Malweth’s Metablog

Go is an addiction, that’s for sure… a good addiction perhaps, but an addiction naetheless… FFXI may be my next addiction, though not at the expense of go.

It’s interesting… I was looking for a hobby, one somewhat cultural, and started learning the guitar. Unfortunately it didn’t take (though I hope to start up again sometime). And my obsession jumped once again (as my hobbies very often do) to go.

The real difference now is that go is something I’m obsessing over much more than anything else I have. I’ve had a lot of off and on hobbies… Amateur Radio & MARS was my first serious one in Jr. High, and that eventually faded (it’s dying out somewhat anyway). I was very into anything math + comp.sci. related in H.S. and that is now more of a tool than a hobby… and I played minesweeper constantly until I couldn’t get any faster (that was probably the closest obsession to Go).

The difference between these things and go? Go’s something I always have room to improve at and is interesting enough to hold my obsession - perhaps when I get stuck I’ll get discouraged and quit, but I doubt it (since I’ll know there’s a next level I can reach)…

I’ve done a lot of reading (Sensei’s Library) on various topics about how one advances in Go. I know about the plateaus people typically reach, thanks to Kageyama’s Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, and since I’m used to the quick progress I had between 18 kyu to 12 kyu (with a week or two stopped at 18 kyu and 15 kyu) the plateau is unnerving.

The real issue I have with it is the very slow advancement and learning that took me from 12 kyu to barely an 11 kyu player. I am convinced I know the answer, though it will take actual game play to evidence whether I’m correct.

The books we read on the subject of Go, be it Tesuji, Life and Death, or countless other books (including “Fundamentals”) teach us something about the game, but make us more narrow minded when we play. The perfect example is my weakness at Life and Death. I can see this weakness in my game - things that should be second nature in a local situation are not, I don’t connect when I should, and I fail to read out a situation. Once I’ve noticed this, I’m highly inclined to start studying Life and Death books and problems. I focus over half of my study on these for a while, and eventually decide I’m prepared to test out these refined skills.

I’ll often study these books and problems when I don’t have time for a game, so perhaps a few days or a week has gone by without a real game. Suddenly, from the influence of these books (bad book aji…) I start treating everything as a local situation. I ignore the Attack and Defense I might have learned, shape and other fundamentals go out the window, and I can’t see why my contact plays don’t subdue the enemy and cause their resignation in frustration.

We need to resist this narrow mindedness that comes about from deep study. This can happen in any of the major parts of the game, such as a fuseki that has a contact fight that cannot be ignored. Even the begin game can involve mid to late game tactics

As an aside, it can be good for such things to be ignored, though. I once played a game where one corner turned into a nice fight with multiple kos. The only difference here was that, though the kos could result in good influence, both sides of the corner were settled. I could easily afford to tenuki. My opponent, however, decided to settle the multi-stage ko while I scattered stones all over the rest of the board. It was no surprise that I won (though I did have to fight off a few invasions).

What I need most is, instead of deep study, I need to practice all parts of the game equally (when I can’t play) and ignore everything until I need it. When it’s time to focus on fuseki, or corner sequence, I need to allow this knowledge come to the fore. When I can gain a large moyo by attacking the enemy, or when I can defend my own territory while attacking theirs, attack and defense knowledge can come into play. And when a local situation develops, and the enemy cannot escape and is short on eye space, I can allow my Life and Death abilities to surface.

The weakness in my game now is understanding which of these abilities is best used when… and there aren’t any books to teach this!

Damned blogger… Forgot to save another post that got lost when I hit submit.
It’s a good service with major drawbacks…

Speaking of losing a won game… I always manage to do it in Byo-yomi (and he definitely should have resigned LONG before). See SGF or VIEW.

To give you an idea of just HOW big I lost by, the result was W+64.5, and I should have connected at P17 or after at Q19. I did amazingly well at Life and Death and Attack and Defense up until this point. In this case, I definitely should have spent a few moves of my Byo-yomi (which I never seem to like to do…)

<SIC>

The most exciting thing about go at the 10-kyu level is the understanding you are starting to grasp, but which seems just out of reach. Some of the fundamentals come quickly, be it basic life and death, “kiddie” joseki, or just the flow of the fuseki and middle-game.

One of the things common to most of us at this level is that one or more of these basics are weak in favor of a stronger ability. One of the tasks necessary to reach single digit kyu is to identify these weaknesses and strengthen them accordingly. I’ve played some games against slightly stronger rated players (1-3 stones) and led almost the whole game, sometimes by as much as 25 or so stones, only to lose in the end because I allowed them to live when I could have killed (or lost a sizeable group myself). As a result, I’m focusing my study for the next few months on life and death and tesuji.

Something that’s also necessary, now that we’re really starting to get an understanding of the path of go, is to not be discouraged at how far away upper level play seems. This path we tread is by no means easy, but such discouragement is the major pitfall.

And another…

Here’s another good mid-kyu checklist…