Reflame

Hello,

Im am Pavel Jelínek, Prague, Czech Republic

Email: pjel@centrum.cz

My dreams

I am a programmer and I wish to teach programming to other people.

I want to use go and tsumego to help them practise exact thinking.

I want to inspire players how to improve and show the beauty of go to many people who don't know about this game.

Status in November 2016

After buying Jim Davies' book Tesuji, I got very much inspiration.

I want to create a leaflet "Do you like mind-benders? You might like go."

I recently tried to formulate the key to understanding Kageyama's Lessons in Fundamentals. I believe that this book can be accessible to much weaker players than now (the treshold can drom from (say) 14 kyu to 17 kyu) if the reader is instructed to constantly keep it mind what it is attack (as opposed to killing) and strong group - as a key to understand the book.

I am fascinated how useful it is to solve tsumego 5 minutes *every* day and to solve puzzles "Determine the status" rather than "black to make a ko". I'll try to write these ideas down in Czech language and then ask someone from CAGO (Czech Association of Go) whether they are useful.

Status in October 2016

I have bought read several nice go books - why am I not improving? I think that my knowledge of go increased very significantly since spring 2016, but not my performance and rank.

One reason is that I have very bad problems with concentration. Even though I play exclusively at time constraints that are ideal for me (Fischer timing 7-10 seconds per move), a 19x19 still lasts too long for me to keep focused. I often do a stupid mistake in the calm final stage of game.

But there is another reason: As it is truthfully said in novel First kyu : "Too strong desire to win brings a defeat". I am so obsessed with winning that I make very silly overplays - because of fear that my opponent might get ahead.

It may seem absurd but I noticed a few months ago that '''When I try to lose by little, I win; when I try to win, I loose."' By "trying to lose by little" I do not mean "deliberately doing bad or suboptimal moves" - I mean "stop worrying about opponent getting ahead."

I am 11-13 kyu OGS, which is a miserable outcome (I used to oscillate near 9 kyu) ; I guess that my knowledge of go has improved and corresponds to ca. 7 kyu OGS but my reading ability is miserable when I get tired.

I started to play 13x13 more often.

History before October 2016

In summer 2016, I bought Jame Davies' book Life and Death - it is a wonderful practicing tool.

In (very roughly) spring 2016, I finally understood Kageyama's "Lessons in Fundamentals". It was like a miracle. I oscillated around 9-13 kyu on OGS; my knowledge of go started to rocket, but not my strength.

In autumn 2015, I wanted to return to online go, but had some problem with KGS Java client, so I discovered OGS (online-go.com). The correspondence games are great.

Before year 2008

Please, if I unintentionally break any Etiquette or any rules, tell me.

My KGS userid is also Reflame. After a long stagnation around 16kyu I wished a fast progress and my wish was fulfilled, when KGS shifted ratings in September 2006, so I was 10 kyu :-)))))

In January 2007 I started to take some medicaments and my ability of concentration dropped and my strength stagnates.

As for my playing style:

- I know the proverb "when in doubt, tenuki", and I obey it. But because I am almost always in doubt, I often tenuki when I should not.

- I love the proverb "the best ko-threats and ladder-breakers are those that your oponnent will believe that they will work" - but unfortunately, this style never works with oponnents above 22 kyu.

- I laughed very much when I read the page about "would not it be nice" style. I laughed for many months. But then I wept, when I suddenly realized that I play this way very much.

- during a ko fight, I never see whether I am a ko-master. All I can see is that I am not a go-master.

- when I see a group, I do not know whether it is alive, dead or whether it is "ko" - all I know is that it is "go".

- I heard that strange things happen at the 1-2 point, but (in my view) strange things happen everywhere (my groups that seemed perfectly alive are dying etc.)

- I heard that professionals play lightly, willing to sacrifice some stones. Well, in this sense, I play extremely lightly (not quite voluntarily).

People, how do you watch replies to your comments? Is regular looking to 'recent changes' page the only way?

Phelan: Yes, regularly looking at Recent Changes is the only way, although you can make it easier by registering your UserName at UserPreferences. That way, you can have a list of WatchedPages that appear in Recent Changes highlighted in a different color.