To distinguish one week from another as I continue with my journal format, I am going to start highlighting one thing from the week in the title of each blog entry.
Sunday, August 16th
I started the Go Magic course Deeper into the Game of Go on 19x19.
In my last lesson with Clossius he suggested that I do problem sets in Tsumego Dragon of the follow types: Ladder, Net, Taking Eyes, and Making Eyes. I did about 50 problems on Tsumego Dragon today. To be clear, his categories of Taking Eyes and Making Eyes are about Life and Death that is not specifically corner related. He has a Category called Corner Life and Death for that purpose. We use that category in our Tuesday afternoon tsumego group.
Monday, August 17th
I finished the Go Magic course Deeper into the Game of Go on 19x19.
I got tired of looking at a huge backlog of problems on the Internet Go School, so I couldn't help myself. I clicked through my full backlog of problems marking them all hard. I hate to do that, but I just wanted to be caught up again.
I've been avoiding playing online. I am super interested in attending club and playing across the board, but I am not terribly interested in playing online.
I have decided that I am going to stop playing in the Go Magic league. I enjoy it, but it is hard to schedule those games because a lot of the games are with Europeans. Now that Ben has moved his Group Classes to 12:30 pm ET on Saturdays, his classes conflict with the default time for Go Magic league games, making them even more difficult to schedule. As a result, it is just going to be NAOL moving forward for a while.
Tuesday, August 18th
I started my day with problems on The Internet Go School. This time I actually solved them. I was presented with 27 problems, and I completed them all. I am going to try to do this every day from now on. I won't bother mentioning this every day, but I may offer an update every once in a while about vacation days earned, or lost, in the event that I screw up again.
I participated in my usual Tuesday afternoon tsumego session.
I started working on the Go Magic course Game Reviews for Beginners.
I received a message today via DM with a kind offer of a teaching game and review from someone who has apparently been reading my blog and feels that they can help me. I didn't accept their because I already have two teachers that I work with regularly. I didn't think it would be right to take them up on the offer if I wasn't willing to entertain taking on another teacher. The problem is clearly me, not my teachers. If I was going to take on another teacher at this point I would probably go back to AYD, but I really think I am too weak to fully benefit from the lectures, and it seems a waste to get only half the benefit of AYD. I did do a spectator membership last season thinking I would watch the reviews at least, but I didn't follow through. I have backlogs of lessons with both Clossius and with BenKyo Baduk, so it isn't a great time to consider additional instruction with a new teacher.
Wednesday, August 19th
I went to the Princeton Go Club. There were only three of us in attendance. There was Parker, Andy, and me. Parker played simul games with both Andy and me.
My game with Parker was a severe loss. I told him we'd have to try six stones next time. I find that I am quite good natured about losses over the board. That is in contrast to how I feel about losses online, which I sometimes take quite poorly. Maybe that is why I am avoiding online play. Playing over the board just feels friendlier.
Here is a link to the game with Parker on Better Baduk:
If the above link does not work for you, here is a link to the AI Sensei Version.
In spite of this game being a huge loss, there is something about this game that I consider to be a step forward for me. I found a weakness and I tried to exploit it. Unfortunately, I was so anxious to try to exploit the weakness, that I missed a weakness of my own that needed fixing first. I should have made what few profitable moves remained before calmly filling the necessary dame and hoping that my plan would not be seen. If I had done that there might have been a chance that my plan could work. However, in spite of failing, paying more attention to my opponent's stones than to my own is definitely a step forward for me, even when it fails. Move 224 was a huge blunder. I was aiming at playing m5 next, followed by L4 after white saved the four stones I had put into atari. L4 would be atari, on a larger group of stones, and there would be no way of saving the eleven stones. After white exploited my own weakness by playing at h3, I knew that I had been careless. and needed to give up seven stones. At that point I admitted my plan, and Parker said that he might not have seen it. I didn't expect what I was planning to reverse the game. It was so far lost, but it would have been cool if I had been able to pull off the capture. Images would definitely help here, but you have the game record to look at. Enjoy having a look at it with the link to Better Baduk.
By the way, a lot of the games played at the Princeton Go Club get recorded and posted to a review channel on the Princeton Go Club Discord. That is a great way for members to share with each other. If someone played a game next to you at club, it is nice to be able to check out the details later after you have spent time glancing at it as you play your own game.
Thursday, August 20th
I do have an observation about The Internet Go School. I have been marking more problems as easy recently which pushes them farther back. This results in fewer problems due. This morning I noticed that I only had 12 problems due as a result. In the recent past I would have 30 or more problems due each day, but I was also marking most problems as hard then. Now might be a good time to watch some more lessons and add some new problems.
I had a 60 Minute Semi-Private Lesson with Ben today. We reviewed two games that I played with a member of the Princeton Go Club named hochul. I am sharing the lesson with the members of the Princeton Go Club by dropping a link to the video into the review channel of the Princeton Go Club Discord server.
I will also share the video here with you, my gentle reader.
Friday, August 21st
I reviewed a recent lesson from a couple weeks ago with BenKyo Baduk. I made made some problems on AI Sensei for the two games we covered in that lesson. I love making problems on AI Sensei, but what I don't like is having those problems disappear into the void because they are only accessible through the spaced repetition system on the AI Sensei site. They really need to improve accessibility to problems, including the ability to share them with others.
In the evening I lead my usual one hour Friday Night Tsumego Group. We had eight people in attendance this time. That is a nice sized group.
Saturday, August 22nd
I am a little behind on reviewing my recent lessons. I have one with Clossius that I am working on today. In that lesson we reviewed five of my Open games from the Congress. When I review a lesson I open three things:
- The video of the lesson
- The game being reviewed in AI Sensei
- A note created in Evernote for the lesson being reviewed where I include screen captures of some variations and other details of the lesson. (AI Sensei does not allow for multiple move problems)
I review my lessons looking for things that will make good problems in AI Sensei, pausing to create them when I find them. It is a lengthy process, but it yields some good problems that help me to review the lesson again without having to watch the video. It may not be the most efficient means of reviewing my lessons, but I enjoy it. I feel that just watching lesson videos repeatedly isn't terribly effective.
The first game of the new season of NAOL is next Tuesday. I discovered that three of the six participants in my division are members of BenKyo League.
I watched an interactive group class with BenKyo Baduk. The subject of the class was Advanced 3-3 Invasion Patterns (Revisited).
I had a 60 minute lesson with Ben in the afternoon. We reviewed a game I played with Parker at the Princeton Go Club. I shared the lesson with the Princeton Go Club, and here it is for your enjoyment as well.
I ended my evening working on reviewing the lesson with Clossius I started earlier in the day. I didn't finish it though. I will try to do that tomorrow. It is taking me a really long time because I am making a great deal of problems.
1 comment:
Thanks for continuing to post this blog. - Perryand
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