A Go Player

One man's fascination with the world's best game

Saturday, April 09, 2005

15kyu!

Well, who knows how long it will last, but tonight I made 15kyu on KGS. I thought I would be stuck at 16kyu for the longest time, but I think my lessons are helping me. I am trying to think more, and to play more "gooder".

That means thinking about my plays, trying to make good shape, making sabaki, making tradeoffs, etc.

I am also reading a fantastic book: A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki: The Korean Style. I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying this book. It is written in the same style as Cho HunHyun's Lectures on Go Techniques, Vol. I, which is a great style for me. It is clear, expository, lots of examples, and scientific, as opposed to what seems to be an intuitive approach I find in many other books I have read. Not that they aren't great in themselves, but there is something about these two books that really appeals to me.

This book looks good for my next purchase. Although I am kind of interested in getting the rest of the series which has the Davies' Tesuji book and then all the "Get Strong At X" books, where X is something to do with Go.

Slate and Shell books didn't look very interesting to me earlier on, but lately I have come across some sample pages and some recommendations that make me want to try a couple of their products. Pretty much I think I wasn't ready to appreciate what they have to offer.

As far as lessons go, I think that I want - now - to get some private lessons just for me. Of course I relish my lessons with Karen, but I think that playing teaching games with review might provide another aspect to my study that could help me out even more.

Two months ago, I despaired of reaching my goal of SDK by June. Today, though, it looks a little brighter. Yes, I need to study more, and play more, but I feel like I have had a breakthrough in my last few games. I am beginning to develop a style, and to not depend on my fighting to carry me through the game (which is a good thing, given my reading skills ;-).

My weakest point seemed to me to be my fuseki. I had a huge tendency to create multiple weak groups and then attack from them, driving the opponent into yet more weak groups. I am starting to have glimmerings of what sente is, as opposed to forcing moves, and to have a very small sense for how certain patterns can develop. I'm still far far away from being good, but I think there are possibilities for me...

As always, more later - Go now :)

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Go Winds Online

Go Winds Online has some sample editions of Go Winds from Yutopian press. I particularly like Lee Chang Ho's endgame play columns, and in GW7:1/2 and 7:3, there are some very interesting articles about Go Shape by Craig R Hutchinson. Worth taking a look, seriously.