Jasonred

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Yo, I just started off playing Go really recently, in mid-October 2002. In other words, my experience in Go is virtually Nada!

My achievements(?) so far are:

I have decided I like 19x19 much better than 9x9, as the groups keep more or less separate for a while... More bad news, got a lot of criticism today on Sensei's Library, for blasting off my mouth when I don't know much. Well, I warned that I talked too much... As for LEARNING progress, I'm a LITTLE quicker on life and death... on (yes that again) IGoWin I can tell when I can kill a group of stones with nakade sometimes (only sometimes? boo... especially against IGoWin...) and I am learning to keep my stones alive... sometimes! I've learnt to recognise a few basic patterns during infighting. I used to get hit by this pattern all the time when I was starting out:


[Diagram]

I call it the "Triangle"

And then I don't notice the circled point and go try for a or something, sheesh!


I used to know what a ladder WAS. And how to read the results of the ladder (once it was already too late...) Now I can actually set up Pre-emptive ladder positions as defense against cuts... much better. I've learnt to sometimes switch to the hanging defence against cuts instead of just filling the cutting space... heck, I didn't use to know about hanging defence. Or whatever it's actually called. I am getting a better feel of when to tenuki, and when not to tenuki. The proverb "urgent moves before big moves" is dangerous to newbies, EVERYTHING is an urgent move to us. Especially on a 9x9...

27th December: I am actually understanding how to count points and territory made by plays mid-game. Cool! Play the biggest move actually makes sense to me now! I can manage invasions a little, I've learnt how to build moyo, and break into weak ones, and the difference between corners, sides and middle. Evidently, you DO learn a lot more playing on larger than 9x9 boards... I played some 9x9 again, and couldn't figure how to apply my new found knowledge to it much though, sigh... I prefer playing stronger players with the handicap favouring me than weaker players on with a reverse handicap though, which probably shows that I don't know much about advanced fuseki in such situations.

Early January 2003 : Been playing Hikaru no Go 2 for GBA, I could add a proverb, play too much of this and lose 2 stones strength... it's so weak that you learn really bad habits, like playing big points before urgent points, relying on trick plays, etc. And weak players will do it over and over, especially in stone get mode, where you're trying to overcome like 9 stone handicaps on a 13x13...

26 March 2003 : Despite practically quitting go, barely playing any games, have somehow assimilated past knowledge enough to beat IGoWin in an even game... 56 moku victory! Though this risk taking attitude probably isn't the key to winning proper games... and I still stink at counting territory mid-game. Bleh. At least I've learnt something about keeping groups connected, stopping opponent from connecting, and my life and death and capturing races have improved. The last two thanks to goproblems.com, very helpful!

Despite my lack of skill, I find that I talk a LOT, so expect to see me pop up often on Sensei's Library!



This is a copy of the living page "Jasonred" at Sensei's Library.
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