UnitedGo's Road to Dan

[UnitedGo]

Day 1:

Will have to study the principles talked about in this review. This teaching game was very helpful and informed me of the things
that I will have to work on. I don't know maybe it can be useful to some of you guy's too. It was really informative. Beware
though the chat is out of order and I don't know how to fix it. Just pay attention to the move comments.


I have almost finished learn to play go vol 2. I will probably finish it after this post. I really need to study joseki more. I
only know like 2. So, I'm probably not playing to my best potential without this knowledge. Joseki and fuseki that is.

Here is another review I had which also contains a lot of good information (I made some of the same mistakes and I'm ashamed)


Well, that seems to be all I have for today. I will come back tomorrow hopefully a lot better go player and with a lot more
to talk about. Any other comments you have about the games are appreciated. I'm always up for advice and criticism.

[UnitedGo]

Day 2:

I have moved on to Learn to Play Go 4. So i am expecting some really big improvements. I will also start reading Elementary Go Attack and Defense.
This book is highly recommended, so I have big expectations. Today, I played a game it may be interesting or not, but I'm going to put it here
anyways. It was interesting to me though.
'
White didn't have to resign even though his J10 and E8 group is dead there are still a ton of invasion points for white. He resigned with the whole
right side of the board untouched. I don't know maybe losing J10 is too much.

[Schachus]

Can you find a better move for your opponent at ?
Hint:

Your 7 stones have only 2 liberties. How can white get them?

[UnitedGo]

@Schachus G10. Black captures at G11. H11. Black is dead. White captures with C9 or B9.

[Schachus]

I assume you are shifted one column to the right and meant to say

"F10. If black captures at F11, then G11".
This is almost right, but you missed one very important detail, namely g11 does not reduce a liberty, the group stays at 2 liberties. But blacks 2 stones at e9 also have only 2 liberties, so black could get them first.

How would white need to play for his second move, in order to put black in atari already and avoid this problem?

[UnitedGo]

@Schachus Dont play G11. Just go ahead with C9. This Kills black.

[UnitedGo]

Day 3:

I didn't play many games today. Today I have been focusing on reading my books and doing tsumego. Tsumego really forces you to use
your reading ability and at some points they're really hard, but tsumego are really fun and I would say their up there in the same
category with jigsaw puzzles or chess puzzles. They're tough but that is what makes them fun . When you accurately read out the
answer to a tsumego you feel so accomplished. Even when you find a variation that still works that is not the official answer and
when you find a flaw in the variation that is the correct answer. I use the Tsumego pro app.

I want to study from the Elementary Tesuji book, but I have a lot o books to read before then.

[EdLee]

Hi UnitedGo,

Dont play G11. Just go ahead with C9. This Kills black.

Correct. A key here is not all liberties are the same:
Your post-4 suggestion, G11, does reduce a B liberty --
of the B F11 stone, which is not important;
whereas C9 reduces a B liberty -- of the D9 string, which is!

[UnitedGo]

Hi UnitedGo, Correct. A key here is not all liberties are the same:
Your post-4 suggestion, G11, does reduce a B liberty --
of the B F11 stone, which is not important;
whereas C9 reduces a B liberty -- of the D9 string, which is!

Haha good thing my opponent didn't see this then, but bad thing I didn't.

[UnitedGo]

Day 4 I guess:

I was wondering if you guys consider go child a good resource for those trying t improve. even though it is for little kids I feel like there is lots to learn from this interactive site.

http://gochild2009.appspot.com/

Theres the link if you don't know what it is. To get the most out of it you have to sign up.