Tamsin
恵・ジョーンズ
Hihi, I'm Tamsin Jones. I live in Chester in North West England. I'm a musician and a teacher. My musical compositions are published by Chichester Music Press ( http://www.chichestermusicpress.co.uk).
A picture of me
Fun things
I like cats very much and my hobbies include reading and wine. I live in a very old house (it was built sometime in the 18th century) with my two puss cats, Dusty (girl) and Zhin Zha (boy).
Go thoughts
I took part in the Cheshire Open at the weekend (10 February). I was in the top group, but the lowest-rated player there. As expected, it was hard work for me: I lost all three games, although in the first two it was close (the second one was a loss by 1.5), so I felt satisfied that I was not outclassed. It helped me over a psychological hurdle: it was the first time I scored a duck in a tournament, yet I still really enjoyed myself. Next time, I won't worry about the possibility of laying an "egg", because I know it's still possible to have a great time. What I liked best, apart from playing two very tough games (I played badly and deservedly had my butt kicked in the third), was meeting up with other go enthusiasts and enjoying the atmosphere. It was especially good to see a couple of old friends for the first time in a while.
The other thing I took away with me was a far better idea of the ways in which I need to work at my game in order to get better. Face-to-face games tend to be much more memorable than internet encounters, and so they are a better learning ground. So, rather than being despondent about my poor showing, I feel energised and keen to try hard to get better.
I have realised that over the last five years my progress has been fairly slow: I am about 2 stones better than I was in 2002. I got this mainly through doing a lot of tsumego. But I've done very little else, although I've started taking lessons with Alexandre Dinerchtein recently.
And you know what? Is there anybody who cannot benefit from studying? Have you met many good players who have not studied much? If many people are honest with themselves, the reason they get stuck at a particular level is because they stop working at it. Flipping through the latest book casually is not studying. Memorising pro games and joseki from time to time is worse than not studying, in my opinion. If there are still crucial areas such as joseki and haengma and yose, and even non-game-specific issues such as attitude, that you don't know very much about, then the odds are that there is rich potential for you to improve...by studying them.
Tammy's Thoughts on Improvement
I have nothing much to do for the next six months, until I begin my new job. Therefore, I have set myself two goals:
1) Become conversational/fluent in Japanese. 2) Improve my go by 3 or 4 stones.
To accomplish goal 1 I am using many methods, including grammar books, vocabulary lists, songs and movies and books in Japanese, and best of all socialising with my Japanese friends.
To accomplish goal 2 I am now studying a lot. I managed to improve by 2 stones in the last five years even though I did no study apart from drilling tsumego (the forcefeeding technique) and flipping through go books (usually in the bath). Through taking lessons with Alexandre Dinerchtein it has become searingly obvious that to become a strong player the key is to study: knowledge and understanding are power, and anybody can get them...IF THEY WORK AT IT. In contrast, trying to improve by playing daily and casually skimming books is like trying to learn Japanese by watching anime and buying textbooks and flipping through them without doing the exercises or making notes.
Even in the short time I've been at goal 2 I've noticed changes: seven consecutive wins at time of writing (something like 10 out of 12 games overall), usually by getting crushing positions from the opening (who said studying joseki makes you weaker??). I know I can improve: what I need to do now is put in the work to deserve it. I want to come up to world of the high dans (to use slightly Hikaruvian language).
In addition, I don't think I'm being entirely selfish devoting so much effort to go. As, all being well, my new job involves emigrating to a certain land in the Far East, I would think that obtaining high-level go skill would prove handy for making friends and integrating better into society.
Now I have found a fantastic study resource: www.361points.com by Sorin Gherman. His lessons are full of 'nuggets', such as a little-known and VERY LARGE endgame tesuji. Easy improvement!
12 March 2007
Perseverance pays off: if you keep on trying, things start to come together. Last night as I was studying, I noticed that what were novel ideas to me a month ago were now a "matter of course".
I'm adding many patterns and techniques to my repertoire, but I would like to comment on principles for now. By studying joseki, pro games and other resources I feel I have attained a greater appreciation of several fundamentals:
- Multipurpose moves. Even from a beginner I knew that playing multipurpose moves was important. However, it seems that understanding this is more difficult. It's all very well saying "right, I'm going to play multipurpose moves from now on", but it's actually easier said than done. You have to get into the habit of finding them! This is where study helps: it trains you to find moves that threaten one thing while threatening another. For instance, you extend in one direction, while threatening to revive a dead stone in another. Or you can lean on the opponent to gather strength, so that you either get two moves in a row in that area or you can use your gathered strength to attack strongly in another direction.
Many pincer josekis teach you how to do this: there's a technique I like to call the "rap 'n' trap". Instead of responding directly to a threat, you rap an enemy stone on the head. If the opponent answers, you now have enough strength to fight back against the original threat. If the opponent executes the initial threat, then you proceed to play again against the "rapped" stone (this part is the "trap").
- Active defence is the hallmark of the strong player. Passive play is the mark of a kyu player. At or around the dan levels, you simply cannot afford to play one-dimensional moves. If your move is only defending or only attacking, then it's almost certainly not good enough.
However, there are many times when it is urgent to defend a weakness. Leaving the weakness alone to take a big point is like taking out a loan: you're going to have to pay it back, and probably with a lot of interest. The key is to defend actively: don't just patch up the weakness, but look for a move that adds to your territory or increases your influence, or supports a later adventure behind enemy lines.
- Getting a base is urgent. It is not good enough to say to yourself "it's okay to leave that stone alone because it can still run away". Running away means playing on dame points, and that's unbearable. Making a base earns some territory. Of course, you have to judge whether the stone is light enough to sacrifice before you build a base.
- Possibly controversial but... The purpose of a probe is not to make aji but to reduce it. If you think about it, everytime you play in an area you are reducing the possibilities there. Therefore a probe cannot increase aji. What it does do is force the opponent to simply the position a little bit. This helps you to choose a suitable plan to follow with. Therefore, the way I see it, playing a probe is not about making more chances, but rather about reducing them to readable proportions, so that you can make an intelligent decision.
- If there's nothing urgent to be done, play a big point. You don't have to be "busy" all the time: strong players love to take easy points when they can get them.
- Keep an eagle eye on weak points. Don't think only in terms of capturing something; sometimes it's possible to make a lot of profit by exploiting an opponent's weaknesses. In particular, I'm thinking of an example of Takao?'s new book, which occurs in one of the sample pages. I've seen the same idea elsewhere recently, too - i.e., you get a big profit by striking at a weak point. This is related to the thinking test mentioned below: sometimes the "ordinary move" is simply not enough: more can be had by taking advantage of the individual features of the position.
Other things that I am starting to pay attention to:
1) Positional Judgement. I'm guilty of playing too much by intuition. From now on I need to get into the habit of estimating the score when it's time to make a strategic decision. Taiji provided a useful bit of advice here: the easy way to count is to count in twos, but not "2, 4, 6, 8" etc., but rather to count the pairs. It's simple and fast, and all you have to do is double the count once you've finished (19 pairs equals 38 points). Add 3 to White's score to account roughly for komi.
2) Apply the "thinking test". This is an idea from Sorin Gherman's site. Always read through a line of play before you play it, and see if the result is what you want. Don't simply play out a joseki or other easy sequence because you know it or because it's forcing the opponent! Always play with a plan.
A bad habit of mine is making a declaration of victory. I need to seek ways of maintaining interest in a winning position, instead of trying to induce resignation by this means.
KarlKnechtel: If there are still crucial areas such as joseki and haengma and yose, and even non-game-specific issues such as attitude, that you don't know very much about, then the odds are that there is rich potential for you to improve...by studying them.
This is interesting. How might one "study attitude"? (This is a serious question; if there indeed is a good way then I would expect to find it helpful.)
Tamsin: Hi Karl, thanks for your comment. By attitude, I mean the way you play, your at-game demeanour. Are you calm? Do you concentrate? Do you walk around? Think about every move? Do you find yourself thinking disrespectful thoughts about the opponent?
I have been guilty of many sins. From now on, I intend to play the game with a good attitude. For me, this means concentrating hard, not getting up every three minutes to make cups of delicious Earl Grey tea, not hoping for my opponent to make silly mistakes. It means consciously taking the time to think about every move, instead of merely responding. It means getting a grip of myself so that I can give the opponent the hard and exciting contest that he or she deserves.
I find it can do wonders for my concentration if I spend a few minutes choosing my first few moves, even if they are obvious or forced. It gets me into "the zone" for making good decisions later. In contrast, when I have played speed go or rushed my moves, I have played shockingly badly, even for a UK 1st kyu.
So, by studying attitude, I mean indentifying all the bad habits of thinking and correcting them, and I mean taking positive steps to play the game with a better frame of mind.
As Isumi from Hikaru no Go realised while in China, controlling your emotions "is a skill you can master". For him, it was the breakthrough he needed.
WillerZ: I find that I play better if I think of the game as a contest between Black and White, and find the move which Black should play. If I ask myself "What is the best move for Black?" rather than "What is the best move for me?" it is easier to stay emotionally detached.
TeeSushi: I think playing daily games is still the most important part of improving. even if you learn all the josekis that are existing you never would know how to use them if you use them often in games.
Flower: Hiya, remember me talking about the Laphroaig bottle pn KGS? What do you think of this crop of the pic. It is slightly sharpened and resized so that it it is not as obvious that you are out of focus as well as that the pic is easier to digest (not as huuuge) when one visits this page. Oh btw, if you like this edit it might be best if you host it yourself as I abused a friends serverspace for this. Tamsin: thanks! have changed it.
Bill: Hi, Tamsin. If you do not mind a comment, you are right that a probe reduces the possibilities of a position, but when people talk about a probe creating aji that's not really what they are talking about (or what they should be talking about). First, very often after a probe sequence the play moves elsewhere, leaving aji behind. In such a case it is this specific aji that is created. Second, there is the question of timing. The possibilities of a position may be reduced otherwise, making a later probe ineffective. The probe, then, may create aji that might otherwise not be there. For instance, a player may respond to a corner probe on the outside, leaving the aji of life or ko in the corner, and later play elsewhere may leave that aji unaffected, whereas if the probe were made after that play, the player would protect the corner.
Tamsin: I don't mind at all. From now on, I'm on a mission to get stronger, and if you want to share your wisdom with me, I'm more than happy to listen! I suppose it's a similar situation to kikashi: there are times when you need to "strike while the iron is hot" and play the probe, play the forcing move, etc., before the opponent has the chance to prevent it.
This chimes with something else I've been thinking about: aji. In the past, I've trained myself to resist the temptation to use up aji too soon...but, I think I overcompensated. It's quite possible to be so reluctant to waste aji that you end up not using it at all! Therefore, the right time to use aji is when it's the right time. If you keep an eagle eye on weaknesses, then you can spot opportunities to use them for big gains when they come.
Yesterday, I found myself in a position where I had to deal with a large framework quickly. If I had stuck to simple reducing moves it would have meant allowing 60 points of secure territory. I would have had a larger framework myself, but it was too loose to count on. So, the only option was to destroy the enemy framework. Remembering a pro game I looked at earlier in the day, I saw the one weakness (a cutting point). I peeped at it (normally I hate doing this, because I fear making a raw peep). The opponent resisted, but that peep gave me a foothold to go in deeper. The invasion worked out very well.
This is what studying does for you: it sharpens your mind. It's not enough to say "oh, that's just aji for later". If you keep studying it, you may just find that it's aji for NOW!
Bill: Good point about the time to use aji. :-) BTW, two of the best players of the last century, Sakata and Takagawa, were poles apart on the question of when to play kikashi. Takagawa waited, while Sakata played it early. One nice thing for studying this is the fact that they played several games against each other.
Not to make too much of it, but your phrase, simple reducing moves, tickles my antenna. Recently I have begun to appreciate the power and depth of reducing moves. (And I was already more likely to play them than most amateurs.) Remember, the most famous move in go history, the ear-reddening play, was in part a reducing move.