Monday, February 13, 2012

Reviewing games

Feel like you played so many games without learning a thing? Have a stronger player review your games.
This can make a world of difference in your rate of improvement. Stronger players know allot of basic principles they can impart to you which will make you a better player. These will come out when they review your games
and they can point out your weaknesses. If you can make friends with a strong player or pay a pro to teach you you could be much better off.
     Also try replaying your games later to reinforce what you learned. This will help you remember what you learned and also will help you see new things you missed last time you reviewed or while you played the game.
I try to review at least 1/4th my games.

Playing games

Probably one of the most important things you can do to get better at go is to play go.
I use gokgs.com to play with people all over the world. This is where I got my start in go.
There are many friendly people on the server who will be willing to teach you if you do the same to others.
They also have many cool tools for allowing you to make save files of your games and go back over them.
I have used this for the tsumegos I've made and posted on here.

Things to try in your games

1. experiment: This is one of the best things you can do, try out many many different things. try different openings and attacks, find out the best ways to attack certain groups. Try anything that comes to mind

2. Blitzing: when you don't have time for a slow game you can try blitzing. Set the timer for 10 seconds a move and play by feel. This helps you quickly evaluate the position of the board in general and develop a better overall sense of strategy.

3. Playing very slow games. when you have plenty of time try setting the timer for an hour and think through everything you can before playing a move. this will help you grow your reading and tactical thinking. As well helping in almost every aspect of the game.

4. FIGHT!!! If your not sure if you can kill someone, then try to kill them. don't be afraid of losing. if your willing to take risks then you can reap rewards. Sometimes you will lose everything but this will only help you become a stronger player and make you think deeper while launching attacks. Don't wait till you are a strong player to take risks.

1000 tsumego challenge

This is the first post on 30kto1d.com where my goal is to get to 1d and help others do so as well. My first challenge for myself (and to you) is to do 1000 tsumego. tsumego are go problems which you must read ahead and find the best sequence for each player black to kill white or black to live. For example I sugguest you read
until you are sure that you have the best solution for each side. by reading I mean visualizing the results in your mind and 'seeing' what will happen. Try reading out every possible response from the other side to be sure of your result. I am currently using Cho's Encyclopedia of Life and Death Elementary
as a source for problems it's and I highly recommend it to you. At the time of this writing I am only on problem 58 of that collection. here is an example problem (which I made)

find the best possible solution for black and the best response for white have fun!
(hint if black doesn't live no matter what then your solution is wrong)