Three Month Trial (Hailthorn's Third Journal)

[Twitchy Go]

I was intrigued by the idea of spending 8 hours in a single day devoted to Go, so I did that today (maybe more) to see how it was. I'm not going to lie, there were times, particularly in games, where I felt my attention lapse. But it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. But then again, that's easy to say after one day. I divided my time by doing the following:

1. Reading Opening Theory Made Easy
2. Solving tsumego
3. Playing Serious Games
4. Playing For Fun games
5. Review

The problem is I need to figure out a schedule my Go activities so I can do things in an organized fashion rather than the disorganized fashion that I did it in today.

Now, onto the matter of my journal title change, I plan on spending the next three months spending 8 hours (potentially more) a day devoted to Go in an attempt to see what my rate of improvement will look like with dedication and effort. This isn't to reach pro level by any means, but a sort of trial run. If I like how the next three months go, I may continue.

It's not perfect, I know, but it will answer a few of the questions I've been asking to myself and other people.

I debated over whether or not to post this yet, but I figure it couldn't hurt.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be more than happy to hear them. Oh, one more thing, I do plan to get a regular teacher as soon as possible. I reckon that will happen some time next month.

Now that this has been explained, on to my thoughts on today.

1. I need to re-read Opening Theory Made Easy (the parts that I've read so far) to get a better understanding of the concepts I failed in trying to implement today. The good thing is, I feel my reading has helped my judgement to a degree.

2. My problem solving went surprisingly easy. I'm using a book. The only frustrating part is when the solution can only be seki or Ko. Then I spend time trying to figure out how I can make life without that. Other than that, tsumego is pretty fun when solving by the book on a Go board.

3. I need to slow down when I play games. And not just because I feel the need to burn my clock's time some, but to reflect on the situation on the board. I hate to admit this, but sometimes my concentration lapsed today. So I need to figure out how to deal with this.

4. I need to make a uniform schedule (as mentioned before). I think that will greatly help the rate in which I improve.

And that about covers it for today. Sorry for the long write.

I'll be interested in your progress. I'm still working towards breaking into the dan levels and have a lot of free time. So if your getting results I might emulate your plan.(Although perhaps shaving it down to 5-6 hours so I can play DOTA with my buds)
1 question though. What is the difference between a for fun game and a serious game? Is this a reflection of time on the clock? Or is it divided between league/tournament games and automatch ones?

And I know how you feel about tsumego. I've been working with the Lee Changho L&D/Tesuji collections lately, and so many have seki and ko as the best result.

[hailthorn011]

I'll be interested in your progress. I'm still working towards breaking into the dan levels and have a lot of free time. So if your getting results I might emulate your plan.(Although perhaps shaving it down to 5-6 hours so I can play DOTA with my buds)
1 question though. What is the difference between a for fun game and a serious game? Is this a reflection of time on the clock? Or is it divided between league/tournament games and automatch ones?

And I know how you feel about tsumego. I've been working with the Lee Changho L&D/Tesuji collections lately, and so many have seki and ko as the best result.

Well, for me, the difference between a serious game and a fun game is the amount of mental effort I put in to win the game. Or just how serious I am to win it. For example, if I play a 14k, winning isn't necessarily my goal. It's to have fun.

I try to take tournament games serious and ranked games seriously. Or if I manage to play a higher ranked player, I tend to take those seriously as well. Call me crazy, but I don't expect to lose even if I'm playing an even game with a 1 Dan.

[hailthorn011]

So, Day 2 went pretty well. I played a bunch of games and spent a lot of time solving tsumego with SmartGo. I think today I'll revert back to using the book, because that was a bit more fun.

I know I've been playing a lot of Go though because this morning I had a very realistic dream that I was playing Go on KGS against a Dan of some sort. The crazy part is, it actually progressed like a regular game. The board didn't change if I looked away or anything. It would be awesome if I could figure out how to make this happen more often so maybe I can study in my sleep.

And I can't remember why, but there was this person on KGS who kept saying to me: "I bet you hate J2."

Anyway, right now I'm not too concerned with ranking up, but more concerned with improving my fundamentals. I'm working hard on my fuseki. I think I might start learning different variations and whatnot so there is more variety in my games.

[hailthorn011]

So, I'm continuing my quest to gather strength for world domin- I mean, to be a better player! Today was spent mostly solving a lot of tsumego while intermittently reading Opening Theory Made Easy.

But I think I'm going to stop reading Opening Theory Made Easy and instead focus on games, review, and tsumego. I may also put more emphasis into studying common sequences in the fuseki, particularly for certain openings I have the most trouble with.

Unfortunately, I don't really feel as if I've progressed any since I began. So tomorrow it will be back to the grindstone.

I've also been reading a manga called Koimoku. It's interesting and causes me to have a lot of introspective moments. Part of the details: "Inamine-kun, an aspiring young manga artist, is a total failure at whatever he does..."

And I can, on some levels, relate with this. I realize there aren't a lot of things I'm great at. I used to be able to say my talent was writing, but I believe that candle blew out shortly after I got out of high school.

So I want Go to be the thing I feel I excel at. Where that glass ceiling is for me, I do not know, But I'm going to do everything I can to get there. And if I can, take a hammer to it, and ascend even higher.

But enough of that. Here is a game I played today. Rough. But a solid 2.5 point win. It was likely a lucky win.

[billywoods]

Look again at the board after 44. Instead of your 45, I'd definitely have considered whether I could push out with that black group if white got G2 on the next move; black has some amount of sente in the area, probably enough for one eye in gote, and doesn't look completely surrounded by white on top. Even if it's not completely a lost cause, it would be horrible to have to run the black group to the other end of the board, of course, but notice that your lower right and upper left groups are reasonably secure, so white wouldn't be able to profit too much by attacking - white might get central thickness, but you have a star point stone in the top right, which goes part way towards cancelling it out. But then, in return, you might get to kill the lower-right corner: this is 40 or 50 points if you manage it, and you certainly didn't make two approaches on it and build a wall outside it just to let it live easily. (This is presumably why white got 44 at G9 in the first place: because, at 43, you played a slow-looking turn at N6 rather than jumping yourself, hoping to gain strength to attack the corner?) I think this is an interesting situation - so how did you decide where to play in just 1 second?

Also, straight stones are stronger than diagonal stones ( , , ), and don't use contact moves to attack ( ). is a weak stone (imagine the standard 3-3 invasion of a 4-4 stone: there's a good reason you extend rather than hane!), but honestly I might just play Q3 here. But I'm not really strong enough to give you more advice. Just play more slowly.

[hailthorn011]

So, I've had some technical issues over the past few days, but it seems that problem has mostly been resolved. So I can go back to focusing on playing again. And it should be easy for me to get serious games considering I've joined the Baduk Republic and I'm still a member of the ASR League. Both should provide great atmospheres for improvement.

I've also been grouped with some fellow board members in the Baduk Republic, so this could get quite fun.

My goal for my eight hours is to focus on getting more games. I previously mentioned that I figured I'd stop reading books for now. So instead, I'll focus on playing games, solving tsumego, and review. I'm going to ramp up the amount of serious games I play per day. Not blitz or against the Idiotbot (talk about a subject of controversy), but I'll be playing 30+ minute matches. And hopefully I'll utilize my time better.

I keep changing my study plan because I'm still trying to figure out the most effective manner possible with me basically going it alone for the time being. I'll just have to see how the plan of more games work. Obviously the biggest thing will be to not get frustrated if the losses pile up.