PeterN's Study Journal

Ember · Post by **Ember** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:28 am

PeterN wrote:[...] mainly because I tend to ignore this little thing called defence....

I think that finding balance in one's own game might be one of the hardest things. I played very solidly for a long time and lost quite a few games by playing small but secure moves instead of risking a bit. Getting over this habit was not easy (I still tend to fall back into it) and I guess it'll be just the same for you. But I think, that learning these tesuji will help you a lot! If you're looking for more material on this subject, I can't recommend Fujisawa Shuko's Tesuji dictionaries warm enough! The second volume is all about tesujis for defense, so maybe you'll want to give that one a look. I really liked it a lot (more than Tesuji from James Davies :razz:

)

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Mon Dec 23, 2013 3:38 pm

Off date progress report!

New rank: 5 kyu!

Well, my rank finally hit 5 kyu and I fully expect it to drop back down to 6 kyu very soon! The loss of that extra handicap has suddenly ratcheted up the difficulty of my games and I'm going to need to start spotting my weaknesses and correcting them a bit more to just stay where I am now.

Two games from today that I quite liked, lost both of them, and intend to review them, but it's not likely to happen till after Christmas. First one is against a 7k which I lost by 0.5pts and second is against a 4k which I lost by 18.5pts. Oddly I felt like I was doing better in the second one.

Game 1: -

Game 2: -

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 6:54 am

Progress Report: -

New rank: 6 kyu (again)
Tsumego: Read through Graded Go Problems for Beginners III (92.4% correct) again
Games Reviewed: 4 lost games
Elementary Go Series: None

Unsurprisingly my rank dropped back down to 6 kyu, definitely not helped by me playing a massive amount of games yesterday and being on a bit of a losing streak, but I was back to it after a single day anyway.

After my break from tsumego I was expecting to do worse than I did, but as I went through the book some of the answers were just popping into my head way too quickly to be anything other than having memorised some of the answers. That being said I did still do worse than the previous read through the book (93.1%) but not by much. Can't estimate the time this took quite so accurately as my the trains going haywire during storms broke my normal counting system of how many train journeys. Best guess is 8 days worth of train journeys, or 320-400 minutes.

Had two of my ASR games reviewed for me, a nice one on aji and a sledgehammer to the head of "Defend!" :oops:

as well as reviewed the two games I previously posted. The first one I will put down some brief comments from my review in the next post. The second one is a more difficult one to review, I was thinking a strategy of let my opponent build up the giant moyo, then drop a stone in the middle and live as it was just too large... then I went off and started nibbling at the sides and made it stronger first....

I have also got some new books for Christmas (amazing what pointing everyone you know to a website and saying "Look, they have a sale on" does :lol:

) so now need to decide which book to take a look at next. Main choices are Get Strong at Attacking, Get Strong at Invading, and 1001 Life and Death Problems. Thinking Get Strong at Invading as it's the area I'm most clueless on.

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 7:03 am

And some comments on my game against Dave100, any additional comments would be appreciated: -

:b9:

This sequences feels better for B to me, but after looking up the joseki apparently B's last move is a mistake, I'm assuming it leaves some invasion points, but not sure.
:b17:

Trying to balance with my other stones in the area, but not sure if it's quite the best spot.
:b27:

Cap the stones instead? I think this would be a good chance to build a lot of influence towards the bottom facing my stones already there.
:b29:

Do this from below instead to try to build up a moyo along the same lines as the previous comment?
:b39:

My potential is gone, and B is no longer attackable.
:b55:

Bumping into B's stones feels wrong, but I'm not seeing a better alternative.
:b75:

Perhaps start from the top and try to break into his area?
:w138: So many missed opportunities to play in this area, so just listing when W played here.
:b155: Jump out to O16 and poke everything!
:w216: Probably should have saved this stone....

PeterN

schawipp · Post by **schawipp** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:38 am

PeterN wrote:And some comments on my game against Dave100, any additional comments would be appreciated: -

I attached this game with a few mixed and unsorted thougths. I'm still a noob in fuseki and overall strategy but there may be some interesting tactical points.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:05 am

Thanks for the comments, a lot of one point things here and there that I missed (good thing I didn't lose by half a point or anything.... :-?

), and then those series of variations on the fight. 131 wasn't a pass I don't think so much as preventing the atari at T8 being unrespondable to.

PeterN

schawipp · Post by **schawipp** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 1:21 pm

PeterN wrote:131 wasn't a pass I don't think so much as preventing the atari at T8 being unrespondable to.

That's true but 131 on Q4 would be Sente and remove the T8 threat also.

skydyr · Post by **skydyr** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 3:04 pm

One thing to consider, especially after :w43:

or schawipp's suggestion for it, is that black's lower left corner can still be invaded successfully, and he may be rather pressed for eyespace afterwards and die or just live with a couple points. This is why, incidentally, black's choice to kick on both sides is bad, in addition to the fact that it strengthens white.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 6:11 am

skydyr wrote:One thing to consider, especially after or schawipp's suggestion for it, is that black's lower left corner can still be invaded successfully, and he may be rather pressed for eyespace afterwards and die or just live with a couple points. This is why, incidentally, black's choice to kick on both sides is bad, in addition to the fact that it strengthens white.

That's invadable?! :shock:

I really need to look at that bit more later....

PeterN

skydyr · Post by **skydyr** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 8:05 am

There's a bit of discussion of weak points, at least, here:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?ClumsyDoubleContact

Invading is pretty similar to the standard invasion after black kicks, white stands up, and black jumps high, once white is strong on the outside.

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 2:35 pm

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started reading 1,001 Life and Death Problems
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games (both by other people)
Other: Started reading Get Strong at Invading

Despite what I was saying last week I decided it was more important to keep going with the tsumego and, as such, decided to start my new tsumego book. So far managed to get about 320 problems in and have got 27 wrong. It feels good not half remebering specific tsumego, but there are a couple of shapes that I'm still seeing instantly, particularly a diagonal connection inside a shape that sets up shortage of liberty (no idea why that specific one though).

Had two games reviewed this week, one on the ASR League and the other at complete random when a 4d watched a game I was playing and offered a review and a mini endgame workshop afterwards! :bow:

I also started reading Get Strong at Invading, though not very much as I'm mostly doing tsumego, and my results in it bear out my suspicions. There's no point even recording how many of them I get wrong, almost all of the problems I'm barely even looking in the right area.

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:12 am

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading 1,001 Life and Death Problems (Abandoned at halfway - 87.7% correct)
Games Reviewed: 6 lost games (all by other people)
Other: None

This tsumego book ramps up the difficulty quite considerably somewhere in the 4xx problem range, and the problems are now taking too long individually for this to be doing much good right now I think, so it's time to shelve this book and move onto a different one. I finished 506 of the problems and got 62 of them wrong, going from what I said last week there's been a definite decline in success over the last 150-200 problems and I can only assume it would accelerate further if I pressed onwards. I'll pick the book up again at a later date and see how I do.

Been playing a lot of go this week and been utterly crushed in the ASR League so far (no surprise as all of my opponents apart from one were dan level... :lol:

), fortunately this has resulted in six games being reviewed, sadly most of them I resigned pretty quickly and there were only one or two mistakes to really be pointed out in each (but oh boy were they catastrophic!). Things I can normally get away with, without even realising it was bad suddenly turn into "Oh... you're dead.".

Also been trying out invasions in my games this week to some extent, and it's made me feel like I'm getting worse, rank graph is suffering for it. Need to keep this up though, I cannot go on avaoiding making invasions.

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Jan 19, 2014 7:31 am

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners IV
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games
Other: Re-read a little of Get Strong at Invading, Watched Shapes lecture by Dsaun

As mentioned last week I switched tsumego books, and this one is so far a little easier than where I abandoned the previous one, but not by any significant margin. I think there's just a gap in my ability or knowledge here that is going to need to be bridged by sheer trial and error. Get them wrong enough times and eventually the answers should stick.

Still losing all of my games on the ASR League, but got two of them reviewed. Recurring theme has yet again raised it's head. Defend my weak groups!

Watched a 3.5 hour shapes lecture by dsaun on KGS yesterday, the basic content of which I already "know" (albeit don't put into practise well), but seeing the seven reviewed games where shapes are used may become useful as good examples.

Also read a little more through the invasions book as it's a massive weakness, attempting to make an invasion most of my games now, but they tend to go badly. One example is below, think I left it way too late, which is probably one of my main problems for this.

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:22 am

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners IV
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games
Other: None

The tsumegos are definitely getting harder than they were in this book, getting about 25% wrong and not even in the final stretch yet.

Both my game reviews were by a borderline 1/2 dan at the club this week, and received the odd advice of "You need to be more greedy." Trying this out and I'm just losing so far.

PeterN

PeterN · Post by **PeterN** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:15 am

And now I'm suiciding my groups to be greedy... I might as well stop playing at this rate

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