Life In 19x19

I'll be working to improve m current rank on OGS to the Dan levels over the next 6 months beginning the start of October.

For now, I'm getting back into the rhythm of playing everyday while following a snippet of advice attributed to Lee Se-Dol about growing in go. This could have been just lazy translation but I find this advice works well for me in that he believes you should play as often as you can, no surprise there, but he advocates, again, this could just be a poorly translated interview, to play fast games to develop your thinking.

I hear so many people advise me on slowing down the thought process and play longer games to get better at thinking.
I believe that works, as well. I just struggle to gain any introspection about the game playing the long way. Instead, I play 10 minute games with a byo-yomi of 5 times at 30 seconds against players one level down from me and as high up as 1 Dan. At current, I'm 4kyu on OGS.

Hear is a list of materials and resources I will be working through to get stronger:

Reading:
The Basics of Go Strategy
So You Want To Play Go? Levels 3 & 4
Haengma
In The Beginning: The Opening In The Game Off Go
The Road Map to Shodan V2: The Basic Principles Of The Openings And The Middle Game
A Dictionary Of Japanese and English Go Terms
and I plan on buying a few more books from GOBOOKS.com as they have a pretty big selection.

Pro Matches:

I plan on pulling up YouTube and watching any tournaments I can find from the last 2 decades, at least once a day.

Problems:
https://tsumego-hero.com/sets

The best online resource I have found to tryout tesujis. If you have other sources, please offer them.

https://goproblems.com/
https://blacktoplay.com

I started with goproblems.com when I was first learning and it did help a lot, but I really like blacktoplay.com more these days.

Matches:

I'll play no less than 5 matches a day on one or all the go servers I'm on(OGS, KGS, Tygem, WBaduk) with sufficient time to review the games thoroughly on the weekends during my time off. I plan to do the once over and take note of moves that were errant, slow or ill-advised after a game is completed, but I'll take particular not of the games I lost more than the ones I won because I know there is more to be learned from the loss, in my personal experience.

Goal:

As stated previously, I want to be in the Dan levels on OGS, specifically I believe I can get to 2D from 4k in that time frame. I'm only limited to my diligence and efforts so I'll make me best case scenario goal 4D.

For now, I am getting a base line on myself based on not doing any of the study I have laid out thus far. I am only playing matches and collecting the information about the win rate I have against the variously leveled players. I know I have to adjust for sand-baggers, but I'll take that in stride.

30AUG23

3rd game for today(baseline games until October)

OGS, I was Black in this game.

I was down bad until move 117 when white made a mistake in defending their invasion.

It turned what was an 84 stone shlacking by white back to an even keel game.

Katago had them still leading with a 0.7 stone lead at the time they resigned.

I like the originality and the flow of your games.

OGS 1d is pretty ambitious but not impossible, if you started recently and indeed progressed to 4k by playing daily.

As for playing fast or slow: Bill Spight says "study what you like". If Lee Changho's advice resonates with you, stick to that until something else inspires you.

Good luck!

5 matches/day + review + watching 1 pro game/day + practicing online go problems + reading more than 1 book/month is pretty ambitious, good luck and don't get burned out!

jlt wrote:5 matches/day + review + watching 1 pro game/day + practicing online go problems + reading more than 1 book/month is pretty ambitious, good luck and don't get burned out!

The observation I have made about burnout is that the negative effects only amplify if you fail to achieve what you were after in endeavors like this.

I already read fast and process information with a high level of accuracy, plus youtube has the speedup feature which makes watching informative videos much better for me.

If this is something one "kinda want, but not really", then they will flame out before the week is out.

Also, I will be reading a book a week. First is for a once over to see the information contained within, then a second, and even third, go around over the subjects I have little or no understanding of. Keep in mind I will focus on the book of interests for that particular week and reference others I have read to piece together my understanding, but I will be reading and re-reading said book of the week with intense passion and focus before moving on to the next book. I only have a few go books as listed, but I have eyed some more titles that I want to add to my study collection.

I would advise anyone to read in that style, browse then scrutinize method, when you have to read for information/study other subjects. I find it cuts down the amount of time wasted reading over information you are well versed in to find the information you need brushing up on. Also, you have to learn to turn off the voice reading in your head as you see the words to process them faster but that is easier said than done.

All the same I appreciate the support.

Since 31AUG23 I have won 10 games and lost 9 of ranked matches on OGS.

By Rank here is the W/L stats:

5k - 4/2 = 67% Win Rate(WR)
4k - 2/2 = 50% WR
3k - 1/4 = 20% WR
2k - 2/0 = 100% WR
1k - 1/1 = 50% WR

I'm noticing that m loses come at the middle game where I really swing for the fences and I either knocking it out the park or I whiff hard enough to shatter diamonds.

For now I've made no attempts to change or study anything. No Life and Deaths(LD), Tsumegos(Tsu), Tesujis(Tes) or watch tournament replays/exhibition matches of any kind. I want to provide as much information as possible to demonstrate the process I have described in my initial post.

I am taking notes of where I see the glaringly obvious problems I have in my preliminary research games with plans to dissect them for myself to point out all the main problems I have brought on myself with my stagnant style of play.

When October begins, I will not be posting any games for review on here as I will be in lock down mode reading, practicing LDs, Tsus and Tess and watching matches and practicing move memorization of matches.

November I plan on playing my brains out as I will use October to evaluate materials and re-engineer my play style. I know this won't eliminate my bad habits wholesale, but the theory is that if I take a hands off approach to playing new matches and practice reading ahead and finding the right move, I'll let go of bad habits I developed along the way to make up for poor decisions and play.