Path to 9Dan, step by step.

[hl782]

I don't believe torrenting is illegal - Most go books regarding copyright are either very unclear, and/or incredibly outdated old books. I believe sharing is caring


Anyways! 2 games against 1 kyus. 1 win, 1 loss. I think I'll use reddevils as my 2nd main, and use broomstick as a throwaway account for free games... i just play too many crappy games on that account and its messing up my game abit.

As for problems, I have purchased Graded Go Problems for Dans, Vol. 1 and 2 - Hoping that will carry me to shodan soon


Loss by 5.5 points


Win!

[sparky314]

Regardless of what you believe, torrenting copyrighted books is illegal. You do not have the authors permission to distribute them, or to obtain them illegally. Authors do not make very much, yet put in a significant amount of effort to write the books. For some, that is their livelihood.

If the copyright has expired or it has a commons license, then you can share it freely. Shape Up has a couple of authorized versions online, for example. But otherwise, no.

I'd highly recommend removing that information from your document, and do not share any illegally obtained books with anyone else.

There are plenty of free resources available out there for Go, and plenty of people willing to provide a lending library.

Edit: Also, copyright lasts a long time. In the US (which I assume you are given the email address), anything after 1964 is still under copyright. Anything between 1923 and 1963 is questionable. Anything before 1923 is public domain. Most go books in print (and out of print) are after 1964, and are under copyright.

[Charles Matthews]

I don't believe torrenting is illegal - Most go books regarding copyright are either very unclear, and/or incredibly outdated old books. I believe sharing is caring

And I believe I'm entitled to intellectual property rights as a go author: should be my choice what I release under an open license. (I spend almost all my time on Wikimedia projects.)

You are a promising kyu player now; but your regrettable attitude means I'm not going to give further reviews of your game.

[Uberdude]

I don't believe torrenting is illegal - Most go books regarding copyright are either very unclear, and/or incredibly outdated old books. I believe sharing is caring

Torrenting as an action is not illegal, it depends what you torrent: torrenting of works under copyright is illegal. Most go books regarding copyright are perfectly clear if you bother to read the copyright page. Believing false things doesn't make them magically true.

[hl782]

Well well.. this caused up quite a stir didn't it? With some specification, a majority of the works that I had downloaded were classic works, or works that were written prior to 1923 (aka available to the public domain).

But some of the files I did download are still under copyright, and I was too hasty to make those statements on my document. Perhaps my sentiments of willing to share works with others rubbed off the wrong way. For that I apologize - and I have reworded/removed those two lines off of my guide.

[hl782]

Another game I played yesterday vs a 1 kyu. Narrow win - sorta botched endgame - and Perhaps I should have just taken the group on the right in exchange for one of his Ko threats.

[hl782]

Here's a game I played against a 1dan. I actually did a self review since i had some time.

How kgs thinks i am a 2 dan after 2 wins against 1kyus lol their algorithm is terrible.

[Shaddy]

Think more about the value of a move. You and your opponent both played a lot of moves that should have been gote, but you both treated them as sente.

[hl782]

2 games, vs a 1kyu and a 1 dan (Okay actually questionable because I dont think he was)

Win


Win

[hl782]

Here's two games I played against 1kyus - 1 win and 1 loss due to time.


The Win - Ranked game! Thought he really caught up lots in the endgame but.. managed to eek out komi plus.



The loss - Free game! I lost trying to read out all the vars of a joseki in the corner and I ran out of time. Welp. x)

[hl782]

3 games - vs 3, 2kyus and a 1dan.

Win - vs 3k


Win - vs 2k


Loss - vs 1dan


I feel like I got it against 3-2kyus. 1kyus& dans - Somewhat playable, but I have a mental barrier against them. Whatever I'll break it soon.

About half way through Graded Go Problems for Dans, Vol. 1 (L&D). The problems are starting to get tricky.

[hl782]

1Kyus are a wall.

How does anyone review the fundamentals? I just feel like I am lacking the basics of the game.

[aiichigo]

1Kyus are a wall.

How does anyone review the fundamentals? I just feel like I am lacking the basics of the game.

What do you consider the basics you are lacking?

You've mentioned you are studying Graded Go Problems for Dans, how are you studying? Do you find the answer and move on, how many variations do you read out?

You've probably heard pro's recommend studying much easier tsumego than your level, the reason being that it is much easier to read out many alternatives in simple tsumego, and completely study an easy tsumego, than something more challenging. This complete understanding of a simple problem helps improve reading, and broadens your reading skills, it also allows you to consider things such as not following the best result, which may be good locally e.g. allowing your opponent to live, but building thickness, which may be bad locally but could be good globally, how to make the best result for the other player in the problem. Think about the best result that the player not playing first could get, is sente important, canm black still kill, or connect if white plays first, does the solution end in sente or gote? Is there a result which ends in sente, which may be slightly worse but gives sente?

[hl782]

What do you consider the basics you are lacking?

You've mentioned you are studying Graded Go Problems for Dans, how are you studying? Do you find the answer and move on, how many variations do you read out?

You've probably heard pro's recommend studying much easier tsumego than your level, the reason being that it is much easier to read out many alternatives in simple tsumego, and completely study an easy tsumego, than something more challenging. This complete understanding of a simple problem helps improve reading, and broadens your reading skills, it also allows you to consider things such as not following the best result, which may be good locally e.g. allowing your opponent to live, but building thickness, which may be bad locally but could be good globally, how to make the best result for the other player in the problem. Think about the best result that the player not playing first could get, is sente important, canm black still kill, or connect if white plays first, does the solution end in sente or gote? Is there a result which ends in sente, which may be slightly worse but gives sente?

I don't particularly think GGPD Vol. 1 is overly difficult. I am scoring roughly 65-70% through the first 200 problems. I try to solve it within the time limits provided by the book (IE, 10 minutes if the problem says something like 'Solve In 10 Minutes - 1dan')

Here's a sentence from Kageyama's Lessons in the Fundamentals Of Go - "Go is the type of game where, in which if you are an expert, you can just keep on making ordinary moves."

This - I feel like I am lacking. Sometimes, I don't know what the correct & solid move is (In fact I have no idea where I should play). Do I Hane? Do I Cut? Do I jump?

It's somewhat hard to explain in to words what I mean by 'lacking the fundmentals' - but I do feel like I'm missing something

I did order Master of Haengma, and This is Haengma from a European Book store. Hopefully when it gets here, It will help me a bit.



Note: It may just be a mental thing - since I'm winning rather comfortably in most games vs 2/3 kyus.

[hl782]

Update - I am still not winning as often as I'd like vs 1kyus but they don't feel impossible now. I am playing much better than I did throughout most of the summer. I put up a decent fight vs them more or less. I've had my wins, but slightly more losses in between.

I am finally returning to Cornell as a student in 3 days (after a 2 year hiatus). I'll be at the same school as Yunxuan Li 7-Dan (he's going to be a freshman) - and i hope to learn from him as well. In the meantime, I've decided to try out lessons from Yilun Yang 7P. Hopefully they will be helpful.



New Goals
1) Break even against 1kyus soon
2) Hit 1 Dan by next February (ish)
3) Hit 2 Dan by end of school year

School Study Regime
- 15 Problems a Day
- 1 Serious Game a Day
- 1 Pro game per week
- Lessons with Mr. Yang

let the journey continue!