Life In 19x19

One of my games I wanted to share because I found it fun(which isn't a particularly unique occurrence but this one more so then most).
Anyway, I'm sharing this game primarily because it was really fun to play.

This game versus uwms was particularly interesting to me. It felt like I kept losing the local fights but yet kept coming out ahead or at least even.. An odd feeling to be sure.
I decided in post game that R17 was a bit to passive, although still playable perhaps, and that I should have directly pincered there. And I'm not sure if I should have pressed the white group on the right as hard as I did. It ended up handing me the win on a silver platter when W allowed the cut at L5. So that was a bit of a bummer.

One thing I've noticed when playing Go, at least at my level. Sacrifices can be amazingly successful. Although sometimes they end up being worth more then I though they were. Other players of approximate skill seem to be over eager to snap up my now unimportant stones. The good thing is a sacrificing sequence is often forcing so there is no real way to backtrack once you accept it. I ascribe this tendency to an over attachment to their own stones.(perhaps incorrectly) In a similar situation they would want to fight for life, instead of using them for points in a different way. Perhaps my favorite thing about sacrifices though is that they can leave so much aji behind

In other news I got the $20 dollar baduk on demand plan, only to get an email later that evening telling me the English one was now going to be $20. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I've taken this as a sign to upgrade and have been enjoying it immensely. I've also joined the ASR league. Although both my games so far have left me feeling a bit dissatisfied. This was mainly due to their short length. Game one my opponent resigned relatively early, and while I think I had a better position on the board it should have still been a tight game.
The second game I died quickly and painfully in the corner after several poor decisions and a misread, so yeah. Of course the post game was very informative. So I think I'll enjoy the ASR in the long run

I'm posting this as a reminder to myself of the perils of filling your own liberties towards the end of the game. Tunuking after white 172 made me feel so clever when I did it. White couldn't cut! Nothing could be better. Unfortunately I neglected to count liberties again before I made move 237. And well what was a half point win became a crushing defeat. I still thought that the cut didn't work and actually played it out. Fortunately cap is a rather nice fellow(and somewhat curious). Either way he didn't feel like having the game thrown out like that and we went back and found out what the score would have been with a correctly timed connection by black. B+.5 And what the score would have been with a fair reduction after black messes up. W+12.5. Cap even suggested nullifying the game, both of us leaving. This was very tempting to me as my next win would probably have ranked me up. But after some thinking I decided what would be the point if I was gaming the system. I then resigned the game and am anxious for a rematch!

Needless to say I was a little bummed out at throwing away a half point win. But it was a fun game all around and while I met him on automatch, he is likely going to become one of the people I will track down for games on my own initiative.

Hope the game is enjoyable to peruse through!
Regards,
-TwitchyGo

I'm a 5k on KGS!!!
I'd post the game that made me so... but I'm a 5k due to not playing for 3 days and rankshifitng
That said I have a positive trending win/loss in my ranked games(by a fair bit) so I should be able to hold it.(fingers crossed and all).

I've been noticing a somewhat annoying(to me) problem in my play.. I feel in control of the situation for the entire game, I'm not worried about anything at all! Then the game ends and I'm up by komi or less!(barring massive kill resigns). Now I don't think I have the positional judgement to bring about a .5 point win intentionally. From some commentaries I've read .5 point wins are considered a bit of a luck based win by pros even! So obviously I can't be as in control as I think. It's really been bothering me because nothing feels bad in my play.
Even in games I end up losing I feel equal with my opponent, up till a point and I can analyses those. But I think I have too much bias to figure out what is working, but not working WELL enough. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience?How did you deal with it? If so I'd appreciate your stories.

Ok so it turns out I can't hold 5k on KGS. I got there once only to be smacked down by a 4k. Although I felt good about the game, up to a point.(It's in the hide tag below)

This means that I was not able to make 1d in a year as I stated at the start of this journal, but I'm content with my progress. I'll just keep working at improving and shoot for high dan by next year, again I'll be content to fall short .

I've been studying joseki over the break. And it has been helping in my games. It turns out that stronger sdk start to know some of the more complicated basic josekis . I've been working with some variations from this position.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc 1space low pincer off of 3-4
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I'll probably move on to low reproaches after my small knight approach to a star point is pincered. My policy is to not play a joseki in game until I prove to myself it is joseki. This usually takes me about an hour to do, but I've yet to forget a variation with my method. But that isn't saying much since I've only recently committed them to memory.

Another thing I've been wanting to try for awhile is studying pro games. I think my reading might finally be good enough to understand the very obvious points of the professionals moves. My problem has always been what games to pick, but I've hit on a solution. Focus on "rivalries", picking two players and looking at a lot of their games against each other. We'll see how that works for me.

I finally registered with the AGA! I decided to do so because while I have yet to play in any Go tournaments(disregarding the L19x19 tourney where I was smacked down in 2 games), I'm a competitive person and will enjoy doing so. That means however I need membership to be accurately tracked and rated. And oh yeah, I want to attend the U.S. Go conference this year.
Barring anything crazy coming up I should be able too.

In other recent news I'm playing a best of 7 with hailthorn011.viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7583 Game one went to me, but it was very close, only a .5 win. Which basically means I got lucky and it could just as easily have been his win.
I'm looking forward to game 2. (A bunch of smileys I don't often get to use)

So.......
I'm not 1dan yet. But I think I've recently had an important mindset shift that could(hopefully) bring me closer to dan level strength. This is probably nothing new to many players here but I've finally got a hold on how bad I still am. My reading is awful, I'm too timid during fights, my opening is weak, and I don't even know what to do with endgame beyond sente>gote.
Fortunately I've always understood that winning is my fault, as is losing. But I've made the connection that to be 1d I'd need to be able to beat current me by 40ish points consistently.
This is a wonderful thing for me to realize because I HATE HATE HATE, being bad at stuff. So my motivation to study has surged again. I'm not going to do anything fancy. Just a lot of tsumego, playing games, and then playing out Lee Changho games. The first two items are the most important, but I've enjoyed the Lee Changho games a lot. Watching professionals fight will help cure my timidity I hope. I'm usually expecting a solid defending move, but instead they counter attack! Which is something I almost never do.