I want to become 1D

[Bill Spight]

Yes, i often counting in my game, spend lot of time to this, but i took so many risk when i kill group, for exemple, my last game in the french tournament, i kill a big group i have an advantage around 20pt but i let my opponnet kill me a corner and he win 2.5 pt

Try counting only 3-4 times during a game.

[Unusedname]

Read the article The Marginal Advantage by Day9. While written partially from a game development perspective, I think reading this article improved not just my Go but my ability in many competitive games I've played.

That is good advice for winning games. I am not so sure how it is for learning to play. I now play a miai-ish style, which is very much like the Marginal Advantage approach. Whichever alternative you take, I take the other, and I am still happy. But I started out trying to kill everything. If I had started out trying to take a small advantage and leave miai, I doubt if I would have developed my attacking skills.

This is very interesting actually. I also thought going for the biggest points was always the best strategy. But a "miai-ish" style sounds very cool.

The concept in the link about taking 4 stones instead of 15 when you know your opponent can only take 3.

I never thought of thinking this way.

Thanks for the link.

[logan]

[...] If I had started out trying to take a small advantage and leave miai, I doubt if I would have developed my attacking skills. [...]

I think you still would have developed your attacking skills for a couple of reasons. First, there are players who will force a fight and situations that require fighting, so we will develop these skills simply by playing different people. Second, the study of tesuji and L&D problems (and other types of problems) develop the kind of shape & pattern understanding that affects attacking strength.

On a different note, new players -- who have just learned the rules and are playing their first games -- cannot possible know what miai or 'making small exchanges to win' means in the context of go. What invariably happens is that they play some person and lose by a large margin. They get some advice on expanding their stones or figure it out themselves and eventually work to apply it. They work by themselves for awhile rubber-banding between underplays and overplays. Only after having gone through this process can they (begin to) understand the application of miai and marginal/incremental advantages to the context of go. In other words, this is why it would not have been possible to have begun go trying to take small advantages and leave miai, because a new player could not have understood these ideas in order to have applied them. Thus, the concern of not having been able to develop attacking skills is also mitigated, in some small way, by this.

Also, when new players learn the rules of two-eyes they also inevitably experiment with attacking the opponents'.

[Magicwand]

intresting to note that when Lee Changho played his best game he used same idea of miai and maintaine balance.
initally I was amazed on how he can win so many games with such non fighting style.
although not famous as lee changho, Cho hanseung also has similar style and very successful.
they both faced many many fighting styled professionals but still managed to find a way to balance the game and win.

[snorri]

If you've never properly studied endgame it is entirely possible 2 stones are to be found there.

I usually say: first, improve your reading by 2 stones. Then, if that does not result in being 2 stones stronger, ask a pro for advice on your serious games. But if it does work, repeat.

Edit: what I didn't say is that if you can't improve your reading by 2 stones, you may be toast...

[jyka]

Thanks for you answer, a friend of me who is 3d propose me to read the book lessons of the fudementals of go, are you on this way too ?

Also, what is the best way to study go book ? personnaly, when i don't found a moove, i think, i was my opponnent, what i have to play.

[foeZ]

I'm fairly confident I can get you up to dan level. If you're in European timezones I'm offering to give you lessons (free ofcourse, I'm not strong enough to charge money).

I have some really good books that you can borrow and I'm strong enough to teach kyu players a lot of things.
Since 2007 I've been playing and I started teaching double digit kyu players when I hit 4kyu. I was pretty bad at it back then, but most of the people that I had taught back then are all single digits now. I also taught single digit kyu players between 9 and 5kyu when I hit 1kyu.

Hade (former 3kyu) is now a solid 1dan player
Thew (former 7kyu) is now a solid 2dan player
and MrZeno (former 4kyu) is now a solid 4dan player (but he took lessons from a pro after he was as strong as me)

I have taken lessons from a handful of teachers myself which has taught me a lot about how to explain fundamental principles of go in a way that it's easy to understand for intermediate go players.

I've taken lessons with (top of the list = most time spent)

Shygost (probably around 5dan on KGS)
Finnish8d (Su Yang, probably 8-9dan on KGS)
Battousai (probably 5dan on KGS)
Alexander Dinerschtein (professional 3dan)
James Kerwin (professional 1dan)

As for myself, I'm lingering... It's hard to say exactly how strong I am because I don't play ranked games. But I've been able to beat 2-3 dan players every now and again in serious matches.

I'm foeZ on KGS, just send me a message and we can get started if you want

[jyka]

It's really nice from you foeZ i have to chek that, of course i was thinking to took lesson with fan hui but i want to up little before to begin lessons with him, so thank t you, pm send.

[foeZ]

It's really nice from you foeZ i have to chek that, of course i was thinking to took lesson with fan hui but i want to up little before to begin lessons with him, so thank t you, pm send.

When I get home from work later, I will have a look through your games and try to come up with a plan that'll tackle your weaknesses as efficiently as possible ^^