My New Opening for April is The Chinese Opening

Clossius has suggested that I stick with one opening for a period of time and then switch to another, and play that one exclusively for a while. I started off playing two hoshi points as black. I have been doing that for the month of March. I was actually planning to stay with the hoshi opening through April because I wanted to spend the month of April researching the Chinese Opening. I did not want to start playing it until I had fully digested In-Seong Hwang's latest lecture on the Chinese Opening titled "Chinese Opening Again!".

I knew that others in the American Yunguseng Dojang might have the upper hand if they had already learned the content, so I wanted to study the Chinese Opening more before switching openings.

Since we have a full month between Season 29 and Season 30, now is the optimal time to begin playing the Chinese Opening. I can consider the games I play in the month of April as part of my research.

Here is how I am going to prepare to play the Chinese Opening in AYD starting this May:

• Review the lectures on the Chinese Opening by Guo Juan on the Internet Go School.
• Review the lectures on the Chinese Opening by In-seong Hwang in the Yunguseng Dojang.
• Review the Chinese Opening Theory video by Shawn Ray.

I had previously watched all of the Typical Mistakes lectures for the Chinese Opening on the Internet Go School. I am watching them again and reactivating the related problems as I do so. I am up to Lesson 3 so far. Guo Juan has modern variations to study too in addition to lectures on the traditional Chinese Opening. I will watch them all. I intend to do these first because her lectures are shorter and I find them more easily digested than the YD lectures. They also have Spaced Repetition problems sets associated with them which is a big plus. Studying these problems may actually help me understand the YD videos when I revisit them.

After completing the IGS lectures I will attack the two lectures on the YD site. I have watched them both already and had started to construct an sgf file of the "Chinese Opening Again" lecture. I will work on that this month. 

The marks to the right of some of these lectures below indicate that I have taken notes on the lectures. It is a feature on the YD site that you can add comments to lectures that no one else can see. I use this feature to time stamp lectures to break them into more digestible chunks. That way I can leave a lecture and find my place again when I come back even if I have to start the video over. 

I also create time stamps for review videos to find the starting points for all of the individual reviews.

Shawn Ray, Clossius, just posted a lecture on the Chinese Opening on Patreon under his members only content. It is just the beginning of a series of lectures he is going to make. It is also posted in YouTube.

The first lecture in the series started with a presentation of things he already knows about the Chinese Opening. He then moved on to look at the opening in games using a Pro Database, and also examined moves with AI. He has plans to include reviews of games with the Chinese Opening played by subscribers in this lecture series. 

I found it helpful to see him using the database and AI resources, and was glad to have the links to them so I can use them myself in reviewing the games I play this coming month using the Chinese Opening on OGS.

The next step is to start playing the Chinese Opening again on April 1st. It used to be my preferred opening until In-seong seemed to discourage it, but now he says the Chinese Opening is back, so I am excited to try it again.

My Week of Go Activities

 

The big news this week is that I went 5:0 in my YD League this cycle. It is the last cycle of Season 29. We have a break before the beginning of Season 30, so I will have plenty of time to study and prepare. There is no telling how the league tables will be drawn up for next season because some students may leave, and new students may enter. It will be exciting to see how it all shakes out. I am hoping that my rating will land me a place in D2. If enough current members renew it will.

Now for the Go Activities Report:

It was a very active week for Go Activities with slightly over 40 hours, which is about as many as I can handle. That's a full time job. It is a good thing I am retired.

I will admit that my Essential Go Activities did suffer a little this week. They came in at about 1/4 of total time spent compared to the usual 1/3 of total time spent. I am okay with that, however, because I like to see my Essential Go Activities coming in at at about ten hours or more. As long as I am close to ten hours I am happy.

Essential Go Activities:     

9:17 (hours : minutes)

About 1/4 of total time spent.

4:48       54%      Live Play

2:42       29%      Tsumego

1:37       17%      Game Review

I played seven games this week, which is low for me.

My Win/Loss Ratio

4:3

At my last lesson Clossius suggested that I take a break. I think he is looking out for my mental health. I have a good go psychologist. There are two weeks until my next lesson because March has five weeks. He said I should get out and do something fun. He also said I should treat myself for going 5:0 in my YD League.

I know that just studying go isn't good for my mental health. Getting out isn't much of an option, however, with Covid. I did treat myself though by lowering the amount of time on Essential Go Activities and by indulging my guilty pleasure of watching the Clossius Live Stream. I especially enjoyed watching Clossius do his first lesson with a new student this week. That was nice to see.

I also took two days off from playing go. That was my break.

The main reason I enjoy watching the Clossius Live Stream is because it focuses my attention on the basics. I know the Clossi Approach basics pretty well. They are consistent with what I learned from Yilun Yang. Watching the stream reminds me to focus on the basics, and to ask the questions in my own games.

I indulged my other guilty go pleasure too, which is spending time on the Go Magic web site. 

Those two activities are a lot of fun for me, but they don't require a great deal of mental effort. That is why I consider them to be my "go study guilty pleasures". The Clossius Live Stream does not usually come in near number one, nor does it usually even exceed the Live Play category. 

Clossius had two live streams Sunday where he played some go. That was fun to watch. During one of those streams he said that I am his most dedicated student. My teacher's pet status is now firmly establish and shall be diligently maintained. I've always made it a point to be the teacher's pet whenever possible.

To make myself more easily identifiable to Clossius in the Twitch Live Stream, so all of my witty comments will be properly attributed,  I have changed my Twitch name from the confusing "AGAid8" to the longer, but more easily recognizable, "buzzsaw_AGAid8". 

Something I did this week was to create a spreadsheet to automate the calculation of my Essential Go Activities percentages. I can't believe I had been doing them by hand up until now. Now all I need to do is to plug in the hours and minutes for each category. Then the spreadsheet converts to total minutes and calculates percentages for me.

My goal for next week is to play games on OGS and work on my rating there. I will work on building the habit of playing first, and then work on the rating.

Another thing I need to do is study the Chinese Opening. There will probably be a Mid Week Blog post about that.

Gotta Brag: I Killed Something

Not only did I kill something, but I did it in an AGA online tournament. 

I played the 2nd round of the San Diego Go Championship today. The tournament is being played over the course of five weeks with one game per week. Pairings come out on Saturday and games must be played by Friday night.

I won my first round last week. That game was reviewed in my weekly go lesson by Clossius.

Today’s game was won because I managed to pull off a kill. I am 2:0 now in the event. 

I saw that the black group on the left side had not made two rooms yet, and I also saw a potential cut that I could read all the way through to the capture of the c12 stones. If black blocked that cut there did not appear to be a way to separate two rooms. 

The move above at b10 was the killing move. It won the game. Of course, I had to keep the win. I’ve been known to step back too much after a big kill. I tried to keep things solid without losing my lead, and I hope that I played reasonably during yose.

An AYD friend of mine told me that he liked the board for white even without the kill because even though black was ahead on territory there were weaknesses. I’ll have to discuss that with him when we get the chance. I’m interested in his insights.

Here is the final board position. I won the game by 20.5

Anyone who is interested can view the game with AI review on OGS. My opponent and I are both site supporters on OGS. He told me that he uploads his KGS games to OGS for the AI review. I told him that I also upload my games there for that reason, but also because my teacher loads my games on OGS for review during my weekly lessons. Clossius usually streams those lessons live on Twitch. When Clossius is not live, some of his recent VODs are available for viewing.

My opponent and I spent time chatting after the game was over. We took a good look at the dead group, and concluded I could keep it dead regardless of how black responded after b10. If anyone sees a refutation that we missed, please let me know.

My opponent said that he would discuss the game tonight online on OGS with the Yu Go Club. The chat above shows me making a plug for my teacher, Clossius, as usual. 

I may have this game reviewed in my next lesson to see how I could have done better in the opening. I do like to have my tournament games reviewed. When I was taking lessons with Yilun Yang I would always record my Go Congress games and we would review them over the course of the next few lessons. There was always something interesting to learn. I have come to realize through the reviews I get in the American Yunguseng Dojang too, that won games don’t necessarily get a favorable review, and lost games often come with praise for stepping outside one’s comfort zone. 

I am hoping to bring interesting games to my lessons whether they are won, or whether they are lost.

My Week of Go Activities

 

It was an active week with 37 hours of Go Activity. I credit that to catching up with game reviews for YD, an obsession with completing the capturing race problems on 101weiqi, and the fact that Clossius is back to live streaming after a short break.

Live play came in at the top of the list.  I played ten games this week.

Win/Loss Ratio    5:5

My Love Affair with Correspondence Go is Over

When I rediscovered OGS about a year ago I started to play Correspondence Go. I spent an inordinate amount of time playing through variations and agonizing over the next move in those games. The “Analyze Game” feature was tempting, and I am ashamed to admit that I used it in tight spots.

I started to log my time spent on various go activities in July of 2020. The images below are from the end of my first month of logging my time. It was about 3/4 of a month of activity because I started using the Now Then app on July 7th.

Correspondence Play was clearly dominating my time.

Live Play came in as one of the lowest activities. I was usually playing only one Live Play game a week on KGS for the American Yunguseng Dojang. The rest of my time I devoted to study and to Correspondence Play.

It was when I started to watch Shawn Ray's live stream on Twitch that I really started to question the time I was spending on Correspondence Play. I began to realize that agonizing over moves in Correspondence Play was not building the skills I needed to make decisions in Tournament Play where I would experience time pressure. 

I started to play more games on KGS, and some Live Games on OGS as well. I then started to take lessons with Clossius (Shawn Ray). I increased my amount of Live Play significantly at that point to insure a number of games to choose from for review during my lessons.

In my lesson yesterday we discussed how I appear to be stronger than I was in January when I started taking lessons. Clossius is hoping to see me rank up soon. This started me thinking about how best to show my growth. I’ve been splitting my games between servers. About half of my KGS games are not rated because they are played with fellow YD members as either Official League games or Free League games.  The rest of the games on KGS are played under my fearless account as Auto Match. Those games are rated. 

I have a preference for KGS over OGS. I also play the occasional game on Tygem to insure that I get into some fights.

I came to the conclusion that it might make sense to focus on OGS games to show my improvement. That left me with a bit of a dilemma. I had foolishly decided to participate in a slew of rated Correspondence Leagues. I ended up playing the games in those leagues as asynchronous blitz. I wasn’t enjoying them at all, and I felt trapped.

I decided to bite the bullet and take a ratings hit in one fell swoop rather than continuing to get zapped repeatedly moving forward. I resigned from all of my leagues.

This resulted in eight immediate losses by resignation.

I was 7k before the resignations. I am 8k now, and will proceed to fight my way up with rated Live Play. I have not yet decided if I am going to stop playing rated Auto Match on KGS in the immediate future, or not. However, I tend to think that I will stop that in order to give my OGS rank a chance to recover.

It’s all good.

It’s all fun.

Plug For My Teacher:

Let me take this opportunity to say that I am very happy with my lessons with Clossius. He tells it to me straight, but he does it in a way that never makes me feel stupid or foolish. I am often amazed at his tact, not only with me, but with the multitude of primarily DDK players that populate his Twitch stream audience.

I am enjoying my hour of one on one attention every week. I get to spend that hour focusing on my go at my own speed. I get to ask whatever I want, and I get concrete advice.

Some of my YD friends have been watching my lessons through video after the fact. One of my friends is even contemplating lessons himself, and I am encouraging him.

If you are interested in lessons check out the tiers on Patreon for Shawn Ray. I’m on the four lesson per month tier.

There are live links to my games and lesson videos in my spreadsheet which anyone can view.

My Week of Go Activities

 

I came a bit short of meeting my weekly goal of at least 30 hours of go activity. I put in a bit over 27 hours this week. I added a new category of live play called Computer Play. The reason I did this is because Clossius suggested that I play a game against a strong computer opponent as a means of taming my Tournament Anxiety. He also suggested preparing a cup of tea. I did both before my first round of the San Diego tournament taking place over five weeks. I won my game by 1.5 points.

I played eight games this week.

Win/Loss Ratio     6:2

My Own Spaced Repetition Problems on AI-Senei

I have come to recognize the value of Spaced Repetition Problems. They are used on the web site for Guo Juan’s Internet Go School. The problems help me to remember what I learn there, especially joseki, and the new AI variations that I have found difficult to digest.

Not long ago AI-Sensei added the ability to create Spaced Repetition Problems using your own games. At first the problems were based only on the moves that Ai-Sensei suggested. Recently though, the ability to create your own problems was added. You use the Trial Board to set up a correct answer to a problem in your game. You then create a problem from that position. I do not know if the free version of the web site supports the creation of problems. I subscribe to the Basic level of the service.

Last week I played an AYD game with a comment from In-Seong that I wanted seared into my memory. It seemed like the right time to give the Spaced Repetition Problems feature on AI-Sensei a try.

I found the process to be very intuitive. I navigated to the place in the game record where the correct answer would have been an alternative next move to my incorrect response. I clicked on the Trial Board. I played the alternative move. Then I clicked on “Add Problem” and my problem was created. It was as simple as that.

It was so simple that I decided to watch the entire video review of my game so I could create some more problems for it. I made all but one of the problems viewed from my side of the game. I could have made more problems from White’s perspective. That might actually help me view games from the perspective of my opponent, which is something I have difficulty doing.

After creating a number of problems for my game with Rhett23 I started a review session. There were a few additional problems in the review session from a time when I was playing around with creating problems based on the suggestions of AI-Sensei.

Below are all of the problems from my game with Rhett23.

Above is the suggested move that gave me the idea to create my own problems. In-Seong was quite surprised that I had not considered the cut at L4. It is my “special problem” not to see obvious moves like this. I am working on getting better about this.

Above is a recommendation to create the Dog Face position. In-Seong also suggested adding a move at o8 afterwards for additional good shape. 

Above In-Seong expected me to help my side group with g10 rather than playing at k13. I like how the problem shows the actual move in red.

Above it was suggested that e9 would have offered better help to my group than the move I chose at 75. The bad move opened my group up to attack from White. I made a problem for White using the suggested attack.

White should attack at d10 rather than playing f6.

Last, there was a suggestion that s8 is the way to continue rather than playing at  t7.

I could have added more problems for White, and may go back to do so at some point in the future.

It is my plan to revisit my review videos from my earlier games in Yunguseng Dojang, and to create a few problems for each one. I have quite a few games in AYD alone. In EYD I have 15 additional games. 

Each dot in the graph above represents an AYD game with an accompanying video review. If I can create five problems from each review that will be a lot of problems. Adding in the EYD games I have 89 videos to review. That is potentially 445 problems I can create. I can also go over my lessons with Clossius looking for problems in the games we have reviewed.

If I really want to go crazy I have 14 years of lessons with Yilun Yang with lots of potential for problem creation.

Those interested in the Yunguseng Dojang should get on the waiting list for the next season. You can choose between the American Dojang and the European Dojang. The main difference is the time of day the games and reviews take place, though I think it is fair to say that the Europeans are stronger.  

We are currently in the second week of the third cycle of Season 29. Season 30 will be starting at the beginning of April. Come and join us. I am especially keen on seeing more 12k to 8k members join in the fun. My only complaint about YD is that the ratings spread in the lowest league is too large. We can fix that with more members in the lower ranks.

If you are 12k, then you are not too weak to benefit from joining YD and learning with us.

My Week of Go Activities

 

There is a new Go Machine in the house.

I finally pulled the trigger on updating my laptop. I replaced a seven year old MacBook Pro with a brand new MacBook Pro with an M1 chip. I maxed it out in every way but storage. I stopped at 1T. 2T seemed excessive to me. I am thinking that I may try setting up access to the Fox go server on my Mac, and perhaps Tygem as well.

I spent nearly 33 hours on Go Activities this week. Live Play again came in at first place even without the addition of time spent on Tygem, where I played two games. I played ten games this week.

My win/loss ratio is 6:4

I’m happy with the amount of time spent on Essential Go Activities. I am also happy with 33 hours as a moderate amount of time to spend on go study. When I top 40 hours I feel like I have no life. I like that the  Essential Go Activities percentages are nearly 50%, 25%, and 25%. That just feels right to me.

I am streamlining my Go Activities post now because my spreadsheet seems to be functioning as a good launchpad for game review in my lessons with Clossius. I am also not convinced that anyone is actually clicking through the games I am linking in the post.  I will continue to make mid week blog posts about interesting games and other topics. If you are reading I thank you.

Failure to Kill: I Need a Go Psychologist

For years now it has been the consensus that I need to play more aggressively and see my opponent’s weaknesses. In-Seong and Shawn Ray both agree on this point. Yilun Yang once referred to my inability to see an obvious attacking move (that everyone else would be able to see) as my “special weakness”.

I am beginning to make progress on this issue, In a recent game, however, I failed to clinch the deal on what should have been a beautiful kill.

I had a Free League game with a YD friend this week. Earlier in the day I had a lesson with Clossius. I had been advised by him, that I should not be showing losses by large numbers in my games list. If I am obviously losing I should make a last ditch effort to turn the game around. If that fails I should resign. 

During my Free League game I kept this in mind. I attempted to be more aggressive, and I tried to kill white’s group at the top of the board. I reduced from the outside along the top edge. Then I considered a placement at g17 on move 153. I did not see the full continuation, but I believe now that once white made his next move the continuation would have become obvious. I should have trusted my instincts. Instead I played elsewhere.

Neither player realized that the group needed to be killed, or saved on the next move, depending on our own perspective.

I knew I was behind. I counted about 50 points for myself. I counted 50 points for my opponent with many more points to be counted plus komi. So I resigned.

But I forgot to make the last ditch effort. Here is the final board position.

It turns out that Score Estimator, which is notoriously wrong much of the time, thought that white’s group along the top of the board was dead.

My opponent and I do not put much stock in Score Estimator, but we decided to briefly look at it. I remembered my desire to play g17, and it became painfully clear that it worked regardless of what white might to do to counter it. A throw in at g16 will eventually take place.

Edit: The diagram above is the correct continuation after the block below the placement. I had mistakenly posted a diagram that could have resulted in seki. This was pointed out to me, and I have made the correction.

Up to this point I had reached my conclusions without the help of AI.

There was a point during our review after the game where I believe an alternative move for white was considered at h19 rather than h18, but that does not appear to work either.

The vital point shifts upwards one line.

Later I took a look at the game in AI-Sensei. Setting the app to look at only mistakes in excess of 20 points, a hilarious graph emerged.

I decided to navigate to the point just before the kill became inevitable, if I were to have actually played at g17. I can’t remember if my opponent and I had considered the move at A during our review or not, but we did later discuss it on Discord.

White was taunted with his fatal mistake. White should have played at A.

Black was then immediately taunted with her fatal mistake. She should have killed with A.

My first thought after this game was shame at failing to follow through with a kill I was obviously attempting to make. I should have seen it. I obsessed over it that night.  I replayed what should have happened again and again. I dreamed about it.  

Then I woke up determined to see the good in this situation. It is a beautiful problem actually. It requires three separate sacrifices on the part of black:

1. The placement g17
2. The addition of another stone at g16
3. The throw in at g16

I managed to see all of that without the help of AI. The fact that I could see it is something to be happy about.

My opponent and I looked at the game afterward rather than rushing off to look at it with AI. We even discussed it further on Discord a day or two later. That is something to be happy about.

I feel that I will be more likely to be able to identify a problem like this in the future. That is also something to be happy about.

I feel as if I am on the way to becoming stronger. I am definitely having more fun.

My glass is half full.

My Week of Go Activities

 

I spent about 35 hours on go activities this week. YD Game Reviews came in at the number one spot at a little over six hours. I’m trying to catch up on unwatched reviews. Combined Live Play came in just five minutes short of that in second place. Clossius Go Lessons came in third at over five hours. I spent considerable time reviewing two of my lessons this week and taking notes. Watching Others Play is also up this week at over four hours. YD players cheer each other on in our games. I’ve been watching C group games on Thursdays because a few of my friends are now in the C League.

Saturday’s Activities

Clossius and I had discussed doing the Connection Problems on 101weiqi during our last lesson. He asked me how long it takes me to go all the way through the set.  I had never thought about that because I never go all the way through a set in one sitting. I estimated 15 seconds per problem. I decided to start the Connection Problems fresh on Saturday to satisfy my curiosity on this point. It took me approximately one hour and three minutes to complete the set. I did this in five sessions throughout the day. It turns out that my estimate of 15 second per problem was correct within a couple of decimal places. Time includes the load time for problems as well as the reload time for missed problems which I attempt again. I’m still missing a few of them.

Games List:

Games List Closely Cropped

4    5    6    8    9

Above is a screen capture of my games list spreadsheet. It is a little hard to read. If you click on it you will be able to see it better because it will open up larger. The row of numbers is composed of live links to games available for review.

Gray rows are unavailable for review either because they are AYD games (two this week), or because they were played on Tygem, and an sgf file is unavailable to me.

I have to admit that I was a little afraid to play this week. I had a lot to process from my lesson, and I was starting to worry about appearances. It was a great lesson. He was appropriately tough on me. I am being called on my lack of reading, and lack of attacking. It is just a lot to process.  The Tygem games were fun and interesting, but it bothers me that I am unable to offer them for review during my lesson, yet they are sitting there as losses effecting my win/loss ratio. I may still play on Tygem and count the time, but not factor the wins and losses into my ratio. It is good game experience to play on Tygem. I think I would like to warm up with a Tygem game each day.

Once I finally started to play again I managed to get four wins under my belt. Unfortunately, out of five games available for review, only one of them is a loss. It happens to be a handicap game, and I really don’t think that there is much to gain from looking at it.

Even though Clossius will not want to review my latest AYD game, I might ask him to click through it to get a feel for how it went. Then perhaps something can be gained from looking at the Free League Game with the same player two days later, which I won. There were many mistakes in that game. I missed an end game tesuji. It is one I have used. I know it, but I played reflexively. 

I missed the right next move. I played reflexively. I should not have missed this.

But that is nothing compared to my failure to mark dead stones in an auto match game on KGS which I lost by 1.5, but should have won by 5.5. My opponent did not answer me when I asked him if he had noticed. Single stones snuggled in very tight areas are easy to overlook.

Woops