April Summary
Another month has passed and it's time to see where I stand right now, and what I've done in April to improve my Go playing.
1. Games
I played many games this month. A rough estimate puts me at 25-30 games on a 19x19 against human opponents, an additional 10-15 games against Leela and about 100 games against Igowin on 9x9.
Most of my games ended up being reviewed by myself, members on the site, or my opponent. I like to think I've learned something from each game.
2. Tsumego
Finally found a way to do tsumego, although I'm not sure it's sufficient and I might have to step up my game here. I finished Level Up 6, 7 and 8. I've done GGPB 2 and am currently re-reading it because there's still many mistakes I made.
3. Books
I've read other books but I've spend less time on it then the first few months. I re-read Lessons in Fundamentals, selectively re-read Attack and Defense, and am currently browsing through "All about Thickness" again.
4. Rank/Strength?
In a month's time, my rank on OGS has gone up from 14.4 kyu to about 13 kyu. Noticeable is that the real fast progression is over for now, I believe. I like to think I gained a lot of strength in the past few months, but now it's going much more steadily, but that is only logical, of course. To be honest I'm already very happy to be at the 13-14 kyu level at this point, so I don't want to rush my development.
Things'll go much slower from here on in, and I'll need to put in a lot more work to increase a stone compared to before. Hopefully that won't diminish the motivation.
5. Highlights
My live games with knotwilg. Having found such a strong player nearby, willing to play me every once in a while, has been amazing for my go-playing, I think. The games we played count among me favorite, if only for the circumstances, being able to play a strong player on a real board, both using time to play, reviewing the game afterwards. Beats online go playing any day of the week.
6. Lowest Point
I wish I could tell you studying Go is always a lot of fun but it's actually not. I have to admit that at some points, I find myself wondering: "why am I doing all this?" I got into a losing streak for a while and if you're then reading a Go-book in the evening and you see someone doing some online gaming with friends and having a lot of fun I asked myself "Is this really worth it? Did I stop gaming for this?"
Waking up the next day, I always find myself with the answer "Yes. It's worth it".
But the question returns every once in a while
For now, I can't start letting my go-studying become something half-half. My efforts have already decreased a bit because I picked up my music again after a long break, so I need to be focused and aware that I keep spending at least 2 hours a day on my Go. I think that's an acceptable amount of time for the time being.
On the other hand, I have to be careful not to let Go take over my life, which I am prone to do at times. Going for a walk with good friends, or playing music with my band, or visiting my little niece, are things you should never pass up on, not even for playing Go
7. Trap!
One thing to learn from April that I've come to realize is that I can't fall into one particular trap: expectations.
It's true that I've progressed relatively quickly the first few months (I think so) and some people have also noted that and told me. Others carry it even further and perhaps expect me (or I think they do) to keep that progression rate going.
I have to be very careful about that and push all that aside. Remember that progression will come naturally but also that you probably don't keep improving (unless you keep spending hours and hours a day, which is unlikely in the long term), so who knows, maybe I'll become a strong player. It can be relatively fast, it can take years. Maybe I'll never be a very strong player (what's strong anyway?), maybe I'll hit a "permanent" rank somewhere.
Either way, I'll have to take it as it comes
8. May
One last item: what's in store for the month to come?
I am a pro at planning things and then doing something else, so I'll keep it limited and set some realistic goals.
- Keep playing games using a real board (even online) and reviewing these games.
- Keep up my Level Up & GGPB and also do some other tsumego from time to time, pick up the pace.
- Browse through a Go book at least every two days (be it A&D, Opening Theory Made Easy, Art of Settling Stones...)
- Play 100 games against Igowin to improve my L&D and close contact fighting
- Don't play a Go game if I'm not in the right mood (important!)
