day 1
- Hashime! I run into go, and at least partly as an escape from the stress of the house fire, I'm in with both boots.
September 4, 2014 Day 131
- I beat a 13 kyu on KGS by 60 points, sending my rank skyrocketing to an undeserved 9 kyu. I don't know it yet, but this will eventually be the seed of my hobby's destruction.
- I begin to obsess over rank, stress out about games, and my confidence gets more and more shaken as I lose.
December 2014
- I sign up for Guo Juan
- I am in the Yunguseng Academy (don't know when I joined)
- This ends up being too much for me, with the house rebuild going wrong and the family needing my support. The process of crumbling has begun.
January 13, 2015 Day 262
- Last recorded game I can find from my First Great Go Period. I don't actually start playing seriously again for almost two years.

I'm noticing the 131 number recurring here. 131 days of effort == breakthru? Who knows. Could just be a coincidence.

June 9, 2015 Day 409
After a 147 day break, I resurge! I start doing problems again on GJ. I probably show up to Go club a few times. No online games I can find.
July 8, 2015 Day 438
Resurgence ends.

September 1, 2016 Day 859
I resurge again. Problems at GJ, solid for a month; likely a handful of go club games. October and November are spotty, but starting in December my practice solidifies and continues until now (Day 1074). 215 days straight. Woohoo!


Attachments:
File comment: Problem stats going back to my collapse in Jan 2015
GJ IGS stats.jpg
GJ IGS stats.jpg [ 39.36 KiB | Viewed 7047 times ]
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 Post subject: Re: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #3 Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:50 pm 
Lives with ko

Posts: 183
Location: Dallas, TX
Liked others: 59
Was liked: 12
Rank: No idea
OGS: nemoutis
Online playing schedule: Mostly correspondence games.
Status for yesterday:

GJ Problems - check
- 20 ish problems. Not many, but I just need to keep going.
- I'm currently way behind on these; 58 new problems, 332 learning problems, 2998 review problems in the cue.

Baduk Class - check
- I watched the "Jump Hane Naoki Jump" dwyrin lecture, which is a really good crash course in how not to be surrounded
- I got through about 10 pages of "Direction of Play"

Do Baduk Reading - check
- 30 pages of Speed Baduk 7 on the train

Do Baduk Joseki - check
- reviewing the 3-4 headbutt variations created by Kitani Minoru
- reviewing the 4-4 1-space pincer where the defender blocks the same side, but the defender pushes up (dang, these things need actual NAMES, how are you supposed to talk about them?)
- also, most of my GJ problems were reviewing followups to common joseki

Do Baduk Counting problems - MISS
- I miss this one a lot.


Question:

Any ideas on how to spread the passion for the game?

The 11 or so people I have taught go to recently are all national RP game (Amtgard) together, and we have started a cultural organization in the game focused on Go. We have a FB group set up, and a group on OGS, but only 3 of them are passionate, and only 2 of those play regularly.

I bring boards to Amtgard every week, and I try to post at least one interesting thing on the FB group every day, but it's going slow. I wish we could get people playing on our private OGS ladders, but most have only logged in once.

I was wondering if anyone with experience has other ideas?

I'm pretty sure this is just the nature of things; I'm lucky to have 3 people out of 11 passionate, but it would be nice to get a higher conversion rate.

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Post #4 Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:20 pm 
Honinbo
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Hi Sam, what is Amtgard ?

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 Post subject: Re: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #5 Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 5:35 pm 
Lives with ko

Posts: 183
Location: Dallas, TX
Liked others: 59
Was liked: 12
Rank: No idea
OGS: nemoutis
Online playing schedule: Mostly correspondence games.
Hey Ed, it's a midevil swordfghting game with bows, swords, shields, and armor. There are various "cultural" groups (meaning they are focused on some sort of skill, craft, or game) within Amtgard.

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 Post subject: Re: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #6 Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 1:35 pm 
Lives with ko

Posts: 183
Location: Dallas, TX
Liked others: 59
Was liked: 12
Rank: No idea
OGS: nemoutis
Online playing schedule: Mostly correspondence games.
So why is this variation uncommon in pro games?

Based on the followups at X and Triangle, it seems to completely negate the value of Black's thickness and turn him into dame, which, if true, means this is too good for white. Since white can pick this variation, it seems like this should be played all the time.

This means I am obviously missing something. What followups/aji am I missing that makes white want to avoid this variation? (In modern pro play, it seems to get avoided most of the time)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code
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$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . O O X . . M T .
$$ | O . O X . . . . .
$$ | . O X X . . . . .
$$ | O . O O X . . . .
$$ | . O . X X X . . .
$$ | . . X . O . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

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Post #7 Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 10:48 pm 
Honinbo
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Hi Sam,

Thanks -- about Amtgard. ( I still don't know what it is ; maybe there's more info online. :) )

Sample. 02:22 -- 06:58. Mr. Chochikun v. Mr. Tanaka ; 63rd NHK TV tourney:

Published on July 28, 2015.

( Brief variations at 08:30 - 09:20. ) Enjoy.

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 Post subject: Re: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #8 Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:51 pm 
Judan

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KGS: Uberdude 4d
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SamT: black will usually only play that joseki if he already has an extension around the middle of the top side I which case it builds a moyo. The triangle is indeed a nice invasion point (do you know it threatens to connect in ko to the corner?) but it's making a weak group. Also when white pushes up there's a chance black will save the 2nd line cutting stone instead of build the outside and in some situations white might not like that fight. And black is thicker towards the left sude than the josrki he makes the knight's move after whites solid 2nd line defence. Having said that when invading the top moyo is important pushing up could be a better move, I recall An Younggil recommending this in one of his reviews.

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 Post subject: Re: Consistent Effort - SamT's Journal
Post #9 Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 5:00 pm 
Lives with ko

Posts: 183
Location: Dallas, TX
Liked others: 59
Was liked: 12
Rank: No idea
OGS: nemoutis
Online playing schedule: Mostly correspondence games.
Uberddude, Ed, thank you so much! I'm trying to broaden and deepen my understanding of this family of josekis and your help is extremely valuable

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