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Fwiffo
PageType: HomePage     Keywords: People

AKA phong AKA Tom Schumm. [email] <phong@phong.org>


I'm fairly new at Go. I started getting into it around April of 2003 on NNGS, but got away from it for too long. I finally got back into things again in late November of 2003 and have finally worked out the rust and am starting to get stronger (or, somewhat less weak at least).

I am also fwiffo on KGS and NNGS. I have a [ext] personal homepage where I have all kinds of junk. You may recognize the name [ext] Fwiffo from [ext] Star Control II.

(ColJac: Hi there. I certainly do remember Fwiffo from StarCon2?. That was the most awesome game ever invented. Though you certainly chose a cowardly alter-ego, hunam.)

I'm a bit of a collector of hobbies, many computer related. My favorite programming languages are Python, Ruby and Perl. I am a moderator on the [ext] Gentoo Linux forums and a regular on [ext] HydrogenAudio. I used to collect [ext] tarantulas, but lack time for that lately. You can also take a look at my [ext] KGS game archive or my [ext] KGS rating graph. I have a [ext] small collection of problems on goproblems.com.


The Robot

I run a robot, GnuGoCVS, on KGS. It's automatically compiled from the latest GNU Go CVS sources each night at 3am Eastern time. The robot also has a [ext] game archive and [ext] rating graph.

If the nightly compile succeeds, the robot will reboot itself, hopefully when it's not in the middle of a game. Because no GTP message is necessarily sent to indicate that a game has ended, the only way it can be sure that it's not in the middle of a game is to reboot right before a new game starts. This means that if you're the first person to play the robot after a new compile, it'll probably disappear and the game request will be canceled. Unless something goes horribly wrong, I should reappear with a new game offer in a few seconds. If it fails to reappear within a minute or two it means that something has gone horribly wrong and it won't be fixed until I notice its mangled corpse lying on my desk. Also, because it contains the latest patches from the CVS repository, there is the potential that the robot might be suddenly unstable or weak on occasion.

It does misbehave in a few peculiar ways currently... If the robot recieved a free-placement handicap and the game is adjourned, sometimes it won't be able to resume the game. Also, it can sometimes take a very, very long time to mark dead stones (particuarly if there are a lot of dead groups or big dead dragons). Sometimes restarting the robot fixes that. Leave a KGS message for me if the robot seems to crash or do anything else weird, or even if it makes any particularly terrible moves (they can be turned into test cases that might be used to improve future versions of GNU Go).


Blog...

2004-04-20

Finally 9 kyu. Took about the same amount of time as the last several promotions, but felt harder this time. Seems like I've been playing really poorly and lost some games that were just sloppyness. Most of the games I've won have been pretty sloppy too. Either way, my avatar is quite out of date - I'm going to go for a big redesign this time to celebrate my single digit status.

Hopefully now that games are getting harder with my rank catching up, I'll also start playing more disciplined. I think if I can stay focused and careful throughout a game and not get sloppy, impatient or too bloodthirsty, I'll be playing at a 6-7 kyu level soon.

2004-04-10

I've made 10 kyu officially now... I only have 13 days to make 9k, which should be easy. A strong player suggested that if I make 9k in 13 days, I should have loftier goals than 3k by Christmas. So, now the goal is Shodan by New Year's Day, 2005. It seems like a stretch, but not an inhuman task.

2004-04-03

Hmm, I've got a strange problem. I'm clearly way underranked (I've been playing about the strength of 8k, but I'm only ranked at 11k). There's a 5k I play on occasion who would beat me with 6 stones only a few weeks ago, who I clobbered taking four stones recently - probably 2-3 is about right. I've played a couple good games against a 2d taking 9 stones (lost one by 10.5 and won one by 15.5).

I can't improve my rank fast enough - players near my actual strength won't play ranked games against me in an even game. I'm getting really sloppy because all my ranked games (either even against a person of 10-11k, or 8-9k with a handicap) are too easy - I'm winning them all even if I don't play my best. I guess the solution is to just keep playing until my rank catches up. Unfortunately, I think playing easy games is going to hurt my progress.

Also, I find it odd that I am clearly not stuck at the common 11k plateau, but was stuck at a plateau around 14k. It took me two and a half months to advance from 15 to 13k, and now I'm blowing though ranks faster than the ranking system can keep up. I can't identify anything that's caused my rapid improvement, but I'll just enjoy the ride - I don't think I'll be able to get used to losing again.

Neil: Hope you don't mind this question being put on here! What rating system are you using as your "rank" here? If it's KGS, then you're probably stuck with having an inaccurate rating until one of two things happens: 1. You get a new account or 2. Mr. Shubert modifies the rating algorithm to age games more quickly when the games are played at a lower rating.
My advice would be not to worry about your rating unless it really causes a problem. Of course, I would say that because I'm stuck with a rating a bit too high due to an involuntary break from the game and KGS's rating inflation.

Fwiffo: Wow, somebody's reading my page! Cool! Yes, it is KGS. Your problem isn't such a bad one - you get more difficult games, which though painful because of the number of losses, are helping you improve much more than easy games. Fortunately, I think my rank will catch up soon - every ranked game I win at the "suggested" handicap jumps my rank 1/4 to 1/3 stone. I doubt my actual strength is improving by near that much (if it is, I guess I don't have anything to complain about.) So, I guess I'll just play more in the hopes that my rank will catch up in a couple weeks. My understanding of the ranking system is that games drop off more quickly if you have a weaker ranking - perhaps they should drop off more quickly if your recent winning percentage is far from 50%?

Neil: The big losses help me only if I don't get frustrated, which is especially a problem when I'm giving a handicap. As for the rating system, I wasn't aware that the change to age weaker games more quickly was made. If it was, then yes, you shouldn't have any problem catching it back up.

2004-03-28

11 kyu already... Gotta rethink my goals. I actually think I'm still underranked because I've been winning all my games against similarly ranked players pretty easily, even when I've played quite sloppily.

2004-03-15

12 kyu on the Ides of March. I played today's game poorly to start, but I was given an opportunity and made a massive kill to win. I've been winning almost all my games against players near my rank, so I think I've been under-ranked for a while - we'll see how things go over the next few weeks. I'm thinking I need to tighten my short term goals - 11 kyu by my birthday is conservative.

2004-03-03

Finally made 13k for real today. Several people tell me I'm more like 8-9k, but I don't buy that. Sure my rank is lagging behind my improvement, but I don't think I could really match a 9k on even terms. On the other hand, I don't think a 9k could give me four stones either.

Made a new avatar to celebrate... I'd like to get a better drawing of Fwiffo - maybe get an upgrade to a Black Spathi Squadron ship - especially if this persue and attack style I've picked up lately continues to serve me well.

I've gotten a bit reckless in my ranked games lately because my rank has been lagging. I've gotten lucky in a couple where I don't think I deserved to win, but pulled the game out of my butt in the end with something lucky (like a huge kill that I got because my opponent missed something.) I need to play stronger people to get my concentration back.


Things to work on

  • Follow up on my NewYearsGoResolutions
  • Play more, chat less
  • Get better at invasion, reduction
  • Experiment, espescially with my opening which is the same almost every single game
  • Do more problems, study my books
  • Read more thoughtfully and thorougly in games and in problems
  • Don't worry about rank - just worry about getting stronger
  • Learn to count, both the size of moves and overall score
  • ??? You tell me...

Specific problems/habits I need to fix

  • I see as simple, clear play that works in a given situation and I look for something more complicated that probably won't work.
  • I often find myself having a bunch of fun chasing, cutting and poking the eyes out of a opponent's weak, baseless group. This is nice, but frequently I lust too strongly for the kill in situations where I need to fix up my own stones instead. I should take profit (sometimes quite large) in thickness or territory more often and stop trying to kill when my position is tenuous. Sometimes I'll even try to "overkill" a group when just strenghtening my own stones or protecting cutting points is enough to solidify the kill.
  • I sometimes get sloppy in yose for whatever reason, then lose the game by only a couple points that I could have gotten easily if I had paid attention.
  • I make plays hoping my opponent won't notice what I'm up to. Very, very, very bad.
  • I look over several possible plays all over the board, consider which one leads to the most favorable sequence, then proceed to play some other move that I haven't examined at all.
  • I bet the game on the big kill. I should be trying to win peaceful games too. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that I've won so many games by killing big recently.
  • Trying to protect my moyo from too many directions at once.
  • Leaving big points too long, or not spotting them (even when they should be obvious), or underestimating their size.
  • I have a very difficult time seeing moves that are required to make ko in situations where it is desirable. I've got lots of problems with ko actually...
  • "Experiments" in games often just turn into sloppy play.
  • Still missing simple, obvious plays and playing inconsistantly. So many of my mistakes are simple carelessness or lazyness more than any lack of skill.

Things I think I might actually be good at (for my rank)

  • Harrasing weak groups and poking out their eyes (on the flip side - if my opponent doesn't make any weak groups for me to attack, I have difficulty proceeding)
  • Reading ladders - this is something that has improved recently without even thinking about it. In several games I've correctly read a difficult ladder, or a ladder my opponent misread (even a substantially stronger opponent), and in a few games I've watched recently I correctly read a ladder that one or both of the players (stronger than me) than in the game misread.

Recent milestones

  • 17 kyu, 2003-12-11
  • 16 kyu, 2003-12-14
  • 15 kyu, 2003-12-20
  • 14 kyu, 2004-01-28
  • 13 kyu, 2004-03-03 (a couple days later than my goal)
  • 12 kyu, 2004-03-15 (much faster than my goal)
  • 11 kyu, 2004-03-28 (had to set more aggressive goals as a result.)
  • 10 kyu, 2004-04-08 (again had to set more aggressive goals)
  • 9 kyu, 2004-04-20 (beat goal by three days)

Go goals

  • Make 8 kyu by May 15
  • Make 7 kyu by June 10
  • Make Shodan by New Years Day, 2005 (Bold!)

Conway's game of life meets Go

I'm going to start putting together some problems/positions based on Conway's game of Life.

[Diagram]
Death of a Glider

White decides that the ko threat at B1 is big enough to respond to.


[Diagram]
Death of a Glider (2)

Black is unable to make a living shape. If B3 is played at W4 instead, then White plays the vital point at B3. B3 at a also fails.


[Diagram]
Spaceships


This is a copy of the living page "Fwiffo" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.