Abyssinica's Study Journal

[Abyssinica]

8 May 2014

*Redid problems 1-50 in Cho Chikun's elementary as well as did 617-652 Someone gave me the bright idea of going back through all the easy, beginning problems as a sort of warm-up before going on to the main problems. Essentially, going through all the easy ones quickly while going through new ones is better than just forging through new ones, and I agree. I went through 50 of them in almost no time, and it feels completely different to when I started doing these problems. Besides that, somehow I managed to get 35 new ones done. The time just seemed to go by as I went through one after another.
*Read a bit out of Endgame. My go book collection is increasing. http://i.imgur.com/94PeoC7.jpg
*Went over game #10 in Invincible.
*Watched Studying Professional Go Games - Legend88 - 01
*Kgs 9k! Won my last 7 games in a row as a 10k and finally ranked up!

I'm sdk now. I'm ready to game with the big boys.

[Abyssinica]

9 May 2014
Testing all day today (8 hours ) - didn't feel like doing tsumego when I got home since I usually do it at school.
*Watched Studying Professional Go Games - Legend88 - 02
*Went over game #11 in invincible.
*Read some more out of endgame I'm not reading it to study it now, just reading it for fun!

[Abyssinica]

10 May 2014
*Did problems 51-90 as well as 653-675
*Went over the first chapter of endgame with my board
*Watched Studying Professional Go Games - Legend88 - 03
*Invincible game #12

[Abyssinica]

You know, I had a conversation with someone a few days ago that went like this:

17:59 Kheldragar: I've been 10k kgs for almost two and a half weeks
17:59 Kheldragar: Feels slow
17:59 Wasuji: If you never come into contact with stronger players...you don't know any better
18:00 Kheldragar: Wonder how people in the old days got strong
18:00 Wasuji: Studying old games
18:01 Wasuji: If you read Go seigen's biography
18:01 Kheldragar: I have not
18:01 Kheldragar: I'm actually setting up an sgf right now
18:01 Kheldragar: So I can go over my daily game out of invincible
18:01 Wasuji: He first got strong by playing old games over and over
18:01 Kheldragar: I do one a day to let it sink in :I
18:01 Kheldragar: First I play it out
18:01 Kheldragar: Then I play it and read the commentary
18:01 Kheldragar: Then I play it again
18:02 Wasuji: You should play it out
18:02 Wasuji: play it out and write down you own comments
18:02 Kheldragar: Hmm
18:02 Wasuji: and then compare your comments to the commentary
18:04 Kheldragar: I wonder how effective this really is
18:05 Wasuji: At the last US Go Congress, I asked Guo Juan how she improved
18:05 Kheldragar: Pro I assume?
18:05 Wasuji: Yeah
18:05 Wasuji: Elementc calls her the cat lady
18:05 Wasuji: Or something like that I think
18:05 Wasuji: Anyways, when she was studying to be a pro
18:06 Wasuji: she would take Honinbo Shuei games and try to find refutations to what Shuei did...in essence making her own commentary
18:06 Wasuji: she would read out the sequence and try and say "This move is wrong because of the following sequence"
18:07 Wasuji: she said that made her get strong very quickly
18:07 Kheldragar: I see
18:07 Kheldragar: All I'm trying to do is get "good play" in my subconcious
18:07 Kheldragar: :I
18:07 Wasuji: Yeah
18:07 Wasuji: I think reading is important
18:08 Wasuji: but you also need good ideas

I always wondered how people in the past, without acess to the resources we have now, got really strong, and it lead to this conversation. Instead of going through the pdf like I did/do, I think I might take my time with #12. I printed out the pages from the pdf and I think I might try what Wasuji suggested. Sadly I have double convex stones, so variations will be a pain, but I'll see what happens!

Also, I remember someone telling me a while ago that at around 8k you will realise how much you don't know about this game. In the past 20 days, I have gained around two stones and it feels like I've lost 10. All that's happened was that I've been playing, and playing, and playing, and then suddenly I have to ask myself why all of my moves are suddenly really terrible and I'm still winning! Helsbecter was right; it did finally happen.

[Abyssinica]

11 May 2014
*Did problems 91-100 as well as 676-687 out of elementary Life and death life and death so much life and death
*Read a bit out of chapter 2 of endgame and the first half of Opening theory made easy
*Watched Nick Sibicky Go Lecture #70 - Gu Li vs Li Zhe (AGAIN)
Bat's - Studying Professional Go Games - 04 - Shusaku
*A little bit more out of Invincible game #12, though not that much I think later I have to ask myself, why would you respond here? Why not just tenuki? etc.


What is go about? Really, if you ask me that now I'll say that I have no clue. I could just say, "It's to make more points than your opponet," but then I could share a quote an amateur 4d gave me. "But by that logic we should open at 3-3 and then just make a series of two space jumps along the third line for as long as our opponent lets us." Okay, so it's not just about making more territory, but then what is it? I could say it's about the strength and weaknesses of groups, but I don't feel comfortable with this answer. If there aren't large moyos on the board, I don't see where people are getting their points from. In relation to that, I don't feel comfortable making moves that don't at least gain me some points. I'm not talking about the capture of one tiny stone that should be saved for endgame vs somewhere else because I'm pretty sure I can tell that the capture is too small. I would even be hesitant as to gain a large amount of influence if that influence did not immediately make a large moyo for myself. If it was just a wall facing nowhere, I wouldn't feel right having it. I'd even be scared to think that the wall could come under attack because walls don't have eyes despite the fact that I know (if the wall was truly thick) the wall was fine and I can make profit elsewhere by attacking things towards the wall. But what if my opponet plays to make my influence seem worthless? Is that stone he played to erase my influence really working? Can I attack/kill it? I don't know! All I know is that I'm not strong enough to punish if it is an overplay!

Going back to making points, let's say I have a weak group. Sure, defending it doesn't necessarily make me any more points, but the reason you can't do whatever you want when you have a weak group is (I think), that if you allow your opponet to kill it, then the territory they gain by killing said group will dwarf whatever you gained by playing elsewhere, thus, you have to defend it. It won't make you many points, but it will stop your opponet from gaining a large amount. When I was 15k or thereabouts, I used to be territorial to the point where my opponets got game-winning influence. That only existed for a little while, but I think I still have it even now. So what is go about? I have no clue. If I go to wikipedia's page on Go and look at ranks, then 9k is at the weak edge of "intermediate player." I can say with 100% certainty that if you ask me something about the game or go over a board position with you, I will respond with, "I have no clue what I'm talking about." And even when it comes to score, I won't even be able to tell how many points are needed to win while in the midst of a game.

[Abyssinica]

Game with Dsaun. He says I'm visibly improving, and robertT took over from the position at which I resigned. Will edit in the results.

http://lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=4474

http://lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=4475

B+0.5

[EdLee]

I have no clue what I'm talking about.

If this is truly how you feel, you're improving.

[Abyssinica]

12 May 2014
*Did problems 101-120 as well as 688-708 out of elementary
*Watched Bat's Low Chinese Fuseki Lecture Sadly it's in really poor quality which is why I've been avoiding it for so long.
*Game #12 still. The next topic will be trying to find reasons as to why white didn't ignore X or Y and etc.

Should have ordered 1001 tesuji problems or get strong at tesuji. I think I might just do that. Buy all the books! ALL OF THEM!

[Abyssinica]

13 May 2014

*Did cho chikun's elementary problems 709-734 and 121-137.

Kheldragar: I'm only doing Cho chikun's elementary
oren: ah, I would not do those
Kheldragar: I think about a week and I'll finally finish it
oren: get something with answers
Kheldragar: Why not?
Kheldragar: I think it's better without answers personally
Kheldragar: I can't be tempted to look up the answer after a minute
oren: yeah, I can see why you wouldn't like life and death then
oren: work on it for a bit and look at the answers
Kheldragar: I think that's what you should do for tesuji problems
oren: get some experience at finding and reading the critical points
oren: just looking at a stone setup with no answers makes no sense to me
Kheldragar: Do you consider reducing your opponet to a dead shape a critical point?
oren: yes
Kheldragar: When I started I was doing 10 minutes a problem picking random points that looked okay and reading everything
Kheldragar: But I've been doing 10-30 a day for a month now so I pulled through?
oren: yeah, I would want to give up life and death too
Kheldragar: Never give up
Kheldragar: Fight through the pain
oren: heh, well, as long as you like it
oren: I have a bunch of problem books, I usually spend 2-5 min per problem and look at the answer
oren: and usually get a surprise

Despite the fact that problems were tedious when I was first starting, I think they're better without the answers. There's no temptation to look up the correct answer when a problem seems too hard. Yes, I've had those occasionally in this collection, but so what? And even if you get the wrong answer, your reading improves. Maybe it doesn't visibly improve, but if you go back to a problem after you have more experience, you'll be able to solve it and may even remember getting the wrong answer sometime in the past.

*Did chapter 2 problems in Endgame I got 6k on the results, so that's something. I did spend a lot of effort I wouldn't have put into an actual game into it though.
*More of game 12. I'm just dragging it out doing a bit at a time. I originally started it as a diversion, so I don't feel that this is doing any harm, and it's probably waay more useful that way too.
*Watched Greatest Games Ever Played - Episode 01 - Go Seigen vs Fujisawa Kuranosuke - 1953

[Abyssinica]

14 May 2014

*Did problems 735-747 as well as 138-151 out of Elementary.
*Did macroendgame problems out of Endgame. I didn't really go into the detail of the moves, I just answered with what looked biggest and checked my answers. I got 3-2k, but didn't think too hard about the problems. Of course, a multiple choice answer is always easier than a board with no help.
*Game #13 I think it's time to retire #12 and move on. I'm way too weak to go into too much detail, so I might as well move on and return later. There's 80 or so games, so when I come back, which will be in a while, who knows where I'll be?
*Watched Batt's lecture on kgs.

[Abyssinica]

15 May 2014

*Did problems 748-765 as well as 152-173 out of Elementary.
*Watched Nick Sibicky's 4-4 joseki workshop. New video.
*Played this teaching game http://online-go.com/game/606099 I did poorly and he let me win!
*Game 13 stuff!
*Read more out of attack and defence as well as Lessons in the fundamentals.

[Abyssinica]

16 May 2014
*Did problems 766-782 as well as 174-185
*Read more of lessons in the fundamentals of go.
*Watched Nick Sibicky Go Lecture #46 - Dan Level Showdown


Tommorow may or may not be the day I finally play go in person with someone who isn't 30k (i.e, people in the house I can drag to the board.) It's still not definite, though; their [url]http://katygoclub.org/Meetings.html]website[/url] says they meet on the first and third saturday of each month, but the meeting thing hasn't updated and has the date wrong for when the first saturday was. I don't want to go and have no one be there! I'd be too embarassed and sad. I've been trying to go the last 4 meetings in a row, however it came into many complications:

1st try: SAT practice on Saturday. I got a 2050 and have to take it again.
2nd try: Closed randomly
3rd try: Closed for easter weekend
4th try: I said 'yes' to a teacher who was bugging me to attend UIL for her class on Saturday. Three weeks later I find out its date coincides with go playing.
5th try: Tommorow

[Abyssinica]

17 May 2014

*Did problems 783-808 as well as 186-190 in Cho Chikun's Elementary



Well, it turns out that I should've called the club before heading out for 40 minutes instead of when I couldn't find them there because, as it turns out, they couldn't reserve a room at the library this weekend! I have to try again in June.


Edit: Most of the games I'm posting aren't up for review - I'd do that in game analysis. I'm just posting them here for record. That being said, Xombar suggested we start a game with no time and talk about our moves. I should've kept the invasion peep simple.

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=4507

[Abyssinica]

18 May 2014

*Cho chikun elementary problems #809-835. I am almost done with them!
*Watched Bat's KGS Series - 03 - 3kyu + Ina!

I have a new go playing problem that should be easy to fix. The problem is, "OH MY GOD WHY ARE MY OPPONETS MAKING SUCH BAD MOVES WHAT DO I DO I GUESS I HAVE TO KILL THEM SOMEWHERE NOW. Also I have no clue how to punish this." as well as playing too fast without thinking.

For example, the below situation led to the previous mentality which went to a cut and die everywhere game that I only lost by 12.5 points.

$$c
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . W . . . . . , . . . . . W . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . W W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . B . . . . . , . . . . . B . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . W . . . . . , . . . . . W . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . W W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . B . . . . . , . . . . . B . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

And yes, I do just as horribly as you'd expect when I'm not thinking and playing on autopilot! Getting over that was what pushed me from 11/12k to 9k, and now I have it again? Apparently I'm stronger even though I don't feel stronger because I was able to kill and keep dead an 8k. I must be stronger if that's true? Or at least near his level? Sure, he probably could've lived if he didn't ignore the moves I was making to surround him, but the point stands that he's still that strength and is making mistakes applicable to this strength.

[skydyr]

The standard response if black tries to pincer or do something funny instead of extending is to attach at E4.