Sometimes I get utterly discouraged about ever improving at Go. Like today. My last couple of games have been embarrassing, really. And it's not because I don't understand what I SHOULD be doing. I'm one of those people who understands theory all over the place, but when it comes to application, I either lose focus or blank out. I don't know why. Plus, I'm bemused by the way people play. The way I learned didn't involve attacking on your fourth...or even first...move and then chasing your opponent around the board. I mean, I guess if you CAN do that, fine. And I do fall for it every time. Somehow my corner sequences ALWAYS fail, especially in those situations.

I've been doing tsumego every day and for the most part I get them about 98% percent correct. I might miss one or two in a batch of fifteen. At the moment they're all elementary ones, I guess. I'm hoping to move on to more challenging ones shortly.

But even so. Even when I immediately know the answer to a tsumego...I can be faced with a similar situation in game and completely miss it.

So. I think it's time I became more steadfast about tracking my progress. I definitely need to commit to at least 10 tsumego and two games a day. On the days I can do more, I will, but I have the graduate exam coming up, so I have to put my time in on that. When the whole application process if over, though, I'll up my tsumego and game quota.

I suppose I should also seek out reviews of my games. I have one that I want to get reviewed pretty much immediately, but I'll have to go figure out how to upload sgf files.

So my immediate goals:

Get out of the 20k range.
Don't be such a passive player.
Reign in my emotion during games.
Don't let my opponent push me around the board/stop being so reactive.
Be more critical when viewing the board -- don't fog out.

Now I just have to figure out how to accomplish these things.

Hey, good luck with your go journey. It's easy to get down, especially during a losing streak, but hey, with time and effort you get better...

If you're having trouble posting SGFs, there is a post about how - what I do is open SGFs with notepad and copy the contents into sgf tags (as per the button). Though, reading that link, evidently that's not the "preferred" way, hmm.

Anyway, I'm very often online (on KGS). If you want a review and see me online, feel free to hit me up.

Also, on the topic of other people's bemusing plays- I feel like that all the time, as well. A lot of the time, I also find out what they were playing was really normal and just unknown to me, and that in fact my move was rogue. When I'd just started, I thought 2nd move approaches were nuts, but now that's my normal move as white against rotating komoku (an oldfashioned way to play). Though sometimes, yeah, they're just crazy.

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

Thanks. I don't intend to quit. The thing is, I don't mind losing so much.... If I thought that I'd actually put up an adequate defense or made decent moves, I'd feel loads better about it. But I can see where I leave myself open all over the place.



Yeah, I read through it last night and didn't really follow what was being said. But I think that's more due to the fact that it was 2am and I was tired. I'll try it again later today. Before 2am, though... ;D



Thanks! I'll do that.



Ah? I make that opening play sometimes. I didn't realize it had a name (having said that, I expect most of them have names that I just don't know yet).

But yes, I'm sure I'll catch on to whatever I'm missing. I have a feeling that some of my opponents do these things to see how I'll respond, and when it becomes clear that I let myself become prey to a chasing game, they go for.

Another good way to get over some hurdles is to join us in the GoDiscussions.com room on KGS. I know, speaking for myself, that if you had questions or wanted some advice on a game, if I'm online I am usually willing to try and help out. I'm sure that a number of us all enjoy doing a bit of teaching if someone asks.

Doing tsumego will pay off. Learning them until you immediately know the solution (even if you turn the book upside down) is a good way to get knowledge.

Which tsumego are you doing exactly? Online tsumego or from a book? Which one?

The GoDiscussions.com room is on one of my watch tabs. Typically I'm there at awkward hours. I think that's why I don't often see many people. But that'll be changing ovr the next couple of weeks, so I'll be sure to spend some time there.

Both, actually. I'm almost done with the first book of Graded Go Problems for Beginners. Yesterday I also did a series of problems at 321go, and depending on which go site I visit on a particular day, I usually do them other places at well. But at the very least, I work out of the book.

Great. Just go on and relax. Improvement will come soon.