Fwiffo

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

Table of contents Table of diagrams
Death of a Glider
Death of a Glider (2)
Spaceships

About Me...

http://www.phong.org/pix/kgs_norank-alignright.png ARRRGG!! Away for too long. Must get started again...

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. Just as I was really making major progress, I inexplicably disappeared for six months only to appear again in December of 2004. My game is completely destroyed, but perhaps I'll stick to it the next time I start to show improvement.

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.


Subpages


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, bad habits

  • 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 inconsistently. So many of my mistakes are simple carelessness or lazyness more than any lack of skill.

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)
  • Regrettably, on Hiatus from 2004-05 through 2004-12-08

Go goals

  • Getting back to where I was will take months...
  • Make 15 kyu by Chistmas 2004
  • Make 9 kyu by April 1, 2005
  • Make Shodan by New Year's, 2006 (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) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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