I've been a week without tsumego already I hope next week's holidays give some tsumego to my life. This or some blog writing, whatever... There's no improving without hard work!

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

I haven't posted in a while. does that mean I am not studying now? of course not! still doing tsumego. I did up to problem 107 and I only got three wrong so far. More importantly I played in a tournament Yesterday and I went 3-0 winning the tournament! It took me 3.5 hours to get there and back, but I had alot of of fun, playing 3 really exciting games. It was a handicap tournament, and strangely enough when I beat a stronger player with a handicap, It was from making a large kill.

I am done with the first 117 problems. On my third and final run through I got 3 wrong or 97.4%

This should not surprise you as much when you remember that handicap stones are designed for attacking . Good job on your win!

Thank you. The advice people always give me is play thickly and don't start a fight. That was why I found it surprising

This advice is perhaps not the best. You have 4th line stones scattered around - 4th line stones are usually useful for fighting, so use them as such . Your stones are positioned in a way that makes them useful for attacking, so don't make it too easy for white by not doing so. 'Playing thickly' is likely not going to be as easy as using 4th line stones to attack, as it's unlikely someone giving a 6k a decent handicap is going to allow you many chances to get a really thick position .

I think that playing defensively while having handicaps is a valid strategy to win. But You won't learn much from such game, because You won't be able to transpose experience from defending such advantageous positions in an even game. While playing with handicaps we learn much more from attacking and losing than from defending and winning/losing.

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Formerly Gorim

actually.. i thought same thing about playing defensivly but my view changed when i saw a player who improved by reaching 1dan level from 5 kyu. it is a style and if you are strong at that style then you will improve. Cho hunhyun initially thought Lee changho was a tool who will never become a top professional because of his style.

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"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson