A beginner's journal of little interest
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:13 am
Not going to be interesting for most to read about the trials and tribulations of someone still trying to get under 20k reliably but as an exercise for myself, here it goes:
Goal: Improvement
Method:
30mins of tsuemgo a day. Current main sources: Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol. 1 and 321go.org
Preferably at least 2 slow games on KGS a day. Preferably 3+.
Main problem at the moment holding me back:
Playing too fast resulting in tunnel vision and a lack of awareness of the whole situation. This has led to some appalling blunders, losses and near losses.
Solution:
Unsure. Going to try and force myself to take my hand off the mouse after each move and not put it back on until I've decided on my move and read ahead from it and see if that works.
Today: 3 wins, 2 losses.
This game summed up just how far I have to go:
An attempt at analysing the mistakes I can see:
6: Should have been at S3?
12: Again, same mistake.
14: Move that set off the chain of events that lost me the game. Should have been one line higher if I insisted on doing this and even then (and in-game) I wasn't sure what move I should play here. Idea was reduction/wall. Not a move I'll make again though.
26: Idiotic move.
28: The pain of so many weaknesses.
31: This is why this was just a big mistake and I see that now.
42: This should have been at N7
48: Should have saved the wall first if I could.
56: What makes this move worse is that I'd looked at this potential cut 10 moves earlier and realised that it didn't need to be protected.
Game was over at this point, the rest was a formality. Failure to develop any of the top came back to hurt me badly, lesson learned and the loss of the wall just ensured a hefty margin of victory. Most annoying thing was that I was making gote moves for most of the game. I need to fix this, I've no idea where to begin though. Was suffering really badly from local thinking throughout the game too which was probably related. I was doing the standard beginner blunder of loyally following my opponent around the board. So much to fix!
Goal: Improvement
Method:
30mins of tsuemgo a day. Current main sources: Graded Go Problems for Beginners Vol. 1 and 321go.org
Preferably at least 2 slow games on KGS a day. Preferably 3+.
Main problem at the moment holding me back:
Playing too fast resulting in tunnel vision and a lack of awareness of the whole situation. This has led to some appalling blunders, losses and near losses.
Solution:
Unsure. Going to try and force myself to take my hand off the mouse after each move and not put it back on until I've decided on my move and read ahead from it and see if that works.
Today: 3 wins, 2 losses.
This game summed up just how far I have to go:
An attempt at analysing the mistakes I can see:
6: Should have been at S3?
12: Again, same mistake.
14: Move that set off the chain of events that lost me the game. Should have been one line higher if I insisted on doing this and even then (and in-game) I wasn't sure what move I should play here. Idea was reduction/wall. Not a move I'll make again though.
26: Idiotic move.
28: The pain of so many weaknesses.
31: This is why this was just a big mistake and I see that now.
42: This should have been at N7
48: Should have saved the wall first if I could.
56: What makes this move worse is that I'd looked at this potential cut 10 moves earlier and realised that it didn't need to be protected.
Game was over at this point, the rest was a formality. Failure to develop any of the top came back to hurt me badly, lesson learned and the loss of the wall just ensured a hefty margin of victory. Most annoying thing was that I was making gote moves for most of the game. I need to fix this, I've no idea where to begin though. Was suffering really badly from local thinking throughout the game too which was probably related. I was doing the standard beginner blunder of loyally following my opponent around the board. So much to fix!
Even taking 15 min. to play over the game by yourself can reveal errors and questionable plays. See if you can find the worst play, or the game losing play.
