The struggles of a go enthusiast in a far away galaxy

1/7,000,000,000 · Post by **1/7,000,000,000** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:36 am

Concerning go, my city (and country) could be in a far away galaxy where noone has heard before about go. I'm not saying i'm the only one playing, there are others who are also stronger than me. All i'm saying is that there is none around to play face to face, there are no go clubs, even a go federation so essentially i progress alone with the occasional help of stronger players who want to review my games on KGS.

So let's begin. I knew about go from the flyordie server. I used to be an avid connect-4 player and when i was bored i would watch some go game. I never played there or played once-twice but i deduced the rules and was satisfied by just that. On August of last year a friend of mine mentioned an anime Hikaru no go (you all know where this is going) and i was hooked immediately. From late August to mid October i was playing non stop and managed to attain the rank of 9k on KGS. I met a guy (strongest in my city) and we played a couple of times during that period so that probably had it's effect on my progress. But i don't know, internet gaming is not my thing, lost touch with the other guy and gradually stopped playing altogether. From early spring of 2013 i started slowly playing again and in recent months i had picked up the pace of playing and studying and managed to attain the rank of 5k KGS. Since i'm also a student i have cut down considerably the amount i'm spending on go since the end of summer so right now not having played in a long time i'm 7k KGS.

So you may ask what's the meaning of all this and why should we care, well i'm making this journal primarily to motivate myself to start studying and playing go again and secondarily in the off chance that it might inspire others to do so too.

My goal is not to be become shodan in x time or something silly like this. I just want to deepen my understanding of the game, to stop making stupid moves, to be able to concentrate on the game from the beginning to the end, to be able to follow the logic of a pro game, you name it. This journal won't be as fastidious as others' but i'll try my best to keep it interesting.

SoDesuNe · Post by **SoDesuNe** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:04 am

1/7,000,000,000 wrote:My goal is not to be become shodan in x time or something silly like this.

What's wrong with planning to reach Shodan, like... let's say: in six months, starting from 4-5-kyu in June/July '10? :rambo:

1/7,000,000,000 wrote:This journal won't be as fastidious as others' but i'll try my best to keep it interesting.

Well, you really are a boiling kettle when it comes to motivational speech. Or you're British. :batman:

I will gladly review your games when I have the time or play a game with you. Though know this: Everything I might try to teach you comes from the foggy mind of someone desperately trying to hold onto the smallest integral number with a d right at his side =)

1/7,000,000,000 · Post by **1/7,000,000,000** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:44 am

Oh hey SoDesuNe, your guide and struggles inspired me to write this.

What i mean by ''My goal is not to become shodan in x time or something silly like this.'' is that i'm not bothered about rank as long as i keep improving at an adequate pace.
Rank will come later if i do things right

DrStraw · Post by **DrStraw** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:48 am

SoDesuNe wrote:What's wrong with planning to reach Shodan, like... let's say: in six months, starting from 4-5-kyu in June/July '10?

Everything. It puts the wrong emphasis on it. Trying to understand the game instead of concentrating on a number will lead to better long term result.

SoDesuNe · Post by **SoDesuNe** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:20 am

You are of course both right and my remark should be read with a wink (hence the smiley) : )

When I look back those three years, I was indeed a fool to believe this lousy study regime could bring me anywhere near Shodan. I had no clue of the troubles laying ahead. But in the end, that's Go. You read a line and are confident it will succeed only to stumble across a strong resistance you missed. The hope is to be cleverer next time.
Although I missed my goal in every regard, I still strive to become stronger. That's why I think, the goal in itself is of no grave matter as long as you keep struggleing whether or not you will eventually reach it.
The only sure thing is, that you will learn on your way. And the only important thing is, that you start walking.

"Just one game," they said, and started to play -- that was yesterday."

1/7,000,000,000 · Post by **1/7,000,000,000** » Sun Oct 13, 2013 1:16 pm

First time of update has arrived.
First of all let me mention the books i've already read.

1. Learn to Play Go 1-5
2. Opening Theory Made Easy
3. Lessons in the fundamentals of go
4. Graded Go Problems 1-3
5. Elementary Encyclopedia of Life and Death

From Graded Go Problems vol. 3 my right answers were at about 85-90% and i have solved a couple of problems from the fourth volume but i've decided to leave it alone for the time being since i consume a lot of time in every problem.
I ordered the Elementary Series and i've been reading from there and until i finish these books i won't read anything else. I decided i should read simultaneously In the Beginning, Tesuji and Life and Death and after i finish those the next three. I have already read up to a point from those books so here's my progress from Friday.

In the Beginning: 20 pages

Tesuji: ''Ko'' 10/14
''When liberties count'' 4/6 (up to where i am)

Life and Death: ''Shortage of liberties'' 6/6
''Two-space notchers'' 5/6
''An eye in the interior'' 5/6
''Three-space notchers'' 4/6

Also played this game on KGS (left unreviewed)

About the game it was first game in 15 days so plz don't be too harsh :p i know my opponent missed a chance to kill bottom left and i made an unnecessary ko in the end so all in all not very pleased. This perfomance is so lucklaster...All day Friday i was sitting on the couch watching movies :p

ps. I tried to post the game using the sgf tag but the eidogo goban was blank and there was a message in the middle saying ''Received invalid game data''. Any ideas?

Boidhre · Post by **Boidhre** » Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:41 pm

Works for me. You need to preview your post after uploading the file and get the link from there.

Boidhre · Post by **Boidhre** » Sun Oct 13, 2013 9:29 pm

Some thoughts on the opening. We're around the same strength, so take with a fistful of salt.

SoDesuNe · Post by **SoDesuNe** » Mon Oct 14, 2013 2:19 am

Some comments from me as well. Same grain of salt : )

1/7,000,000,000 · Post by **1/7,000,000,000** » Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:26 am

Thank you both for the review i think i learned something here

I haven't studied fuseki yet so in every game i get behind in the opening but my main problem is direction of play. I have absolutely no idea where to play and i end up playing stupid moves. In every game i get to byo yomi by move 100 and have to play almost instictively for the rest of the game. The fact that i'm a slow thinker doesn't help either :p

Boidhre · Post by **Boidhre** » Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:33 am

1/7,000,000,000 wrote:Thank you both for the review i think i learned something here
I haven't studied fuseki yet so in every game i get behind in the opening but my main problem is direction of play. I have absolutely no idea where to play and i end up playing stupid moves. In every game i get to byo yomi by move 100 and have to play almost instictively for the rest of the game. The fact that i'm a slow thinker doesn't help either :p

I don't think direction of play is your main problem, the thing that struck me looking at your opening was that I couldn't see what your plan was. Your moves weren't working together towards a common goal. I think trying to play moves that work somewhat better with distant stones might be worth a nice bit to you. I'd just focus on trying to figure out what you want and make appropriate moves in the opening rather than just reacting locally as you are right now. That's worth a lot more than studying some joseki at our level. One way of looking at it is look at the board after 30 moves and ask your self "are all my stones saying the same thing?"

But, eh, I could be completely wrong.

1/7,000,000,000 · Post by **1/7,000,000,000** » Mon Dec 09, 2013 2:01 pm

WEEK 1
Let's name this week one and see how far i can keep this trend.

So here i am again after 2 months of absence :salute:

My oh so lovely catatonia did it's job and put a stop to what seemed like a promising study schedule. Oh well...
I hadn't lost completely go out of my sight in that period but the studying was pretty negligible and the number of games played was nil. In the past 2 weeks or so i started again studying and playing and here are the results in the elementary series books

In the Beginning: Read during October-early November
Tesuji: ''When liberties count'' 34.5/44

Life and Death: ''False eyes and placements techniques'' 4.5/5
''The door group is dead'' 2/4
''Incomplete shapes'' 6/9
''Review problems'' 3.5/6 (those were really hard)

You might wonder what the hell does 0.5 point mean. In the end you either solve a problem or not, right? Well, half a point -in my logic- means 3 things: a. i found the right move/moves but not read all the variations which arise from them b. i found the right move/moves but didn't refute all the other moves c. both a and b
Also i have stuck to my choice to read those 3 books and then move to the other three. If that's wise or not i'm not sure perhaps someone could enlighten me. As far as playing is concerned i have played 2 super-blitz games(10 sec no main time), lost both of them even though i was ahead in the first me thinks, 2 ASR games, won one lost the other and 1 Pandanet Europeans Team Champs game against a 2d in which i didn't do that bad i believe. My current rank is 7k? but i think i could go to 6k easily.
Here are my 2 losses.

The game against a 2d was reviewed afterwards.
The other is the most embarrassing game i have played in my life. It was my first loss in the December ASR league.

1/7,000,000,000 · Post by **1/7,000,000,000** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:37 am

Here is a problem for which i think i found an alternative move. The solution suggested is S13 but i think T14 also works

What do you think guys?

Boidhre · Post by **Boidhre** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:46 am

How do you handle T13?

Boidhre · Post by **Boidhre** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:10 am

Sorry, this is what I mean, I don't see a way to avoid a seki.

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The struggles of a go enthusiast in a far away galaxy

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