SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

skydyr · Post by **skydyr** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:32 am

A few thoughts:

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:51 pm

SamT wrote:I've been stuck at 9 kyu for what feels like forever, and it's a little discouraging.
I keep hoping I'll have a sudden breakthrough

Hi Sam, Congrats on your 4-month milestone.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:56 pm

What I'd like to see is more toughness.

A few comments.

You did well with making territory while attacking, at least in the opening. But not so good on the infighting. Play against SDKs and dans and toughen up.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 7:45 am

Thank you Bill, Skydr, EdLee!

Great feedback.

Bill, Skydr--

Peeps are also a new thing to me; I sort of "discovered" them at the same time I "discovered" attacking. I am obviously over-peeping, just as I am over-attacking.

For instance, I didn't mean to seal my top-middle group in with 52. I didn't understand the difference between white's stones before the peep and after the peep until I saw it. I actually had no intention of throwing those stones away; it was accidental.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 7:55 pm

I've been stuck at 9 kyu for what feels like forever, and it's a little discouraging. I keep hoping I'll have a sudden breakthrough and drop 3 stones the way I dropped from 17 kyu to 9 kyu, but no signs of such ...

Frankly I'm a little disappointed in your progress too - you've been playing for 4 months and you're stuck at 9kyu for 2 of them. And reading this all I hear is ..blah blah blah ... Rebuilding destroyed house... Blah blah ... Guarding said house ... Blah blah ... Spending time with family ... Blah blah ... Getting over some debilitating disease ... Blah blah ... Writing a book and holding down a job ... Blah blah ... Getting stronger all the time despite having to play at Mickey D's for their wifi.

Seriously though - you've made fantastic progress in a very short space of time with some major distractions. Great job and keep it up!

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:10 pm

Thanks, man

It's good to have a reality check sometimes. I guess life has been a little crazy, after all. It's just life to me.

Oh, and, yeah... I admit it: I sometimes have unreasonably high expectations of myself

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:57 pm

Update:

Sadly, I haven't jotted down all my Go work, so much of it is lost in the mists of time.

Baduk TV English Review
I signed up for Go Game Guru's "Baduk TV English" on Thursday (I think), and I've been enjoying it greatly. Mostly I've been watching and replaying through the different shows, so here are the reviews of the series so far:

I've played through three episodes of "Becoming 5 kyu" and one of "Level Up to 3 kyu". I'm getting better at playing through lessons like this; I feel like the joseki and board positions are starting to stick much faster.

I've watched (but not played through) two more episodes of "Level Up to 3 kyu" to see if it is substantially different than "Becoming 5 kyu", but really, they are pretty much the same kind of thing, just a different teacher with a different style and a different set of favorite joseki.

"Level Up to 5 dan" is pretty much the same thing, just focused more on the Chinese opening, and played a little faster. It also has a super-star host! The best attacker in the world: Yu Changhyeok! I've watched (but not played through) these, just to see if they were understandable, and they definitely are. Really, they are the same kind of show, all of them. I'm not sure why the different levels have been tagged onto them. Anybody can learn from them, high level or low. Of course, this may change later in the series -- I am currently only 3-8 episodes into any of them. But really, they all seem to use the same sort of formula: take an opening, learn several fuseki variations and why those variations are good. Then learn the invasions and other common variations.

"Becoming 9 kyu" is actually much simpler and much more basic. It starts out slower than the other series, and tends to focus on some very rudimentary things. Sadly, only 7 episodes (out of 30) of this series are translated so far, so I can't tell you if there is anything new to learn in there. Out of the first 7 shows I only learned about 4 or 5 new things. However, if you're still trying to reach 9 kyu -- it's probably a good investment of time.

The surprise hit at my house is "Attacking Vitamins". My five year old does not quite read yet, and the show is subtitled, but she still loves to watch it. The short segments, fun opening credits, and approachable host really hold her. A few of the episodes with longer attacks, like the ones focusing on particular player's styles, she gets bored with. Really, to her, it's about the short variations.

I have not been able to play through "Attacking Vitamins" because if I pause the show, my little girl immediately unpauses it. Also, the setups for each problem are typically mid-game, so setting them up is difficult, and it's sometimes hard to remember which stones I've added, so replaying several times can be difficult. Still, I'm excited that my daughter like it despite not being able to understand it.

I've looked at a couple of the "Classic Tsumego" episodes, but they go so fast that I can barely keep up. Also, the problems are so complicated, I don't really understand them half the time.

I've only watched one "Best Game of the Day", but it was amazing -- so many intricate variations! You REALLY have to be fast with the pause button and have a good memory for moves, because there is so much to learn. "Searching for Exquisite Games" is very similar, but slower paced, and I did not find the one show I watched anywhere near as enlightening. But I reserve the right to be wrong! I've only watched one of each.

So far I haven't watched any of the following series at all:

1) "Perception of Meijin" - similar to "Best Game of the Day" and "Searching for Exquisite Games", I believe, but mostly title matches. This is based solely off of guesswork.
2) "Kim Seongryong’s 007 Lessons" - I am thinking this is all trick moves and such. Sounds like fun. Haven't tried it, though.
3) "Classic Tesuji" - I was put off by "Classic Tsumego" being so over my head, so I haven't looked at these at all.

$20 bucks per month is pretty steep. I will have to see if I keep sinking as much time into it as I have been; if so, it's worth it for me. It's basically all I watch right now. If that changes, so will my evaluation of its value.

Currently, here are my disappointments with the service:
1) Unless I am completely wrong, there is no iPad app. Watching it on Chrome on the iPad is a little clunky, and it's hard to switch episodes. You currently have to toggle out of full screen, go back a page, drill down to the next episode, and then hit play. There are no play lists.
2) There are no episode summaries on the "Level Up", "Becoming", or "Attacking Vitamins" series. Instead, the full transcription is posted. It would be nice to have a short thumbnail three-sentence summary for each episode, so I don't have to wade through the transcript to see if this is the episode I'm looking for to replay something. But I know that is a lot of work.
3) Sadly, the "Level Up to 5 Dan" series is still being translated. It is one of the most interesting things on the site, as it addresses a more modern fuseki and has a superstar host, so I really would like more of it. Translation can be, of course, incredibly hard to do and time consuming. I understand there's only two or three folks over there, and they have to hold down the whole fort, but, man, what a great series to be behind on. To counterbalance this: "Becoming 5 kyu" is an AMAZING series, and almost all of it has been translated.

Training
As I said, most of my training has been replaying episodes of Baduk TV. Also, over the weekend I did 400 and 250 basics problems from EasyGo on separate days. Somewhere in there, I had a day of 13 intermediate tsumego from Tsumego Pro and another of 80 or so tsumego from SmartGo.

I also played a lot of 9x9 computer games. Thursday/Friday I was horrified by how terrible I was on 9x9, with my OGS account sinking to 18 kyu from 17, and many losses. Saturday and Sunday I focused hard on taking the pressure off and figuring out what was going wrong on 9x9.

What I learned:
1) For some reason on 9x9 I have a tendency to make a plan and then play it out regardless of what the opponent is doing. I don't seem to do this on bigger boards as much. Ironically, being aware of the issue was NOT enough to fix it. Over and over again, I would find myself doing it, usually when the computer captured a group I thought was secure because I had completely ignored all of the last six moves it had played to surround it.

2) Even if Tengen is supposed to be the optimal play on 9x9, I have no idea how to use it. Almost immediately after giving up o Tengen and playing Komoku, I started winning again. I guess I just don't understand how to use Tengen correctly. I am trained o taking corners and sides, and using Tengen, even on a board as small as 9x9, is like trying to speak a foreign language.

It took probably a hundred games or so, but I finally tamed my problems, and now MFG says I am 6kyu. I am NOT, of course. And this is entirely based off of 9x9 play. But it's encouraging. I'll have to go back onto OGS and try it out and see if I can make some rank gains to make up for getting slaughtered before.

Honestly, though, I am tempted to learn some 5-5 joseki just so I will have a better idea on how to use 9x9 Tengen. I hate having to play down to my own ability.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 1:02 pm

My Weakness at 9x9

I think I have discovered something about the secrets of "my success", if you can call it that. I have been using OGS to play 9x9 games only, and I seem to be stuck around 17 kyu there. Ironically, I'm still hovering at 9 kyu on KGS. It seems that 9x9 -- which has a lot more complex fighting and end game moves -- I am not particularly good at. So I'm guessing that the vast majority of my success comes from Fuseki! This would make sense, since I study Pro games a lot, and a lot of the variations for a pro game are in the opening.

So now I am at a strange point. I need to get better at fighting (which I assume is "middle game") and I need to get good at end game. But I don't really know about how to improve either one, other than just playing a lot of 9x9. The thing is, just playing, I am sure, is not enough to have really significant and fast games.

I need to be doing drills for fighting, beyond just tesuji and tsumego. I need drills on capture races, end game tesuji, and probably some other things I don't know what are. I need commented pro 9x9 games to study and memorize. I need special techniques to use, or that will be used against me (like monkey jumps, etc).

I am not sure where to get this kind of material. Do I need to be looking at getting a pro teacher to find a swift and elegant path forward, so I can avoid the common rabbit holes?

The other possibility here is that 9x9 has so little to do with 19x19 that to study it in depth would be to waste my time and go down a rabbit hole of itself. This thought bugs me because I was doing so well on 19x19.

So I am conflicted, and unsure of how best to move forward in my studies.

Study

Speed Baduk Books
"Speed Baduk" 2 and 3 (no one has 1!) came in, and I am tearing through them at a rather amazing clip. I did 100 pages of material last night, and there are about 6 problems per page. Even given a page here or there for (brief) explanation and concentration puzzles, I easily did 500 problems. This information is very similar, but more instructive, to the problems in EasyGo that I love so much, and each book is a little more in depth, progressing at a steady rate. In short, I like them quite a bit.

Baduk TV English
Yesterday I played through one episode of "007", aka "Punishing Trick Moves", on Baduk TV English. It's a very interesting show. The format is a little strange.

In the first half of the show, one trick move is presented, and several variations on how to defeat it are shown, including one basic, easy to remember variation, and two more advanced but much more profitable variations.

In the second half of the show, an amateur game is presented, and the beginning fuseki is examined, with percentages shown for how often a pro does a specific move and how often an amateur does, and why the amateurs are wrong. Interesting stuff. A short sequence is then discussed in detail.

The first half of the show I found very intriguing; the second half, well, the jury is still out. If it helps my fuseki and my win rate, I will love it to death. But I'm not sure it will.

Games
Anyway, here are my most notable losses. My wins are against primarily 18k or worse players, and are a walk in the park. 17k or lower I seem to lose horrendously, and that needs to stop.

First game
Against a 12 kyu who by name seems to focus primarily on 9x9:

Second game:
Against someone who almost guaranteedly was sandbagging at 15 kyu. I lost by a lot, and then he kept giving me free stones until I won. No telling what his real level is.

Also, I gave him one free point late in the game -- I took a ko when my corner was dead and there was no way to save it. I realized this. I think I took it out of spite because I knew I'd lost.

Third game
This game shows that I am terrible at stopping invasions. I threw and extra stone back at 3-3 when I had one to spare, but it still was not enough to secure the corner. I obviously have NO IDEA how to stop a backfield invasion in 9x9, and, unlike 19x19, there's no where to get compensation!

Really, like I said, I'm just embarrassingly terrible at 9x9, and I don't want to be advice/corrections/etc welcome.

skydyr · Post by **skydyr** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:10 pm

A few quick comments:

For game one, at move 5, attaching on top at D6 is the only move. Black separates white and will force white to live small in the corner. Black will then dominate the board, possibly after a small sacrifice. Alternatively, white will give up that stone, a clear loss.

For game two, at move 25, black's bottom left is already alive. The top right is not. Push once with D8, threatening to connect, and then live in the corner with something like H7.

For game three, when white plays the 4-4 on top of your 3-3, just extend, maybe along the top. It's not clear to me how white will live easily, but black should be able to get a keima extension on at least one side and not need to worry about his black wall, which is busy denying white eyespace. Also, at move 3, black has a favourable fight if he just hanes on the outside.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:40 pm

It does look like the surest and quickest way to improve is via 9x9 games. However, playing 19x19 games you can also address your weaknesses. It is important to play stronger players and review your games. It is a good idea to try and find the game losing play. That is not always so easy on the 9x9, since often the losing play occurs early in the game when there are many variations to explore.

It does seem like Spectrum engineered a win for you. He gave you a chance to make life in the top right corner, and later the chance to make a ko.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 6:50 am

Bill, Skydr, thanks! I've been through your feedback several times already, and will try to find time to play through variations at lunch.

Elom · Post by **Elom** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:15 am

S2W wrote:
I've been stuck at 9 kyu for what feels like forever, and it's a little discouraging. I keep hoping I'll have a sudden breakthrough and drop 3 stones the way I dropped from 17 kyu to 9 kyu, but no signs of such ...

Frankly I'm a little disappointed in your progress too - you've been playing for 4 months and you're stuck at 9kyu for 2 of them. And reading this all I hear is ..blah blah blah ... Rebuilding destroyed house... Blah blah ... Guarding said house ... Blah blah ... Spending time with family ... Blah blah ... Getting over some debilitating disease ... Blah blah ... Writing a book and holding down a job ... Blah blah ... Getting stronger all the time despite having to play at Mickey D's for their wifi.

Seriously though - you've made fantastic progress in a very short space of time with some major distractions. Great job and keep it up!

I feel that SamT must be some kind of a Go genious :cool:

I'm not just saying this to win points, if we help, I really believe we may be seeing at least a 5 Dan player within a couple of years.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:10 am

Elom wrote:
S2W wrote:
I've been stuck at 9 kyu for what feels like forever, and it's a little discouraging. I keep hoping I'll have a sudden breakthrough and drop 3 stones the way I dropped from 17 kyu to 9 kyu, but no signs of such ...

Frankly I'm a little disappointed in your progress too - you've been playing for 4 months and you're stuck at 9kyu for 2 of them. And reading this all I hear is ..blah blah blah ... Rebuilding destroyed house... Blah blah ... Guarding said house ... Blah blah ... Spending time with family ... Blah blah ... Getting over some debilitating disease ... Blah blah ... Writing a book and holding down a job ... Blah blah ... Getting stronger all the time despite having to play at Mickey D's for their wifi.

Seriously though - you've made fantastic progress in a very short space of time with some major distractions. Great job and keep it up!

I feel that SamT must be some kind of a Go genious I'm not just saying this to win points, if we help, I really believe we may be seeing at least a 5 Dan player within a couple of years.

Thank you

I certainly don't /feel/ like a genius. It's just a lot of hard, deliberate work. Drills and drills and drills and pro games and pro games and pro games and then playing and reviewing and playing and reviewing and playing and reviewing.

My wife complains that my Go-Life balance is off. And it is. On a slow day I spend two hours studying.

I've gone off on some tirades about Deliberate Practice before; I've used it to become good at lots of different stuff -- Kung Fu (28 medals in Taijiquan, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan at various international tournaments), Writing (some pro sales on short stories, big-name agent, but no book sale yet), sword fighting (just came in 7th in single short-sword at a national tournament with 153 competitors), speed archery (briefly got down to shooting 3 arrows in 1.5 seconds; I am rusty now and shooting about 1 arrow per second) -- and I'm trying to apply the same sort of learning technique here.

But Go is so vast, it's very difficult to identify the individual skills I need to practice. Even when I think I'm on the right track, there's just too much to work on. If I get better in one area, my skills slip in another. I am not a cloistered monk, and I do have to work for a living AND keep my family happy (per my wife, the last one isn't going so well), so it's hard to find all the time I need to really sink in.

I would certainly love to be 5 dan in the blink of an eye. Really, I'd like to go beyond -- beat Lee Sedol and Ke Jie in a game or two -- but such things are dreams. If I'm able to get that good, it would be a long way away. And what are the chances I won't be distracted by yet another hobby before I get there?

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:14 am

Training

Last week I spent going through Speed Baduk 2 and 3. I have finished 2 and am right next to the end of 3, and I have ordered the rest of the series, so I'll resist the urge to repeat myself. I've discussed these books before. Sadly, it will be at least a week, maybe two, before my other books come in.

Yesterday I reviewed the first two lessons of Becoming 5 kyu. I pretty much have them memorized now.

I also reviewed the 13th Nogshim Cup game Kim Jiseok vs Piao Wenyao ( https://gogameguru.com/baduk-tv-videos/baduk-tv-demo-kim-jiseok-vs-piao-wenyao-13th-nongshim-cup/ ). I've only gotten about a quarter of the way through. There are so many opening variations discussed and so many invasions, it's taking me a long time to memorize them all.

This took most of the day to do, no time for problems or even games. Once I had them all pretty solid, it was disappointingly fast to play through everything. Like 15 minutes. Why does it take so much effort to learn such a tiny amount of information?!

Today has been a disappointment learning-wise, but not fun-wise. I am at McD's and the wifi is too slow to play Go or even watch Baduk TV/Youtube/whatever. I am stuck replaying what I learned yesterday on my board, but it's hard to focus. Mostly I am busy moving the go board around and teaching kids to play go as my daughter brings them out of the play set and to the board.

She keeps telling the adults that not enough people play Go in America, so she has to teach all of her friends because it's a fun game.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:23 am

I realized this morning that it may have seemed really arrogant to say my goal is not 5dan, but to play and beat Lee Sedol or Ke Jie. But I think if you don't have a bloody-minded determination to reach a high goal, and if you don't keep ratcheting up your goals, you'll be satisfied too easily and let your training go slack.

As evidence, I present a snippet from Go Game Guru's translation of Episode 3 of "Becoming 5 Kyu", used completely WITHOUT their permission, but definitely within the bounds of fair use:

"Hello everyone. It's time for 'Becoming 5 Kyu'. I'm Shim Wooseop.

Suppose that your opponent is 5 kyu, and is stronger than you. If you try to gain all his knowledge and study more to beat him, is that enough to catch up? Is there a better way to beat this 5 kyu player?

The answer is simple.

Set your goal to become 3 kyu instead. Then you will be closer 3 kyu than 5 kyu. Stick to your goal and lets study together."

So... There it is. Right now I am trying to be 7 kyu, and then I will try to be 5 kyu, then 3, and, if 5 years or a decade from now my progress has been amazing, perhaps then I will attempt my end-game goal to beat the great masters. I will keep that goal in mind now, so it helps give me that little bit of extra drive, that extra urgency and speed to my studies.

Life In 19x19

SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

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