Victory by half a point

White has captured 5 stones. Black wins by 0.5

My game today ended up with a 0.5 point margin in my favor. Every go player knows that winning by 0.5 points is worth the same as winning by 50 points or more... Still, the psychological impact is not the same.

First, on my opponent : he may have been very unsatisfied of the outcome. Indeed, at our level, it's easy to gain or lose such amount in the endgame. It's always hard to swallow a loss by such a short margin.

Secondly, on me :

• I don't even know if he would have put pressure on the top left group, I may have been tempted to yield and add a stone (unnecessary for sure) just to get security. This would have converted a win into a loss. 
• I did count the score (an effort which I don't usually do but wish I did regularly) and thought the margin was more comfortable than that (I forgot to account for the 5 stones captured by White during the game). This clearly mean that my judgment was inaccurate.
• It was a win vs. a 1k player. As a 2k player, I'm still hopeful to one day reach the realm above but winning by less than 7 points, means that you wouldn't have been able to overcome White's komi in an even game. In other words, it tells you that you're not yet up to the 1k challenge.

So, I was just barely satisfied by the result and wish I did better than that. I now plan to do the following for every game played: try to find 3 items to improve from based on the game analysis. I hope this will help me get a better margin next time (or intentionally accept to win by such low margin, at least).

For this game, I'd say:

1. Be careful when cutting in the corner invasion (4-4 point, low approach, low extension, 3-3 invasion). Make sure that the cutting stone serve a purpose
2. Be careful when counting not to forget captured stones (on both sides). Recount if there is no clear cut winner.
3. Be careful about the endgame, it's easy to play a non sente move. I'm pretty sure I missed two points vote which could have been mine.

I wish I could have identified clearer mistakes. I'm sure there are bigger ones which would have deserved some focus.

Spaced repetition

I've just been through the third chapter of "Tsumego" named "90 elementary tsumego". Over three days, I went over all of them and realized I wasn't really up to the "elementariness" of those problems.

That being said, it doesn't seem that much of a stretch for a certain number of them (found them with a hint but wouldn't have during a game). Those problems were selected to show a good range of tesuji in application to kill or live.

I'd like to try to learn from them through spaced repetition. Space repetition, also known as "flashcards" is a way to get through some knowledge through regular practice driven by trial and error. Let's assume you set each tsumego on a card. You go through the deck of cards by looking at each one:

• If you can solve it instantly or within a couple minutes, you place it in the "Easy" pile
• If you need a bit more time or you're unsure of your answer, you place it in the "Medium" pile
• If you don't have a clue or got the sequence wrong, you place it in the "Hard" pile

Every day, you go through your cards according to their pile : many "Hard", fewer "Medium", a couple "Easy" reevaluating each time their difficulty. When all cards end up in the "Easy" section, you've completed your study.

This works wonderfully for languages. Having it work for go means that not only you try your best to identify the answer at a glance but also that you make sure it works. It clearly helps more on the instinct aspect than on the calculation part but it's already something. 

Obviously, using cards is a bit dated. You have software available to do so. The most well known of those is Anki. It's perfectly suitable for go but it will take you some time to prep the cards. An alternative is available to the owner of an iPhone / iPad through the wonderful application Easygo.

You just have to create your problems, generate variations (stating if they are correct or incorrect) and the software will do just what I mentioned above with one nice twist : it will change randomly colors and orientations so to renew positions. I'll start right now with the problems I listed as "Hard" and I'll slowly incorporate the "Medium" one so to build a nice deck. 

Will let you know how it goes...

Success in Life & Death

Black to kill the marked stone in the corner

A couple of days ago, I missed a tsumego in a standard pattern (san-san invasion under a hoshi stone). Today, my opponent also rejected the defensive move in a corner (keima approach to a hoshi stone, keima defense and san-san invasion) but this time I found my way. I had an early lead and managed to keep the game at least even. My opponent resigned but I'm not sure he was really behind.
Still, some success is enjoyable after a losing streak.

I've decided to submit one of those games to the Go Teaching Ladder. Just need to add some comments/ questions and submit it. I'll post the file on the blog when made available.

Damned Damezumari

J-Group position ("Big Pig's Snout")

Just started « Tsumego », french book from Motoki Noguchi. This is maybe my third attempt to get through the game and I’ve always lost my way in the middle of it. I think I wanted too much to get it right first time and crawled too much through the first problems. I aim at reading it in 10-12 days this time (representing about 50 pages a day).

I went through the first 100 pages and did enjoy it very much. One thing did strike me : it is the fact that some tesuji were clearly a blind spot for me in my reading. Those are mostly related to shortage of liberties which prevent the enclosure of an eye (such as in the J-group position, also known as the Big Pig’s Snout).

I’m looking forward to better identify such positions upfront so to be able to deal with those. The example from yesterday was symptomatic.

Aside from that, played a couple of game : a loss vs. 2k where I got a huge dragon killed (hard on the ego) and a win vs. 1k where I had to keep up after capturing myself a big group (probably harder on my opponent’s ego). Will take advantage of both to look at corner joseki situations I got into.

Licking one's wounds

Black to capture the marked stones

Tough day yesterday: was on the verge of quitting go… So many efforts, so little results. Three losses in a row and I lost confidence… Been a year that I evolve around 2k. Is it worth the effort?

Then I thought, this is not the appropriate way to think about it.

One doesn’t become strong by chance or by simple practice. Problems need to be solved. Defeats are a indicator not the outcome… I have to learn from them… It’s so hard for one’s ego to go over lost games but there is no work around… I have to swallow the bitter pill. 

The game above is one example: in the game Black, went down with 1 to threaten to kill the white group. White played 2 saying « prove me that you can kill me in this position ». I missed the tsumego. Would you? For sure, I wouldn’t anymore. I guess that’s a way to learn… The hard way…

Hello World

Holidays are the perfect time for me to start a blog on go... I'm a french go player settled in Switzerland (from which this picture is obviously not taken).

This is yet another go blog about making progress with the game. I've started playing 6 years ago and reached 5k EGF / 2k KGS, which probably (surely) means that my days of fast improvement are behind me.

I'll be posting about my experience on the game through practice and study, focusing on the mean I consider (and try to apply) to get better at the game. I hope writing about it will help me with the motivation (a clear success factor). Obviously, if it would be of some interest for other go players, it would be a (great) plus.