This post is just an update on my go in the past 6 months or so. If your interested read on, or skip to the next post which is more study journaly.

Hello again L19x19. I seem to have descended back into lurker status over the past few months, something I am ashamed of as it left both my malkovitch opponents hanging. That said I would like to be a commenting, if not incredibly active member of this wonderful community. In an attempt to do so I'm going to try to force myself to keep my little corner of L19x19 moving, in the hopes that as I get used to commenting in my study journal I'll be more likely to post in other threads.

Since my last post about 6 months ago, I have moved up to about 6k(I hope I'm trending up right now). Although I've got to play less over the summer and school year than I had hoped, so it doesn't seem like I'll make my goal of 1d in 1 year.Based off my KGS profile my dead line is January 7th of the new year, so it might be doable. I'm a college student after all and with no classwork over about an entire month of break... well I'll see.

And happy day there is a Go club at my University(I had been a bit worried I'd need to get one started myself), although not a very large one. It's been great to have access to a 2d for the semester. I've learned a fair bit from our games. Unfortunately he graduates in about a week now, which will leave me as the big fish of the Go club.

I've noticed that I'm beginning to remember my games well enough to recreate them as a post game review. I'm not perfect yet, but it means my moves had a good reason behind them.

I've also hit on my preferred method to bringing new players into the game. I play a 5stone handicap 9x9 game. Whether the beginner wins or loses basically comes down to if I can break their shape or not(I'm learning EdLee!!!). I prefer if they lose the first time(But, yay for them if they win), then I can explain why broken shape is bad and we play again. They should win the rematch. I think getting to see immediate improvement is good, and it lets me play as sharply as I can safely.

And those Joseki... whoa are they interesting. I'd never really looked at them to indepth because knowing joseki makes you two stones weaker and all that. But I spent an incredibly interesting hour+ going over why a few joseki(taken from 21st century Joseki) were in fact joseki with the club 2dan yesterday. It was an interesting exercise in reading, shape, tesujis and other such fun things. I think I'm probably going to add this kind of exhaustive joseki examining to my study routine simply because it is so fun. (And who knows I might get to use my knowledge of why x move is bad in a game someday )

I've been exploring an opening as black recently. The position sort of relies on W denying the diagonal fuseki with a 44 point. Ergo I haven't gotten much practice in. The games I have gotten to play have been fun however. Here is the basic set up.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c My current experiment
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 5 , . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The idea behind 3 is to try to bait W into approaching instead of taking the empty corner. Of course if W does take the empty corner I have a wealth of standard fall backs: Orthodox, mini/micro chinese. My idea in this opening is to prevent W from creating any large scale development in a quasi shusaku fuseki style(The rotatating komuki in 3 corners).
I have the low chinese of enclosing to look forward to in the top if W follows up in the lower right, and I can keep sente.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Common continuation
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4 7 9 . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . 2 3 X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 5 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The taisha is the most common follow up I've seen, I don't know any of the super complex varients and letting W get a wall seems bad so I've been playing the ladder variation. Fortunately the ladder always works for me if we're playing this line. I ignore an approach on the top 3-4 to respond to his initial approach, so the taisha means he followed up right away.

I've found this opening limits whites developmental options and usually ends in yose, something I feel strong at.

I'm very interested in comments, questions, suggestions or outright criticisms!

One reason that learning joseki improperly can hurt you is that it can shut down your intuition regarding a situation. You can start playing joseki because they are joseki, but without knowing why. This can mean that you play the joseki correctly, but make extra unnecessary moves due to supporting stones, or pick one that doesn't work well with your current stones across the board, for example. The way you were looking at joseki is the right way to do it, with a reason for every move. If you know the reason, you can check if that reason applies to the situation, and have a better framework for making moves outside the joseki that better fit the game.

Also, your opponents won't necessarily parrot a joseki back at you, so it's good to know why a move is played, as it helps you understand if and how to punish. Sometimes, just leaving it alone is punishment enough, as your opponent will need to fix later, after all.

This isn't exactly the same, but you can still play that 3-4 if white takes the other corner, and sometimes white will approach with 4:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c similar early approach
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Of course, you can't rely on the ladder variation now. But the games I saw in GoGoD white didn't choose the taisha, favoring something like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c pincer
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 5 . . . . . , . . . . . , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

That follow up diagram looks like an interesting board to resume play from .
In terms of an opening your diagrams feel completely different, at least in intent, to me. Black 3 in your diagram is simply a good move that lets White decide to approach or take the last corner. I'm trying to be more active with Black 3. As I understand it, White opening at D4 in response to Q 16 is to prevent a diagonal fuseki. Or another way to look at it is that white wants to play a parallel fuseki, perhaps a framework focused one. Black 3 at R4 offers white a juicy approach on the corner if Black is allowed to limit whites ability to build up a framework. My intent with experimenting with this opening is to actively create a board that feels like a diagonal fuseki game, even if white denies the diagonal route with move 2. That's the intent with my limited theory at least.
White could of course ignore, but I know I would definitely think for awhile before choosing White 4. The corner would not be my automatic response. As it might be if W doesn't mind playing against Chinese or orthodox lines.

One of my games I wanted to share because I found it fun(which isn't a particularly unique occurrence but this one more so then most).
Anyway, I'm sharing this game primarily because it was really fun to play.

This game versus uwms was particularly interesting to me. It felt like I kept losing the local fights but yet kept coming out ahead or at least even.. An odd feeling to be sure.
I decided in post game that R17 was a bit to passive, although still playable perhaps, and that I should have directly pincered there. And I'm not sure if I should have pressed the white group on the right as hard as I did. It ended up handing me the win on a silver platter when W allowed the cut at L5. So that was a bit of a bummer.

One thing I've noticed when playing Go, at least at my level. Sacrifices can be amazingly successful. Although sometimes they end up being worth more then I though they were. Other players of approximate skill seem to be over eager to snap up my now unimportant stones. The good thing is a sacrificing sequence is often forcing so there is no real way to backtrack once you accept it. I ascribe this tendency to an over attachment to their own stones.(perhaps incorrectly) In a similar situation they would want to fight for life, instead of using them for points in a different way. Perhaps my favorite thing about sacrifices though is that they can leave so much aji behind

In other news I got the $20 dollar baduk on demand plan, only to get an email later that evening telling me the English one was now going to be $20. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I've taken this as a sign to upgrade and have been enjoying it immensely. I've also joined the ASR league. Although both my games so far have left me feeling a bit dissatisfied. This was mainly due to their short length. Game one my opponent resigned relatively early, and while I think I had a better position on the board it should have still been a tight game.
The second game I died quickly and painfully in the corner after several poor decisions and a misread, so yeah. Of course the post game was very informative. So I think I'll enjoy the ASR in the long run

I'm posting this as a reminder to myself of the perils of filling your own liberties towards the end of the game. Tunuking after white 172 made me feel so clever when I did it. White couldn't cut! Nothing could be better. Unfortunately I neglected to count liberties again before I made move 237. And well what was a half point win became a crushing defeat. I still thought that the cut didn't work and actually played it out. Fortunately cap is a rather nice fellow(and somewhat curious). Either way he didn't feel like having the game thrown out like that and we went back and found out what the score would have been with a correctly timed connection by black. B+.5 And what the score would have been with a fair reduction after black messes up. W+12.5. Cap even suggested nullifying the game, both of us leaving. This was very tempting to me as my next win would probably have ranked me up. But after some thinking I decided what would be the point if I was gaming the system. I then resigned the game and am anxious for a rematch!

Needless to say I was a little bummed out at throwing away a half point win. But it was a fun game all around and while I met him on automatch, he is likely going to become one of the people I will track down for games on my own initiative.

Hope the game is enjoyable to peruse through!
Regards,
-TwitchyGo

I'm a 5k on KGS!!!
I'd post the game that made me so... but I'm a 5k due to not playing for 3 days and rankshifitng
That said I have a positive trending win/loss in my ranked games(by a fair bit) so I should be able to hold it.(fingers crossed and all).

I've been noticing a somewhat annoying(to me) problem in my play.. I feel in control of the situation for the entire game, I'm not worried about anything at all! Then the game ends and I'm up by komi or less!(barring massive kill resigns). Now I don't think I have the positional judgement to bring about a .5 point win intentionally. From some commentaries I've read .5 point wins are considered a bit of a luck based win by pros even! So obviously I can't be as in control as I think. It's really been bothering me because nothing feels bad in my play.
Even in games I end up losing I feel equal with my opponent, up till a point and I can analyses those. But I think I have too much bias to figure out what is working, but not working WELL enough. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience?How did you deal with it? If so I'd appreciate your stories.

Ok so it turns out I can't hold 5k on KGS. I got there once only to be smacked down by a 4k. Although I felt good about the game, up to a point.(It's in the hide tag below)

This means that I was not able to make 1d in a year as I stated at the start of this journal, but I'm content with my progress. I'll just keep working at improving and shoot for high dan by next year, again I'll be content to fall short .

I've been studying joseki over the break. And it has been helping in my games. It turns out that stronger sdk start to know some of the more complicated basic josekis . I've been working with some variations from this position.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc 1space low pincer off of 3-4
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I'll probably move on to low reproaches after my small knight approach to a star point is pincered. My policy is to not play a joseki in game until I prove to myself it is joseki. This usually takes me about an hour to do, but I've yet to forget a variation with my method. But that isn't saying much since I've only recently committed them to memory.

Another thing I've been wanting to try for awhile is studying pro games. I think my reading might finally be good enough to understand the very obvious points of the professionals moves. My problem has always been what games to pick, but I've hit on a solution. Focus on "rivalries", picking two players and looking at a lot of their games against each other. We'll see how that works for me.

I finally registered with the AGA! I decided to do so because while I have yet to play in any Go tournaments(disregarding the L19x19 tourney where I was smacked down in 2 games), I'm a competitive person and will enjoy doing so. That means however I need membership to be accurately tracked and rated. And oh yeah, I want to attend the U.S. Go conference this year.
Barring anything crazy coming up I should be able too.

In other recent news I'm playing a best of 7 with hailthorn011.viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7583 Game one went to me, but it was very close, only a .5 win. Which basically means I got lucky and it could just as easily have been his win.
I'm looking forward to game 2. (A bunch of smileys I don't often get to use)

So.......
I'm not 1dan yet. But I think I've recently had an important mindset shift that could(hopefully) bring me closer to dan level strength. This is probably nothing new to many players here but I've finally got a hold on how bad I still am. My reading is awful, I'm too timid during fights, my opening is weak, and I don't even know what to do with endgame beyond sente>gote.
Fortunately I've always understood that winning is my fault, as is losing. But I've made the connection that to be 1d I'd need to be able to beat current me by 40ish points consistently.
This is a wonderful thing for me to realize because I HATE HATE HATE, being bad at stuff. So my motivation to study has surged again. I'm not going to do anything fancy. Just a lot of tsumego, playing games, and then playing out Lee Changho games. The first two items are the most important, but I've enjoyed the Lee Changho games a lot. Watching professionals fight will help cure my timidity I hope. I'm usually expecting a solid defending move, but instead they counter attack! Which is something I almost never do.