My Week of Go Activities

I spent nearly 22 hours on Go Activities this week. A third of that time was spent on Live Play.

I did fewer Go Problems this week than usual, coming in at under 1,000 problems for the first time in a long time. I really have to spend more time on 101 Weiqi next week. 

I had an exceptionally good week. I played ten games. More than half of them were rated. I had seven wins and three losses. My largest loss was 2.5 in a game where I had to give handicap. The other two losses were 0.5 games. Look at all that "feel good" green! I think this might be the first week ever that I had an entirely green column for my games links.  It might be the last since I am going to be playing ten or more games a week moving forward.

I played five games in the BenKyo League this week. I am currently leading in the league, and hope to play as many games as possible before the end of the month. The league is handicapped which is interesting because I hardly ever take or give handicap by choice. Ben is encouraging rated games so I am playing rated with those who are willing. This seems to be helping with my fear of playing, and it is definitely helping with meeting my goal of playing at least half of my games rated.

I am riding the line between 8k and 7k on OGS which effects handicap in my league games. We are allowed to play the same person twice in the league, and something funny happened. I played someone when he was 2k and I was 7k and I got five stones. I dropped to 8k and thought I would get six, but when we played he had dropped to 3k, so it was still a five stone game. Funny.

I'm having my first lesson with Ben next Thursday and hope to rack up a few more league games between now and then.

My Week of Go Activities

 

It was a light week for go activity with just shy of 26 hours. Live play came in at the number one spot with more than six hours. A good portion of that time (nearly three hours) was spent playing a simul game in live stream with BenKyo. He was playing a good many other players with generous time limits, so I spent most of that time thinking on his time, not that it helped me much. I ended up resigning that game because I was behind by over 25 points. It was an even game with an OGS 6 dan, so it was to be expected that I would lose badly.

However, checking with AI Sensei the next day I was pleased to see that I had actually played well for my level. I am 7k on OGS, but I have my slider set to show 6k mistakes.

Check it out!

There were no 6k mistakes. That lead me to see just how far I would need to adjust the slider to detect a mistake for black in this game.

It turns out that I have two 2k mistakes.

The fist one really cost me.

I am going to start posting my stats for go problems on a weekly basis. I generally do nearly 1,000 Spaced Repetition Problems on the Internet Go School web site. They are listed in the GJ column. GJ stands for Guo Juan. When Clossius suggested I do fewer go problems I found myself cutting down on the 101 Weiqi problems which I did not really want to do. I am going to be trying to get in between 1,500 and 2,000 problems per week moving forward. I think it is important in developing my reading skills to focus on the 101 Weiqi problems. Ideally I would like to do 700 problems from 101 each week.

The year has come to an end, so it is time to look at how many games I have played for the year.

I played 471 games this year which is an average of 9 games per week. I want to raise that to a minimum of 520 games in 2022 for an average of 10 games per week. Maybe I can do even better than that. I am going to try to increase the number of rated games I play. At least half of my games should be rated.

My Week of Go Activities

 

I took a bit of a break from Live Play this week, but it was a week full of Go Activity. I clocked in over 35 hours. 

The BenKyo Live Stream came in at the number one position.

My winning streak in the Canadian Open was broken. I had increased my record to 6:0 on Sunday, but met my match on Monday when I played ucdavis. He took me down with a loss of 18.5. 

I only played four games this week. They are the four games at the bottom of the above screen capture of my spreadsheet. Part of the reason for lack of activity was because my lesson was scheduled a day early due to the holidays. Most of the reason was that I was just spending so much more time on other go activities, and I was avoiding Live Play.

I included the previous week in the screen capture to show that I have an active link in my spreadsheet to a BenKyo Twitch Stream review of a League Game I played with Kdar. He submitted the game to Ben to review in fulfillment of a 45 minute live stream Patreon Benefit. It turns out that Ben was exceedingly generous with his time on this review and spent a little shy of three hours doing it. He clipped the review as a highlight from his VOD so it will continue to be available here.

I enjoyed my lesson with Clossius this week. Because I had so few games to review I lined up my buddy Drewch to play a shadow go game with me. When I suggested it to Clossius he was very enthusiastic for us to proceed to play against Drewch. This was different from a usual shadow go game because the opponent was fully aware of what was happening to him. I insisted on generous time limits because I really wanted to be able to discuss things in detail with Clossius and I knew that Drewch would patiently wait for his turn to move. 

Above is the point in the lesson when Clossius said, "Just don't die."

When the lesson time came to an end I resigned the game even though Clossius and I were ahead. Then Clossius gave us some overtime to click through a few variations he had been considering during the game. It was great fun for Drewch and me. Clossius appeared to have had a good time. It was live streamed, so I hope the observers enjoyed it too.

One thing that became apparent from this lesson is my lack of reading ability. More go problems for me!

Breaking News!!!

I played my final game of Canadian League, and I won it. I finished with a record of 7:1.

My Week of Go Activities

 

My activities post is a little late this week, and I will keep it brief.

I put in over 29 hours this week. Over seven hours were spent playing nine games.

I played five League Games, and was short on rated games, having played only two of them.

As of today I am undefeated with a record of 5:0 in the Canadian League. 

I've played two games so far in the BenKyo League, and am undefeated there as well, but with only two games in that isn't really all that impressive.

I'm going to try to increase my number of rated games this week. That is my main goal.

My Week of Go Activities

 

Let's start out with the news that I have ranked up to 6k on Fox. I started at 6k and was actually set to rank up to 5k at one point before I experienced a losing streak that sent me down to 7k. Now I am back where I belong and I will start working on the next promotion.

Next I would like to announce that I am currently undefeated in the Canadian League with a 3-0 record. I do not expect that to last for long. Here is a decisive moment from my most recent Canadian League game. I managed to kill something.

AI analysis shows that I was really slow on the draw seeing the weak group, and making that kill, as illustrated below. Luckily I got to it before my opponent protected the group. I apparently didn't need the kill to win the game. AI shows me ahead by about 30 points without it. I think I played very conservatively after the kill. This opponent has put me in some precarious situations in previous games, so I needed to be careful. There may be chicken moves.

Now for the usual information:

In spite of no longer counting the time I spend watching others play, and reviewing their games with them, I still put in nearly 27 hours on Go Activity this week. My guess would be that I spent another ten or more hours working with my go friend, Drewch.

Live Play came in at the top of the list just above Spaced Repetition Problems, which got a big boost this week because Guo Juan created a slew of problems recently which I added to the Training System. They largely involved modern joseki.

Check out the Internet Go School for more information. 

You can see below in the Study Stats section that I added quite a few problems at once, and that I marked them repeatedly in a way to keep them appearing frequently as I was learning them. Once I was able to mark them as "Got It" things settled down. I love the Spaced Repetition Problems from the Internet Go School.

I have reached #39 for All Time on the Leaderboard for the Internet Go School.

Something else is new this week. 

You may recall that I skipped up to Level 4 Support on Patreon for Ben Mantle last week to experience the Study Group and League Play. 

After researching his lesson packages, and learning that he is planning to discontinue taking on new students through that means, I suffered a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out). As a result, I upped my support to Tier 6 where I will get one lesson a month plus significant personal stream time as well as the Study Group and League Play. Once a month was really all I wanted, and the other perks for the lower Tiers will probably make it worth the investment. 

For details about the Tiers search for BenKyo or Ben Mantle on Patreon. You can see all I get on Tier 6 if you check out his Tiers on Patreon. It would be difficult to show the extensive list here.

Make no mistake. I am thrilled with my lessons with Shawn Ray, and will continue with them. Since I have the time, the means, and the interest to do more, I am branching out a bit to support another go teacher.

This week I played eight games, five of them rated on Fox. My losses were within very small margins. There were only two losses this week. All of my games got colored with "Feel Good" green.

I made a new rule for myself. After my husband has gone to bed if I have not yet played a game for the day I hop on Fox and play a game whether I want to or not. So far it is working.

My Week of Go Activities

 

It was a very low activity week. I had fewer than 18 hours of Go Activity recorded. I did spend a great deal of time watching my good buddy Drewch playing and reviewing with him, but I am not counting that as activity anymore.

I was short on games with only four this week, but I had company and needed to be social, so that cut down on my activity over all. I'm doing okay at slowing down my play. Games averaged more than an hour each.

My lesson with Clossius this week proved that I am doing a very bad job at reading my cutting points. I know it is important and I am trying to do better, but I am falling short. I will be trying to focus on reading the cutting points more this week.

On a positive note I have started to walk outside again. I'm hoping that being more active physically will help with stamina in my go games.

I increased my support of Ben Mantle this month by going up to Tier 4 from Tier 2. That will get me into his Study Group and will also get me into his League. I'm considering the possibility of purchasing a package of lessons too from his website. That would require me to play more games which would be a good thing.

My Week of Go Activities

 

This week I spent nearly 36 hours on Go Activities. A big chunk of that time was spent watching Clossius Live Stream. I was there for nearly ten hours of his stream this week, and I didn't catch all of it. He was really active, and I am very happy about it.

For those who have missed seeing Clossius stream, you can start celebrating, because Clossius is back live streaming the go lessons of his students which they are willing to share, and it is looking as if that is nearly all of them. This is a bonanza of DDK and SDK go instruction which is tailored to the individual needs of his students, yet instructive for all. Tune in not only to watch the lessons, but also to participate in the on-topic, as well as off-topic, chat from the peanut gallery. My lessons are at 3:15 PM EST on Fridays most weeks. You are welcome to observe.

If you work a day job, and watching the Clossius stream in the middle of the day is inconvenient for you, no worries. If you subscribe to his twitch stream at the $5.00 level you can watch the VODs. 

I've been instructed to slow down my game play with some good results. I played eight games this week and spent over seven hours doing so. Games are averaging close to an hour each. This includes my opponent's time as well as my own.

I played five games on Fox this week, and won all but one of them. If I win four more games I will rank up to 6 kyu. If I lose nine more games I will rank down to 8 kyu. I'm liking my "odds". Of course, there are no odds. It is all skill. 

I've added a new go teacher to those that I currently support. In addition to Guo Juan, In-seong Hwang, and Shawn Ray, I am now supporting Ben Mantle (BenKyo) at the $5.00 level on his Patreon. I joined mid month with the intention of leveling up to either the $15.00 or $30.00 tier in December. I haven't decided yet which one I will choose. 

I did get my name "buzzsaw" into the credits of his latest video, so that is cool.

In my most recent lesson with Clossius it became very clear that I am not reading very well in spite of working to improve that skill. I will continue to do more capture race problems, and read those problems all the way through before answering them. I will work on applying that skill in my games. That is the priority for the week going forward.

One last thing... I have stopped recording an activity that I spend a great deal of time on. That is Watching Others Play. I am still doing it quite a bit, but I am not giving myself credit for it by recording the time I spend doing it. Watching Others Play usually shows up as the number one activity for the week, and you may have been wondering why it is gone. It is because I feel that I am fooling myself by including it. I do learn things by watching others play, and observing their reviews, but recording that as Go Activity now feels a bit like cheating. There are more active ways to study go. I took a look at my Go Activities for the year, and found this.

The lime green wedge is Live Play.

I Was Wrong: I'm Back to Weekly Activity Blogging

I discussed with Clossius my decision to stop posting my Weekly Go Activities. 

He said that he believes that people enjoy following my progress, and that I ought to continue, so I am back. He said that it is good to document my journey. I agree. 

Sometimes I feel like my journey is a few steps forward and a few steps backward over and over again, but be that as it may, I'm here to tell you about it.

I owe you two weeks, so I will just post them here without a lot of detail. I will pick things back up again next week.

For the week ending November 11th:

For the week ending November 18th:

Taking a Break from Weekly Activity Posts

This will be my last weekly blog post for a while.

When I realized that I had not posted my usual weekly blog post about my go activities I also realized that I was not highly motivated to put in an hour of my time on that task. I'd rather play a couple of games or watch a video.

Over the last couple months I have come to realize that I always put in between 25 and 45 hours on go activities, usually in the neighborhood of 35 hours. That has become quite consistent and is unlikely to change.

At this point I don't see a lot of value in continuing to post this information publicly. It takes a lot of time and effort.

I'm going to continue logging my time for my own interest, but I don't expect that gathering the information is going to change what I do in any way.

I'm playing a good number of Live Games now, and I am doing a lot of Go Problems. I'm continuing with weekly lessons with Clossius, and I hope to improve my performance slowly over time with his help.

I look forward to playing more on Fox and engaging in a variety of leagues, and I will probably find a reason to post from time to time. 

Thanks to all who bothered to read my posts.

2021 Canadian Open: The Second Weekend

I came into the second weekend of the Canadian Open with a record of 2:2. Last year 4:2 was enough for me to win first place in the 9k-8k division. This year the division is 9k-6k because there are not as many people playing near my rank. Things are sparse at my level this year, and I am near the bottom of my division at 8 kyu.

I still had hopes of winning my last two games of the Open and getting 2nd or 3rd place as a result. My dream came true, but it was not easy.

Saturday:

My first opponent of the day on Saturday was a 10 kyu who had gone undefeated the previous weekend. He was 4:0, which was daunting. I came to discover after our game was over that he had played the first round with my Pair Go partner and beaten him rather decisively. I went on to defeat him and give him his only loss in the tournament. He went on to achieve a record of 5:1 and came in first place in his own division which was one division below mine.

Here is that game:

Round 5

My 5th Round opponent turned out to be the only opponent I had who was not a Canadian League player. I won this game by managing to live after my opponent tried to contain a shoulder hit. It was really scary, but I survived and went on to take over a huge lower right corner by killing seven black stones in the p3 area.

My 6th Round opponent turned out to be a Canadian League player in the league above my own. It was unlikely that I would be able to win that game, but I did so handily by a 25.5 margin.

Here is that game:

Round 6

I am guilty of making a few overly cautious moves at the end of this game. I did count and knew I was winning big time. I know that s4 was unnecessary. I even read it properly and trusted it. I played it anyway. My bad? Maybe so. I think I won this game by destroying the center.

I had a good day on Saturday and went to bed with visions of prizes dancing in my head.

Sunday:

The final day of the Canadian Open was devoted to Pair Go and Blitz. I signed up for Pair Go with another Clossius go student. He is one stone weaker than I in the Canadian system, so we made an excellent Pair Go team because neither one of us had to worry about whether our partner would understand our moves based on strength alone. We also have a similar knowledge base because we are both familiar with the Clossi Approach taught by our teacher Shawn Ray. To learn more about our teacher search for Clossius or Shawn Ray on Patreon or on YouTube. He has many instructional videos and operates a Discord server called The Online Go Club with active discussions.

There were actually very few Pair Go teams, probably because of the lack of available female players. There were a number of male players who signed up alone who were unable to be paired. The combined strengths of the teams were quite wide, so handicaps were common in the games.

My partner and I managed to play two out of three of the scheduled games. Our opponents never showed up for the 2nd game, so even though my partner had a misunderstanding about timing and had arrived late, we could not have played anyway. We ended up taking large handicaps in both of our games and we won them both. When we were confronted with something we did not understand we simply tried to Clossi it. I believe we were successful in that.

Here are our Pair Go games with active links:

Pair Go Round 1

We won Round 1 by resignation. The last move in the game was a net I played to protect the black stones to the right which were cut from the other black stones.

We did not play Round 2. If we had, we would have had to give four stones, and would likely have lost.

Pair Go Round 3

We had to play Round 3 all the way to the end. Our opponents confused us with their opening where they repeatedly did tenuki. We did not understand it, but we Clossi Approached it. At least I hope we did. In any case we won by 21.5.

Late in the evening on Sunday we got email announcing the winners of the Divisions. I came in at 3rd place as I expected.

I managed to win a two month Basic Membership to Awesome Baduk. I proactively signed up for a free month wile waiting for my code. I also signed up for their Discord server. I have already watched one of their videos which is about Cross Cuts.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to bring us this terrific online event this year. I had a great time. If it is held in real life in Canada next year I will be unable to attend. I do hope that they decide to hold some online events in the future. I am signed up for the next Canadian League.

Although there were a few technical glitches early in the event that required some players to issue challenges, things ran very smoothly later in the tournament. It was a real pleasure to have games begin automatically for the tournament on OGS and to have results automatically recorded by Baduk Club.