Life In 19x19

I confess: I have a ? next to my rank on KGS.

I'll add another few here:

1. I don't like thinking moves through, but still expect to win.
2. I've become something of a casual player after stating I wanted to turn pro in May.
3. I think my declaration of trying to become a pro hampered my improvement because I was so frustrated when I went on that long slide. And I never recovered from that playing-wise.
4. I play bots more often than I play people these days.
5. Anyone I lose to is a sandbagger. Anyone I beat is weak. (joking)

1) I like to say I play using instinct though my "instinct" is just a bunch of memorized formations and reactions to people playing the same move all the time.

2) My emotions effect my game to much and I easily lose control of the board on a bad day.

3) I never read a single go book in my life.

4) After defeating a really strong opponent some how (I don't know if he made a mistake or it was because I did not realize he was a few dans at the time) I lost every match that was challenged to me by any one after that.

5) After recently returning to go I found my patience was totally destroyed.

Oh dear, look at all that shame. LOL.

I was playing a game and spent 38 moves under the false assumption that my opponent's enormous game-deciding dragon was connected. It wasn't.

Normal story, right?

It's a correspondence game. Those 38 moves probably took more than a month.

In my defence, he *should* have connected the group, he just made a mistake. So I'd filed it under "things I can't kill", and then went on to figure out how to salvage the game.

Araban, Shapenaji, I’m adding your Go memes to my public Go Memes albums on FB and G+, thank you!

Go Memes on Facebook (this one I could make a shared album if more people want to contribute … it would be our album then and not just mine.)
Go Memes on Google+

Prepare to see your creations out in the wild.

Greetings, Tom

My meme:

I use SE more than SO.

shapenaji wrote:

Lol!!! So true! I tell people I am a born again GO player. So you can imagine the evangelizing.

daal wrote:

emeraldemon wrote:So do the people how like problems more than playing have any tips for those of us who can't commit to doing tsumego (like me?) What kind of problems do you do?

I've gone through phases of this, and I think you're asking the wrong question.

People who prefer tsumego over playing just don't like to compete so much. For them, tsumego provides much of the fun of thinking about go without having to enter a win-lose situation. Thus, it's not about finding enjoyable problems, because all (potentially solvable) go problems are enjoyable ... or not. I suspect that people such as yourself, who enjoy the competition, view tsumego as something like batting practice in baseball. It is useful to hone your skills, but it's really boring. Presumably, you don't enjoy tsumego because you see it simply as a means to an end.

That might be part of it, the other part is that it removes the social element for people how dislike/have problems with interaction.

And a confession:

Going to Asian resturants with Go books or with iPad or Android phone on tsumego site or apps or playing AI.
To 1) Get to know where personal is from and 2) Just to get to discuss go. It worked twice at least, at a Dumpling place (Fang Yuan Shi Wu), one of the women working there said very fun but very hard. Second place was a Sushi resturant (Sushibar Sen Sei) and the owner just asked me if I played, the status of the game in Sweden and how the International scene looked currently.

Boidhre wrote:

daal wrote:People who prefer tsumego over playing just don't like to compete so much.

I'd disagree, I love competing over a real board it's just online go that I don't like so much for a variety of reasons. Given a choice between a real world game and doing problems I'll always pick the real world game, I might pick doing problems over playing online though.

This pretty much sums up the way I feel. I have "Online Go Anxiety" (http://senseis.xmp.net/?OnlineGoAnxiety) something fierce. I'd much rather work tsumego than play Go online. On the other hand, I'd much rather play in person than work tsumego.

All of that being said, my opportunities to play in person locally are few and far in between. I make it a point to play online regulary, usually via DGS but sometimes via IGS when I muster up the courage. I also make it a point to fill the voids in my day with tsumego that I carry around on my phone or see on various websites.

I think the post about committing to getting better in general hits the nail on the head. There's bits of the game I'm sure we all don't like as much as other aspects. That's part of it.

The most important thing of all is just to have fun.

And rather than thread-jacking with my previous response, I suppose I should confess a few things:

1. I'm terrified of online games and often regret joining the game as soon as we begin playing. (I always play them out, though).

2. I do piles of tsumego and get a little big headed about my attacking ability when in reality, I'm not a strong fighter.

3. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I knew what a few key words that were adapted into English meant.

Bonus confession: Sadly, those don't fit on meme pictures and I'm not witty enough to condense them.

Log into KGS to play a game, pretend to watch a high level match and log off.

Get back into Go, promise I'm going to play consistently, never play and come back again in six months.

cmhobbs wrote:[..] I have "Online Go Anxiety" (http://senseis.xmp.net/?OnlineGoAnxiety) something fierce.

Was/is the same for me. Playing correspondence games, first on DGS, meanwhile on OGS, helped me. And I found that my OGA is gone if I “know” the person I’m playing, even if only from a few chats, or perhaps better: if I find there is some sympathy; rank doesn’t matter here, so apparently it is NOT just fear of losing.

And then, two years ago, I got a new job which eats me up, and now I can hardly find the time to play live games on the net.

I'd much rather work tsumego than play Go online.

For me I can’t compare it that way, but I do Tsumego on the iPhone whenever I have to wait somewhere.

On the other hand, I'd much rather play in person than work tsumego.

Same here.

All of that being said, my opportunities to play in person locally are few and far in between.

Same here since I live out in the country; but it has gotten better since I established a regular Go playing evening at my place … sometimes one person comes, sometimes two, and I currently have to give them 13 stones or more, nevermind.

The most important thing of all is just to have fun.

+1

Greetings, Tom