Rhys D

November 2013: I have just reached 3 kyu on KGS, and won an even game against another 3 kyu. For a while I felt like I was stagnating at around 5 kyu, but my play has definitely improved further now.

April 2013: Now 7 kyu on KGS. I beat a 6 kyu in an even game, and would have beaten another if I had killed his last-ditch invasion (which had no right to live). My endgame is improving, and invasions are probably my biggest weakness now: I rarely manage to kill the ones which seem to deserve to die, and I often let an invading group settle too quickly, taking little profit from harrassing it.

February 2013: My progress has been okay; my KGS rank is now 9 kyu. It seems that a lot of players at this level attack like crazy. I'm sure that my opponents are playing lots of overplays, but I'm only sometimes able to punish them. My other major problem is that I still make far too many really stupid mistakes, especially in the endgame; several of my losses on KGS have only happened because I lost a big group at the end which should have lived.

December 2012: I first taught myself Go in about 2008 by playing against the computer until I understood what was happening. For a while I played only occasionally, against GNU Go on my own computer, but recently (late 2012) I have been making a serious effort to improve. I have played a handful of games at a local club, and on KGS, but have still been playing a lot against GNU Go. I think this might be a good way to stagnate, and to fall into bad habits, so I will be trying to play more often against human opponents. As of December 2012, my rank is something like 11 or 12 kyu.

Recommendations:

- The video commentaries and lessons at Go Commentary are exceptional. Quite a lot is free, and there is more available for purchase.

- Nick Sibicky's Go lectures on Youtube will be very useful for players up to about 6-7 kyu.

- Baduk movies is a good resource for higher-level players (much of it is beyond my standard), although many of the videos are behind a paywall.