Life In 19x19

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:01 pm**

Funny how it's too hard for me to consider that white can also NOT play.

I guess that's one more blind spot to work on.

Posted: **Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:27 am**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |  p44  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  212  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  499  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Went over the very easiest book on my list (Level Up Review 2) in about 3 hours from restart to finish.

100% convinced I had no errors in the tsumego-ish parts (it has other parts such as short kifu, some simple things about stretching in the proper direction in the opening, VERY brief joseki sections). I guess all I really want from this anymore is that it goes faster?

Surprisingly, a lot of it seemed completely unfamiliar. Wonder how that will be after I go over it several more times. I haven't really done systematic repetition like this before, at least not with tsumego. I'm not sure what I should expect will happen, other than a gradual speedup and reduction of errors.

I did notice a few problems were getting on my nerves a bit. They were so easy it felt stupid to ask myself to "solve" it. A bit like asking a first year theoretical mathematics student to practice adding single-digit pairs of numbers.

Then I realized that's how I want ALL of these problems to be. My annoyed feeling went away after that.

My plan is to continue Essential L&D 1 to finish before the end of tomorrow, then it's back to grinding the second half of the harder ones.

I've also noticed that my play is becoming undone. I'm trying to play differently, with mixed success. My losses are much more frequent and much more interesting. I would have been badly discouraged if I didn't remember from my 12k->8k jump, how I first sank a bit and then suddenly launched up. It feels very similar.

That said, this game is mean. To get better, you have to work hard, get worse for a while (and still continue to work hard! :study:

) and then gradually improvement will materialize. Eventually.

If it's at all like the previous jump, I could just spend another month or two without really going up in rating. I wonder what was wrong with me that I persisted the first time, when I did not yet know this. :scratch:

Posted: **Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:23 pm**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  212  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  499  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Okay... that's at least 6 hours for Essential L&D 1.

Definitely a little bit harder to chew. Not, however, indigestible.

I think I'll just make it a weekend feature to hop through these two, where time allows. There certainly are enough distractions to interrupt this sort of thing.

The first part was so easy I started to wonder if I didn't misjudge the relative difficulty, but it got a little harder past the first quarter or so.

A few were too easy again, but also a lot of them were unfamiliar. As if I was seeing them for the first time, except it went a little faster. Or so I hope.

This does explain very much how I can spend years doing tsumego on and off while not actually getting amazing at them. Doing around five of them daily is simply not enough. I'm not sure that my current rate is ideal, too weak or overkill. I'm just going for whatever rate I can sustain, on the assumption that more is better.

This implies I'll have gone through them ten times by the end of february. That has GOT to be enough to know each and every one of the problems in there.

Now to gnaw on the other four while the week marches on...

Posted: **Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:48 pm**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  293  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  499  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Less than I wanted, but that's monday for you.

Definitely some redundancy between GGPfB3 and EL&D1, but no matter.

I'd care more if I had to choose which one to buy, but since they're already right here at home...

I still take it as very encouraging to see some problems starting to sink to "no-brainer". Not even a fifth of them, so far, but much much more than none at all.

Incongruously, my copy of GGPfB3 has "20-kyu to 15-kyu" on its front cover, but lists itself as suited for "12-kyu to 6-kyu" on its back.
I know this series is infamous for vastly understating its difficulty, but apparently later reprints tried to remedy this.
A little bit.

The other three I have are apparently not reprints and still insist that volume four is for 15k and stronger.

I'm fairly sure I currently find the fourth volume a little challenging (but the reprinted 3rd volume lists it as 6k-2k)

I'm curious exactly how strong I will be rated on KGS after I finish with GGPfB4. Not that there's a rating increase on the cards in the next week or two.

I've been starting completely unreasonable fights in nearly every game, because I've been wielding a hammer all the time, and everything looks like a nail.
I still have a bit of a buffer in that I played lots of games before I started to slide off in to tsumego land, but it's not unthinkable that it'll actually go down soon.

I'll just keep playing on anyway. Did I ever mention this game is actually lots of fun to play?

Posted: **Wed Jan 07, 2015 3:08 pm**

This is more or less how it goes for me, lately.

I seem to be fighting EVERYTHING, and only win when my opponent collapses under that pressure.

22.questionable, but in this one particular case it worked out.
25.I was greatly surprised that this got ignored.
28.certain SOMETHING would die
33.expected B6
39.textbook recognition ENGAGE! I know this.
46.this is probably not in the right place, it's too cramped and that cost me.
71.reading mistake. I thought black couldn't cut.
74.another mistake. This doesn't connect!
96.should have saved the Q6 stuff
114.feels like overplay. Was I really trying to catch the whole blob?
116.P14 probably better.
126.another mistake, J3 would be MUCH better.
147.it was really a nice from black, taking sente like that. Paying attention to the fact that it's not that many points to capture.
155.dreams of kill start to arise
206.I finally see HOW!
207.confusing response. Doesn't make eyes, doesn't threaten to make eyes. I should have just ignored it immediately.
214.finally realize I'm being silly.

It's messy, and the only reason I won was because black wasn't able to fully take advantage of my poor plays. Typical "last biggest mistake" game.
I really feel black had a better grasp of the whole board view, and without that last capture it would be very close, or my loss.
I can certainly find plenty that I could have done better.

Posted: **Thu Jan 08, 2015 6:00 pm**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  360  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  499  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Tsumego is not happening very much this week. I'm really not happy about that, but that's life. I can't really dig through much when I'm simply too tired.

I did, however, play a few games, in one of which I actually felt in control. Felt nice for a change. I think my edge in reading hit that one opponent in their weakest spot. Unfortunately, the other games were much like the above example.

I'm just so eager to try out all these new ideas I'm having. If my rating was relevant to my income, I would be doomed.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:48 pm**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   3   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  499  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Well, at least I finished ONE of the first passes of the other four.

I guess that will be my goal for the coming week, too. I'll probably miss it, unless I manage to pick up the pace beyond this week's 200-odd tsumego processed.

Tomorrow it's time to start redoing the two "easy" books.

Wonder if I can do better than the 3 and 6 hours they took last weekend.

Posted: **Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:08 am**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  499  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Uh, yeah... I'm a little ahead of schedule, here.

A little under 2 hours to finish LUR2, and a little over 2 hours to finish EL&D1. Totaling a little less than 4 hours.

What the ...

Well, surely it's nice. It didn't FEEL faster, except when I used an advanced mobile time tracking device, it showed not that much time had passed.

I even tried to slow down a little because I was worried I wasn't properly solving problems, like the mental equivalent of clicking "OK" without reading.

The problems definitely felt a LOT more familiar, with less than a quarter of them being completely unremembered. There were a lot more problems I could solve straight from memory.

I think that it's starting to seep into my games too. I've surprised people by making something live or die a few times already. There's clearly more people with lamentable gaps in their elementary tsumego skills. In fact, in my last game on friday I ran over my opponent like a bulldozer runs over a cardboard box. I even felt slightly guilty, but not guilty enough to offer a draw or anything like that.

I've only got one more win than I have losses for January so far. But I'm starting to feel hopeful that improvement is going to be visible a little sooner than I expected.

So now I have six days to dig through the second half of 1001L&DP instead of five. Six and-a-half, even. Richness.

Posted: **Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:23 am**

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| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  700  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Schedule aheadness continues.

This weekend my win ratio is over 65%, it's pretty clear I should be rated a little bit higher soon.

I honestly thought it would take a LOT longer.

Posted: **Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:26 pm**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  816  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

I seem to have become faster in general.

This is good, because I still have a lot of work left to do.

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:29 pm**

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| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  861  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

Not much got done.

Weekdays ought to be banned.

Posted: **Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:27 pm**

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| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  922  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

They're a little tougher near the end. Definitely slowing down.

Some of them are things I would unquestioningly judge as alive, in a game. The only reason I'm even trying is because they're presented as tsumego.

I'll be a lot more dangerous if I master these.

Posted: **Fri Jan 16, 2015 7:52 pm**

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+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Level Up Review 2                              |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   4   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 1                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  152  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

I finally finished the first round of 1001L&DP, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I wonder how much it will take me to get to the point where I can zoom through it in one or two hours? Time will tell.

Posted: **Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:11 am**

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| Pass  | Prob# |  Title                                          |  Count |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |    1  |  501 Opening Problems                           |   501  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |   p1  |  Essential Life and Death 2                     |  much  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3      |   421  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   2   |    1  |  1001 Life and Death Problems                   |  1001  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  185  |  Graded Go Problems for Dan Players Volume 1    |   300  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+
|   1   |  490  |  Cho's Elementary                               |   900  |
+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+--------+

So, two weeks ago, LUR2 took 3 hours, then a week later about 2, and this time I clocked it at 1:09
As for EL&D1, it took 6 hours two weeks ago, 2 last week and 1:15 today.

I probably could do them in under an hour if I didn't do such silly things as pour some tea, scratch my nose or yawn.
Turning pages has become a major component of how long they take. I think it's time to call it: they're officially too easy, now.

Considering the overlap between various books, it's highly likely that I'll be able to go through them faster and faster, so that the 26 books still on the list will be used up a little bit faster than one per month.

Once I run out, the solution is pretty obvious, too.

BUY MOAR BOOKS! :evil:

Posted: **Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:42 am**

Just played an even game where everything under line 14 died.

I think I REALLY need a higher rating... Maybe I should make a new account.

Life In 19x19

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