Zac's (unimaginatively titled) Study Journal

[zac]

Been reading through Fundamental Principles, and enjoying it so far.
At first the book seems to be very cluttered, i.e. not formatted very well. However key principles/summaries are put into boxes which will help with reviewing the information later. Also the contents page is very thorough, with each chapters' sub-sections listed.

The first two chapters are very helpful at my current level. The first chapter largely builds on Opening Theory Made Easy. The ranking of opening moves is interesting/informative. Although I guess these rules can't always be followed perfectly it gives me some idea of how I should be thinking or what I should be thinking about. Plenty of examples are given, the explanations are clear and the problems at the end of the chapter really cement the ideas in your head.

The second chapter was largely new information to me. Although I had some vague ideas on high vs. low, short vs. long, speed and flexibility vs. solidity and strength, it was good to have these ideas fleshed out a bit. Again this gives me concepts (or principles!) to think about during the play of my games. I imagine if I can start to get a grasp on these first two chapters my play will improve quite dramatically. Again about a dozen problems are given at the end of the chapter and these compliment the chapter well.

I've started looking through the third chapter, "effective use of joseki", and have to admit being put off a little by the statement about only needing to know about 300 of the most common joseki sequences. To an 8k player this seems a little crazy!

Regardless- the first sub-sections on choosing an approach move and choosing a pincer were again largely new information to me- I almost always approach low, and very, very rarely pincer. I feel like I'll be able to start thinking more constructively now during the opening and actually consider my approach move more carefully and consider pincers.

Once the chapter got into 'whole board perspective on joseki' I felt quite lost. The variations shown were mostly joseki I was not familiar with. Similar experience when looking at the problems. One particular problems gives a variation of the small avalanche joseki as the answer. I can't say that I have any knowledge or experience with this joseki. Although the basic ideas seem good, without a fairly thorough knowledge of joseki it will be hard to apply much of this section to my games.

I'll update this post once I've looked through the remaining two chapters, which deal with invasions and reductions.

[zac]

Never really got to reading through the final chapters of Fund. Principles. Might get back to them. Seems like similar information to what is in Attack and Defense- another book that I haven't fully absorbed.

Somewhere else on this site I read a quote by a professional player, something like "You have good theories. Now I kill you." I'm pretty convinced that my play will improve mostly through solving problems and playing, theory books have their place but I also have limited capacity for focusing on go.

I've been playing a few games on Tygem, and a few on my two accounts on KGS. Lost a few, won a few. My concentration has been a bit off, I've been lazy with my reading. I think I might have mentioned I go through cycles like this. Sometimes I like to play very seriously, playing to win, playing to improve. Sometimes I think it's ok to play just for fun- and possibly better to do that than not play at all.

My secondary account on KGS is usually a couple of ranks off my "serious" account, and I never feel bad playing and losing there. Sometimes I even indulge a guilty pleasure and play bots. Tygem account is still sitting at 15k.

Finished all the 1 move problems in 1001 L&D, and now starting them all over again. Still solving GS @ Tesuji. Can very occasionally solve a three star problem now. And occasionally don't get the majority of the problems that I attempt wrong

Hmm, that's about all for now..

[zac]

Still playing and studying.

Playing more this month than last month- and losing more! Haven't played on my primary account at all, and my secondary account is going 9k/8k/9k/8k/9k. It's OK because I'm enjoying the games I'm playing. Although a few I've lost through (among other things) simple mis-reads, which is always frustrating. I'm a SDK now, I should leave poor reading behind!

Played a couple of games on Tygem too, and now my rank there is 14k, which felt like an achievement! I've won three in a row there. I think I'm getting a little more use to the 'style' there, meaning I can't let myself feel that because my opening feels 'strong' that I've won the game- I've got to use careful reading to capitalise on my strong positions.

Playing against handicap with a friend of mine fairly regularly now, he's just beginning and I think is around 15k. I lost by ten points with him taking 7 stones yesterday. The games are entertaining and it's nice to play over a real board. I hope that he sticks with playing/learning/improving so that I can have a real life rival of sorts.

Had a few learning opportunities over my last few games. One person I played opened by immediately doing a large knights approach to my star point stone, and when I didn't respond, did the same to my next star point. I played very poorly, thinking 'Ha! This player is weak and stupid, I will win easily'. After the game I looked over many variations of joseki based off the large knights approach. Also played against a player who used the Low Chinese opening, something I personally find very hard to play against. Looked over the variations given in 'Attack and Defence" for invading their high one point enclosure. In the game I duffed it but my opponent missed it and let me live.

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=3010

EDIT; Annnd, I've found plenty of Pro games where my 'wrong' B11 is played, B either blocking at q3 or r4, not r5 .

[zac]

Been mostly playing on Tygem, it's so quick and easy to get a good game there. Been playing more often than I had been the previous month. Playing most days rather than once a week-ish. Will not be long I think and I'll be 13k there, having won 4/6. My short term goal is to hit SDK.

Got torn to shreds in a game today, resigned after about 100 moves but probably should have resigned earlier. Then won a very easy game by about 40 points. Goes to show that strengths within ranks vary a lot more there than KGS but it doesn't bother me. Generally the games are close. Even when it's not though players seem to have good fighting spirit.

Signed up for next months ASR League. Not sure how hard it's going to be to get the required number of games in, I check the room every now and then and there's never many, if any, game offers up. I'll give it a shot anyhow as it might be a good opportunity to play even games against stronger players- not that I don't get that occasionally on Tygem. Hopefully people will be nice and give me reviews too.

Still solving problems, mostly from 1001 L&D. On to the 3 move problems and something rather magical has happened. The first time I ran through all the 1 move problems when I tried the 3 move problems I found them very difficult. Now that I've run through the 1 move problems twice, suddenly the 3 move problems aren't so daunting! I'm spotting vital points much quicker and reading out variations much more accurately. Not that I'm not still getting problems wrong

Been reading back through "Tesuji", a chapter at a time, most days. The problems at the end of the chapters still kill me. Once I finish that I'm going to re-read "Attack and Defence", I don't feel like I absorbed even 10% of that the first time through.

Although I said I wouldn't buy anymore theory books until I gained a stone, I'm thinking about buying "The Endgame". I'm usually at a loss in that stage of the game- no idea how to decide what order to play moves in, other than- "hey that looks big-ish and it's "sente"." Sticking with my idea that the formula of playing/problems (and reviews) helps my game the most I'll pick up a copy of "Get Strong at The Endgame" at the same time to practice the theory. Might try and find a couple of other cheap problems books to chuck into the order like "Step Up To a Higher Level" which is meant to be for players around my strength.

[zac]

Still dawdling along.
Playing a game a day consistently for about 2 weeks now, mostly 20 or 30 mins + 5x30 sec. Mostly ASR League games so far this month. A few against stronger players, a few against weaker. The ones against stronger players feel immensely helpful, especially with a review straight after. Seems like my worries about getting league games were a bit unfounded, although after having played on Tygem a lot last month even waiting 15 mins for a game feel like a long time!

Still studying other things. L&D problems are really the only thing I'm consistently sticking to, anywhere from 9-25ish a day. Mostly coming from 1001 L&D problems but occasionally from the GGPB books. Hmm. Haven't been solving my tesuji problems. Might go do a handful when I finish typing this.

Studying other things too. Read a few chapters of 'Tesuji' over a few days. Read a chapter from 'Lessons in the Fundamentals.' Might continue to read some of that actually, haven't looked at that book since I was about 15k or so, can't even remember if I read it all then. Looked up some variations of the orthodox fuseki given in 'Dictionary of modern fuseki, korean style'. Looked at a few variations of invasions into three space extensions given in 'Attack and Defense'.

So basically still playing/problems/reviews and then a little bit of this and that on the side as I feel like it. Still at KGS 8k, and Tygem 14k- on a winning streak on Tygem and have only played two ranked games on KGS in about 3-4 weeks- a late night loss to a 7k that was extremely close until I made two massive mistakes in endgame, and a 50+ point win against a 9k- but feel like I have a way to go before I'm 7k on KGS.

Well, off to do some problems from GSA-Tesuji

[zac]

Hit 7k KGS for the first time today, woo. Now at 13k Tygem but haven't been playing there at all over the last couple of weeks.

In the mail a couple of days ago I got "Get Strong at the Endgame" which appears to be too hard for me at this stage, but I also received "200 Endgame Problems" seems much more accessible. I'm approaching that much like I do GS @ Tesuji- that is, spend a reasonable amount of time trying to find the answer, then trying to understand why my answer is wrong by looking at the answer given .

I still feel like it's very important to be able to recognise the shapes in which tesuji (endgame tesuji and others) appear, even if you can't read out all possible variations. Endgame tesuji are particularly interesting as sente is such an important consideration there. Once I've worked through "200 Endgame Problems" it might be time to look at the Get Strong book.

Also bought "Step Up To a Higher Level", a problem book with 144 problems in it that I bought because it's supposedly for 7-8k players and it was only ten dollars. The sensei's page on the book mentions that the problems are quite easy- which they were, especially if you read the hints. I worked through the whole book in about an hour and a half, and didn't get too many wrong. I'd say it's about the level of GGPB vol.2, some of it probably being a bit easier than that, and some being a little bit harder, depending on any 'blind spots' you may have. The format is similar to the GGPB series of books, in that it gives problems in sections e.g. opening, life and death, endgame etc. There were a handful of "shape" problems included in there too, which I really enjoy (there are some similar problems in GS @ Tesuji) and they are seemingly under-represented in English problems books. I could be wrong there, maybe in Japanese/Chinese/Korean books the large majority of available books are L&D too rather than other types of problems.

Overall I'd recommended the book, the problems seem to me to be of a good quality, and if you can pick it up cheap like I did then it'd be worth it. I'll go back through and solve it again sometime, maybe upside down and not reading the hints. I think working through a fairly large number of easy problems over an hour or so can be very enjoyable and beneficial at times, especially if you're a bit burnt out on solving just a couple of harder problems.


So now my current study plan is;

- 9-18 l&d problems from 1001 L&D (currently on my first run through of 3- move problems)
- about a dozen of the 1 star problems from GS @ tesuji, once I run out of 1 star problems I'll move on to 2 star
- 2-4 Endgame problems from 200 Endgame Problems.
- Something I forgot to mention, watching lectures from Guo Juans internetgoschool.com site. Planning on watching a lecture every two weeks or so, and re-watching it in the intervening week. Watched two so far, from the 'step by step' course. Most of the information I knew, some was new, but I feel that overall the lectures are helpful, so I'll stick with it for a little while and see how it goes.

[zac]

Just a few late night random thoughts I wanted to jot down in my journal.

Study is going reasonably well. Struggling with endgame problems but I'm just going to keep running over and over them until the patterns are burnt into my brain. Not worried about just remembering the answers as I thinks it's more about recognising the shape, and then being able to read out if the remembered move is correct.

I've almost finished my first run through of the 3 move problems from 1001 L&D, which means with my two runs through of the 1 move problems plus what I've completed now I've almost solved around 1000 L&D problems since getting that book, disregarding having completed Step Up to a Higher Level and occasional problems from the GGPB series. Once I finish the 3 move problems I'm going to go back to GGPB vol. 3, and give that a run. I think my reading is strong enough and with what I've learnt from my first run through of GS@ Tesuji it should be at about the right difficulty now. Then maybe back through the 3 move problems, on to the 5 move problems or possibly buy GGPB vol. 4!

Starting to realise how much work will have to go into improving now- can I expect that if it's taken me several months and roughly 1000 problems and 50-60-odd games to improve from 8-7k that it'll take even more than that to improve 7-6? Perhaps double the time, 2000 problems and 100-odd games? Who knows. I think maybe improvement comes in spurts but powered by consistent effort. So, I'll continue my daily regime of problems, and will play (and review) as many games as I can manage. For this month I've played 14 ranked games, and a couple of other serious unranked games. I don't think this is too bad, and much better than my previous month at about a game a week.

[zac]

Still playing, studying.
Not so much time for playing lately as I've been working a lot.
Still solving problems everyday.. except a couple of days I missed because I worked back to back shifts and double shifts. I've finished the 3 move problems from 1001 L&D and now I've gone back to GGPB vol.3. Doing a couple of pages a day, so about a dozen problems, unless I'm feeling keen then I'll do 2 dozen.

A few games on KGS, including a couple against stronger players in the ASR League. I think this is incredibly useful. A few on Tygem, mostly when I'm feeling a bit too tired to play a really 'serious' game on KGS. My Tygem rank is still 13k, I've had a couple of losses at that rank, too, but feel that I'll make it to 12k within 5 more games. Both my KGS accounts are sitting at 7k now, and I feel pretty confident with my rank there.

A funny thing is that I'm noticing that the higher my rank goes, the weaker any certain ranks seems. I remember being a DDK and thinking, gee, when I make it to SDK I'll feel so strong. Then when I made it, I thought, gee, when I make it to 8k I'll feel so strong. It just continues. 7k 12 months ago would have seemed like such a huge achievement, now that I'm there I'm thinking, gee, when I make it into the high SDK ranks... Still this isn't to say that I'm not proud of my achievements. It can be quite motivating, as I improve I enjoy the game more, or appreciate it more, and look forward to getting stronger, or seeing things more deeply, rather than just 'feeling' stronger.

I think it's a classic case of "the more you know, the more you realise how much you don't know." Before, when talking to my friends who are more or less complete beginners, I'd talk more in terms of 'definite' things. Oh, you can't do that... this or that thing is always bad... You should always... Now, I kind of shrug my shoulders and say, 'Well, I'd do this, but it's probably not the best'.

Well, my love of go books also continues, but I don't really feel like I need anything to help me continue to get stronger. So I might buy a few books purely for enjoyment. Maybe the Lee Changho Masterplay book to play through a few games and/or 'The go companion' for some lighter go related reading. Actually for a while now I've been thinking about buying 'Invincible' but I might save that as a reward for myself when I make it to 5k.

[okw]

Humility is a key quality for a go player ^^

[zac]

I've been pretty committed to studying and playing lately, despite work continuing to be very busy. Now I'm doing 20 tesuji problems a day, from those Chinese Lee Changho books that a lot of people recommend. I'm trying to get through 1 tesuji book a week, then I'll do 1 L&D book etc.. if the L&D books get too hard too quickly I'll go back through the 1001 L&D 3-move problems in the intervening weeks. Then planning to run back through all the tesuji problems up-side down, side ways etc., and move on to the 5 move problems in 1001 L&D. I'll see where it takes me.

Playing has been going fairly well, I've still been playing in the ASR League and I think I'll continue to do so. Getting even games against stronger players is great. Outside of the league I had a very narrow loss to another 7k, 4.5 points, and got a couple of great reviews here on L19 on that game. I think my play has taken a bit of a jump lately and I hope I can continue my recent form.

Playing on Tygem more than KGS, and I've just had a streak of 7 wins, averaging about 40 points. That takes me to 11k. I'm really looking forward to being SDK there. The games are always quite exciting, it seems that still the players are more aggressive than on KGS and often big groups die which is a thrill.

Watched a couple of lectures on internetgoschool.com, and I really like these. I'm going through the 'step by step course' and although at this stage it's fairly 'basic' stuff I find it's easier to absorb the information this way than to read books- actually seeing the variations/examples played out while being explained seems to help a lot. I've always struggled with kifu-like diagrams for variations unless I play them out on a board.

Considering trying out John Fairbairns idea outlined here; http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8674&start=20
of playing through games at a fairly rapid pace and trying to cultivate a state of 'no mind'. Seems like it would take little time to do daily, and that it could be quite a relaxing (meditative even) way of 'studying'. I think I'll pick just one player and start going through their games. Lee Changho maybe? If I enjoy it, I'll stick with it for a while, and who knows what kind of effect it will have on my playing

[zac]

Been a while since I posted.

Still studying, still playing. Not feeling like I'm improving much through.

Study is still from the Lee Changho books. I've finished the first two tesuji books with varying degrees of accuracy. The 3rd book is significantly harder than the previous two, perhaps this is an indication of an area of weakness for me. It seems the book deals mostly with problems to do with connecting a weak group to another group. I should probably look at the relevant sections from the Davies tesuji book to see if that helps. For the moment I'm just going to work through the first of the tsumego books, 20 a day, most days. Then I'll either come back to the 3rd tesuji book or move on to the 4th book.

Playing games. I had a harsh run of losses on KGS, I think 4 on one day after a hard day of work. So, one of my accounts has dropped to 8k, now bordering on 7k. Not a big deal, really. Haven't played any league games at all this month, I think I just got unlucky with the group I was put as they don't seem to be online at the same time as I am.

Still playing on Tygem too, @ 11k, Almost got demoted to 12k but just hanging on for the moment. Still playing there more than KGS.

Started a couple of games on DGS for the first time. I found out that this is the only server I can play on at work. It's a different experience to playing real time. Reading plays less of a part, as you can play out variations at your own leisure, using something like eidogo or the KGS client to keep track of different variations and then make decisions on the better results. So, possibly good for practising evaluation of the board. Good for taking the time to try and get the most of endgame. Usually now I'm playing 20min +byo-yomi games on tygem and by endgame I'm running out of time and it's hard to make good decisions.

On that note I haven't done any endgame problems for ages despite having bought both '200 endgame problems' and 'get strong at the endgame'. In fact I never did more than quickly open GS @ the endgame. For some reason I just found them harder to stick at than tesuji/tsumego.

Haven't watched any of my Guo Juan lectures recently. Might get a chance to watch one tomorrow.

That's about all for now!

[zac]

Haven't updated for quite a while,
but still playing, and studying. But not so much as before lately.
I've got a few games running on DGS, and have played maybe 10 games on KGS (since my last update) and maybe 5 on Tygem.
Unfortunately I haven't been consistent with my L&D or tesuji problems. Although when I did a few problems a couple of days ago for some reason I found them easier than usual. A similar finding with playing games- I played a game last night and felt quite relaxed, rather than stressed like normal.

I think having had a break and not taking things quite so seriously might have had a good effect, i.e. I'm enjoying it more rather than thinking, "I must get better". I was going to say that I don't feel like my hobby should feel like hard work- but that's not entirely accurate. I guess it's when hard work stops being enjoyable that I have a problem.
So, if that means taking breaks from doing problems every day/playing every day to make sure that I continue to enjoy this game, that's fine. No doubt at some stage I'll be right back into it, and improvement is sure to come, too. Actually, after my win last night I hit a very shaky 6k for the first time on KGS!

[SoDesuNe]

I think the Yi Ch'ang-Ho series might be too hard for your level, except YCH Tesuji vol. 4.

Did you finish 1001 Life-and-Death Problems? How many problems did you get right and how long did it take you to solve the book?
Are you already confident in solving Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 3?
How about Get Strong at Tesuji? With the exception of the four star problems, I think this book is also easier than the YCH series.

[zac]

I think a lot/most of the YCH tesuji 1,2 and 4 were within my grasp. The first of the tsumego books was easy enough, too. Vol. 3 (Of tesuji) was way over my head. Haven't gotten to the others.

But as I say, I haven't been very good with doing problems over the last month or so!

I'm still working on 1001 L&D, going back through the 3 move problems for a second time. I'm not recording accuracy, although it doesn't seem like a bad idea. I'd hazard a guess and say I'd get 80-90% right (of the 3-move problems). When I was solving them every day I was doing 9 a day... taking from 15 mins to half an hour, depending on how focused I was.

GGB vol. 3 seems harder than 1001 to me (at least, up to the stage up at 1001.) I especially struggle with the middle game problems in the early part of the book and interestingly these seem similar to the problems in YCH 3, with which I really struggled- as in, I couldn't even come up with intelligent guesses for many problems.

I haven't run through GS@ Tesuji for a while. Definitely the 1 & 2 star problems are easy enough. I think some of the 3 star problems were easy enough, too. It's been too long for me to recall accurately.
I think the problems in GS @ Tesuji were quite different to a lot of the YCH tesuji problems, in that the YCH problems have a more concrete outcome than the GS problems.. hmm. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean ... cut's/throw ins etc. leading to kills, connections (in YCH) rather than thickness or good shape (in GS).

Edit- Just had a quick go at some problems. Did worse on 1001 than when I was doing them every day, got 3/9 wrong. YCH Tesuji 1 is easy enough, I got 1/10 wrong. GS @ Tesuji I had a look at a random selection of problems and it's as I remember- the problems with capture as the objective are easy enough, the ones about shape or thickness are tough (i.e. I got them wrong) as I haven't been doing these types of problems recently.

[SoDesuNe]

For me the last douzen problems of GGPfB vol. 3 seem quite as difficult as the first YCH books. The 5-moves problems from 1001 Life-and-Death problems are easier then that in my opinion. But it's been quite awhile since I last solved them ^^

I think the problems in GS @ Tesuji were quite different to a lot of the YCH tesuji problems, in that the YCH problems have a more concrete outcome than the GS problems.. hmm. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean :scratch: ... cut's/throw ins etc. leading to kills, connections (in YCH) rather than thickness or good shape (in GS).

I know what you mean =) It's true Get Strong at Tesuji has a very different style of presenting problems but I found I learnt more from this book than from any other problem book.

Regarding solving problem books: I try to go through every problem book I have at least three times and aim for a score of 95% correctly solved problems or higher. Since this can get quite boring, I prepare a cycle of four or more books and repeat this one three times. With this I can easily check how I am "progressing" - objectively -, even when I lose a lot.