Jeff

Been reading SL for a while. Don't play much. I tend to keep myself busy with other things and not have many 1-hour blocks of free time.

After a few months of irregular playing, I'm convinced that my rank is in the 12k-9k range. I've participated in two tournaments, going 1-3 at NoVA and 2-6 at East NA Oza as 11k.

I really just need to play more games to improve (and review the ones I play). I tend to make lots of silly tactical errors which will quickly disappear as I gain experience. My corner-fighting is very weak. I'm pretty good at keeping my opponents stones cut apart and eyeless. But I have a tendency to cut from a weak position.

Thanks for all your comments and help on my BQM's and such. They are huge for me improving my game!

Starting a club?

I also lead a Bible study of 9th grade guys. Many of them have expressed interest in Go, either because they'd read Hikaru no Go or because I occasionally share experiences related to the game. I hope to host a gathering once a month for them to play Go together. They're all 30k or so, from not having played much, but that'll surely improve as they play more.

One of the guys really frustrates me. He has such drive to improve, willing to lose innumerable games to gain experience. But he refuses to take the time to count his liberties. He sees himself as being "on offense" or "on defense", and when he's on offense, he's paying zero attention to what groups might die. It's hard to learn to "extend from atari" when you don't notice that you're in atari. This guy has such potential. I hope he gets it one day.