LarryHH wrote:moyoaji, give the 2 kyu player an incentive to play more. Two stone handicap. Practice building and reducing moyos. Run groups into the center for marvelous middle game fighting. Yes, winning a single game doesn't mean you are one rank stronger than that player. Kyu players make lots of mistakes.
The only reason I was able to play him was because he was in town for the Christmas holiday. He doesn't live in West Michigan. (Ever think of playing him online then?
However, there is another 2 kyu player who I got to play at the club last night. I ended up losing by 7.5, but had I played one move differently in the end-game I would have won. (Don't use this "one move away" excuse, a loss is a loss is a loss.
I know that AGA and EGF rating are seen as more official than online ranks, but I personally don't have a problem with defining my rank by the KGS. Not only is it more convenient than driving hundreds of miles to go to tournaments, but it also can be more up-to-date. Not just because tournaments are rare in my area. The last and only tournament I played in was almost a year ago now - the Two Cities United Tournament in Kalamazoo, MI. I was around 9k strength at the time, which seemed to be confirmed by my games that day. So I should have an AGA rating of about -9, but they still have not entered my rating. I just checked their website now. Not sure what is taking the AGA so long there... (8 months? I would have written them 8 angry letters by this point. You're letting them off too easily.
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Back to my studies. Two new books arrived in the mail yesterday, about a week sooner than expected. (At least Kiseido knows how to do stuff on time. Maybe they should invent their own rating system and keep track of that stuff. Oh, wait...
Attack and Defense is a book I have big hopes for. It is the last book in the Elementary Go Series that I wanted to buy. I feel I've been able to learn a lot about the opening, joseki, and yose from watching lectures on YouTube and my own studies. Combined with The Second Book of Go, The Direction of Play, and Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, I felt like these concepts have been hammered home pretty well. Tesuji, life and death, and attack and defense are all concepts that I've had difficulty getting a grasp on from online study. I know I'm weak in the area of attacking right now, so with this book I hope to finally gain a solid understanding of this important mid-game strategy. I can imagine myself gaining a couple of stones from it. (This guy apparently thinks Davies and Ishida are miracle workers. Or that go books are infused with magic pixie dust.
Classes don't allow me a ton of time, but I do hope I'll make the time for the books and some more KGS games. (Why? So you can "master" things?
by capturing at 5 with 4. After that it seems impossible for Black to prevent the connection along the top edge in sente. If Black stops the connection anyway, it looks like seki between the Black and White stones.
in the diagram, White should have just played the hane on the first line. The White stones inside have a lot of liberties and it does not seem that the Black cutting stones can survive long enough to capture White.