PeterN's Study Journal

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 12:50 pm

PeterN wrote:...keimas being less good for connecting, I've been thinking of them as one of the my more usual moves...

( added emphasis )

Each situation is unique. In some cases, the keima is the correct move.
To defend yourself. To attack a group. To connect. To... Close in the opponent. Split the opponent.
Make a base (eyespace). Remove eyespace. To kill. Just to make points. Etc., etc.

In some cases, it is not.

We need to read each specific board position and decide.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:07 pm

Fully agree that each situation can be unique, but I'll still have standard responses and first thoughts on how to play, trying to read everything seems impossible at the moment, leading me into a byo-yomi nightmare even on my 25 minute games.

PeterN

skydyr · Post by **skydyr** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 6:38 am

KGS Standards notwithstanding, 25 minutes is still pretty quick for a game. Our tournament games are usually 45 minutes + overtime, and the US Open gives everyone 1.5 hours + byo-yomi, or 2 hours if you're strong enough.

jts · Post by **jts** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 8:55 am

PeterN wrote:Fully agree that each situation can be unique, but I'll still have standard responses and first thoughts on how to play, trying to read everything seems impossible at the moment, leading me into a byo-yomi nightmare even on my 25 minute games.

PeterN

I'd be interested to look at the games where you get into byo-yomi trouble. For this to happen, you need to use up all the time on your clock (to get into byo-yomi) and you also need to think for longer than a byo-yomi period on your average, on-the-clock move. You seem to play quite fast in both your slow (25+:30) and fast (10+:20) games. I imagine this is the pace at which you have the most fun (true for many if not most players), but if you wanted to try spending more time reading, I would advise you not to even bother looking at the clock or worrying about running out of time.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 12:35 pm

25 minutes may be a fast game really, but I'm used to playing either 10 minutes or 25 minutes, 10 minutes does feel fast, but 25 minutes feels normal to me because I'm used to it.

I probably wasn't clear with what I meant about byo-yomi. I don't too often end up in it, but if I do I tend to start doing badly, might just be yet another of those attitude problems, this time being panic. I'm certain if I tried to read out everything I would end up in byo-yomi though, that's more what I meant.

Not sure if my playing is fast or not for KGS, but the games I've posted I think are fairly typical for my time usage, it's only when a complicated fight breaks out or I see something completely unexpected that I tend to start using my time significantly.

PeterN

jts · Post by **jts** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:52 pm

Ah, I see what you mean. Well, here's the thing - I looked at your games, and in all of them, you're averaging 7s to 12s per move. It is extraordinarily unlikely that you will ever lose a game with 30s byo-yomi unless you change your playing style a great deal. Because to lose even a single byo-yomi period, you need to think for at least 30s. So I'm not going to promise you any miracles if you use your time efficiently, but you definitely shouldn't be afraid of being in byo-yomi.

musai · Post by **musai** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 3:19 am

jts wrote:Ah, I see what you mean. Well, here's the thing - I looked at your games, and in all of them, you're averaging 7s to 12s per move. It is extraordinarily unlikely that you will ever lose a game with 30s byo-yomi unless you change your playing style a great deal. Because to lose even a single byo-yomi period, you need to think for at least 30s. So I'm not going to promise you any miracles if you use your time efficiently, but you definitely shouldn't be afraid of being in byo-yomi.

'On average' is a bit of a deceiving measure here. We need to take a look at the distribution of the thinking times. Specifically, e.g. for how many moves during the game it took more than 30s to reply? These can be followed by a quick sequence, which will take the average back to 7-12 seconds per move. So, if you tend to stop and read deeper several times during the game you will feel very uncomfortable in byoyomi (when some important semeai or L&D can be decided).

On a related topic. It seems to me that if your playing style is to play solid and safe (for your level), without leaving too many weaknesses, then it is probably less of a problem to play in byoyomi towards the end of the game.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 4:47 am

A good point there musai, but I took a look through my games posted here, and I'm not using more than 30 seconds on enough moves that it'd likely cause me to lose a game, aside from fear anyway. :oops:

Not really sure what I'd call my playing style other than saying I have a territorial bias. My earlier games I tried going for the centre because it looked big, but that got brutally beaten out of me by an SDK or two. :lol:

Beginning to try to use influence now, even have the odd game where I lose all four corners which not long ago I would have felt like I should just resign.

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:12 am

Progress Report: -

New rank: 7 kyu!

Tsumego: About three quarters through Graded Go Problems for Beginners III
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games
Elementary Go Series: Finished reading Attack and Defence, barely started The Endgame

I'm still agreeing with my previous comment on the third tsumego volume being a considerable step up in difficulty, I'm getting a higher success rate on them than when I started, but the time taken on each problem is going up. It's worth it though, just going through these is prompting me to try to read out when I really need to cut or connect in a game, when before I'd just lob a stone down and hope I could brute force it. I'm also realising I only have these two tsumego books and going over the same two books is probably not going to be particularly helpful.

Reviewing of the lost games was concentrated on how to not die with an eyeless dragon, beginning to start experimenting with jettisoning a part of the group so some of it can live... but it feels like I'm sacrificing more stones than I should be to do this.

Also took a little time out from the tsumego to finish reading Attack and Defence, more just to let the ideas perculate inside my mind than anything else. I'm a fan of reading through a book once, then trying to understand it properly on a second read through. The Endgame feels like a lot of effort is going to be required. :scratch:

Overall felt like a good week, now to see how I fare with one stone stronger opponents!

PeterN

musai · Post by **musai** » Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:32 pm

Congrats on the rank. Although it probably has no meaning by itself, but it usually doesn't come for free. Good job!

I don't think having only 2 volumes of tsumego is a problem. It will become a real problem only once you can do all of the problems in a few seconds each. Until then, your reading will improve every time you go through them. I'm now working through Cho Chikun Encyclopedia of L&D. Elementary level is not easy at all for me, especially not having the answers. In addition, you can get a ton of free tsumego on Wbaduk (and they have an Android client, if you want to do it on the go).

The Endgame - I have seen some negative comments on this book here on this forum. Something along the line of "too many errors".

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Wed Aug 28, 2013 4:46 am

I know an increase of one stone doesn't mean much in itself, but it still feels good

You're probably right about two books not being a problem, guess I'll find out when I go through one a second time and see if the problems just feel familiar or not. Didn't realise there were negative reviews on The Endgame, thought the whole series was well thought of.

PeterN

musai · Post by **musai** » Wed Aug 28, 2013 5:31 am

The reviews are not really negative. However, there are claims that there are mistakes in the book, so if you don't understand something, it maybe the case.
Here: http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=143824#p143824

jts · Post by **jts** » Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:55 pm

No, The Endgame is really quite good. You can learn a lot from it. One of the better volumes of the series. Perhaps 200 Endgame Problems is a better resource hour-for-hour (I wouldn't know, never read it), but I think Bill was concerned about technical details of how they approach counting, and insufficient focus on endgame tesuji. I think you can still learn a huge amount about the endgame from it, whatever it's imperfections.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:32 am

I've been playing endgame moves somewhat randomly up to this point, just looking and guessing (hoping?) what's the better move, so just about anything should help

On another note played a really fun game yesterday which I think I lost the way I did due to being in byo-yomi, though I'm certain I should have lost the game earlier anyway (for instance if W did not tenuki at 139). Almost certainly not a good way to play, but oh well :lol:

PeterN

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:56 am

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