A beginner's journal of little interest

[EdLee]

at my about broken shapes

Amazing what the Freudian slip can do to typing. Have fun!

[Twitchy Go]

Have fun at the tourney! Will you be recording all your games there?

Yes, I want to record them and review them afterwards. I'm sure you'll be shouting at my about broken shapes within 24 hours!

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun at this tourney. I feel under no pressure to have a good win/loss record, I'm just looking forward to meeting other go players in person and getting some good games in.

I hope you have/had fun(don't know if I'm posting while your there already or not).
I can relate there. My personal short term, I hope it won't turn into a long term at least, goal is to get to the point where EdLee won't find a spot to point out a basic or broken shape error in any game I post.

[Boidhre]

I'm having so much fun! This is fantastic.

On the advice of a few people, I entered as a 16k EGF (about 2 stronger than I think I am), there's one 17k, one 12k and everyone else is 10k or stronger. Small tournament of 20 people so handicap-1, no bar.

Am 2 for 3 at the moment. Will post the games later. I was very nervous for my first game, only won because of a big blunder. I'm going to get crushed in the next round, I think the weakest person I can face is a very strong 6k. I don't mind though.

[Boidhre]

Games: (hidden to save people having to scroll past all three)

Game versus a 17k: (only look at the first game, it's a multi game sgf by mistake)

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1756

I wasn't happy with this game at all. I felt very nervous during it, had trouble focusing and so on. Aside from all the excuses, I feel I should have played better than this.


Game versus a 6k:

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1757

I didn't like how I played here except for one sequence that I spotted to save a group that looked certainly dead. I learned a lot though which I think is reflected in the next game.

Game versus a 10k: (B+45 I think or something like that)

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1758

I felt that I applied a lot that I had learned in the last game in this one. I've played Tom 3 or 4 times before but never on 5 stones.

[Drewch]

Congrats on your first live tournament...got any tips.my first tourney is next week. Is it hard to record the game

[Boidhre]

Congrats on your first live tournament...got any tips.my first tourney is next week. Is it hard to record the game

Get used to doing it now. It slowed me down for my first game. But by my third I barely noticed putting in the moves on the iPad. I think it does distract you during the game which isn't a good thing but if you're at our level with zero chance of winning the tournament and not being able to play back the game from memory afterwards I think that the benefit of reviewing the game afterwards outweighs the concentration loss during.

[EdLee]

Basic shapes. Broken shapes.

(;CA[Windows-1252]RU[Japanese Rules]CH[1]GM[1]AB[dd][jd][pd][dj][jj][pj][dp][jp]
[pp]PL[W]AP[SmartGo Kifu:1.5.1]SZ[19]FF[4]GN[2012-05-26b]DT[2012-05-26]PB[Padraig]
PW[Donagh]KM[0.5]HA[9]RE[W+R]MULTIGOGM[0]
;W[qn];B[qo];W[pn];B[np];W[qk]
(;B[ok]C[See var.];W[fq];B[eq];W[cq]
(;B[cp]C[See var.];W[bp];B[bo];W[er];B[bq];W[br];B[ap];W[dq];B[ep];W[gr];B[qj];W[rk]
(;B[qg]C[Strange. See var.];W[cm];B[fp];W[gp]
(;B[em]LB[fp:a][gp:b][go:c]C[After the (a) - (b) exchange, where you hit yourself on the head, you want to continue to hane (c). Otherwise, do not do the (a) - (b) exchange at all.]
;W[el];B[fl];W[fm];B[en];W[dl];B[fk];W[cj];B[ci];W[di]
(;B[ch]C[See var.];W[ej]
(;B[ei]C[See var.];W[dk];B[dh];W[fj]TR[ei][fk]SQ[fj][ej]C[Broken shape. End of notes.]
;B[hk];W[gm];B[cn];W[dn];B[do];W[dm];B[bn];W[fn];B[eo];W[lq];B[jq];W[nr];B[pr];W[oq]
;B[pq];W[lo];B[jn];W[op];B[rn];W[rm];B[ro];W[hl];B[gk];W[jm];B[om];W[oo];B[eh];W[gi]
;B[dc];W[ik];B[hj];W[ij];B[hi];W[gh];B[ii];W[jk];B[kj];W[df];B[fg];W[fc];B[ee];W[bc]
;B[ce];W[cb];B[db];W[de];B[cd];W[ef];B[ba];W[ff];B[cf];W[ed];B[gd];W[fe];B[gc];W[oe]
;B[od];W[ji];B[kk];W[km];B[nf];W[jh];B[md];W[ib];B[hg];W[hh];B[he];W[gg];B[hf];W[gf]
;B[ih];W[kc];B[kd];W[kg];B[ig];W[lc];B[ld];W[gb];B[mc];W[eb];B[da];W[mh];B[mj];W[bj]
;B[bi];W[ph];B[qh];W[pg];B[pf];W[of];B[pe];W[ne];B[qc];W[re];B[qf];W[mf];B[nh];W[ng]
;B[pi];W[mi];B[ml];W[sh];B[rh];W[sg];B[si];W[ri];B[sf];W[sj];B[rf];W[nc];B[nd];W[nj]
;B[mk];W[oh];B[mb];W[qi];B[oi];W[ni];B[li];W[ll];RB[])
(;B[dk];W[ek];B[ck];W[bj];B[bk]))
(;B[ej]LB[ch:a][ck:b]C[(a) and (b) are miai.]))
(;B[go]C[Sente.]))
(;B[rj]))
(;B[fp]LB[er:a][pn:b]C[Local, shared vital point -- same as (b). This also prevents W from connecting via (a).]))
(;B[qj]C[Block. No thinking.];W[pk];B[ok];W[ol];B[nl]C[Terrible and painful for W.]))

[Boidhre]

One win, one loss today. Win against a 12k, loss against a 8k. Came 8th out of 20 overall. Happy enough with that.

Thanks for the review Ed.

[bakekoq]

I also like to play fast. even, I seldom to read as much as possible the moves. I try to play with my instinct.. but, some good player scold me that I don't play seriously. maybe because the gap of our skill so he thought of that..

And from him I got "Instinct is good, but reading is a lot better".
So, Since now I'll try to read as much as possible that I can.

[Boidhre]

I also like to play fast. even, I seldom to read as much as possible the moves. I try to play with my instinct.. but, some good player scold me that I don't play seriously. maybe because the gap of our skill so he thought of that..

And from him I got "Instinct is good, but reading is a lot better".
So, Since now I'll try to read as much as possible that I can.

My issue is that I quite like reading things out, I just don't know (outside of life and death) where to begin reading due to inexperience, so I make a lot of mistakes/waste time/spend ages thinking and come up with a very strange move. That said, I do get careless and blunder sometimes still but I'm not sure if that's ever going to go away.

[SoDesuNe]

A lot of Tesuji-problems might help you to spot a couple of ("good") moves to start with.

[Boidhre]

A lot of Tesuji-problems might help you to spot a couple of ("good") moves to start with.

Yeah, I bought Get Strong at Tesuji precisely for this purpose.

[Boidhre]

Bah, internet go is so unsatisfying after the weekend.

[Boidhre]

Working through Attacking and Defending Moyos as a bit of fun (above my level but I love whole board problems) I think I've decided I much prefer books for problems than using the iPad so I don't think I'll be making sgf versions of the books I got. Oh and GoGoD arrived, which should be a lot of fun to play around with. I love messing with databases. Again probably above my level but eh, I'd be buying it at some point anyway so not a big deal.

[Boidhre]

I'm wondering if there's any improvement in my play both from the past month and on a real board after the weekend. I played a game against IgoWinHD on the iPad on my board giving its 12k engine 2 stones. Now I sincerely doubt it's actually 12k. I don't expect a proper review as this is a game versus an AI and a win aswell. But general thoughts on whether I'm improving would be most welcome. I haven't played IgoWinHD much at all. I beat it in an even game when user was set to 12k yesterday so I set it to 11k today for a laugh and played a very fast game against it trying to apply some of the concepts I'd been reading about over the past two days about reducing and building moyos. I'd like to know if I was reducing effectively in this game. Tactically I made a few blunders as always.

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1762

Edit: The ratings on this program are way off it's just funny. I just made the 9k engine resign after giving it 2 stones. There's no way in hell that I'm anywhere close to 7k. Double that number and you've something approaching my rank if still probably too strong.