A beginner's journal of little interest

[Boidhre]

Right, just so I won't be annoying the same people over and over again for opinions, I'd like some views on the following sets:

Useful for club games and amenable to a board upgrade later on: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/bambus-s ... -3092.html (the thing is, some people have warned me off folding boards)

Cheap and cheerful: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/go-stude ... -2370.html (plastic bowls are suitable for my level but )

Interesting but not very portable: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/china-set-xl-p-4582.html (though, no way that board in the pictures is 2" thick)

Twice as expensive as a home set: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/komplett ... p-503.html (though, veneer which I dislike for no sensible reason)

What my wife was saying I should consider getting: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/go-brett ... m-p-9.html (jumping in the deep end... but we're talking approaching 300 Euro after stones and bowls here which is definitely non-trivial and giving me pause)

Oh, how I'm overthinking this. :/

[Twitchy Go]

One pro to buying a cheap board right now is that, someday far off into the future you could give your cheap board to someone your trying to get into the game. That said that last one is one sexy board.

[Boidhre]

First serious real time game in a fair while (excluding club games) and my concentration loss towards the end shows me that I left it too long. Sloppy endgame, I figured I was well ahead and just passed as I was tired. I'm pretty sure there is an awful lot of mistakes in this game. I messed up an invasion on the right and ended up living very small and giving him a lot of influence in exchange. 15k now though.

[jts]

On the 33-40 sequence:

1. As a general rule, don't push unless you're going to cut. Since you don't seem interested in cutting subsequently, why not wait to push until later?

2. At 39, do you see why White might prefer to play E9?

3. And finally, 114 moves later, White accidentally protects the cut while doing something else.

In the game as a whole you seemed a little too focused on making small groups and small reductions on the first and second line while you had the opportunity to make dozens of points in the center.

[Boidhre]

In the game as a whole you seemed a little too focused on making small groups and small reductions on the first and second line while you had the opportunity to make dozens of points in the center.

Yeah, I'm not happy with my mental focus during the game at all.

[Bill Spight]

Edit: Added variation at B152.

Time to play as 12 kyu, eh?

[Boidhre]

Got a loan of a board so played a 13x13 game with my five year old son:

He won by 14.5 points after I (intentionally) reduced a large group to two liberties and asked him if it could be killed. He didn't really understand territory for the first half of the game (we really should be playing on a 9x9 board but I don't have one I want to play on) but by the end seemed to have some idea of it. I tried to turn the game into a series of tsumego for him, presenting double atari possibilities and so on. I'm not letting him win as much I'm presenting him with the chance to win and giving him a chance to figure it out for himself. I figure it might help him more than me crushing him over and over.

[Boidhre]

Edit: Added variation at B152.

Time to play as 12 kyu, eh?

Thanks for the mountain of variations Bill! Loads to think about there.

[Boidhre]

A local 4d came out to visit me. We played a game on his board. The phrase "crushed like the gnat that I am" was never so apt.

[daal]

Interesting but not very portable: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/china-set-xl-p-4582.html (though, no way that board in the pictures is 2" thick)

That's centimeters, not inches.

[Boidhre]

Interesting but not very portable: http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/china-set-xl-p-4582.html (though, no way that board in the pictures is 2" thick)

That's centimeters, not inches.

Yeah that makes far more sense!

[Boidhre]

So I'm not getting to play as much as I'd like to on KGS due to the kids, fact of life with a toddler really. So I'm substituting tsumego which I can fit into my day more easily. This is less than ideal but it's the best I can manage at the moment, I already take several hours off on a Sunday for the go club so I can't ask my wife for more time reasonably. I am getting more 9x9 practice playing with my son and other people on KGS when I'm too tired for a 19x19 game so I'm still getting some games in. I'm thinking of mixing in some easier tsumego with some moderately and definitely difficult ones for me for balance. For easy ones I'm using GoChild and Graded Go Problems Vol. 1, for moderate ones I'm using 1001 Life and Death problems 1 move problems, and difficult the 3 and 5 move problems. I think I'm going to get "Get Strong at Tesuji" and combine it with "Tesuji." I'll continue reading theory for fun but I'm unconvinced that I'm at a stage where it'll make a big difference to my play. I'm planning on picking up "Attack and Defence" and "Tesuji and Anti-Suji" in this respect.

Any other book recommendations for me going forwards? I'd like to save on postage (which is criminal to Ireland) and buy a bit ahead.

[Dokuganryu]

I think that Opening Theory Made Easy is the only strategy related book You need to reach quite high sdk level, maybe even kgs 1d. Besides this book life and death + tesuji problems should be the main focus, in terms of improvement. But reading other "strategy" books can also be useful and what is also important inspiring and refreshing. From the books I read till now I value Opening Theory Made Easy the most, but liked Attack and Defense quite much also (still after reading reviews of this book I was expecting to improve rapidly after reading it, and don't think it happened. Doing 1001 life and death problems gave me much more.).

EDIT: for cutting the costs down, I recommend Cho Chikun Elementary Problems that can be downloaded from this site
http://tsumego.tasuki.org/?page=tsumego for free. There are no answers to these problems as that would violate copyrights, but I just try my best to solve them, and think this is more than enough

[Boidhre]

I think that Opening Theory Made Easy is the only strategy related book You need to reach quite high sdk level, maybe even kgs 1d. Besides this book life and death + tesuji problems should be the main focus, in terms of improvement. But reading other "strategy" books can also be useful and what is also important inspiring and refreshing. From the books I read till now I value Opening Theory Made Easy the most, but liked Attack and Defense quite much also (still after reading reviews of this book I was expecting to improve rapidly after reading it, and don't think it happened. Doing 1001 life and death problems gave me much more.).

EDIT: for cutting the costs down, I recommend Cho Chikun Elementary Problems that can be downloaded from this site
http://tsumego.tasuki.org/?page=tsumego for free. There are no answers to these problems as that would violate copyrights, but I just try my best to solve them, and think this is more than enough

I have Opening Theory Made Easy and am rereading it constantly.

Beyond that, I agree, strategy books are mostly for fun not improvement. Or at least that's what I expect anyway. I don't mind paying for problem sets, it's a small industry etc.

[Boidhre]

Ok, so my wife has just decided to take up go...

So far: I've gotten two friends back playing it who hadn't touched it in years, my son and wife playing it, my brother threatening to start playing it and crushing me and my father to play a few games with my son and express a lot of admiration for the game's simple complexity. I might not be gaining strength very fast but maybe one of the people I get interested in this game will turn out to be very strong! Of course, mostly likely most of these will drop the game again, such is life.