Life In 19x19

I decided it's about time that I made a study journal because my studying needs to be more focused.

My study plan is:

1. Tsumego I just got 1001 life and death problems, and I am working through that. before I got it I was working on the Gokyo Shumyo on sensei's library.
2. Play serious games and review them: I always play 25+30X5 or 30+30X5 the first for rated game on Kgs and the second for Korean style insei league on KGS games. I always review my games usually the same day, sometimes with my opponent and sometimes alone. I think reviewing with your opponent is better, but sometimes they just leave so you can't. I review more with my opponents on league. I also have a DGS account that I play on.
3. My Malcovich game at viewtopic.php?f=37&t=5094.

I guess that brings me to my second part of the study journal which is me asking for some advice. So what happened was as follows. I played a league game against a 5 kyu which I won and was very happy . After that I played another league game and lost (by a relatively small amount to a 4 kyu. Now all of a sudden I feel like I can't win at all. even against other 8 kyus. my playing feels bad, like while I play, I know I will lose. This hasn't discouraged my from playing but it is still very frustrating, and I don't know what to do. I am playing poorly, and suddenly noticing I am behind and overplaying, which usually results in me dying somewhere. I don't know how to proceed.

speedchase wrote:II played a league game against a 5 kyu which I won and was very happy . After that I played another league game and lost (by a relatively small amount to a 4 kyu. Now all of a sudden I feel like I can't win at all. even against other 8 kyus. my playing feels bad, like while I play, I know I will lose. This hasn't discouraged my from playing but it is still very frustrating, and I don't know what to do. I am playing poorly, and suddenly noticing I am behind and overplaying, which usually results in me dying somewhere. I don't know how to proceed.

Obviously this happens to all levels of playing strength. Since I have won against a 1k last month, I play so badly, that I have even lost to an 8k.

So don't worry too much about that.

Don't sweat on it. Do a few decently easy tsumegos/tesuji problems to get a little confidence, or play against a Go engine. This is what I've done now when I've lost 4 games straight... Now I feel more confident to crush someone on KGS (let's see if I can find a time slot soon to prove it )

yeah, don't worry. blunders at our level are natural :)
no need to rush or revenge or other stuff, just relax and play. i prefer free and league games (no need to think about rating or win/lose); small talk during a game (so many interesting ppl on KGS!); short reviews (long reviews are usually heavy and inefficient coz of lack of patience… just 3-4 keypoints); timeouts with tea, fresh air, exercises…

Study Update 1:

Reading Elementary go Series Volume 3 Tesuji by James Davis. Read chapters 1 and 2 already. Reading a little bit of attack and defense every night, but last night I forgot. I carry a copy of positional judgement in my backpack and read it whenever I have a free moment, but I will probably replace it with 1001 life and death problems. My major accomplishment this weekend is that I have already solved up to problem 363 in 1001 life and death problems. The first four hundred are easier problems half black to live, and half black to kill, so the difficulty should pick up soon. I can solve almost all of them in under a minute, and I can solve maybe 10-20% at a glance. My accuracy so far is probably over 95%, and the ones I get wrong I figure out whites proper response to the move I made that results in my failure. I think going through these quickly is really helping my with skill at spotting the vital point. This was definitely a good buy. In addition having it in a book form is helping with going through it whenever I have time. I didn't play any since my last post, but I will play more soon, perhaps tomorrow night. I feel better about my recent run of bad play, and I am excited to move forward stronger than ever . By the way, I forgot to mention in my first post, my goal is 2dan by the end of the school year in 2012, one year after my real return to go I can't wait. I am so excited!

I guess that is all for now.

-Speedchase

Would be nice if we could play against each other. I think it would be a great occasion for both of us to progress towards our goal.

Sounds good! what time zone are you in?

Guys, I'm on GMT+1, if you are close we can play

I'm GMT -5, but we can probably figure something out, perhaps Saturday morning my time, Saturday afternoon your time.

Yes, this could work out perfectly, if you see my online on Saturday afternoon (usually happens) in the L19x19 room, let me know! I'll be on the lockout for you too

Ok Sounds good!

I just played a game... I should have lost but my opponent escaped when behind (WHAT?!). I have already reviewed it. Here it is!



I think my main mistake is 43. It is too deep to be an erasure from the outside, but not deep enough to be a good move if my goal is to live on the inside.

I am not sure why my opponent let me live with 64, perhaps he does not want me thrashing about in his moyo.

I felt ahead the entire game even though I wasn't. It is clear i need to judge the situation more.

Up to problem 500 in 1001 life and death problems Considering I got the book less than 2.5 days ago that is pretty good. I am also trying to use any scraps of time I may happen to have to go through a couple problems. It backfired today, because I was solving problems as I was waiting to get picked up from school, so I forgot my laptop and had to go back for it. Despite the irritating setback, I have to say that long term learning to always use my time to study will be useful. In the medium difficulty problems I have about 80% correctness and I usually decide on my answer in under a minute. I am working on trying to get a higher accuracy even if it takes longer. Bonus points if you guess that arbitrary continuation that the author sets as the main line. In fact in some cases there are multiple first moves that seem to work, but there is only one diagram with 3 moves on it ( and sometimes some letters) and a short caption. I am still slightly annoyed about my earlier game, but i must keep going!

- speedchase

I would have played around the P column to erase the moyo. Also, white 8 is quite an odd move... I guess black letting white get so much thickness after your double pincer is not that good. I would have jumped, white defends in the 4th line, and extend from the corner enclosure to pincer the pincing stone. But fuseki is not my finest

As for tsumego, I also have 1001 (bought it last Wednesday), although I'm focused in Yi Ch'ang-Ho's tesuji and tsumego books. In the tesuji ones, aside from reading the solution I try to read why the seemingly clear solution paths don't work. All is reading practice

I am not really afraid of white's thickness, because after w22, white is way over concentrated. Perhaps I could have recovered from my mistake if I had played 49 at H10 and sacraficed the white stone.

I have heard good things about LCH tesuji and tsumego, and I am considering perhaps buying them soon.