My Week of Go Activities: Finished NAOL Strong

The big news last week is that I managed to finish the NAOL with a 3:2 record. Up until last week I had only been able to win against 10k players. I am entered as 10k myself because that is my AGA rating. I managed to defeat an 8k opponent in my final game, and rather decisively at that, with a win of 14.5

I look forward to the next season of the North America Online League. I'm not sure yet when that will begin, but I definitely will be participating again. If you are interested in getting notified about the beginning of the next season send an email to naol@usgo.org They had a waiting list for the beta season,  and proceeded with 96 players only.  They wanted to learn how to make NAOL better, and they got a lot of good feedback. I'm sure the next season will be even better than the beta, which was great.

My rating went up. I am #75.

I had a Teaching Game with Clossius rather than a lesson this past Friday, which is actually a part of my next week, but I will mention in this blog post. The teaching game was really fun. It was a prize for having come in at first place in a previous month of the Clossi League. Shawn told me that I played really well in the game. This is what the board looked like at the end. 

I lost by 25.5 which I thought was pretty good against an AGA 3 dan in an even game. He told me that he was not being particularly easy on me. Of course he wasn't playing all out either.

Here is what my week looked like.

It was a good week for Go Activity with over 30 hours put in spread among the following activities.

Here is my time spent on Tsumego.

Live Play came in as the top activity this week which doesn't happen all that often. I played eleven games, two of which happened to be Teaching Games with Clossius. We practiced my new opening which involves a large knight's enclosure to a 3-4 facing a 3-4. I'm not sure if that opening has a name, but it is the one that Ben Mantle has been playing recently, and the one which he suggested I try to get myself out of my comfort zone.

Many of my games this week were practice using my new opening.

I managed to get my average seconds per move in the green zone in two of my games this week and I got my time in the yellow zone for two games as well. I achieved an amazing 23.9 seconds on average per move in my NAOL game by using a 15 second timer on my Apple Watch. I only really needed to use it through the opening. By the time the middle game started I was already used to playing more slowly and I could stop using the timer. I felt really proud of myself and I used the timer again during my AYD Game. I will be using that timer at the Go Congress this year. I wonder what my opponents will think when I set a timer for each move.

I had a great lesson with Ben. We were going to play a game with my new opening, but instead we ended up spending the lesson going over what can happen with the Large Knight's Enclosure to the 3-4 which is going to help me with my new opening. Ben really got into showing me the variations. By the time we were done it was too late to play but we needed to play at least 10 moves so Ben could resign the game so I would have access to the variations later. He played some silly moves so the game would look funny when opened.

Ben has a fantastic Study Group Class on the topic of the Large Knight's Enclosure, which I intend to review, but it is great to have my own personal lecture on the topic. Private Lessons with Ben are great. Ben went to the trouble of marking variations for me in the sgf file using the variation function available on OGS so it will be easier for me to review the lesson later by combining the sgf file with the video of the lesson. 

If you join Ben's Patreon at the $10.00 level you get access to all of Ben's past Study Group Classes including the one I mentioned, and you get to participate in three Study Group Classes live via Discord and OGS. Check out Ben's Promotional Site for details.

Let me make a pitch for the Western Server Challenge which is starting tomorrow. I am participating again this year, and I am looking forward to not caring about my rank. I expect it to drop like a stone, but after the challenge is over it will rise like a Phoenix so I am cool with it.  Last year it felt like a bit of a burden to try to play 100 rated games in one month. This year I look forward to it. It is not too late for you to sign up for the Western Sever Challenge. Please join me and over 100 other people who have already signed up. You can join the challenge later in the month so give it some thought and start playing rated games on OGS.

I'll keep you posted on how I do next week with the WSC. I intend to start out strong with six or seven games per day so I can ease up later in the month if I want to.

My Week of Go Activities

 

It was a fairly active week with over 30 hours spent on Go Activities.

Over eight of those hours were spent on Go Problems.

I had a really good week in terms of winning games. I played seven games and lost only one of them.

Two of my victories were nine stone handicapped games against an OGS 4 dan. I was under handicapped but I won both of those games.

I won both my NAOL game and also my AYD game. So I won the two most. important games of the week. 

I am still playing way too fast though I did manage to bring my average speed per move up to over 12 seconds in a Main League games I played in the BenKyo League.

I'm really not sure how to get myself to use more time in my games.

My Week of Go Activities: Lots of Tsumego

 

I took a break from playing games this week and devoted myself to Tsumego putting in over seven hours divided nearly evenly between Tsumego Hero and 101 Weiqi.

These two categories came in at the top of time spent this week.

The week was light on Go Activity with only a bit over 23 hours being spent. I was taking a break from playing because I did not have a Lesson with Clossius on Friday and I think a break is good from time to time.

I played only two games. They were my required AYD and NAOL games.

I am not doing well in the NAOL. I am currently 1:2

I'm hoping that I can win one more of my remaining two games in the beta season.

My Week of Go Activities: Bugkitten's Tsumego Club

 

I spent nearly three hours this week doing Go Problems with Tsumego Hero. One of the members of the BenKyo League is running a Tsumego Club in a thread of the Tsumego Channel of the BenKyo Baduk Discord Server.  We have been working on problems with a lot of repetition for over a week, but if you decide you want to join us you would only have to complete the problems mentioned below.

All you'll need to do to be fully caught up is the whole of Easy Life on Tsumego Hero and the first half (first 100) of Easy Kill.

You can get to BugKitten's Tsumego Club here.

The BenKyo Baduk HQ Discord Server is free to join. If you like the Tsumego Club and want to consider the BenKyo League you can join that for $25.00 a month. Check out Ben's promotional web site to see what membership includes.

Now for the usual weekly info:

I spent only a little over 15 hours on Go Activities this week.

Over four of those hours were spent on Live Play.

I played six games, one of which was a teaching game with Clossius.

My Week of Go Activities

 

I spent 36 hours on Go Activities this week. I exceeded my goal of four hours on Go Problems.

Between the 101 Weiqi site and Tsumego Hero I managed to put in about six and half hours on Go Problems. That is nearly an hour a day.

I am actually able to filter the types of activities I show in a chart. Filtering for Tsumego shows that I also spent some time doing Go Problems on the web site for Shawn's Go Group.

I only had five games, but I was taking a bit of a break from playing because I didn't have a lesson with Clossius on Friday. Instead I had a teaching game which was a prize from coming in First Place in the Clossi League.

My Week of Go Activities - Back to Tsumego

 

There was a time when I used to do a great deal of Tsumego problems in a week, as many as 2,000. I was told to cut back on the Tsumego and play more games, which I have done. But I started to get really lazy, and was sometimes completing only about 100 go problems a week. I decided it was time to up my tsumego practice again. I want to spend over four hours a week doing problem. I don't count the number of problems anymore, but rather the amount of time I spend. I'm not reaching my goal yet, but I will be working on it for next week.

I have a number of categories for Go Problems.

I've recently added a new category for Tsumego Hero. I've been working on some easy problems there along with some of the members of the BenKyo League. Expect to see more time devoted to Go Problems next week. Maybe I can reach the goal of four hours a week.

My report this week is quite late so I will be coming with a new report in a few days for the week just ending.

I spent 25 hours on Go Activity this week nearly nine of which were spent on Live Play.

You can see that a spent less than an hour on Tsumego this week, though I have been ramping up on Spaced Repetition Problems on the Internet Go School. I devoted nearly three hours to problems on Guo Juan's web site.

I lost a lot of games this week, but I am okay with that. I'm really not concerned with winning right now, nor too worried about my rank.

Wait until you see the additional time devoted to go problems next week.

My Week of Go Activities

 

I spent thirty hours this week on Go Activities. Four were spent on Live Play.

I played eleven games this week. Two of them were simul games with In-seong Hwang which I received as compensation for having to take wins by forfeit in AYD because my opponents had failed to show up for their games. I actually had three wins by forfeit last Season which is really unusual.

I had two very close losses, and I had a loss by resignation on a game that I was winning by about 12 points when I failed to see a goose tesuji at the end. I got bitten by the goose. I actually backed into the goose all on my own. It was totally my fault and a very good lesson.

See the goose at the end of this fateful game

I should have played A. I didn't just lose ten stones. The whole group is dead because only one eye remains. It was painful. I was pleased that I got over it quickly though.

My record is nearly even on wins and losses for the week, but there was one game I was losing where my opponent timed out. That doesn't really count. There was also a game where I was losing and we both failed to notice that the counting at the end was incorrect. It worked to my advantage, but I swear I didn't notice when I accepted the faulty counting. I saw I was ahead by the score and clicked done without scanning the board. That was bad.

I am taking two hour lessons with Clossius now and he is very efficient at reviewing games quickly, so every game I played last week got reviewed by either Clossius, In-seong, or BenKyo Baduk.  In fact, I ran out of games strictly for Clossius to look at, so we glanced at end game for a few of the already reviewed games, and then we played a 13x13 game at the end to focus on end game.

I will need to make a special effort to play more games in the coming week so I have enough material for Clossius on Friday.

I am booked for two hour lessons with Clossius every Friday at 2:00 PM EST through the end of February. So come and watch my lessons live streamed on the Clossius Twitch Stream.

My Week of Go Activities

It was a slow week with only 16 hours of go activity. Live Play came in as the top activity.

I played six games this week and won half of them.

 

The Internet Go School for DDK BKL Members and Everyone Else

This is a special blog post specifically for the Double Digit Kyu players of the BenKyo League, but it can serve as an introduction to the Internet Go School for anyone.

I would recommend Guo Juan's Internet Go School to all members of the BenKyo League, but I specifically want to mention its value to DDK players. I say this because Guo Juan has a collection of easy to understand beginner materials supported by a Spaced Repetition problem system that is perfect for not only beginners, but for any players still below 9 kyu. 

The basics she covers are those that Ben Mantle could easily teach someone on a one-to-one basis over the course of a good deal of time. Or he could create a series of videos of his own covering the most basic of basics. However, this is a wheel that is clearly not worth his time to reinvent since this material already exists in a great format. 

The vast collection of basic go knowledge on Guo Juan's website is available to you at a fairly low monthly subscription rate, and an even lower yearly subscription rate. Plus it is available for you to try for free for two weeks. If it isn't as great as I tell you it is, then simply cancel and you have lost nothing. If you want more subscribe by the month until you know you want to stay for good at which time you can switch to a yearly subscription which is considerably less expensive.

Spend a few months learning the basics on Guo Juan's site. Then decide if you want to stick around for more advanced knowledge. The Spaced Repetition System will probably keep you coming back for more.

The image at the top of the page is how the Internet Go School appears on my 13 inch MacBook Pro. The site is also available on your phone via your web browser. That is how I captured the "Try for Free" screen shot above.

I'll touch upon some of the sections of the site form the top image.

Below you can see some of the problem sets I have added from the Capturing stones 2nd step collection.

How to begin using the system?

Start with the Basic Course Materials. Even though the first set of lectures may be painfully simple they will familiarize you with the system and they will review the most basic information about go.

Click on Basic Course, Most Basic, Capturing stones 1st step, Lesson 01

Click Watch Lecture

Watch it. You can slow down or speed up the replay if you desire. 

Then click Add To Training System. This will place that set into your collection of problems. Problems will be presented to you each day. You decide how many problems you must complete each day. It can be as few as 10 or many more than that. 

There is also a button to push called Quick Look that will allow you to view all of the problems associated with a lecture in sequence. You do not need to do this before adding the problems to your collection. You might want to come back to a set and review all of them all at one time once the problems have been integrated into the system, and scattered from each other. Quick Look can be good for that. Some people even like to use it as a preview of the material in the lecture.

Pressing the Home button will take you to a page that looks similar to the one I have at the top of the post. From there you can press Review or New to start doing problems.

The image above shows that I have completed all of problems that were due for the day and I earned an extra 50 points for doing so. You can see that I still have seven problems to review. This is because I have a few problems marked Not Yet which means that they will pop up again in a brief period of time until I mark them as "Got It". After that I can mark them as various levels of difficulty which will bring those problems back to me after periods of time ranging from hours to years. If you fail to answer a problem correctly after it has reappeared you can mark it as Forgot and begin again with it. This process is called Spaced Repetition and it brings problems to you frequently enough so you have a good chance of remembering the material, and if you don't, then you get to start over with that material until you do remember it. The easier the problems are for you the less frequently they appear. You do the evaluation of difficulty by marking it with buttons. 

When you encounter a problem for the first time you will mark it as either Not Yet or as Got it. Until you get the problem it will pop up every ten minutes. Once you have gotten a problem you get a new set of buttons to evaluate the difficulty of the problem the next time you encounter it.

You can mark the problem as hard, good, or easy. If you got the problem wrong, or want to see it more often, mark it as Forgot. The amount of time it will take for the problem to reappear for you in the system appears on the button.

I have problems that aren't going to show up any sooner than ten years from now at this point. Here is one that wouldn't show up for 16 years if I marked it as easy.

I've been with the site pretty much since the beginning with a break or two. As a result my number of days in a row is lower than I would like it to be. I also have fewer vacation days accumulated than I would like because I have forgotten to do problems some days. This lapse takes away a vacation day. I have a reminder set now, so I am missing fewer days, and I have set up a routine to do my problems at a certain time of day which helps. I get a vacation day for every seven days completed, and I lose a vacation day if I skip a day. The vacation days insure that you will not lose your streak of days as long as your vacation days do not get too low and you don't get too forgetful.

Some people on the site are very active. I am only number 17 on the leaderboard for the week right now.

The leaderboard is actually motivating to me, and there have been occasions when I was able to maintain a position in the top ten for long periods of time. This requires in the neighborhood of 100 problems a day, which really don't take all that long to complete. Here is my activity for the past few days.

I had been less active for the past few months and you can see that I am gearing up my activity. The dark green color represents time spent on watching lectures. The yellow is for Quick Look problems. The lighter green and is for Review, and the salmon color is for Learning.

The individual problems themselves do not take long to complete and I spend about 15 to 30 minutes a day doing problems and occasionally watching lectures.

My recommendation is that you start slowly with a few lectures. Add them at a pace that allows you to complete all problems due each day for maximum points earned. Adding lectures at a reasonable pace will avoid getting a huge backlog of problems you have not solved, and it will guarantee that the problems you are doing are related to the recent lectures you have watched.

Give it a try. I predict you will enjoy it and that you will want to stay with the Internet Go School to use it as a supplement to what you are learning through your participation in the BenKyo League.

Any member of BKL should feel free to message me. You can share your screen with me and I can walk you through the site after you join if anything is confusing to you.