Life In 19x19

I'm really eager to rank up to 19 kyu. It's a personal goal to get out of the 20's. Right now, I'm floating between 23 and 21. I've heard you must experience over a hundred games, and I have 55 under my belt. I've also heard to avoid handicaps and play with those at your rank. I'm also doing around 5-10 LD a day. Is there anything else I can do? Play 9x9 (I'm only playing 19x19)? Tutorials online? Learn Joseki, openings, or something? Any advice, I'd greatly appreciate. Thank you.

Avoid handicaps? Who told you that? Play all games, including handicap games!

Basically, play more games, continue to do tsumego. Just a matter of time.

If you want to seriously study, I can give you some book recommendations in addition to games. And there's a few people on youtube to follow. But at your level, it's just a matter of time...games and tsumego. And 9x9 games against the computer (or humans) when you've got a quick moment will also help your life and death skills.

I'd recommend posting some games for review on here. That may help you find moves you wouldn't discover so quickly on your own. People are quite willing to offer comments.

It also never hurts to post your games so people can comment and tell you what to pay attention to.

Thank you for the tips!

No idea who told you to avoid handicap games. I would say to avoid even games. People who would play even don't know enough to teach you anything. You need to see the moves of stronger players to learn to play like a stronger player.

And when you do play handicap games, try it with some of your corner stones on the 3-4 or 3-3 points - if it is ok with your opponent.

I'd also recommend getting a book if you're open to that idea. The quality and organization of go publications far surpasses the free material available online, in my opinion. I found Learn to Play Go Vol II: The Way of the Moving Horse by Janice Kim to be helpful at around that stage. I've also heard good things about Cho Chikun's beginner's book. I'm sure other people could suggest other titles if you're interested in that route.

My recommendation for books:

• 20k to 12k
• Graded Go Problems for Beginners, v1
• Opening Theory Made Easy
• Graded Go Problems for Beginners, v2
• Tesuji
• Graded Go Problems for Beginners, v3
• Attack and Defense
• 12k to 6k
• 1001 Life and Death
• Get Strong at Tesuji (same time as 1001 L&D)

With games, game reviews, and repeating tsumego books as appropriate, those should take you into mid-SDK.

Disclaimer: They're not necessary. You can get there with just playing games and reviewing games. But if you like reading books, then that's an option. And quality tsumego is important at SDK.

pocketMAD wrote:I'm really eager to rank up to 19 kyu. It's a personal goal to get out of the 20's. Right now, I'm floating between 23 and 21. I've heard you must experience over a hundred games, and I have 55 under my belt.

Playing is good. You learn quickly through playing, especially if you set goals during the game and review your games afterwards.

I've also heard to avoid handicaps and play with those at your rank.

That's BS. During my first year of play, except for two games my weakest opponent was 5 kyu and most of my games were against a 2 dan. (I made it to 2 kyu. ) If you play weak opponents you pick up bad habits. IMHO nearly all of your games should be against players at least 5 stones stronger than you. Their games are sufficiently different from yours that you are more likely to pick up good plays from them than bad ones.

Good luck!

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.

Play. (handicaps or not, doesn't matter)
Review. (self, others/stronger players; both are best)
Tsumego. (you got to know when to hold 'em, know when to walk away)

I will volunteer to review some of your games. I can see where you are missing some things. If schedule permits, we can play, too.

I agree with others that "avoiding handicaps" is total BS. I also picked up "In the Beginning" and "Opening Theory Made Easy".

I don't know if you only play online or across a table. But try to find a real person better than you that's willing to play friendly games across a table, point out bad moves that you're about to make, and give you do-over "mulligans" and a chance to make a different move. I found someone like that. We play weekly. He gives me a 2 stone handicap, we talk about our reasoning behind certain moves, and play out bad moves with a different set of stones that show me why it a certain play would be a mistake. He says a handicap forces him to play harder as well and its a learning experience for him. Sometimes I win and sometimes I don't.

My game has improved and the whole experience is more enjoyable for both of us. Isn't that the point of playing??

My 2c worth.

--Jeff