spindizzy 1976
Hello. I'm spindizzy1976. Actually, I would have preferred to be just "spindizzy" but the name was already taken. I have a nasty feeling I might have registered it myself a long time ago, then forgotten all about it.
I like pretty much all board and card games. Some of my favourites are Chess (and its many variants), Backgammon, Othello, Mahjong and of course Go. I'm not terribly good at any of them (yet).
IGS keeps disconnecting me for some reason, so I mostly play on Wing, where I am 11k. I started about two years ago, so I guess my progress has been rather leisurely.
Is it just me, or am I substantially lower level than anyone else on this wiki? ;) Anyway, maybe I can play a valuable role by asking novice questions.
Some concepts I want to understand better.
I think most of these are fairly basic. At the moment, my games have too many gross mistakes for me worry about the finer details.
Global strategy.
I enjoy reading out sequences and playing semeai (local strategy). However, many of the semeai I get into result from inappropriate or unnecessary invasions (when a reduction would be better). I also start unnecessary fights by chasing too hard, or just a failure to play urgent moves.
I like games which follow a peaceful, territorial playing style. However, most of my own are decided by a kill (for me or the opponent). I hope that as my level improves, there will be less need for violence.
Counting and not trying to win more than I need.
Sometimes I can't be bothered to count, especially if it's going to take more than a minute. This is a good example of recidivist stupidity. By the end of the game, I'll have paid for my laziness two or three times over.
When I do count then I mostly count in pairs ignoring the dead stones. Then I'll go back and count the dead stones. This seems to be easiest for me.
I'd like to remember the size of each group on the board individually. However, I always seem to forget the size of the first group after I start counting the second. Is my memory really so poor? Would it be cheating to write it down? :)
What I'm doing recently...
I went up to 10k for a short time, and now my rank seems to be in freefall... Down to 12k and still losing every game I play! Sometimes I try to play territorially, and end up with fewer points at the end. Other times I try to be more aggressive and make invasions, but I keep getting killed! I don't know what I was doing right before that I'm now doing so wrong. :(