My Week of Go Activities

I've set a new record for Go Activity. 

I spent over 50 hours studying go last week.

Live Play time increased this week. I brought it in at second place. It was second only to Watching Others Play. 

I made a special effort to increase my number of games from 6 last week to 9 this week. The actual time playing did not increase very much, however, because most games were auto match games played on OGS, so they were faster games than I usually play.

Watching Others Play has taken up a big chunk of my time since I have started  talking  a lot with two other Clossius students who also happen to be AYD students. We spend time reviewing these games too. We have our own little Clossi Club in AYD now. There are just three of us so far, but I think we can increase that number in the future.

Now for the important stuff...

Essential Go Activities:     

22:22 (hours : minutes)

Nearly half of total time spent.

6:30       29%      Live Play

9:57       45%      Go Problems

5:55       26%      Game Review

My Win/Loss Ratio

5:4

55% wins

Tsumego Paid Off: I Found a Weakness

I was watching the game of two of my friends from the American Yunguseng Dojang yesterday. Since it was not my own game I was a dispassionate observer. 

In my own games I see my own weaknesses, but miss the weaknesses of my opponent. Neither of these players was my opponent, and I had no weaknesses of my own to worry about, so I could see the game more clearly than I might view a game of my own.

Earlier in the day I was working on a set of cut problems from 101 Weichi. I had been through those problems a number of times, and I was doing them again. I had been noticing in the problems that often a cut happens after a wedge. Once the wedge stone is placed into Atari, and saved, there remain two cuts. Only one of those cuts can be protected. Seeing this happen often in the problems makes it more likely to see it in one’s games.

During the game I saw such an opportunity for white. It did not matter from which side black gave Atari because both sides had two cuts. I was excited.

After the game was over I asked if we could take a look at it.

We came to conclusion that it worked.

The cut was worth making because there were black stones in the lower left that would not survive after the cut. It would have been Game Over. It was a comfortable victory for white as it was.

I was very proud of myself for finding this.

It turns out that white had been so concerned about his own weakness that he failed to see the weakness in black.

In-seong has told me that this is a big problem in my games. He says that I see the game from my side, and that I need to see the game from my opponent’s side.  Clossius focused this tendency right away too. 

Now that I can find a weakness as a dispassionate observer I need to calm down in my own games and find such weaknesses there.

An interesting aside... white dreamed about the cut that night.

If I can master the wedge perhaps I can live up to my name, buzzsaw.

My Week of Go Activities

 

I put in slightly over 45 hours this week on Go Activities.

I only played six games this week. That is one one game up from last week, but not as many as I would like to play. I spent a good amount of hours playing, however, because most of my games were played with YD friends using generous time settings. I take these games seriously, and I did well with them. I won five out of my six games this week.

The only game I lost was a three stone handicap game against a YD opponent who had observed me winning my 5th round of the San Diego tournament fairly decisively against another YD opponent. I got 3H in that game. I ended up 5:0 in the tournament. There is a shirt in it for me.

I actually had a nine game streak over the course of two weeks. The streak was making me nervous. I don't think I ever had a streak like that before. I'm going to work on overcoming my nervousness and getting my games played back up to at least eight. You can see my streak below which was broken by the 3H game.

Now for the important stuff...

Essential Go Activities:     

11:31 (hours : minutes)

Over 1/4 of total time spent.

5:08       46%      Live Play

3:41       33%      Tsumego

2:16       21%      Game Review

My Win/Loss Ratio

5:1

83% wins

My Week of Go Activities

 

I spent nearly 40 hours this week on Go Activities.

I fell a little short on Live Play this week, but made up for it with other Essential Go Activities by doing more Tsumego and Game Reviews. I just wasn’t “feeling it” and did not want to push myself to make a quota. That didn't work out well last week. Interestingly enough, the one loss this week was when I forced myself to play trying to get an early start on my quota. 

I won my 4th round of the San Diego tournament putting me at 4:0. I play my last round on Wednesday this coming week. I am slated to get three handicap stones.

Essential Go Activities:     

11:31 (hours : minutes)

Over 1/4 of total time spent.

3:47       34%      Live Play

5:17       44%      Tsumego

2:30       22%      Game Review

My Win/Loss Ratio

4:1

80% wins

Two Week Activity Summary

 

Total Time Spent:   about 85 hours 

Essential Go Activities:  about 22 hours    

 10:44        49%      Live Play 

   6:17        29%      Tsumego

   4:52        22%      Game Review

15 games played

My Win/Loss Ratio

8:7

My Week of Go Activities

 

It was a big week for go activity with nearly 45 hours which might be my most active week since I started to log my hours. I did take a bit of a break by taking two days off from playing games; playing only eight games this week. 

I spent additional time on Spaced Repetition Problems in preparation for playing the Chinese Opening.

I don’t really feel ready for the Chinese Opening yet, but I am playing it anyway.

Essential Go Activities:     

12:44 (hours : minutes)

About 1/3 of total time spent.

5:54       46%      Live Play

3:35       28%      Tsumego

3:15       26%      Game Review

My Win/Loss Ratio

4:4