Life In 19x19

Bill Spight wrote:But there is one way that is not in the list. Watch and play Malkovich games.

Yeah, 100% agreement - they are well well worth doing from the point of view of improvement.

topazg wrote:

Bill Spight wrote:But there is one way that is not in the list. Watch and play Malkovich games.

Yeah, 100% agreement - they are well well worth doing from the point of view of improvement.

I agree that the Malkovich games are useful to play. I kind of wish that I received a bit more criticism in my first game against Magicwand, though, particularly on the way that I think about go.

I notice that there have been a handful comments on my recent game against him, though, so maybe I've gotten some more this time

Kirby wrote:I agree that the Malkovich games are useful to play. I kind of wish that I received a bit more criticism in my first game against Magicwand, though, particularly on the way that I think about go.

I notice that there have been a handful comments on my recent game against him, though, so maybe I've gotten some more this time

Haha, you're lucky, I get almost no criticisms of my thoughts and plays! Still, I learn a lot about my own bad play through analysing what I've done afterwards. The middle lower fuseki point against fwiffo that I neglected to play a small extension on the top has taught me lots about just how big a 2 space jump on the third line as an extension only is (or, as the case may be, isn't!)

My latest game just turned into an almighty reading exercise for the most part

topazg wrote:

Kirby wrote:I agree that the Malkovich games are useful to play. I kind of wish that I received a bit more criticism in my first game against Magicwand, though, particularly on the way that I think about go.

I notice that there have been a handful comments on my recent game against him, though, so maybe I've gotten some more this time

Haha, you're lucky, I get almost no criticisms of my thoughts and plays! Still, I learn a lot about my own bad play through analysing what I've done afterwards. The middle lower fuseki point against fwiffo that I neglected to play a small extension on the top has taught me lots about just how big a 2 space jump on the third line as an extension only is (or, as the case may be, isn't!)

My latest game just turned into an almighty reading exercise for the most part

I see. Well, feel free to criticize me more if you haven't already

Kirby wrote:I agree that the Malkovich games are useful to play. I kind of wish that I received a bit more criticism in my first game against Magicwand, though, particularly on the way that I think about go.

I notice that there have been a handful comments on my recent game against him, though, so maybe I've gotten some more this time

ok..i am guilty of not putting more comments.
but you are a solid player and there are only few moves that really caused you to lose the game.
and they were fully explained by other observers.

on most moves the reading difference between you and me is very subtle it is very hard to explain what you did wrong.
i guess that subtle difference will make 2 or 3 stone difference.

also... i was working while i played the game.
playing game while working on other stuffs is not recommanded.
from now on i will take more more time and try to explain more variations.

Magicwand wrote:

Kirby wrote:I agree that the Malkovich games are useful to play. I kind of wish that I received a bit more criticism in my first game against Magicwand, though, particularly on the way that I think about go.

I notice that there have been a handful comments on my recent game against him, though, so maybe I've gotten some more this time

ok..i am guilty of not putting more comments.
but you are a solid player and there are only few moves that really caused you to lose the game.
and they were fully explained by other observers.

on most moves the reading difference between you and me is very subtle it is very hard to explain what you did wrong.
i guess that subtle difference will make 2 or 3 stone difference.

also... i was working while i played the game.
playing game while working on other stuffs is not recommanded.
from now on i will take more more time and try to explain more variations.

Ah, I'm not upset about it at all. You gave, perhaps, more comments than the observers did. I appreciate your comments very much.

I'm just trying to make it clear that it doesn't hurt my feelings if people are rough with what they say

Magicwand's comments are short but very concise. In a way I quite liked it.

Some people spend a lot of effort putting in very long commentaries. But these run a heavy risk of "tl; dr", at least in my case.

Yesterday I reached 5k on KGS - exactly two weeks after I started reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" by Toshiro Kageyama as a weak-mid levelled 6k. I wish this poll had an "All of the Above" option - but I've been reading a lot of books lately and am finding them very helpful. Just getting in the proper mindset and thinking, "I will improve in Go" is a good start and motivates you to focus on what you really need to work on (which is different for each person). Of course, I'm not saying tsumego are bad - I just feel that it is important to get a mix of things and not focus on just one topic.

Now I'm off to do some life and death problems...

I believe there are many excellent ways to get stronger, and my problem with choosing the best from the poll options is that I haven't tried them all. Intuitively I must choose pro tuition.

I believe that all these play a factor, but as amnal pointed out earlier (and maybe others; it's late and I've skimmed most of the responses), if you are not enjoying what you are doing, you will not improve as well as you could.