The hyperbolic time chamber

[1986]

Wow, so far on the poll nobody said Teaching games helped them the most with their game...
now the reviesed study plan

my goal is still single digit kyu -Wbaduk

the hyperbolic time chamber now consitsts of

a)serious games on wbaduk

b)go problems

c)review games

d)study go world

i will do each activity actively as much as possible until i reach my goal then i will focus on more advanced techniques

[topazg]

Wow, so far on the poll nobody said Teaching games helped them the most with their game...
now the reviesed study plan

Most people haven't had the opportunity to do many of them. Either you pay, or you get very generous people to give you lots of them for free. I personally think that this is the most effective use of time if you can get it (serious games against stronger people with a proper review afterwards), but it's not as easily available as the other options. All the other 4 options you can just do when you want, so they are likely to contribute more to your overall improvement simply because you can put 20 times the amount of time into each of them

For me, most of my improvement has come from playing and reading books, and the few teaching games I've had have universally been of value. Even now, if I wanted to seriously improve and actually had any money to spare on my own pursuits, I'd be paying for someone like JeffChang or Hwang In-Seong to teach me one to one.

[Bill Spight]

Wow, so far on the poll nobody said Teaching games helped them the most with their game...

I checked reviewing games because it is more inclusive than teaching games. When I was learning go, almost all of my games could be considered teaching games because we reviewed the game afterwards. (The weakest player I played was a 5 kyu. )

[1986]

i played go all day yesterday as much as i could and the games were either a disaster or they went my way easily so there isn't much to report there
i did review the games myself and i can spot some of the big mistakes i make
but i really like to study how my opponent coordinates all his stones to work together
so far when i review a game i waste at least 4 stones i can notice and i pay for it every time.

the go world part of my study plan is going good i can add variations to the games and add the commentary very easily via smartgo;
smartgo also has most of the games the go world covers in sgf format built in its database.

i have been going over the basic tsumego problems set on my go grinder app while i wait for game its hard to say how many i do because i don't reset the problem set every time i start but im 67% right so far and i answered 74

my focus today is to play a more solid game than yesterday so maybe i will have more to report on later

[1986]

it was a better day in my go i won 1 game and lost 6 at first i was frustrated so i just did another go activity until i calmed down; ie like solve some problems or read out the ladders in the go world and i was on this site i read somebody say rank is a reflection of your understanding of the game so i was like hey i need to understand why they do what they do so i started looking at my games a little deeper

[1986]

There nothing that your suppose to do only what you want to do………

-I can’t allow anything in my mind that will distract me from my goal or vision-

What attracted me to go was the challenge, what blew me away was the depth of strategy involved in the game like when I see my opponent come back from a 37 point deficit. I know I cant quit playing because I cant wait to put that look on someone else’s face as I sit back and take a sip of coffee grinning on the inside– I cant wait

I go through the tread to learn stuff so I can get strong plain & simple, a lot of people feel like I did i.e. “stuck” and willing to try anything and looking for ideas to get one stone stronger its human nature, even my post stuck at 13 kyu on MFOG, that’s a big problem I’m attracting the wrong thing ill explain

Maybe its them psychology classes but maybe I’m on to something

According to the law of attraction (like attracts like) if you feel stuck you will get stuck results and I cant speak for no one else but I reigns true with me

Don’t think about what you don’t want to happen because you attract more of it
When you push against the unwanted you add power to it

The anti drug movement created more drugs

What you resist persist – Carl Jung

When you push against something you add to it just like in go when you start a contact fight

Think about what you want and if you think about something you don’t want just think about something else that’s why its called SELF-control give what you want your undivided attention and give the bad feeling no attention at all

So if you say to yourself I'm not wasting stones anymore your actually attracting wasting more stones its better to say to yourself every stone I put down will coordinate with the board with each of my stones in so many beneficial ways

I think the problems is feeling stuck it’s a dumb way to feel when you think about it but they say Out of your greatest despair comes your greatest gift and the gift is overcoming the feeling of being stuck and never having to feel that way again & that’s a great gift

I see other people feel stuck too I hope these thoughts are helpful it has helped me, progressive people don’t get stuck nothing stands still everything is in constant motion it’s a law of the life things that don’t have any movement at all are dead i.e. even atoms are in motion!

Feeling stuck is negative, thus negative results so I attracted being stuck its my job to change my mind and turn that negative into a positive and view it as a challenge and make my mind work towards creative solutions instead of bad feelings, it’s a shift in awareness basically

So now my mantra is to feel good and confident because I’m unstoppable .
Because nothing can stop me from improving a loss is a win because I learn something.
A win is a win because I win & when you think about the only way to not improve is to quit.
This is my reality.

I also came to the conclusion that Clear thinking is the most important factor in a game besides just knowing the best move & I think the winner of every game is determined by the person who thought the clearest

when you mind is cloudy you miss the great moves

you cant think clear if you have negativity lingering around & you have to feel good to think clear…

Going off that observation I’ve been looking into methods that would help me to think clearer

-I can’t allow anything in my mind that will distract me from my goal or vision-

p.s.

I find things in my daily study that are not related to go that help me improve its crazy how many things go is a metaphor for. I was doing a small study on meditation and stumbled on some quotes by a Hindu prince that are good for my go

1.) Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.

2.) There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting.

3.) No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path

I watched revolver a movie with Andre 300 and the guy from English guy transporter they played chess throughout the movie but the stuff they said applied to go too; the movies is about a con artist and a chess master who made a formula to how to win any game if you haven't seen it it’s a must watch

“The art is for me to feed pieces 2 you and make you believe you took those pieces because your smarter and I'm dumber… you do all the hard work and I just help you along”
Mr. Green in revolver the guy from transporter

“Do you know what's so elegant about this game, nobody knows where the enemy is, they don’t even know he exist, and they trust him…
because they think they are him…
you gotta admire your opponents elegance”
Andre 3000 as Avi in revolver

-The more sophisticated the game the more sophisticated the opponent

-The only way to get smarter is playing a smart opponent

-The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look ( vital point)

My study plan is a little better now
I’ve been taking pieces of everybody else’s plans

I still have 1-3

1.) The Go world archive – it has a little bit of everything that’s why I love it so much I pick a article to study everyday after I feel comfortable with Vol 1 ill go to 2

2.) Go problems – go grinder, basic tsumego set, graded go problems for beginners, smart go problems & get strong go problems. I like to bounce around ( every time I have some downtime I solve problems on my iphone)

3.) Wbaduk play more go!

Changes

I dropped Bruce Wilcox set from the list I'm comfortable with my level of understanding in his material and its in my go: the go dojo was great, contact fights was cool & helped my direction and showed me stability, sector fight really helped me improve its probably my favorite & the EZ go book was informative and the metaphors he used help me look at the game in a more exciting way but I feel like I got it and now its time to expand deeper on the solid play fundamentals he showed me and I always can go back and review

I don’t know that many tesuji and its killing me hanging out with the DDKs on Wbaduk so I’m adding the elementary go series Vol. 1 – 5 to my list and the lectures and practice problems and test problems on Wbaduk website

So

4) Wbaduk website lessons & problems
5) Elementary Go Series Vol. 1 – 5 (a chapter a day)

I gotta find get strong a tesuji…

I put lesson in fundamentals and direction of play on the back burner for a minute I finished lessons in fundamentals and I will re read it after I finish the elementary go series I haven’t finished direction of play but its something I feel I can do after I reread lessons in fundamentals again.

I’m saving advanced deeper techniques for 9 kyu Wbaduk

Q.: is Go like Kung-fu? / A: Everything is like Kung-Fu

[1986]

they talk about go on the art of war TV Documentary hold up ill find a link...http://stagevu.com/video/uwsrcdmqastp
its good if you haven't seen it its a must watch the history channel has some good stuff.

its another thread on here called Tsumego will make you strong in the amateur section of the board
i love the article he links on the post called "To become a master of Go is not easy, but became an amateur 5D or 6D it's not hard"
i love this mindset but anyway i was found out i studying L&D all wrong i was taking my games serious but i not calculating my L&D problems
i was answering most of my problems off instinct the rest off calculation and at last resort trail n error.
now i see how it helps you read so well i feel like i was just going through the motions.
also in the article it talks about the right way to study and i had to adopt this formal for myself and apply it to my level of difficulty
this site is really helpful especially because i Don't know anybody who plays go in my town. pueblo co, ...but I'm moving to denver soon and they have two go clubs so I'm excited

[blue88]

To become a master of Go is not easy, but became an amateur 5D or 6D it's not hard

I am not sure what to think about this article. Of course I as a mere kyu may be in no position to judge it. But I can't get any more out of it than: Do Tsumego from the moment you wake up until you go to bed and you'll be 5d soon. That sounds reasonable, but it's not really a new discovery.

Further I dislike the statement that studying Joseki is a waste of time. Only very strong and very weak amateurs claim this. I believe it's because the strong ones already know the Joseki and can't value them anymore (they became natural for them) and the weak ones are seeking for an excuse not to study. However, before studying Joseki I literally lost every game in the first corner engagement and lost the chance of catching up in the second. (I am talking about Basic Joseki here - not always being up to date with the newest Korean 50 move Joseki).
Of course once I am satisfied with the Joseki knowledge I am trying to gather (unlikely to happen because I keep forgetting that stuff) I might as well turn to other things and tell weaker players not to study Joseki...

Nevertheless I like the article and it was fun to read, I just think it's getting over-hyped by fellow kyu players who believe they will now be 5d in no time.

[gaius]

Further I dislike the statement that studying Joseki is a waste of time. Only very strong and very weak amateurs claim this. I believe it's because the strong ones already know the Joseki and can't value them anymore (they became natural for them) and the weak ones are seeking for an excuse not to study. However, before studying Joseki I literally lost every game in the first corner engagement and lost the chance of catching up in the second. (I am talking about Basic Joseki here - not always being up to date with the newest Korean 50 move Joseki).
Of course once I am satisfied with the Joseki knowledge I am trying to gather (unlikely to happen because I keep forgetting that stuff) I might as well turn to other things and tell weaker players not to study Joseki...

Off-topic, but I changed my view on the merit of studying joseki recently. Yes, it is useful to know some really common sequences and, especially, their pitfalls. IMO, the best way to learn this is simply by trying stuff out, and then reviewing your games with other players; many standard patterns will just come up time and time again. Studying a book like the Ishida too deeply might be end up just being a waste of your time and creativity. Reality is, the possibilities are basically endless (just look at what kind of wacky stuff pros play, for example, at dailyjoseki.com), and only a very limited fraction of what's possible is covered in any joseki book. In some cases, a modern joseki might even be in Ishida, marked as a "failure diagramme"! So even though Ishida might be somewhat useful for strong kyu/low dan players learning the basics, it's certainly not a good idea to memorise too much of it.

Studying some good hamete might prove useful in tournament play though .

[SoDesuNe]

I had two encounters, which proved to me how important Josekis are.
First one was playing against the local Dan-player, who seemingly worked through all the Josekis presented in the three books by Ishida. It's a blast how careful he choses the Joseki and how good it works out with his play on the board. He sometimes made up a four-stone-handicap game against me, just by playing certain Josekis, which leave enough Aji in my position (of course, he knows the various follow-ups after the actual Joseki ended ^^).
Second was while reading "The Direction of Play". In essence it says Josekis are the way to play in the right direction. By playing a Joseki, which doesn't fit the global or even the local context, one ends up with an unsatisfied position. I found this very enlightening. Of course this incluces knowing in which direction certain stones emit their power.

The question, I found myself unable to answer is, how to learn Josekis ^^ I don't enjoy it to lay down the sequence and memorize Josekis without context, so I will only know a new variation after I experienced it in one of my games - then I look it up. But well, this is a very slow process ^^

[gaius]

I don't enjoy it to lay down the sequence and memorize Josekis without context, so I will only know a new variation after I experienced it in one of my games - then I look it up. But well, this is a very slow process ^^

There is no fast way to learn go. I think the way you describe is the most natural and most thorough way. If you memorize a joseki from a book but don't get the chance to play it, you'll have forgotten the exact order of moves anyway by the time you actually need it.

[tapir]

What attracted me to go was the challenge, what blew me away was the depth of strategy involved in the game like when I see my opponent come back from a 37 point deficit.

Feeling stuck is negative, thus negative results so I attracted being stuck its my job to change my mind and turn that negative into a positive and view it as a challenge and make my mind work towards creative solutions instead of bad feelings, it’s a shift in awareness basically...

when you mind is cloudy you miss the great moves

I hope I don't sound too negative, but i get the impression you are making way too much fuzz about psychology, positive thinking and all such stuff. If you want to improve you should concern yourself with learning, not with mind games which make you feel good. Imagine if Go were a language, there would be no doubt that you need to learn grammar, vocabulary and all of that will be without much integration and usability if you do not get enough and educative practice. You have to know your basics before you are going to write poetry. Learning the basics is the way to get rid of the cloudiness in your mind, not meditation. Learning the basics is in itself very gratifying, but you should not mistake your grammar exercises with poetry.

All the improvement which happened to my Go gave me the impression that the game got more comprehensive, the board got smaller, my play got simpler.

After all of this is said: play humans and review your games and don't make it your aim to beat a go engine while giving it handicap. Tsumego will help, as always continuity even if it is only a single one per day is far more important than the ambitious plan. (Making too ambitious a plan and then doing nothing instead is probably the most common occurence. If you take e.g. a look at other study journals here.)

[1986]

Tapir- "I hope I don't sound too negative, but i get the impression you are making way too much fuzz about psychology, positive thinking and all such stuff. If you want to improve you should concern yourself with learning, not with mind games which make you feel good"


HA ! No you don't sound negative at all its kinda of funny though but ill elaborate Psychology is my major I'm taking classes full time I'm a 3 rd year student at CSU so its good to combine homework with Go you kill two birds with one stone HA HA HA Besides its makes term papers a lot more interesting to me that is .

But i have heard that before just in different words its something like "Faith without actions is nothing" so i like it, i love it, I'm on it

thanks for the advice everybody and as far as the becoming a 5 or 6 dan is easy as i said before i admire the mindset.. somebody i can't remember who said
" thing are the way you think they because you think they are that way"

i never heard of the 50 move korean joseki I'm going to have to look that up

also i got some foreign language books do you know where i can get english references for them:

Yi'Ch'ang HO-how to handle hamete

YiCh'ang Ho - tesujis 4 & 5

[1986]

I like what tapir mentioned about solving problems is better than lofty plans that's a good way to look at it my goal is still sdk Wbaduk I haven't been on kgs in a minute I think I just like Wbaduk more even though I'm ranked higher on kgs

[palapiku]

before studying Joseki I literally lost every game in the first corner engagement and lost the chance of catching up in the second.

Would you still have lost those games if you had 5 dan reading skill?

(no)