My Journey to 1Dan... Will I ever get there

[lowiq60]

Loss #1: In this game I followed the proverb and took all 4 corners and made a living center group. Unfortunately I could not get enough territory to win the game. The game was close on the board at the end of middle game, but since I was black I was already losing by komi at the point. After disastrous endgame play from me I was behind by like 17 points when I finally resigned.

In an even game, maybe 4 corner + center strategy works better for white than for black?

[Bill Spight]

A few comments on the opening.



Edit: Added variation.

[lowiq60]

" Extending from live groups is not very big" - These are very enlightening words! I will remember that as a proverb now.

[lowiq60]

After I wrote my goal of 100 losses, I thought I was going to post losing games to this journal. However, I can't help but add this win to the journal. My opponent started this correspondence game as a 3k but got up to 2k while we were playing. As a result, this is the highest ranked opponent that I have taken down on OGS!!! In addition I got promoted to 5k on OGS! This was probably one of the best games that I have played. It's hard to say how much of this win was skill and how of much of it was me being lucky (There were a few occasions when I didn't/couldn't read and just gambled).

I joined OGS a month and half ago as a self-ranked 10kyu. Since previously I was 4-5 kyu on KGS I expected to win a lot. I was shocked to find that I was getting consecutive losses to 7-9 kyu's - in fact I was so disappointed that I started this journal. There is evidence suggesting that I got a little stronger. Am I getting closer to breaking my KGS teacher's forever 5kyu prediction?

[lowiq60]

This is a game I played against CrazyStone Level 7 on my laptop. I was black and CrazyStone was white.

I ended up winning the game by 5.5, and it is my first win against CrazyStone at Level 7 without undo. I don't know exactly the strength of the program at level 7, but I do know that two months ago it would beat me every game (although I get wins if I take several undos).

Here is the game - at one point I thought I was significantly ahead but CrazyStone caught up quite a bit in the endgame.

[Knotwilg]

Main points, upside and downside

+ You count well.
+ You go for sente moves and don't follow the opponent around.
+ Nice sacrifice tactics. 91, 109
- I think you underestimated White's influence across the board when you made your positional judgment at 63
- Beware of large knight jumps in the opponent's sphere of influence. 65, 135

BTW - a KGS teacher predicting you'll remain 5k forever doesn't sound like a real teacher to me, more like a bully.




edit: I read your first post

There was this 2d player on KGS who would regularly offer even teaching games to DDK and SDK players. He would beat me easily every game, and then make comments like "you have no reading power or global awareness", "you play really slow, and even after a lot of time you still make s*** moves", "you are in the forever 5kyu club".

That's not a teacher but a bully indeed, finding himself kyu players to boost his low self esteem under the pretext of "teaching game". BAH! Avoid that guy until you've become 2d yourself and the go back to beat the hell out of him.

[lowiq60]

Knotwilg - Thank you for reviewing my game! Yeah my positional judgement at move 63 was definitely not accurate since I got pretty much everything that I wanted (and more) and the game was still close. Sometimes my "value network" is very biased and optimistic. You are right that if the program had attacked my group on the left side early I would have been in trouble. I will try to be more cautious with my extensions when I am in my opponent's area of influence.

I am not very talented so I think I will need to work really hard and get a lot of external help to reach 2d, but I certainly hope to prove the KGS teacher wrong someday!

[lowiq60]

I got my OGS ranking to 4k under the old system! Since the old ranking system is going to be eliminated soon this is the probably the last time I will post about it. Under the new ranking system I am rated 3k. Although the new rating system is not as difficult, it does seem to give a more accurate strength assessment of the players on the server.

Here are the two games that got me to 4k under the old system. I won both games somewhat comfortably, so I won't comment on them.



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[Knotwilg]

This game is very convincing. It is hard already for me to find bad moves. All the comments you will find here are suggestions and impressions. There's nothing going on that I could significantly improve upon. This means you are already playing like a dan player (if you grant me my dan status).

In particular:

1) Your sense of direction, taking sente to play elsewhere and choosing the right area, is impressive for a 9k. It's dan level according to me.

6, 22, 114, 124

2) You make good shape. It seems you have well trained in that aspect

10, 26, 36, 64, 78, 82

3) You don't make it more complicated than necessary. Your game play speaks of confidence inducing calmness. You are hardly ever unreasonable.

14, 102, 106

4) The attachments to stir up an exchange were really well timed and well chosen. You had other displays of indirect attacks too.

48, 56, 90 (also examples of 1)

If there is one thing to learn from this game besides continuing all the good stuff, it's the shape discussion at 84. If you find yourself making a very dull move, in particular here making an empty triangle, at a place where the opponent would make an empty triangle as well, it's worth explorint alternatives;

[Knotwilg]

I'll tell this game comment as a story.

Up until 33 this could be a pro game, by my standards. Both players understand direction, strength of stones and even a fairly difficult joseki is played out correctly.

At 34-35 both players overstretch (imho) and this creates bad aji for both in the bottom right, which becomes unsettled as a whole and quite "hot".

37 is a rare artefact of what used to be your bad habit of playing too close to strength. Fortunately, White makes technical mistakes so that the damage is not too big

51 is another such slow & gluttonous move, focusing on the moyo and ignoring the hot temperature at the bottom

What follows is a great display of attacking skill, converting the moyo by killing a large group at 81. It is quite impressive how you continuously shift between attack & defence, and make all the right choices technically (to my eyes, as always)

White 82 is then an attempt to recover by attacking the weak bottom. You defend gloriously by creating outside influence and sacrificing the territory.

At 119 your group is definitively safe and the game is in the pocket

In the end you even annihilate his right side moyo. It was a little unreasonable but I actually think it's good for you to be a bit more unreasonable especially if that challenges you to read it out. Your style is already so composed that you need more complicated situations to grow.



BTW, I would not wait too long before challenging that bully of a teacher of yours. Before you know, you may be 5d and find no pleasure anymore in beating the hell out of him.

[lowiq60]

I'll tell this game comment as a story.

Up until 33 this could be a pro game, by my standards. Both players understand direction, strength of stones and even a fairly difficult joseki is played out correctly.

At 34-35 both players overstretch (imho) and this creates bad aji for both in the bottom right, which becomes unsettled as a whole and quite "hot".

37 is a rare artefact of what used to be your bad habit of playing too close to strength. Fortunately, White makes technical mistakes so that the damage is not too big

51 is another such slow & gluttonous move, focusing on the moyo and ignoring the hot temperature at the bottom

What follows is a great display of attacking skill, converting the moyo by killing a large group at 81. It is quite impressive how you continuously shift between attack & defence, and make all the right choices technically (to my eyes, as always)

White 82 is then an attempt to recover by attacking the weak bottom. You defend gloriously by creating outside influence and sacrificing the territory.

At 119 your group is definitively safe and the game is in the pocket

In the end you even annihilate his right side moyo. It was a little unreasonable but I actually think it's good for you to be a bit more unreasonable especially if that challenges you to read it out. Your style is already so composed that you need more complicated situations to grow.



BTW, I would not wait too long before challenging that bully of a teacher of yours. Before you know, you may be 5d and find no pleasure anymore in beating the hell out of him.

Thank you Knotwilg for reviewing/commenting on my games! While certain aspects of my game may be dan level, overall I am still quite far from being able to beat a KGS 2d, and I don't think I will ever reach 5d in my lifetime unless I drop literally everything else in life.

[lowiq60]

My current rank on OGS is [1k]! My impression is that the new OGS ranks is maybe 1/2 - 1 stone weaker than KGS ranks (around the low SDK to low Dan level)?

I will post some games that I played in the past couple of weeks.

This is a game that I played against my OGS dan-level "rival" two weeks ago. I consider this player a "rival" because up to today my all time record against this player is 2 W 2 L. Under the old OGS rank system this player was ranked 2k, and under the new system his/her rank has been bouncing between 1d and 2d.

Overall this game that I'm going to post was a disaster for me, and probably one of the most embarrassing games that I have played recently. The game itself ended in resignation in under 100 moves!

[lowiq60]

This is another game that I played with my "rival" that I lost. I actually had a small lead going into endgame but after several blunders in my final moves one of my groups that looked safe in the opening essentially died. A small lead is the most annoying to protect, because you can't really trade points for safety but it's still tempting to try to simplify the game. Whereas if you are behind, you can complicate the game without fear!

[lowiq60]

And finally here is the win that I got against my OGS "rival" after the previous two disastrous games.

[lowiq60]

This is a hilarious game that I played last week. I felt awful after a loss so I wanted to play random moves, lose horribly, and then feel even worse about myself. But several moves into the game I started to play seriously, and got into some pretty intense fights. I made a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUUGE blunder at move 60, but somehow got away unpunished (During this relatively fast live game, I even had my mouse over the resign button several times immediately after I made that bad move). I was really happy that I successfully used zombie go strategy in the upper left to resurrect a dead corner!

Overall a lot of bad mistakes on both sides, and a very entertaining game!