Hey all,

Time to start a journal here I think to try to stop my attempts to improve being so scattergun and random. While I haven't truly been at 8K long enough to call myself stuck it can feel like it even though I'm sure it's just the slower progress that comes as rank improves.

Unfortunately I can't tell for myself what my strengths and weaknesses are so any plan I make is going to be somewhat general and largely consists of reading books so far (I like books ), though hoping as this thread goes on that I might be able to get the right direction with some help.

Current Rank: 8 Kyu KGS
Current Goal: 4 Kyu KGS

Already Read: -

Learn to Play Go 1-5
Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go
Opening Theory Made Easy
In The Beginning

By no means do I consider these learnt just because I've got through them

Partially Read: -

Life and Death
Tesuji
Attack and Defense

Currently Reading: -

Graded Go Problems For Beginners II

My current plan is basically do tsumego on the train on the way to and from work, which should give me about 45 minutes a day and to start reviewing some of my games after I've played them, as well as continuing to read through the Elementary Go series.

Will post two of my recent lost games shortly, any comments would be appreciated.

Edit: -

The previous goal of 4 kyu was achieved and a new goal of 1 dan by 01/07/15 has been set.

PeterN

Game 1: -



Game 2: -



PeterN

Did you get a review for the first game from plusguy?

A very brief one, he was running short on time I think.

11: You should consider adapting your strategy and playing p18.
17: O4 is another good response.
19: This is asking for the "hane at the head of two" shape, which favors W. o2 and o4 are the locally playable moves here; since the ladder is bad for B, o2 is probably better. If you don't feel able to make that kind of sacrifice on the bottom, you shouldn't have emphasized the right side.
45: Doesn't seem like good timing for this. You can't attack W's corner because W has s16 still.
57: It's important that you play q12. Once the black stones start to get cut apart, there isn't much B can do against this group.
73-84: I assume this is a reading error, but it's best not to play this kind of sequence out if you can avoid it. When you threaten to cut and W appears to waste a ko threat (74), you should look awfully hard to see whether you're missing something.
95: Wrong direction, keep moving, either to the left (threatening the center) or down (threatening the bottom)
109: This sort of move is often called false sente, or sente no gote - W does need to reply, but then he manages to find a reply that is itself sente, and you lose L12...
115: If you see that k14 doesn't work, you should also see that it's very important not to play it. So long as the key stones have two liberties, you have lots of forcing moves against g12 (which only has three liberties). Captured cutting stones with 2+ libs are crucial to coming out ahead in fights. Once a stone has one liberty, a player can respond to an atari by capturing the cutting stones. --- Meanwhile, K14 will probably be captured, too, so you are adding to W's score.
121: I would try a double hane here. If you just settle this group submissively, you'll end up quite far behind. It's white that should be playing submissively (to protect his lead).

Thanks for the comments.

73-84: This was indeed a reading error.
115: I have no defence for this, I have no idea what I was thinking when I played it.

The rest of your points will give me something to focus on when I review the game.

PeterN

Not a full week, but I have more chance of keeping this up to date on Sundays than Tuesdays.

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Read through Graded Go Problems for Beginners II (94.8% correct)
Game reviews: Reviewed two lost games
Elementary Go Series: Negligable progress

When reviewing I noticed a large number of times where I defended solidly, but in poor shape (along the lines of empty triangle instead of bamboo joint), as well as some times where I defended without needing to and times where I needed to defend and didn't.

Next steps are to start working through Graded Go Problems for Beginners III, continue with the Elementary Go Series, and to start paying close attention to how I'm defending.

PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started on Graded Go Problems for Beginners III
Games Reviewed: 0
Elementary Go Series: No progress

Well this has not been a good week for studying go for me, partly due to being busy, and partly due to getting caught up in other things, not good for the 2nd progress update. Despite not reviewing any games in the week I have at least been thinking them over a bit and another weakness that's been lurking in the back of my mind has come to the front; attempting to reduce, cut, or something else which results in a giant no eyed dragon of my own death.

The third volume of the go problems series feels like a significant step up from the second, and at best I'm only getting 3 in 4 of the problems right, plummeting to near 0 of the end game problems.

PeterN

A fairly typical example of the dragon from my previous post can be seen in this game: -



PeterN

at M3 ?

I'm still trying to work out how to start properly with invasions and reductions, but that can wait till after I work out the not dying part first

PeterN

Umm... OK. Yes, there are a million things to work on, including life-and-death.
Your move L4 forced W to happily connect. M3 would split W into two.

Ah... I see what you mean with that.... I was worried that if I pushed in with M3 that I would be start coming under attack and getting surrounded very quickly... kind of like what happened anyway

Just working out which of those million things to look at is a problem

PeterN

I've tried to insert some comments until move 65. Since I'm also a rather weak player, they are meant for further discussion...

Thanks for the comments, reading through them overall I think I'm showing two problems; the first one of attitude with being far too attack-happy and the second being not knowing how to escape well (although not playing M3 is another issue still), I seem to be able to break through up to aboout 8K opponents, but better than that and you've seen what happens.

I'm a little worried about your comments on keimas being less good for connecting, I've been thinking of them as one of the my more usual moves for doing exactly this... which does tend to turn into it being cut and the whole board becoming several interlinked tsumegos.

40: My reasoning here was he'd respond to the shoulder hit and I'd be able to get out that way, I much prefer your variations though.

50: I think this might have been good if I just treated it as a single forcing move and then immediately went to defence afterwards instead of trying to continue the attack.

PeterN

( added emphasis )

Each situation is unique. In some cases, the keima is the correct move.
To defend yourself. To attack a group. To connect. To... Close in the opponent. Split the opponent.
Make a base (eyespace). Remove eyespace. To kill. Just to make points. Etc., etc.

In some cases, it is not.

We need to read each specific board position and decide.

Fully agree that each situation can be unique, but I'll still have standard responses and first thoughts on how to play, trying to read everything seems impossible at the moment, leading me into a byo-yomi nightmare even on my 25 minute games.

PeterN

KGS Standards notwithstanding, 25 minutes is still pretty quick for a game. Our tournament games are usually 45 minutes + overtime, and the US Open gives everyone 1.5 hours + byo-yomi, or 2 hours if you're strong enough.

I'd be interested to look at the games where you get into byo-yomi trouble. For this to happen, you need to use up all the time on your clock (to get into byo-yomi) and you also need to think for longer than a byo-yomi period on your average, on-the-clock move. You seem to play quite fast in both your slow (25+:30) and fast (10+:20) games. I imagine this is the pace at which you have the most fun (true for many if not most players), but if you wanted to try spending more time reading, I would advise you not to even bother looking at the clock or worrying about running out of time.

25 minutes may be a fast game really, but I'm used to playing either 10 minutes or 25 minutes, 10 minutes does feel fast, but 25 minutes feels normal to me because I'm used to it.

I probably wasn't clear with what I meant about byo-yomi. I don't too often end up in it, but if I do I tend to start doing badly, might just be yet another of those attitude problems, this time being panic. I'm certain if I tried to read out everything I would end up in byo-yomi though, that's more what I meant.

Not sure if my playing is fast or not for KGS, but the games I've posted I think are fairly typical for my time usage, it's only when a complicated fight breaks out or I see something completely unexpected that I tend to start using my time significantly.

PeterN