Malweth’s Metablog

This is one of those “all inclusive” posts. I just wanted to give a status update on everything (for the few that might pass by).

In school, I’m doing fine. I’m in an oceanography class which is very interesting but not yet totally relevant to my thesis, which will be on undersea acoustic networks. This has left me with limited time, but class this semester isn’t nearly as time consuming as my Ocean Engineering class last semester! This means that when I should be researching I have “procrastination time” that can be used to play Go!

I’ve played a lot of online Go so far this semester (and it’s only February)! So far I’ve played 16 games in 3 weeks! The first half (or so) of these were versus KGS Bots in order to get a real rank, but after becoming solid, I’ve reached 1-kyu and will hopefully creep upward from there. I’m not really sure where I should be, but my games tend to be pretty close around the 1-2 kyu levels… I’ve so far crushed most opponents weaker than this (let’s hope that continues ;).

I do need to concentrate a bit more when I play online. This was always a problem for me in the past and it certainly continues today. The game I lost today (vs. 1-kyu) was a disaster because  I got cocky (usually an online only syndrome), and I nearly lost another but for a lucky break: my opponent (2-kyu) allowed me to connect my dead group (I really should have connected when it was threatened).

All-in-all, the completion of my fifth year of Go (I’m at about 4.5 years) could be the one that sees me become a solid KGS dan player. I’ll be marking July 3rd on my calendar!

Bill Phillips suggests building up in steps (hardly a new idea, treadmills have had this for years) when strength training. In other words, adjust your effort throughout the training. On an effort scale from 1-10: 1, 3, 7, 2, 4, 8, 3, 5, 9, 4, 6, 10! (or its like).

Could this be modified for Tsumego study? Example:

• 20 Easy Problems
• 5 Moderate Problems
• 10 Easy Problems
• 10 Moderate Problems
• 1 Hard Problems
• 5 Moderate Problems
• 3 Hard Problems
• 5 Moderate Problems
• 6 Hard Problems (TOT: 10)
• 10 Moderate Problems (TOT: 35)
• 20 Easy Problems (TOT: 50)

The time for each group of problems should be around 1/3 of the total time used. Assuming about a half hour:

• Easy Problems: Average of 5 seconds each (4:10)
• Moderate Problems: Average of 30 seconds each (17:30)
• Hard problems: Average of 1 minute each. (10:00)
• Total (31:40)

Two books have taught me the secret behind Self Motivation and Getting Stronger (or Better At) anything. The Sixty-Second Motivator helped me understand how motivation works (in general), and Body For Life is helping me develop a strength training and exercise routine. Interestingly, one of the things that helped me develop this simple thought was a criticism of the Body for Life program: some people find it too inflexible.

I’m positive that the following will sound obvious and stupidly easy, but I haven’t had past success in developing a routine for something I’m interested in. This is also something that I’d like to apply to the Game of Go in order to become a stronger player.

The Sixty-Second Motivator tells us that Motivation is increased through an increase in knowledge or an increase in importance. “Knowledge” threw me until I started matching that up with Body for Life. Sixty describes knowledge as an understanding of why we should change our routine. This is certainly important, but a better match-up with Body would describe knowledge as using time more efficiently through good planning. Importance fits in better with my simple epiphany:

Motivation:

• Increase Importance
• Increase Knowledge

Time Commit:

• Create an Inflexible Daily/Weekly Schedule.
• The more inflexible your schedule is, the more Importance you’re giving the change.

Time Optimize:

• Plan out your activities for each session.
• The better planned your schedule is, the more Knowledge you have, and the more likely you’ll be to follow through with your plans.

A member of GoDiscussions.com sold some of his duplicate books, and he sold me three out of print books I’ve been looking for. This is going to be an amazing boost to my game!

“Kato’s Attack & Kill” focuses on attacking moves, how to attack, when to attack, and how to stage an attack (how to when to attack?). This is one of the best middle game books out there and I believe it’s only out of print because it’s Ishi Press (older Go Bookseller that went under in the 90s). Best of all, the final chapter contains kyu level commentaries of 8 of “Killer Kato’s” games!

“The Breakthrough to Shodan” is another high level book printed by Ishi Press a number of years ago. I’m expecting as good or better from this book as from Kato’s! Breakthrough has 8 chapters, each with around 10 “strides” to shodan. It’s the book on strong fundamentals. The strides translate well into proverbs, but have some significance in real play. Although it’s based on handicap games (4 stones and stronger), handicap really doesn’t come into it too much.

“Beyond Forcing Moves,” another Ishi Press book, focuses on which forcing moves to play and which to hold in reserve, as well as defending against your opponent forcing against your own weaknesses. This book is the most specific of the three, but deals with sente (initiative) - one of the most important concepts in Go.

I’m having some trouble with the １２３大家來解詰棋1000題. I’m stuck in the 700s - the 5 step problems are giving me some difficulties, so I’ve decided to start over again from the beginning. This will be my third restart, but I’m not too concerned - most of the problems are still difficult enough for me to get something out of them!

The picture doesn’t really have much to do with anything, but I like it. Took this from my car just before the toll booth at the Newport Pell Bridge.

I’m also reading commented games in Invincible! My visualization skill has increased significantly so only the toughest of situations are hard for me to see in this book. There are typically about 50 moves per diagram in Invincible. I really like the sanjubango between Shusaku and Ota Yuzo. I’ve read through 5-6 of those so far.

I’ll also note that I’m not reading Invincible in order. The beginning games, where Shusaku takes a handicap, are less useful to me because of the shorter commentary and bigger diagrams.

I’m doing very well in the Tsumego department! Since the last post I reached problem 463 in the 1000 Tsumego book! Many of those were last night when I had more jasmine pearl green tea (3 tsp., boil the water, let sit for 4:30, steep for 3:00). Averaging it out, that’s 65 problems per day - not bad at all!

One of my “short” tsumego days was Sunday. Bob (from the Southern New England Go Assoc) and I went to Sommerville, MA for the Fall MGA handicap tournament. It was very small (about 20 people) this time (usually about 30) so all of my games were handicapped. I played amazingly well considering the types of games I played!!

Game 1 gave me Black in a 3 stone game versus a 2 dan. The game progressed normally, but turned into a very big fight in the mid-game. I surrounded and killed a very large group… it was a skillful kill, so I was happy!

Game 2 also saw me as Black, this time with 6 stones versus a 5 dan. This was an incredibly tough game. I nearly came out ahead in a joseki in the lower right, but my opponent took the cutting stones to turn the corner around. I went a bit tilt at that point (20/20 hindsight counts this a good thing) and split my opponent into two large eyeless groups elsewhere on the board. I managed to turn the game into a giant liberty race (after nearly killing a group, and getting another 5 dan super-turnabout) that I was losing by 2… a resignation on my part, but a game I could be proud of. (I only hope my high dan opponents were talking about me ;))

My final game against a stronger opponent gave me 5 stones. In another surprising fight, I captured a large group (about 40-50 points worth). At this point in the day, and given my previous performance, I was still in a fighting mood… so I played the wrong game (positional judgement is necessary but boring)! I gave away a large corner for free because I refused to defend strongly and lost by 6.

In the last game of the day I gave 2 stones and overplayed far too much. My joseki was terrible and I thought well punished - simply because I was trying too hard. (Can I rationalize a bit that it was the end of the day)? I finally did manage to cut off a small, but heavy group and attack it… this time it was my opponent’s positional judgement that was a bit off (give up the small group to take the win)! The small heavy group turned into a giant heavy group with one eye. In the end I killed it in gote, played elsewhere (because I thought I was sente) and was suddenly losing by about 60. (I missed an atari that let her either connect out or make two eyes). I will rationalize a bit over my stamina, I was feeling fine, but I was getting tired from so much reading. I managed to make up about half of the difference in oyose, and resigned since I was still behind by about 30.

I was pleased with the day… seems like an odd thing being 1 for 4… but it makes sense to me!

I started the Tea & Tsumego study plan last night… didn’t do a full hour (GoDiscussions and family got in the way a bit). The tea was King’s Tea (Taiwan) 409 Oolong. Steeped it for about 4 minutes (I didn’t actually measure the amount of tea I used…)

I started over on the 1000 Tsumego book (123大家來解詰棋1000). These early problems go very fast, but I was a little distracted, so I got to problem #72. Without distractions (and with the full 1h minus tea prep) I’m sure I could have gotten to #150 in these easier problems.

Tonight there will be no Tea & Tsumego - I am working 2nd Shift to support some other group’s testing, which means I’ll essentially be sitting there… so it will probably be Doctor Who and some tsumego without tea (or with sugared, crappy, iced tea from the vending machine ;)).

A post on GoDiscussions was all about the types of tea people like… I’ve always been a big fan of tea, and I do have a Go related goal to master my 1000 Tsumego book and eventually the Gokyo Shumyo!

My thought is to have a single hour per day that will include the brewing of hot tea (green, black, anything loose) and the study of tsumego! One hour spent religiously every day will certainly bring my Go strength to a new level… and the tea is also very good for me

Lately it feels as though I don’t have time for anything! I still get a lot done, I’m sure. Notably:

• I’ve set up my Brother & Sister in-law on Wordpress. They’re in the process of Adopting from China.
• I’ve gone on vacation, taken loads of pictures, and post-processed most of them. I’ve also taken a lot of pictures at URI (see below).
• I’ve started looking into PKM and Scheduling to be more productive.

Go has been reduced in status somewhat - it’s unfortunate, but I just don’t have a lot of time for it, especially considering I don’t have a PDA anymore! (If anyone wants to buy me an ipaq…) I’m getting back into it slowly - especially with tsumego and a book or two (currently “Reducing Territorial Frameworks” and “1000 Tsumego”). I like doing tsumego, but it’s also the most likely thing to fall by the wayside when things get busy.

I am coming up with a plan though! As always, it’ll probably be a bit over the top - but if I can manage to schedule everything and stick to it (the hard part) I should be seeing some rapid improvements over the next year. Building this sort of change in routine is just about the hardest thing to do, though…

Well, I had a tough time in this Quarter’s tournament! I won 1 of 4 games! The first game I had a tremendous lead with three corners, played an incorrect move that led to a ko about 10 moves later, losing me the corner. When ahead, it’s better to give up some small points than to lose the lead entirely!

The second game I played well (again getting 3 corners), but ended with about a 10 point loss. This was a no komi game as White.

The lunch break was excellent, though… the best Chinese restaurant is in Sommerville, MA across the street from the Davis Sq Starbucks! I took some pictures for the club here - I don’t have my new camera yet, so I didn’t want to take crappy no-flash pictures in the MGA Club room.

After Lunch, I managed my only win playing White in a 2 stone game. The strangest part of this is that I usually play worse when giving a handicap! I then lost a very exciting game after being given 2 stones. I managed a big capture early on, but my opponent managed a big one later. I probably should have played a little safer after gaining the lead (for the second time in this tournament).

In all, it was an exciting time, and SNEGA Represented!