I always (and I mean always ^^) end up behind when I count. Guess it would be a good idea to practice it, at least when I play at the Go-Club with no time limits.
On the other hand, the SGF-file somehow switched the colours of the stones, so I was right when I resigned because my opponent is 20 points ahead ; )
post scriptum:
That was the end position:
SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
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daal
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
SoDesuNe wrote:...
And I purchased all four volumes of Dictionary of Basic Tesujis! Shodan, here I come : )
If only it was as easy as buying some books
BTW, I enjoyed reading your descriptions of your games.
Patience, grasshopper.
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
daal wrote:SoDesuNe wrote:...
And I purchased all four volumes of Dictionary of Basic Tesujis! Shodan, here I come : )
If only it was as easy as buying some books :)
BTW, I enjoyed reading your descriptions of your games.
Yeah, guess I'm one pro-dan when it comes to buying Go books ^^ At least I (partially) read and worked with (almost) every book I bought.
And thank you very much! =)
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
I just saw that my page on senseis library (http://senseis.xmp.net/?SoDesuNe) is the second most popular page created in the last six months - with almost double as much pageviews compared to the third place :O
Then again it only attracted 1144 visitors over this period (like 7 a day), so I think this is pretty relative ^^
Still nice =D
Then again it only attracted 1144 visitors over this period (like 7 a day), so I think this is pretty relative ^^
Still nice =D
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
I think I slowly enter the stage where I try my utmost to play efficient moves (like forcing the opponent so I can make shape) only to end up playing Aji-Keshi or hurting the global situation of other groups or stones of mine.
At least the local 5-dan likes to refer this to players transitioning from SDK to low dan.
At least the local 5-dan likes to refer this to players transitioning from SDK to low dan.
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
Played my second annual tournament last weekend, again as a 4-kyu EGF and again with three wins to two losses.
I feel, I'm pretty stable with this rank and maybe - just maybe - on good terms towards 3-kyu. Unfortunately for me I managed to lose one won and one favourable game. One in the endgame with at least 20 points ahead and the other one in the middlegame because I misread (didn't read at all and Honte seemed slow as usual ^^) a cut.
My first game was against a fellow 4-kyu and after a pretty standard opening - double Komoku and a Shimari for me, double Hoshi and a Kakari for him -, I approached his top Hoshi whereon he pincered me so that I took the corner.
He chose to block south, which suprised me a bit since this is Gote in most cases. He proceeded with an unusual sequence, not defending his cutting point between his pincer and his resulting wall and he even ended in Gote.
Of course, I immeadiately split his side, he approached from his bottom Hoshi and I jumped out (with this in mind).
He peeped, I connected and he pincered from his top wall.
So far I was quite satisfied: My running group was in no danger, his pincer from the top didn't make any use of the wall and I still had cutting Aji.
I made rudimentary shape with my splitting group, inviting him to play near his bottom Hoshi only to play an attachment the next move. He chose to keep his corner.
The following sequence wasn't exactly what I had planned: He forced me to take solid territory on the third and fourth line but he got a thick wall in exchange. I began to worry about my splitting group and had to make a choice between further solidifying territory or making shape with my splitting group.
I chose the latter but he managed to get a Ponnuki in Gote facing the center because he could exploit cutting points due to my Tenuki.
I, then, cut his position on the top, which he hadn't defended and we fought a bit. His wall ended up completely useless, barely making two eyes and his pincer stone got sealed in, which gave me nice influence.
I - admittedly - foolishly tried to convert this influence in territory by making a framework. Surprisingly he didn't interfere but jumped into my Shimari corner, I didn't interfere either and further extended my framework.
We almost ended up playing endgame at this point, he solidified my framework to make a similiar one on the right but as I played the endgame attachement on the second line he chose to cut me off, eating this one stone but letting me in his framework. He then walled me off again but gave me four of his stones plus a couple of points.
After this I thought I was savely ahead since he had not much territory besides his one corner and a bigger group on the right.
He digged again in my Shimari corner but as I tried to stop him, he played a little greedy leaving cutting points behind, which resulted in a shortage of liberties. I managed to cut his top group (the pincer stone) in two parts and captured two stones in Sente.
The game was pretty much finished by then so I played out the remaining endgame. On one point he didn't answer a crawl on the first line but played near my former splitting group. I tried to figure out why only to see that he cut this group some ten moves before which I hadn't realized and that it was dead now. I had to resign.
The second game was also against a 4-kyu. I was White and he played an unusual opening which soon lead to some fighting. It climaxed in the bottom right where I pincered his corner appraoch. He surprisingly played the Keima to dig in the corner, so I walled him in.
I then played a corner approach to his bottom left corner ([over]extending from my now strengthend pincer stone), which was unreasonable since I had an open skirt at the bottom. He pincerd this approach and I jumped out.
This is where things got complicated.
Since I had some cutting Aji in my wall in the bottom right, the game progressed with each side having two running groups. After some center-hopping I found a sequence with which I could connect my two groups in Sente (so I thought). It looked thin but I couldn't find (I didn't really search) a way to cut.
So I took a big point elsewhere - knowing I had twice as much territory now as my opponent - and my opponent cut me, exploiting my open skirt to make a Monkey-Jump-connection.
I suddenly had two rather dead than alive groups on the board whereas he had two almost connected and safe groups.
But since these two were running groups, they had also their share of bad Aji.
Long story short, I was able to save the bigger group (with two points) and exchanged the other group for his left side and a part of his corner.
I sensed the game was close in the middlegame, since he hadn't really gotten anything out of the attack I felt there was still a win to achieve. Later I found a Ko in his bottom left corner, which was too big to fight for him so I even could save my cut off stones from before.
I feld ahead in the endgame. Then I missed a snapback (four stones), then I missed a shortage of liberties (around ten stones). Then I had lost =D
The last game on the first day was against a friend (7-kyu). She already beat me in a friendly match between the rounds and I really didn't feel confident at all.
This time I never had a favourable game. I played in the wrong directions. I played endgame in the middlegame (which she of course ignored to take bigger points). I missed cutting sequences again. And I played small and Gote endgame.
With her last move she unnecessarily defended a cutting point in her own territory. I won by 0.5 points.
I blamed it all on getting up at 4:45am to catch the train to the tournament ^^
On the next day, I played against a 4-kyu again and started really bad in the opening.
I wanted to prevent the Kobayashi so I directly approached his Komoku after he approached my Hoshi. It ended in Gote for me. He got a wall and played the proper extension along the top.
Seriously, Kobayashi would have been easier to deal with...
I played a reduction, again very badly (played near thickness) but he didn't even tried to attack my weak shape. Instead he defended his left side, which made it a bit overconcentrated. I again played the Hoshi attachment whereon he played a strange sequence. His corner and side got heavily reduced and I had Sente to fix my shape. Later he gave me Sente again so I could finally resolve the situation at the top right Hoshi, where I still hadn't answered his appraoching move.
He continued to play slow moves in my opinion, so I could take big points with Sente. Endgame was quite good for me, too.
I won by 9.5 points.
The last game was against a 3-kyu. He played very timid in the opening giving me a huge left side and then tried to make a Moyo on the top. I invaded (actually I wanted to reduce but after hearing some comments, my reducation was more of an invasion ^^) and he naturally cut me off. He then didn't read deep enough after I played an attachment to a stone blocking me.
He stopped reading as he saw that he could cut me but he missed a resulting forcing sequence which lead to me getting a strong shape inside his framework. His last resort was some Aji I misread and therefore didn't defend against. It got pretty intense because I saw a huge capturing race but couldn't see ahead enough who of us would win it.
However there was no way for me to back off so I went all-in but he connected his stones instead of starting the capturing race (after the game we analyzed the position and I would have won the race quite easily), so I did the same.
Or so I thought: I again missed a cutting sequence, which lead to a Ko. Surprisingly he didn't fight it. After the game he said he didn't find big enough Ko threats but there were plenty. So I could close the Ko after he played a move which didn't threat anything. Since his cutting group completely died by connecting the Ko and because he had several cuts on the outside to cover, he resigned.
So, next time: More sleep before tournaments and if I feel I'm ahead, I should play more Honte moves! =D
(And, self-explanatory, I should read more and more precise.)
I feel, I'm pretty stable with this rank and maybe - just maybe - on good terms towards 3-kyu. Unfortunately for me I managed to lose one won and one favourable game. One in the endgame with at least 20 points ahead and the other one in the middlegame because I misread (didn't read at all and Honte seemed slow as usual ^^) a cut.
My first game was against a fellow 4-kyu and after a pretty standard opening - double Komoku and a Shimari for me, double Hoshi and a Kakari for him -, I approached his top Hoshi whereon he pincered me so that I took the corner.
He chose to block south, which suprised me a bit since this is Gote in most cases. He proceeded with an unusual sequence, not defending his cutting point between his pincer and his resulting wall and he even ended in Gote.
Of course, I immeadiately split his side, he approached from his bottom Hoshi and I jumped out (with this in mind).
He peeped, I connected and he pincered from his top wall.
So far I was quite satisfied: My running group was in no danger, his pincer from the top didn't make any use of the wall and I still had cutting Aji.
I made rudimentary shape with my splitting group, inviting him to play near his bottom Hoshi only to play an attachment the next move. He chose to keep his corner.
The following sequence wasn't exactly what I had planned: He forced me to take solid territory on the third and fourth line but he got a thick wall in exchange. I began to worry about my splitting group and had to make a choice between further solidifying territory or making shape with my splitting group.
I chose the latter but he managed to get a Ponnuki in Gote facing the center because he could exploit cutting points due to my Tenuki.
I, then, cut his position on the top, which he hadn't defended and we fought a bit. His wall ended up completely useless, barely making two eyes and his pincer stone got sealed in, which gave me nice influence.
I - admittedly - foolishly tried to convert this influence in territory by making a framework. Surprisingly he didn't interfere but jumped into my Shimari corner, I didn't interfere either and further extended my framework.
We almost ended up playing endgame at this point, he solidified my framework to make a similiar one on the right but as I played the endgame attachement on the second line he chose to cut me off, eating this one stone but letting me in his framework. He then walled me off again but gave me four of his stones plus a couple of points.
After this I thought I was savely ahead since he had not much territory besides his one corner and a bigger group on the right.
He digged again in my Shimari corner but as I tried to stop him, he played a little greedy leaving cutting points behind, which resulted in a shortage of liberties. I managed to cut his top group (the pincer stone) in two parts and captured two stones in Sente.
The game was pretty much finished by then so I played out the remaining endgame. On one point he didn't answer a crawl on the first line but played near my former splitting group. I tried to figure out why only to see that he cut this group some ten moves before which I hadn't realized and that it was dead now. I had to resign.
The second game was also against a 4-kyu. I was White and he played an unusual opening which soon lead to some fighting. It climaxed in the bottom right where I pincered his corner appraoch. He surprisingly played the Keima to dig in the corner, so I walled him in.
I then played a corner approach to his bottom left corner ([over]extending from my now strengthend pincer stone), which was unreasonable since I had an open skirt at the bottom. He pincerd this approach and I jumped out.
This is where things got complicated.
Since I had some cutting Aji in my wall in the bottom right, the game progressed with each side having two running groups. After some center-hopping I found a sequence with which I could connect my two groups in Sente (so I thought). It looked thin but I couldn't find (I didn't really search) a way to cut.
So I took a big point elsewhere - knowing I had twice as much territory now as my opponent - and my opponent cut me, exploiting my open skirt to make a Monkey-Jump-connection.
I suddenly had two rather dead than alive groups on the board whereas he had two almost connected and safe groups.
But since these two were running groups, they had also their share of bad Aji.
Long story short, I was able to save the bigger group (with two points) and exchanged the other group for his left side and a part of his corner.
I sensed the game was close in the middlegame, since he hadn't really gotten anything out of the attack I felt there was still a win to achieve. Later I found a Ko in his bottom left corner, which was too big to fight for him so I even could save my cut off stones from before.
I feld ahead in the endgame. Then I missed a snapback (four stones), then I missed a shortage of liberties (around ten stones). Then I had lost =D
The last game on the first day was against a friend (7-kyu). She already beat me in a friendly match between the rounds and I really didn't feel confident at all.
This time I never had a favourable game. I played in the wrong directions. I played endgame in the middlegame (which she of course ignored to take bigger points). I missed cutting sequences again. And I played small and Gote endgame.
With her last move she unnecessarily defended a cutting point in her own territory. I won by 0.5 points.
I blamed it all on getting up at 4:45am to catch the train to the tournament ^^
On the next day, I played against a 4-kyu again and started really bad in the opening.
I wanted to prevent the Kobayashi so I directly approached his Komoku after he approached my Hoshi. It ended in Gote for me. He got a wall and played the proper extension along the top.
Seriously, Kobayashi would have been easier to deal with...
I played a reduction, again very badly (played near thickness) but he didn't even tried to attack my weak shape. Instead he defended his left side, which made it a bit overconcentrated. I again played the Hoshi attachment whereon he played a strange sequence. His corner and side got heavily reduced and I had Sente to fix my shape. Later he gave me Sente again so I could finally resolve the situation at the top right Hoshi, where I still hadn't answered his appraoching move.
He continued to play slow moves in my opinion, so I could take big points with Sente. Endgame was quite good for me, too.
I won by 9.5 points.
The last game was against a 3-kyu. He played very timid in the opening giving me a huge left side and then tried to make a Moyo on the top. I invaded (actually I wanted to reduce but after hearing some comments, my reducation was more of an invasion ^^) and he naturally cut me off. He then didn't read deep enough after I played an attachment to a stone blocking me.
He stopped reading as he saw that he could cut me but he missed a resulting forcing sequence which lead to me getting a strong shape inside his framework. His last resort was some Aji I misread and therefore didn't defend against. It got pretty intense because I saw a huge capturing race but couldn't see ahead enough who of us would win it.
However there was no way for me to back off so I went all-in but he connected his stones instead of starting the capturing race (after the game we analyzed the position and I would have won the race quite easily), so I did the same.
Or so I thought: I again missed a cutting sequence, which lead to a Ko. Surprisingly he didn't fight it. After the game he said he didn't find big enough Ko threats but there were plenty. So I could close the Ko after he played a move which didn't threat anything. Since his cutting group completely died by connecting the Ko and because he had several cuts on the outside to cover, he resigned.
So, next time: More sleep before tournaments and if I feel I'm ahead, I should play more Honte moves! =D
(And, self-explanatory, I should read more and more precise.)
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
Today, I beat my first KGS Shodan in an even game! =D
He played a little unreasonable and thus a group of him died. Although I was a bit click-happy in the end and blindly played the vital point - it should have become a Ko, I think but I could have got a save and clean kill.
He played a little unreasonable and thus a group of him died. Although I was a bit click-happy in the end and blindly played the vital point - it should have become a Ko, I think but I could have got a save and clean kill.
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RBerenguel
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
I just happened to hang around KGS when I saw you were already 1d. Congratulations, I guess the "road pavement" has worked wonderfully! Now it's my turn, a long road ahead :S
Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
Thank you =)
But I think, I'm still more of an 1-kyu than a Shodan. Although KGS honours me with this rank, it is more due to some ranking drift.
Since I don't play ranked games very often, I happen to jump a lot through the ranks ^^ And in one of my last games a Shodan lost on time (he just idled 2 minutes) although he had a clearly won game.
But I think, I'm still more of an 1-kyu than a Shodan. Although KGS honours me with this rank, it is more due to some ranking drift.
Since I don't play ranked games very often, I happen to jump a lot through the ranks ^^ And in one of my last games a Shodan lost on time (he just idled 2 minutes) although he had a clearly won game.
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
Yesterday at late hours, I decided to make a new KGS account for some Blitz fun (mostly 1min Main and 3*10sec via automatch). I played 18 games since then and it's really fun. I don't play as awefully as I would have imagined ^^ (but I still play very bad : D)
My rank is 4-kyu at the moment but I think I will soon reach 3k. Still two ranks worse than my slow account ^^
As far as studying goes: I almost finished Dictionary of Basic Tesuji Vol. 1... eh, reading it, not solving. For the most part I'm pretty clueless and all the text and the diagrammes on one page are very distracting to the eye : D So, mainly I try to figure it out a bit and then read the answer and try to remember the shape and the context.
I'm transcribing the problems via GoWrite2 at the moment and make my own problem book out of them. One big problem diagramme on one page and on the back of it the solution and variations but with a lot less text - similiar to the layout of the Yi Ch'ang-ho problem books.
There are christmas holidays in a few weeks and I hope I will find time to go through all of the Selceted Life-and-Death books by Yi Ch'ang-Ho and the last two remaining Tesuji books.
And then maybe - maybe! - Shodan by end of the year =D
My rank is 4-kyu at the moment but I think I will soon reach 3k. Still two ranks worse than my slow account ^^
As far as studying goes: I almost finished Dictionary of Basic Tesuji Vol. 1... eh, reading it, not solving. For the most part I'm pretty clueless and all the text and the diagrammes on one page are very distracting to the eye : D So, mainly I try to figure it out a bit and then read the answer and try to remember the shape and the context.
I'm transcribing the problems via GoWrite2 at the moment and make my own problem book out of them. One big problem diagramme on one page and on the back of it the solution and variations but with a lot less text - similiar to the layout of the Yi Ch'ang-ho problem books.
There are christmas holidays in a few weeks and I hope I will find time to go through all of the Selceted Life-and-Death books by Yi Ch'ang-Ho and the last two remaining Tesuji books.
And then maybe - maybe! - Shodan by end of the year =D
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
One nice insight after playing a bunch more blitz games: I play horribly in games where I have handicap stones - and I mean REALLY horrible. I actually just lost to a 1D on 3H (technically...he lost on time)... I'm almost 1D with my slow account as well and now with the advantage of three stones I did not stood a chance in the middlegame...
That's really interesting! Now I just have to figure out why?
Any tips? ^^
That's really interesting! Now I just have to figure out why?
Any tips? ^^
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Mivo
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
Spontaneous thoughts:
1) Not using the handicap stones to attack/play offensively.
2) Nerves, especially so close to shodan as you are (awesome job with that, by the way!)
For me, I notice that when I get handicap stones, I tend to play more defensively and am also a little more intimidated and pressured, though you seem to generally have a pretty good self-esteem when it comes to the game, so this may not apply.
1) Not using the handicap stones to attack/play offensively.
2) Nerves, especially so close to shodan as you are (awesome job with that, by the way!)
For me, I notice that when I get handicap stones, I tend to play more defensively and am also a little more intimidated and pressured, though you seem to generally have a pretty good self-esteem when it comes to the game, so this may not apply.
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SoDesuNe
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Re: SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan
Mivo wrote:[...]though you seem to generally have a pretty good self-esteem when it comes to the game, so this may not apply. :)
Oh, you might wonder... ^^
Actually I think it's exactly your last point, which of course also has something to do with your first point - not using the handicap stones efficiently.
I often think that it might be better to calmly defend now and use my thick position for an attack later, since in most cases my opponents in handicap games overextend or leave groups unsettled.
The problem with this approach, I rarely have the time to launch an attack because my opponent keeps me busy all over the board. And when I attack, I end up either losing a dumbling of 17 stones or with a sandwich-group struggling for life.
Of course, inbetween all of this there comes the time issue - launching an attack, profitting from it, not getting killed and not making the opponent too strong is already hard to evaluate in slow games and here I only have 10 seconds : D
Maybe (most likely) there's some psychology involved. Nowadays the only games I play with recieving handicap are games against a Dan-player in my Go-club. And he crushes me almost every time in the middlegame.
Although he openly admits that he intentionally plays moves he knows I don't like or that I'll have a hard time dealing with them (we play handicap games since almost two years) ^^
But well, that's blitz: It's the hard way. I think I'll keep attacking unitil I will find the right mixture between profitting and making myself a burden =D