Struttnoddy reviews

[Uberdude]

Thanks to winning your last game I got through to the title match without needing to spend the afternoon on a play-off game so got home in time for my wife's yummy beef bulgogi dinner And yes a great result, the best performance relative to rating by quite some way. I owe you a drink or two!

[EdLee]

Hi Struttnoddy,
Congrats on your B.C. experience.

$$W
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$$ . . . . . . . . 9 . |
$$ . . . . . O . 5 6 . |
$$ , . X . 1 0 3 X 7 . |
$$ . . . . . 2 4 8 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ --------------------+
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 9 . |
$$ . . . . . O . 5 6 . |
$$ , . X . 1 0 3 X 7 . |
$$ . . . . . 2 4 8 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Takao shows a slightly different sequence:

$$B
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$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 4 . |
$$ . . . . . O 6 O 1 8 |
$$ , . X . O 5 O X 2 . |
$$ . . . . 9 X X 3 7 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ --------------------+
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 4 . |
$$ . . . . . O 6 O 1 8 |
$$ , . X . O 5 O X 2 . |
$$ . . . . 9 X X 3 7 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Takao (2010, 5 years before AlphaGo) spends about 10 pages (25.8cm x 18.1cm) on this diagonal:

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$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ , . X . 1 . , X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ --------------------+
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ , . X . 1 . , X . . |
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[Struttnoddy]

Some analysis of my second game this weekend. I felt I played very well at the beginning and end but very poorly in the middle allowing my opponent to catch up to the massive lead I had built up at the start. Eventually I won by resignation when my opponent made an overtime end game mistake but it would have been close otherwise.

Not sure if I have the energy to review any more currently, I'm all "Go"ed out

[Struttnoddy]

Game 5 of last weekend plus analysis, one I really should have won but allowed my opponent to turn a large moyo into solid territory.

A lesson in not getting flustered at large frameworks I think, if I had just played solidly and nibbled away at the edges I would have won. I let it get the better of me and overplayed as I thought I needed to to win, improving counting might help with that as well

[Struttnoddy]

I've not posted on here in quite sometime now, mainly due to work and studying commitments... But I've recently acquired a bit more inspiration to find the time to play/study Go more. With Trigantius just around the corner this seems as good a moment as any to start up practising properly again and hopefully break a few bad habits (namely blitzing online...)

I'm going to focus where I can on playing on a real board and not blitzing as much as possible. Perhaps also doing a few problems during downtime at work!

I've also been experimenting a bit recently with video reviews so here's one from today and the first one I've actually uploaded. I've found it to be much easier to review a game when I can record my thoughts while I'm playing, this has helped a lot with identifying weakness in my game. I don't know if I'll continue with it though as it can take some effort to actually process the result, even if I do find it useful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDqLqNTwiyA

[Struttnoddy]

Once again not been studying go much recently, my drive from earlier in the year fizzled out once again due to actual study commitments. I think I may have to just give up on the actual study of go (though obviously will keep playing) until I finish my degree in march.

That said I have played in a couple of tournaments recently, namely the opening round of the British championship (although I coudn't enter the 2nd round) and the Durham tournament. I did very well at the former (2nd overall) but not so at the latter. At Durham I only won 2/5, against a 2kyu (this forum's own Mike Kyle no less) and a 5kyu, with the former only being won on time. I lost against a 1dan (by 2 points), a 2dan and a nominal 5dan.

Given these contrasting results it strikes me that I invariably do much better in games with longer time limits, even giving some higher dan players a run for their money on occasion but in games with shorter time limits my rank seems to drop off a cliff. Without the added time for serious reading I just can't hold up my supposed rank. I have a feeling this stems from a lack of knowledge of l&d shapes and tesuji, I've never spent much time memorising these so I often have to read them out in-game rather than just 'knowing' the answer, perhaps this is losing me time?

This has left me wondering if anyone else has/has had this problem? What might people suggest to help solve the issue? Unfortunately whatever the answer it may have to wait until the new year, maybe in 2020 I can finally get around to studying up again

[Uberdude]

Given these contrasting results it strikes me that I invariably do much better in games with longer time limits, even giving some higher dan players a run for their money on occasion but in games with shorter time limits my rank seems to drop off a cliff. Without the added time for serious reading I just can't hold up my supposed rank. I have a feeling this stems from a lack of knowledge of l&d shapes and tesuji, I've never spent much time memorising these so I often have to read them out in-game rather than just 'knowing' the answer, perhaps this is losing me time?

This has left me wondering if anyone else has/has had this problem? What might people suggest to help solve the issue? Unfortunately whatever the answer it may have to wait until the new year, maybe in 2020 I can finally get around to studying up again

It's natural to be weaker at shorter time limits, and it makes sense for a relatively inexperienced and improving player like yourself to decline more with little time as most of your strength comes from conscious thought rather than baked in intuition from years of experience. Probably not much of a shortcut for that over simply playing more to gain more experience, though doing some blitz games might help, plus drilling quick and easy tsumego. I'm not as bad at blitz as I used to be, but still probably drop about 3 stones in strength I guess.