Mr Shin/ Go Blog

Sub-page of MrShin

MrShin's Go Blog

Hello and welcome to my Go Blog.

Tue Feb 21

Had a rather large rank drop (in the good way). Went from 15 kyu to about 9 kyu. Not exactly sure how I did it, but I am quite happy with it. I think the main reasons for my increase was improved reading, improved understanding of attack and defense, and joseki "clicking in."

When I got back from my break, I didn't start playing games right away. I mostly did tsumego mainly from Tesuji. I would always(and still do) do GoBase's daily problem. I also used GoGrinder to go over the 30 "warmup problems" from GoBase, to keep my mind sharp. I'm not sure when, but I noticed after correctly solving the daily problem that it was supposed to be a more difficult problem (4 diamond). I also realized that I got it very quickly and easily. It's a good feeling to realize that one's reading has improved. So if you're finding that you're having trouble reading, keep at that tsumego! You'll improve.

I also started replaying pro games again, but not focusing on Takemiya, but Cho Hunhyun, Otake Hideo, Yoo ChangHyuk?, and Kobayashi Koichi. I think looking at other players is good, because you can see multiple playing styles and techniques. I didn't like how I seemed stuck on making center moyos. Replaying the more recent games instead of having all of a player's game and playing them from the oldest to most recent made it feel less of a chore.

I think the pro games and rereading Attack and Defense really helped my middlegame. I find myself much better at attacking and harassing groups. Being able to use my influence was a big help. I think I learned to stop trying to use thickness for territory helped quite a bit. ^_^ I still sometimes find myself at a loss sometimes, but I see the improvement.

As for joseki... I'm not really sure what happened there. I think using Kogo's Joseki Dictionary to explore joseki that tripped me up and anything I found interesting helped out a lot. Reading The Direction of Play seemed to help. Maybe my thinking changed, because I began to think of which joseki to use based on board position and punishing playing out of joseki. I quite often still find myself at a loss sometimes, but I tend to play moves with purpose and hope for the best. Besides, I'll just open up Kogo's after the game. XD

Reviewing my own games helped quite a bit too. I might not notice something a stronger player might, but I seem to do well being hands-on with my games.

This is rather long, but I hope that anyone having trouble with improving could find this of some use. I'd like to think of this as proof that if you keep trying, you're bound to improve. Plus, RELAX. You'll improve. Give it time.

On a side note, I read Step Up to a Higher Level. I find it a good problem book. Yes, people say many of the problems are too easy, and yes, they are. But those problems are things that you SHOULD know. I got 126 out of 144 right, which according to the book, places me at 6 kyu. I'm quite happy with the result, but more importantly, I know my weak points. I'm hoping to reread this mulitple times and aim for a perfect score. ^_^

Fri Nov 17

No, I'm not dead. I took a break from go; I needed it. New g/f, new view on go, etc. I've decided to be a little more casual with it. I don't study, but every once in awhile I'll do tsumego. I hope to start replaying pro games again. Slowly getting back into playing online. The big thing was that I was focusing on improving fast. Well, it doesn't work. :-p One of the reasons I needed a break. I've decided that it doesn't matter what rank I am, but that I still enjoy go. Oh, I am no longer president of the SNEGA (thank god), but I kinda resigned a la Office Space. I have no time for the group, but I hope to go back in Jan.

Thurs Sept 25

WOW, I haven't put anything here in awhile. Let's see, I've stabilized my rank, though the MrShin account is totally messed up. It looks like I'm almost 7 kyu. WTF? Oh well. It started when I decided to dust off the account (at the time 14k?) and played a 16kyu with two stones. I jumped to 10k?, and it keeps going up. Haha, I should play a 10kyu, gets beat, then hopefully go back to normal. Though... It'd be nice to get beat up by people in the 6-12kyu range in free games. I'll have to see about that. my girlfriend is 15kyu and she's doing well. I don't think she'll be 15 kyu for long :-P

Let's see... RIGO is now SNEGA (Southern New England Go Association) We're official AGA, but I'm still not an AGA member. :-( We have 8 members; they're mostly beginners, but I don't mind. I'm fighting to rank up with malweth, who's AGA 3 kyu/ 7-8kyu KGS. Though last night I beat him with 5 stones and he thinks I might need less! Neat! Though we'll start with 4. :-P

I'm playing pro games pretty regularly, about 1-3 games a day, though it's more like 1-2, since I'm trying to replay the games after I finish them. I get 30-50 moves with only about 1-4 mistakes (obviously the further into the game i play back, the more likely I am to forget :-P). I'm pretty happy with my progress, though it's not seen via my rank (phrea's now 15 kyu, not bad though), but I feel it when I play. I'm sort of studying joseki, but more of familiarize and attempt to understand it, then just memorizing it. I think the pro games is helping with that.

All and all, things are good.

Tue May 3

I think I really have gotten weaker. Not a big deal though, since I just need to play again. This end of the semester crap has killed what little playing time I have. I hope I can get back to at least where I was by next month. :-D

Thurs April 28

My rank is plummeting. I know why, though, so I'm not worried. What surprises me is that how fast it's dropping. I'm almost done with school, so that means all my projects are due and finals are coming up. Ugh. I'm so worried about them that I can't even play a game with 15 minutes. It's too long right now; I seem to only want to play blitz. Of course that's gonna negatively affect my rank. I'm resigning games very quickly, mostly out of boredom. I can't stand my opponents taking so long to play, even though they aren't taking long at all. It's all just very interesting. I know my strength, but it's amazing how outside influences affect your play. Though I have hope, I seem to play games in real-life somewhat normally. I think what's happening is that I'm getting bored with online play. Which does make sense; using a program is like playing a computer and you expect immediate responses from a computer. Oh well. Once school's over I'll be back to normal. Tomorrow's going to be the first official meeting of the RI Go Organization! We have 4 dedicated members, so this is going to be fun. Hopefully, with the day off I'll be able to actually relax and get ready for the meeting. I want to show malweth my full strength, even though I'll get crushed. :-p I'm just glad I know what's going on with my go. It's scary to be playing badly and not know why. It leads to confusion and concern, which hurts your play even more. So if things aren't working out well, relax and try to look at the situation from another point of view. I'm in a slump, but I know why and how to fix it. Now I just have to finish all my projects and take my exams... :-D

Mon April 18

Wow, it's been awhile. I broke to 15 kyu. However, I think I can still go a little further. I'm beating solid 15 kyus by a lot, but they keep resigning, so I may have a stone or two(wishful thinking) more to go. Monica's having a losing streak. :-( She's dropped to 18kyu, but I think it will be very temporary(once she gets her confidence back, her tempo will pick back up). I think she has two main problems: seriousness and study. Both seem interrelated for her. I mention this because I see it happen a lot with a lot of people. If you want to get stronger, you have to play seriously. That is not to say go has to become your entire life, but you have to play each game as strongly as you can. However, I enjoy playing casually, so dont worry if you play a couple of stones weaker sometimes. In order to do better when you play seriously, studying is important. You don't even really have to do go problems all the time, but when you have the chance, do a couple problems. The more you study, the better you will do. One very important note: DON'T BURN YOURSELF OUT! If you find yourself getting frustrated, take a break. Go should be difficult, but fun. I personally love doing go problems. Though sometimes I'll have my nose buried in Tesuji for a good long while and find that my brain hurts and I can't read anymore. So I take a break for at least a couple hours. And you know what? I'm really starting to improve. Big thing, relax and enjoy yourselves!

Malweth: Congrats on 15k! Keep up with the Tsumego - especially easy problems :) Maybe easy problems are best because burn-out is less likely!

Tue April 4

Wow I'm slacking on writing. Nothing huge has been happening. Still 16 kyu, but I think thats because I'm mostly training on fighting. I should see how I do in normal games. Great wall's been iffy, if the opponent doesn't stop it. Depending on how strong the person is at fighting, I either crush or get crushed. :-p Lost to a 12 kyu by 8.5 in a fighting game. But there wasn't much fighting... Intimidated by the great wall? Maybe, maybe not. Oh well. I'm trying to play high handicap games with weaker player. But I don't think I'm doing high enough. I'm only doing a stone or two more and I'm not always getting crushed. Maybe I'm not the only one weak at fighting. ^_^ I believe I know where my weakness at fighting came from. Being the Recent Changes Junkie I am, I somehow(eventually) came to a page about how beginners shouldn't play on 19x19 boards. Oops, I've been playing on 19x19 since 35kyu. :-p Apparantly, it makes you pretty good at whole board views, but terrible at life and death, fighting, etc. ... Yea, I see that. My problems are probably because of that, plus too over-focusing on fuseki early in my studies (early meaning 20-22kyu). Oh well, I'll get over it soon. Aitkensam still thinks I'm stronger than 16kyu. Let's hope. But I hope it won't affect the tourney pairings!!! o_0

Malweth: It's really just a matter of opinion which board size you start with and what aspects of go you learn first. Going back to play 9x9 is good at any level (improves fighting). I believe that up until 15-12k there are certain things that all players must learn and the order in which they're learned doesn't really matter. - Fuseki IS important ;)

MrShin: Oh, I know fuseki is important, but I think I focused a little TOO much, if that's possible. I mostly need to balance my opening with my fighting. Gonna play a bunch of 9x9 for a bit.

ZeroKun: A 7d, which should have been my teacher, but he backed out on me and my friend, once said that you should play your own Go, play what you like. While my fuseki isn't great, it doesn't suck. Don't use joseki that you don't know, don't follow books for now, play what you think is good, even if it isn't, this should help you learn. If you want to fight you can, but you don't need to. Fuseki becomes easier once you understand things like invasion points, weaknesses, thickness, direction of play, and influence, fuseki isn't easy and I'm about 10 stones stonger than you. For now it's best to study on tesuji and life and death.

MrShin: Yea, you're right. But I also think that avoiding fighting was holding me back. This last week or so has somewhat forced me to fight, which I think has helped a lot. I normally avoid fighting as much as possible, which caused me to be timid. But now, I yearn the fight, because I know it will make me stronger. As for joseki, I play what I think works, and it generally works well. :-p Not to say I'm awesome at joseki, but that I'm comfortable with it. I have to say, I LOVE fuseki; I find it facinating. There's so much to it, while I find L&E and Tesuji less interesting; very cut and dry, while fuseki seems so vast. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to study L&E and tesuji real hard(I keep both books on me at all times), but my reading seems very weak. I can only read about 4-6 moves ahead and I usually don't read all the variations. Does that improve over time? Well, I'm sure it does, but I hope you know what I mean. :-p

  • Note: At preview time, this looks like a babble-o-rama o_0

ZeroKun: I know the babbble feeling, I had the same when I commented :). Don't worry much about your reading, mine is pretty bad too, atleast in my opinion. Most of the time I rely on shape knowledge not reading, since you won't need to read what you already know.

Malweth: The more reading practice you do, the better you'll be able to read. In my game I started the basics of reading ability around 10k (after reading Davies' Tesuji at 12k).

Before around 12k basic shapes are important, and by basic shapes I mean basic L+D shapes and VERY basic tesuji shapes (connect after peep, nobi, ikken nobi?, keima). More advanced shapes (table shape, etc) don't really need to be understood yet. Essentially everything you can find in Kageyama's Fundamentals of Go, L1+2 of the Korean Baduk Assoc problems on gobase.org, and Graded Go Problems for beginners Vol 1-2.

Reading is important, but not necessarily for now. IMHO, a concentration on fuseki first and tesuji/L+D later (increasing between 12-7k) is ideal for learning the game. After 8k, the game becomes more and more about reading ability. Reading is in Joseki, Fuseki, mid-game fighting, endgame, ... the whole game involves (differing types of) reading ability.

Sat April 2

First match today. We won!!! It was against a 15kyu and a 13 kyu. It was a tough match but we made it through. Gotta keep working hard for next week's match. Have to be careful and not underestimate anyone. If you wanna see the match, I believe that it's on RengoAdmin?'s info. Or you can email me and I'll send it to you. Wish us luck for next week! We'll be working hard to train.

Thurs March 31

OK, I know know what my problem is. I'm weak at fighting. After a teaching game with a 9 kyu, he said that I was very strong with my opening( he said about 13 kyu), but very weak with fighting(I' d say 18-19 kyu). It's kinda funny, since the strong opening and weak fighting average to about 16 kyu. :-p Anyways, so it was suggested by aitkensam(the 9kyu who played the teaching game with me) that I set up a fighting account and be very aggressive until I get strong at fighting. It's an excellent idea; if I stick to openings such as great wall, I have to fight gruesome battles, which in turn will make me a better fighter. (BTW, great wall either works really well, or really badly. Guess it depends on how well I can fight off my opponent :-p) So at least for a little while on KGS, MrShin is a fighting account. It is pretty amusing to think about how much my rank is gonna drop, but rank isn't important. I need to fight more; I usually back away from fights normally. On another note, Monica and I are in the upcoming Rengo Tourney, and our first match is this Saturday at 1 pm at the Rengo Room on KGS. Wish us luck; we're at the top of our division, battling 20-14 kyus). I know we'll try our best! ^_^ Oh yea, I joined the Sabaki Go Club too; I'm a member of Honinbo House.

IlyaM: You can try playing more high handicap games as white. It is a quite good exercise for tactical skills.

MrShin: Ooooh, never thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion!

Mon March 28

Wow, I haven't put anything in here in almost a week. Not too much go lately. Monica has now offically beat me three times in a row. Wow. I'm glad she did, though, because now I view her as my equal. This is a very good thing for me, because now when I play her I'm not as sloppy as I know I can be when I play her. In the past, when I had a large lead, I wouldn't play carefully and as a result, she would capture a lot of my weak groups. Now I'm being careful, protecting my weak shapes and working on building more solid moyo. I won the last two games we played, but the last game doesn't count, because her cousin was distracting the hell out of us. Today I played a 15 kyu with a one stone handicap and lost by only 1.5. Which isn't that much of a big deal, except I was horribly behind. I managed to come back from about a 50 house loss. The white player acknowledged me, saying I was very good. ^_^ I will make my goal of 15 kyu by the end of April. I can't "think" I'll make it, I will. On another note, I got my game with Tam back from the Go Teaching Ladder, so I will post that soon. More to come as the day goes on.

Tue March 22

Let's see... Played a bunch of games today(six, that must be a record for me, I play on KGS so little). Got my ass kicked by Monica. Lost by 10.5, egh. She killed one of my groups and grabbed my advantage away from me. I forgot to enforce and she grabbed the vital point on me. Arg, I got to watch out and not slack off, cause she'll grab any weakness. She's been playing more lately, and she's coming up fast. Anyways, did well on the phrea account, still 16 kyu though. Tried a game with the ol' MrShin account against a 14 kyu. He played what Dave would call "Play Sanreisei and pray it works." I was doing well until i screwed up an invasion and got crushed. I think I emotionally lost it after that and couldn't defend against an invasion. I resigned. Oh well, not ready for 14 kyu yet. Not really surprising. My last game was a teaching game and I think it went really well. I went easy on the guy and tried to be helpful. I usually have a problem of being too hard when I play teaching games; I usually crush the person I'm teaching. I talked a lot to him while we played. He actually used to play but stopped for a year. His screen name is Rhone(23k). He's a nice guy.

Mon March 21

Wow, no entries in awhile. Not much go during the weekend. Played Brian with 13 stones and totally crushed. ... I wish he'd play more; it stinks seeing him fall so behind us. Played Monica yesterday and won by resignation. She's a solid 17 kyu on KGS now! The game was intense; we were both trying new techniques and it was great. She made a couple of mistakes, though. She lost a dragon because I had sente, but then got distracted by the radio and lost another! Oh well, the game was great until those large losses. Today I played a few games on KGS and got my phrea account up to a solid 16 kyu, so I'm happy. Played an intense game with a 17kyu. He was very aggressive and I was behind for a bit, then made a solid comeback in early endgame. Then I made a couple mistakes and lost my lead. I managed to win by .5 house. It was a great game. Turnes out that this guy was a solid 15 kyu for a bit, so that gives me hope that I'll break past the 15-16 kyu barrier in front of me. I just need to play more. Played Monica and won by 18.5 . It's funny though, because after I played her with my MrShin account and won by 32.5. I gotta say, she's improving and I'm proud of her. Play her and see what I mean.

Thurs March 17

Happy St. Patty's Day! Whoo hoo! I played a solid 14 kyu on KGS today. I lost, but only by 5.5! It wasn't ranked, but I don't care. I think I'm getting better. Considering I technically handicapped myself(komi was only .5), so even it would have been a difference of 11.5, making the difference only a stone, so I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things. I think I might put the game up in my soon to be created "Commented Games" section. Why do a commented games section? Well, I think there needs to be more commented games, especially for 10-20 kyu, since I think there aren't a lot of commented games online focused on that range. Maybe I'm wrong(if I am, point me to where I can find those). Anyways, I think I'll put at least some of the game up.

I plan on playing Brian today, since he wants a game with me. I'm going to use the go record sheets that I found today and see how well they work for me. I can always transfer them to my laptop of further study.

Played Monica before dinner and won by 37.5 I'm feeling more confident in my go. She wouldn't let me record the game though. :-( She was too lax and let me build a huge center moyo. Later that night Monica and I both played Brian. I played Brian and gave him 10 stones. Won by 73.5. Merg. Then played a few quick 13x13 games with Monica. She had been drinking, so I got to watch the effect of alcohol on go. Egh, each game I won by more and more. What was worse was that after she played Brian(sober) in an even game and crushed him into resigning. I felt bad for Brian; he was the guy that showed the two of us go. We surpassed him within a couple of months and he stopped playing since we passed him. It's amazing; he has stayed the same rank over the course of a year, while I improved by 10 stones. Granted, he puts no time or effort into improving, but it's surprising to see. Anyone else have that happen?

Wed March 16

Hurray, today's my birthday! ... Had the ol' wisdom teeth removed yesterday. Feeling a little better, but my game could be better. Tried to play lately, and did very poorly. Granted, I'm being hard on myself, having been violently sick just recently, with worries about the wisdom teeth then the actual removal, so I just need to relax. The phrea account dropped down to 18 kyu the other day after some horrible losses, but I won today and it's back to 17 kyu. I just need to relax and recover. If I worry about rank, I'll never improve. BTW, I have about 130 moves down pretty well, so I'm happy about that. Anyone who does/try to memorize games, is it better to remember the move number as a trigger? I initially did that, but thought that would be bad for some reason, so I am straight memorizing without remembering the move numbers. It makes it a lot harder, but I figure everything isn't about what's easier.

  • Update

Played a couple of games with Monica later today. The first game I won by 53.5 house, but the opening I found rather interesting.

[Diagram]

OK, so here we have the "Let's All Play Hoshi" fuseki, also called "Five Stars" and "Four Stars" by someone on SL(I don't remember who...). Now as for my corner approach on the lower left...

[Diagram]

It went like this. I must admit that 2 was a little odd, but I imagine that it works well with the back tengen stone. I strongly felt that this could be very bad for me(white), black grabbing a large chunk of center. My instinct told me that I had to cut and seperate the stone at 6 from the group at 8.

[Diagram]

At this point, I knew I was in a little trouble. I had to make some breathing room for my dragon, and try to surround the marked black stones. I wanted to make the knight's move at a, but I was nervous about the cut at c. Then I thought about the one point jump at b, but discarded. Trusting my first thought, I (foolishly?) jumped at a.

[Diagram]

Surprisingly, Monica played 2. So responded (with horrible shape) with 3.

[Diagram]

I managed to save my group, barely.

[Diagram]

Here's the end result. Granted, it's not a great result, but it's the result of going with my instinct. In my opinion, I did somewhat put a dent in black's center moyo, but not much. It gave me a chance to build up a wall for the lower right. If I sat idly by, black would have gotten a massive center moyo, and I would have been playing a losing game. But in the end, black kept most of what was left of the center, but I grabbed more of the right. I dunno why I posted this sequence, it just struck me as interesting to me. Please feel free to comment on anything here. What is neat though is that I remember the whole sequence that interested me, which is proof that this memorization is seeming to work.

After that game, we played another, where I won by 7.5. I will say that I'm doing better after being sick and surgery. Monica was crushing me the day before my surgery. Note to anyone having any operation done: don't worry about your play the week of surgery; it WILL be poor, especially if you're nervous, even more so if don't think you're nervous. I didn't think I was nervous until 8am when I was on the table. I'm seeming to get back to normal.

Fri March 11

It's been a real rough few days. Monica got the norovirus that's going around, and I got it from her. No go for the last couple of days, and I think it affected both of games. She lost the majority of her games. I played one game today, against Monica and won, but we both made a lot of mistakes. Jeez, physical health has a major impact on play.

Tue March 8

Well, I got up bright and early and played out the first eighty moves... and got them all! I had to think for a little around moves 70-80, but since they were the last moves I went over, I'm not surprised. I got no problem though. Going for 130-150 today. I decided to crack out the old phrea account and play a game. Played a solid 19 kyu and won by 41.5, so now my rank is a solid 18 kyu after my nasty losing streak I had a few months ago. It was weird, I had totally lost my fighting spirit and confidence in my go. I think i got burned out, but I'm not really sure. I'm hoping that if that ever happens again(which I hope it doesn't) that this blog will be a record of what could set off those nasty losing streaks people can get. Since emotional state affects your go, I do want to know exactly what causes losing streaks and also how emotions can help someone's go soar. Whew, all that just cause I played on KGS on another account.

Mon March 7

Hey, my KGS rank graph changed! It jumped up to like 14 kyu. :-p I have also decided to go forth and try to memorize a game. Yoo ChangHyuk vs. Lee Changho(W) 12/06/04 Guksu Tournament. Why this game? Well, I took an great interest in Lee(or Yi, but I'd rather write it in Korean (이창호); easier to read, plus Korean with Roman letters poorly shows correct pronounciation) after reading a long article on GoBase on him. It's also a more recent game that didn't end in resignation. That way I have to memorize more moves. :-p I'm working on 10 moves at a time. So wish me luck!

  • Update: 10 moves at a time is too little. I memorized 50 moves in 20 minutes. I still remember them all after an hour. I'm going to try again after a few hours and then again tomorrow morning.
  • Another bloody update: By the end of the night, I had eighty moves memorized.

Sun March 6

No go today. :-( After work I went to Monica's to wipe her computer, since she got a nasty virus. She has no anti-virus programs and her friend had her download some crappy shareware anti-virus and popup blocker. Great... So I said screw it and wiped her drive, since everything would get reinfected as I got rid of it and she's too impacient to wait to get a REAL anti-virus program. Plus I just wiped it the other day, so no real loss. I was too tired to play go and I figured she didn't wanna play either. Oh well.

Sat March 5

Well, sucky day at work today. Locked my door key in my car after I got home. ... Played Monica(koreangrl8) on KGS today. Fun game, I was trying to play strongly, though I did make one real stupid mistake in the begining. o_0 She ended up resigning, since I killed a large group in the center, giving me a 40+ lead. She had a slight chance of winning a tight life and death situation to revive the group, but I think I would can avoided a mistake. Maybe I'm being overconfident, but I have to trust my go . ^_^ Winning that dropped my rank to 14k? (though my graph still has me in the middle of 15-16 kyu) Monica was NOT happy. :-p Here's a chunk of log from our AIM session immediately after:

[23:20] maroon882: great ur now 14k .cuz i resigned
[23:20] maroon882: LOL
[23:20] JeroffJoe?: hehe
[23:20] maroon882: u went down 2 ranks
[23:20] maroon882: that makes no sense
[23:20] JeroffJoe?: hehe
[23:21] JeroffJoe?: maybe its counting my other wins too?
[23:21] maroon882: ur no way near 14k .... close to middle of 16-15k
[23:22] JeroffJoe?: yea i know
[23:22] JeroffJoe?: ill even out
[23:22] maroon882: so that rank is not accurate.
[23:22] JeroffJoe?: i know
[23:22] JeroffJoe?: hence the ?
[23:22] JeroffJoe?: :-p
[23:22] maroon882: even u know ur not a 14k
[23:22] maroon882: LOL
[23:23] JeroffJoe?: i dont know what my rank is

It's kinda funny; every time Monica does poorly or loses, she makes up an excuse. But before when I would do it, she would constantly point it out and give me a hard time about it. Like this game; as soon as she started doing poorly, she magically got tired. Normally, I say, "maybe she was tired" but she does this at all times of the day, on KGS or real life. Oh well. See guys, this is what it's REALLY like to have a girlfriend who plays go. :-p It's not really that bad, but it is amusing. Honestly, having a girlfriend who plays go is awesome, since she understands my obsession. She may not love it as much as I do, but she highly enjoys it and I couldn't be happier that I have someone who is somewhat of a "constant rival." Changing gears. Played a blitz game after, but Monica ran out of time cause her computer was acting slow. She had a slight lead(SE said 6.5), but think I could have knocked that lead down a couple notches. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. Haha! God I love my girlfriend and I love go.

Fri March 4

Oh man, I watched a pro play on KGS today BaoYun, a 2 pro dan played against two Norwegian 4 dans working together. The 4 das had a three stone handicap, but BaoYun won by 9.5 house. It was awesome. There were over 420 observers! I downloaded it to look at more later. Played a game with Monica and won by 36.5... On a plus note, I can remember the first 12 moves of our game yesterday, even though it was over 24 hours ago. :-D So that was pretty cool, since I wasn't trying to memorize the game. Maybe I should start trying to memorize my games. Hehe, that could be fun.

Niklaus: Just start replaying the game right after you're finished (assuming you play on a real board, online it's just a bit too easy :). The more you do it, the further you will get. Also the stronger you become, the easier it gets, because you would make the same moves in the same positions, or, if there are several possibilities, you will remember the reasoning that lead you to choose one of them.

MrShin: Neat, thanks for the advice. I'll keep that in mind. I must say I'm shocked and pleased that people are reading this. Makes me warm and squishy inside.

Niklaus: See Recent Changes Junkies :)

Thurs March 3

No go yesterday. I don't know why, but I didn't feel up for any games. I read a bit though, On You Side parts 17-26. No real playing today either. :-/ I had one game with Monica though. I had black and didn't play my standard Chinese; I instead went more for a Koyabashi formation. It was interesting, but I didn't really get to try it out; Monica didn't really attack me too hard and so I got huge moyo. I ended up winning by 41.5 house. Erg... I was hoping not to win by so much, I don't want there to be too large of a gap between us, but I don't want to hold myself back. It was probably a fluk. Fortunately, I can use this blog to track our wins and losses, and hopefully she'll catch up soon! ;-D I also fixed her computer, it was just her OS was all messed up. I reinstalled XP and her computer is running great now, probably because there's no more AOL or Gateway crap anymore.

Tue March 1

Awww man. I have to get my wisdom teeth removed the day before my birthday... I go in for surgery Tue March 15 at 7:45am. Ugh. Anyways, played a bunch of games with Monica, lots of fun. I printed the rest of Fuseki on Your Side(articles 19-26) and I plan on reading those in my classes. ^_^ Played a couple of games under my blitz account. Played Monica under that and won by 19.5. Then I got crushed by a 15 kyu; I played way to submissively and made a lot of mistakes. Oh well. Interesting note: On Saturday I mentioned getting crushed in a blitz game. Well, the player was a 15k?, but I just checked his info and he's more like 3k! x_X So i don't feel so bad about that crushing loss.

maybe i'm not as obsessed as you are with this game.. And you wonder why i dont want to play you, if you are going to type everything online.. should I tell them what you were thinking a few months ago when u lost a game???? Hmmm?? you wouldn't like it right?

Sun February 27

I played a few games with Monica. One of the games I gave her a five stone handicap and won by 9 stones. :-D She's up to a solid 18 kyu on KGS now, so that's sweet. Sadly, her computer died and now she can only play on KGS at school now.

Sat February 26

My girlfriend and I have started playing each other with handicaps to make it harder for ourselves. :-p I played against my girlfriend(whom I will refer to by her name, Monica) with a 4 stone handicap and I won by 7. Yea! I played a couple of blitz games; got crushed in the first one and crushed on the second one. My blitz account is at 16 kyu(solid) now.

Thurs February 24

Holy crap, I found another RI go player!!! ^_^ And he's an 8 kyu. Malweth I gotta bug him to play some games with me. I just finished playing a blitz(I play :30 initial, :10 byo-yomi, 2 periods) game with a 20 kyu. I accidently gave him a 3 stone handicap, but thats ok, cause i won by 8.5. Gotta say that the handicap made me nervous, but it felt awesome when i pulled the win. God I love go. :-p I also managed to get my hands on a couple of books on go from my college library. "Go and Go Moku" and "Go Proverbs Illustrated." Massive arcana! Both books are 45 years old, so it's pretty neat to read.

Wed Feburary 23

Latest "new" entry. Hopefully after this, my additions will be somewhat "normal." I played a teaching game with this girl Vanessa with a 9 stone handicap and killed every group. :-/ I wish that the people interested in go at my college were more dedicated to improving. Plus, some guy players would be a nice change; they seem kinda intimidated of playing go. Oh well. Anyways, I'm working on building a go server for a school project. I hope on getting it beta-tested once it's ready to go. I need to play on KGS more, haven't played on it lately.

  • Update: Played my friend Brian(the guy that taught me go{novaOtaku on KGS, AmericanGO on IGS, both not used at all}), gave him a six stone handicap and won by resignation. Sigh, the only "good" (lower than 20 kyu) players in RI are my girlfriend, her uncle and her aunt's husband.

Wed Feburary 23

First entry! w00t ... anyways yesterday I planned to make this, but I didn't know how amazingly simple it is to create new pages. Soooo...

Tue Feburary 22

Well, I was teaching this girl at RIC(Rhode Island College) Bonnie how to play go. Sadly, I creamed her with a 25 stone handicap. I printed up two Shusaku games, which I plan on going over. Later that night, I played my girlfriend and she beat me by .5 moku. Note that this was with .5 komi, but I think I'm just making excuses. It's just as well, since I purposely didn't kill a large group of her's. But that's ok, because she's improving a lot.


This is a copy of the living page "Mr Shin/ Go Blog" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2009 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
[Welcome to Sensei's Library!]
StartingPoints
ReferenceSection
About