Been a while..
Been a while since I posted.
Been busy with real life and all of that.
Recently, I moved to Maryland, and...I must say that I was surprised by the no-shortage of go clubs here. After living here for few weeks, I found three clubs, and two I went to, and planning to go to third one, seeing what it would be like.
It's quite amazing. I'm just so surprised by number of clubs here, though I was notified in advance.
Also, because of real life, I haven't played that much lately, but...
It is weird. A lot of fuseki study that I have done kinda stuck in my head. However, my fuseki still sucks. But...somehow, the studies that I did started to help me open my mind to what to look for in fuseki. There is one thing that I have been doing a lot since the start of fuseki study is that after the games, I would take myself through the fuseki, and see where the weak points are, then try to figure out the best moves. I will post some diagrams that has actually occured in my games, and open it up for study.
When that do happen, feel free to give me opinions. Sure, sometimes, the diagrams will show not so-balanced fuseki, but the important point is being able to find right move.
Setting aside fuseki for a minute, and let's look at middle game.
What exactly is middle game, anyway? It's all about the game of who is weak, who is not weak. It is amazing how weak groups can cause you to lose points. It is amazing how chasing weak groups in right direction can earn you a lot of points. Also, there is a lot of little techniques with middle game.
You have to constantly search...
1. Am I weak?
2. Is he weak?
3. What's the big point?
Sure, the list, you have seen all of the time...but...the deeper secret with that is...when you are exploiting all that information above to attack your opponent, you will need to read. Why read?
The reason that you need to read is that you have to watch where your attack is going. You also have to watch when you need to back off. Also, you WANT to attack such that there is no good way for your opponent to counterattack. It's tough, but remember, when you're attacking, there is a very good chance that you're leaving aji all over the place, then...suddenly, hunter becomes hunted.
On to endgame...Endgame is always a weird part of the game for me. Sometimes, I don't do so well, sometimes, I can draw upon brilliancy to gain 20 uncontested points against a dan player with briliant series of tesujis. But when you're entering endgame, time is often short, you want to pick out biggest moves. Usually there are so many little things across the board that you don't even know which is biggest, which isn't. Best thing that you can do is compute the points fast as you can, but that only can come from study. "is that 8 points, with a possibility of 3 points followup?" "Is that gote?" "Is there any way that I can turn it into sente?" "Or is there a tesuji that I could take a look at..."
It's strange in endgame, because a lot of moves that look like tesuji, but it's actually gote by which it earns you more points but gives away sente. So have to be able to do careful computations, or end up getting screwed few points.
Last of all, I know that few people are reading this, so...please leave me some messages (if you want) so I know who is reading.
Been busy with real life and all of that.
Recently, I moved to Maryland, and...I must say that I was surprised by the no-shortage of go clubs here. After living here for few weeks, I found three clubs, and two I went to, and planning to go to third one, seeing what it would be like.
It's quite amazing. I'm just so surprised by number of clubs here, though I was notified in advance.
Also, because of real life, I haven't played that much lately, but...
It is weird. A lot of fuseki study that I have done kinda stuck in my head. However, my fuseki still sucks. But...somehow, the studies that I did started to help me open my mind to what to look for in fuseki. There is one thing that I have been doing a lot since the start of fuseki study is that after the games, I would take myself through the fuseki, and see where the weak points are, then try to figure out the best moves. I will post some diagrams that has actually occured in my games, and open it up for study.
When that do happen, feel free to give me opinions. Sure, sometimes, the diagrams will show not so-balanced fuseki, but the important point is being able to find right move.
Setting aside fuseki for a minute, and let's look at middle game.
What exactly is middle game, anyway? It's all about the game of who is weak, who is not weak. It is amazing how weak groups can cause you to lose points. It is amazing how chasing weak groups in right direction can earn you a lot of points. Also, there is a lot of little techniques with middle game.
You have to constantly search...
1. Am I weak?
2. Is he weak?
3. What's the big point?
Sure, the list, you have seen all of the time...but...the deeper secret with that is...when you are exploiting all that information above to attack your opponent, you will need to read. Why read?
The reason that you need to read is that you have to watch where your attack is going. You also have to watch when you need to back off. Also, you WANT to attack such that there is no good way for your opponent to counterattack. It's tough, but remember, when you're attacking, there is a very good chance that you're leaving aji all over the place, then...suddenly, hunter becomes hunted.
On to endgame...Endgame is always a weird part of the game for me. Sometimes, I don't do so well, sometimes, I can draw upon brilliancy to gain 20 uncontested points against a dan player with briliant series of tesujis. But when you're entering endgame, time is often short, you want to pick out biggest moves. Usually there are so many little things across the board that you don't even know which is biggest, which isn't. Best thing that you can do is compute the points fast as you can, but that only can come from study. "is that 8 points, with a possibility of 3 points followup?" "Is that gote?" "Is there any way that I can turn it into sente?" "Or is there a tesuji that I could take a look at..."
It's strange in endgame, because a lot of moves that look like tesuji, but it's actually gote by which it earns you more points but gives away sente. So have to be able to do careful computations, or end up getting screwed few points.
Last of all, I know that few people are reading this, so...please leave me some messages (if you want) so I know who is reading.
posted by Flame at 7:03 AM
5 Comments:
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that I think your blog is very well written and useful. I particularly liked your previous post about reading. As a high kyu relative newbie I have found your blog to be among the most instructive.
Best wishes,
Bill
*raises hand* I'm reading...
Hey, I'm reading this. I started playing go a few months ago and every once in a while I go on binges and spend way too much time on go. So I just searched out a bunch of go blogs, and you're now in my RSS reader in case you start posting again.
I'm reading, Thank you. Think i came across this through Sensei's. Carnivalis on KGS.
hello, I have just discovered your blog. nice work. check out mine please.
noir2501.blogspot.com
I'm just starting but I enjoy your posts.
cheers
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