Tomoe's Study Journal

[Tomoe]

In one and a half months the summer semester is going start and I probably won't have much time to study Go from then on.
Thus I decided to use the left free time to start playing again and to improve a little. I guess a study journal that I’ll update once a week could help me in terms of discipline
I recently introduced myself here (http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11511) by the way.

My goal is to reach solid KGS 9k, improving by three stones respectively, by the end of March.


Study Plan for March:

- one hour theory and one hour tsumego per day (weekends half as much), I’m not sure yet if two hours of studying are appropriate, might be too much.
- at least three games on KGS per day (~5min + 3x30s byoyomi) (weekends only one game)
- review one game from "Invincible - The games of Shusaku" per week, even if it might not be necessary at my level, it surely will be fun
- watching the latest games by Hajin Lee 3p (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTji1kQNoWIH85dB_Vxka9g)
- at most 1 day without studying per week, preferably weekends


My first readings will be "Opening Theory Made Easy" (I already read half of it) and "EGS: Attack and Defence".

For Tsumego I'll start with "1001 L&D Problems" and if the problems in the last third become too difficult I might continue with "Graded Go Problems for Beginners 3&4".

Alternatives to the books mentioned above would be:
- EGS: Tesuji, Endgame
- Lessons in the Fundamentals
- Get Strong at: Tesuji, Opening


Here is a game I played today, March 1st. Considering that this is the first non-computer game I've played in about six months, I'm quite pleased with the result. It was a pretty fast game, Black and white both made many mistakes that are even obvious to me, not to mention those which aren't.

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=5685

[EdLee]

Hi Tomoe,

Good luck with your project.

My $0.02.

Don't follow around like a puppy. R5 is very big.
B should add a local move after , but he didn't. Make him pay.

R5.

Bad.

Confused. You are very happy to reply with C4.
The exchange of ( - C4 ) is bad for B, good for you. Why not ??

Sad result for you: B takes all your cash here in sente -- you forced him.
Compare if you simply blocked at C4 to -- you got 4th line territory!

Chicken. D3 is so big. You are confused about the D6 cut --
your 2 stones at C5 are now too small: if B cuts at D6,
you are happy to counter atari at E6 and force him to take the 2 stones,
while you build your outside wall.

Some pros, if they're enjoying a cup of tea,
and they witness certain moves,
they might spill tea out of their nose.
This is such a move.

For future reference, whenever you want to make an empty triangle,
pause for one minute. That's 60 seconds. At least.
If you absolutely cannot find a better move to save your life, then play the empty triangle.

Can you find a better local move for ?

E7. In many cases, the jump is a better local choice to the empty triangle.

Can you find a better global move for ?

R5.

End game, too small, too slow. See notes at .

Same notes as .

[Tomoe]

Hi EdLee,

thanks for your helpful review
In one of today's games I already had the opportunity to apply one of your advices (answer to )

Today everything went according to plan. However, I lost one game by timing out due to lags. But I try not to worry too much about winning or loosing at the moment.

[EdLee]

(answer to )

Good!

[Tomoe]

Unfortunately I only managed to play one game today. I did read theory as well as some Tsumego though.

Here is a game I surprisingly won vs a 9kyu Bot. However, I made many mistakes again, like missing endgame moves and making bad shape in the opening...

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=5696

[EdLee]

Hi Tomoe,

$0.02

Premature. End-game move. Too small, too slow.

Good that you tenuki.

OK. Since he ignored your approach move, F16 is also a follow-up.

Confused. S14 to keep Black split.

B can connect with S14.

Jumping out to F15 is very natural.
For the lower right corner, locally, P4 is a big follow-up to his tenuki.

C13.

[Tomoe]

Hi, it's been a while, and of course I didn't follow my study plan I played some offline games and studied occasionally though.

Here is a game I played on KGS yesterday:

I would appreciate some comments. I'm especially interested in whether I could've caught the white group on the right side (around move 60).

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=5929

[skydyr]

Some comments:

http://lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=5930

Also, the score isn't quite right at the end of the game. There are a couple black stones and a white stone that aren't marked dead.

[Tomoe]

Hi, thanks for the thorough commentary

I made a similar mistake at the local go club last night and a stronger player also advised me to play the pincer rather than the shoulder hit.

[skydyr]

Hi, thanks for the thorough commentary

I made a similar mistake at the local go club last night and a stronger player also advised me to play the pincer rather than the shoulder hit.

The shoulder hit is really a kind of reduction move, but you're not looking to reduce white, you're looking to attack. As another way to look at it, a shoulder hit invites the shoulder-hitee, so to speak, to extend against the stone. By tewari, this is a lot like attaching to the stone white extends with. As a general rule, you don't want to touch stones you are attacking, because it makes them stronger.