PatrickB's Training Blog

This page is where PatrickB logs his current studying and progress at improving at Go, as a way to encourage himself to keep studying and as a way to help figure out what helps and what doesn't. In addition to this blog, which logs what I've done over the last month or so, you can see a history of my past studying and my current Study Plan. Please share any ideas, comments, suggestions, and discussion about this blog on the separate discussion page.

Progress Report

• 12-Jan-2015 - Solid 3k ranking on KGS, playing well at the local club. I've done a little studying from books, but at this point it seems clear that the main thing I need to focus on is just playing more, reviewing those games, and shaking off the rust from not playing much for a decade.
  • Current Goal - 5 games a week, each reviewed for obvious mistakes
• 23-Dec-2014 - Restarting after a 10-year hiatus (the joys of a family and job). I've been working problems on SmartGoKifu and my selection of problem books to shake the rust off.
  • First goal - get a solid KGS rank again.
  • Current reading - Kage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go
  • Next reading - Back to Endgame
  • Current pro games to study
    • YiChangHo vs. YuChAngHyeok as per AlexandreDinerchtein's recommendation from a decade ago. Starting with YiChangHo vs. YuChAngHyeok, 3 match series from 48th Kusku Challenger's match, December 2004.
    • Also going to replay some FujisawaShuko games just because they're really cool. :)

• 12-Oct-2004 - Goal: study and practice the endgame both in real games and in books
  • Note - Have been taking pro lessons with AlexandreDinerchtein. After several losses at H5, finally won my first game (by 0.5) at 5 handicaps on 11-Oct. Took a big lead into the endgame from a good opening that I couldn't quite manage to give away, unlike the previous week where I did the same but lost by 0.5.
  • Studying - Ogawa and Davie's Endgame book. Considering purchasing Get Strong at the Endgame as well. On the advice of Alex, I'm currently studying games between YiChangHo and YuChAngHyeok from the GoGoD database to work on making profit while attacking (YuChAngHyeok) and the Endgame (YiChangHo). Previously I had been studying games by TakagawaShukaku.

• 9-Sept-2004 - I'll update this soon. I've been studying (pro games, shape, fuseki) lateley and I need to update this with that information.

• 6-Jan-2004 - Goal: Play more games, continue studying Tesuji Jiten.
  • Studying - Keep drilling tesuji problems; pick one or two professional games to start looking at.
  • Games
    1. Black versus xor(1d) Result: win by a small amount. Game itself not commented yet. Overall, I got pushed around in the endgame a bit, but a large kill in the early middle game proved to be enough to hold me over to get the win.
    2. White giving H2 to gmj(3k) Result: - lost by a small margin. Currently uncommented and unreviewed. Did better than I expected giving H2 to a 3k, though I lost by about 8 points in the end.
    3. Black versus Andy Yoo (AGA 2d?) Result - lost by komi. I was very pleased with my play in this game, though I made some big mistakes of course. Reviewed the game myself with Andy; minismurf also kindly reviewed it for me, pointing out several mistakes of which I was not aware. Played at the Blue Dragon coffee house in Albuquerque; game record through move 166 recorded from memory, so there may be minor mistakes in move ordering.
  • Progress - My play has gotten sharper from the tesuji study, but also lost some overall vision due to focus on tactical play (i.e., greediness such not realizing the expense of making another weak group). Re-reading large parts of AttackAndDefense helped clarrify that problem and address it to some extent. Afterwards have had several good games that seem to set me at right around the AGA 1k level or so. The main thing I need to do now is play more and keep getting games commented by people.

• 12-Oct-2003 - Goal: Get started studying again. Classes and travel have been eating so much time I've had little opportinity to play
  • Studying - Enter 20 tsukekoshi problems from Tesuji Jiten and 50 more problems from GetStrongAtTesuji. Drill GetStrongAtTesuji problems and b and c-class tsuke problems from TesujiJiten. (Note: I now have more than 200 of the Tesuji Jiten problems, thanks to help from others who contributed tsuke, watari, and hanazuke problems to go with the geta and tobitsuke problems I've entered, as well as the first 150 problems from GetStrongAtTesuji.)

• 25-Aug-2003 - Goal: Finish getting a solid rank on KGS. play and review at least 4 more games.
  • Studying - Enter and drill Geta and Shicho problems from Tesuji Jiten.
  • Games
    1. Even versus lazyplay(4k) Result - win by 41.5. Analysis and review to come.
  • Progress - Not much. The first week of classes ate all of my spare time preparing lectures. I finished entering all of geta problems from Tesuji Jiten and the first 96 problems from Get Strong at Tesuji for review, but besides that didn't get enough done.

• 18-Aug-2003 - Goal: Establish a rank for my KGS playing account so that I have a baseline for improvement.
  • Studying - First 150 problems of Get Strong at Tesuji
  • Games
    1. H3 from handi(1k) Result - win by resignation, though I made many bad mistakes in the game; at least some of the earlier ones are commented in the game record. Studied a new joseki as a result of botching it in the game (joskei 2.2 on the linked page). The tesuji at 4 in the joseki along with its followups was eye-opening. It gives up two corner stones to get a good result even though they were salvageable. Not something I would have considered, but considering why saving those stones was too small and the joseki line of play better was very enlightening.
    2. White vs. excal(4k) Result - loss by 2.5 points. Reviewed version by Austin Frakt - I tenukied in the right place early, but then didn't play properly when he handled a corner. Also closed a corner too early. Thanks to Austin for the helpful comments. Didn't play very thoughtfully in this game - a number of places were I didn't read things out that I could have, and it cost me. One point to Roy.
    3. White vs. shui48(5k) Result - win by 1.5 points. Reviewed version by Austin Frakt - a big moyo game that I managed to squeak out because of some pretty basic endgame mistakes by my opponent. Interesting comments by Austin. I fought in an area where I didn't need to and simply destroying my opponent's center moyo would have been enough. Also got a little greedy in a corner joseki choice, but my opponent messed it up. Most importantly, I lost sente a number of times in the endgame by playing poor gote sequences when there were bigger (and in many cases sente) sequences.
    4. H5 to f3lini(9k) - Result - win by resign. First game giving handicap with this account. Black liked to push and cut without thinking through the consequences - I had experience with this kind of game from learning to play at the Tucson Go Club. Made some tactical and strategic mistakes (playing a cut knight's move (ick) when a hane with the cut defended by a driving tesuji was available, for example) as noted in the game record, but won without too much difficulty. Now 3k? on KGS.
  • Notes - Tesuji Jiten arrived from amazon.co.jp on 20-Aug-2003, and it's very good but very hard. The C-level problems are doable for a 4k, but there aren't that many of them (the 53 geta problems in volume 1, for example, contain 3 C-level problems and 19 B-level problems). The B-level problems are hard but approachable - I can make a decent stab at them but am frequently wrong; I do feel my brain muscles expanding as a result, though. The A-level problems are very difficult - I'm more-or-less leaving them be for now until I'm more comfortable with the B-level problems. On the whole, I'm very pleased with the book. I think it'll help me read faster, deeper, and more accurately in general, as well as introduce me to new moves I haven't seen before. I'm also entering the problems as SGF into the computer as I go so that I can use uligo to drill them.
  • Evaluation - now have a [3k?] rating on KGS, not a solid rating, so that didn't quite get done. The first 150 problems of Get Strong at Tesuji weren't enough for the week, because they're pretty easy. I did the first 200 problems instead and spent some time on the tesuji dictionary as well.