Another step towards..something?

Time for a brief progress update. When I last wrote I was losing a lot and the wins I did have tended to be due to luck. Or more often my opponent missing an obvious move and basically running themselves into destruction. Regardless I got up to around 23 kyu but then hit a problem. I wanted to start playing 19*19 and moving on from 9*9 but when matched I was getting 19*19 matches against 24kyus and the 24kyus was getting 2 stones handicap. Since I was clueless about 19*19 this meant I was fighting with one hand tied behind my back and did not particularly like it. So I resolved to tank my rating for a bit so I could start with fairer matches (I should note this is not what you are supposed to do so 'woops' and apologies to the OGS mods). I played several games over two weeks and regardless as to result resigned before the end -telling my oppos that if they were going to resign then tell me as I would. This dropped me back down to 25 quickly enough and allowed me to at least get some more even 19*19 matches but to be honest I was soon back at 23 so I am unsure whether it helped or hindered (though an interesting side observation is that I was a lot more relaxed about those games). You are certainly more likely to meet someone at 25 kyu or below who attaches to 'everything' or starts playing in the corner (or quits as soon as they lose 2 stones) and I am unsure how much benefit beating such players provides (plus they would probably have more fun playing someone equally 'exciting' in move choice).

Over the autumn I played little but steadily mainly as I was finishing my Bounty model

Tadaaaa

Learning wise I had been watching Nick Siblicky's videos ( and the NYGo instititue 'most common mistakes for crud players'). I 'liked' Dwyrin's casts but rarely understood anything that went on. Due possibly to the slightly growing experience I watched a random Dwyrin and seemed to understand much more. I therefore switched to watching Dwyrin starting with his 2018 playlist and working through those very slowly. After around three months (and watching all of Hikaru no Go in the same period) I actually managed to hit 20 kyu (briefly, it seems 22-23 kyu is more my appropriate level). So gained around 2 stones in strength from those casts.

I do not feel like I am actually improving much. 19*19 is still a nightmare where I still make stupid mistakes or not notice danger points thus losing vast areas that 'should' remain mine with ease allowing I actually knew how to defend. It reminds me a bit of early 9*9 play where I would get a larger territory then someone would plonk a single stone in my area and I would totally fail to stop it (and its following stones) from destroying me. In 9*9 I eventually learnt how to defend this sort of blind attack but have not managed to get the same control in 19*19. There are so many options in 19*19 that recognising such patterns seems much harder as you do not hit the same issues so consistently.

For those insane enough to actually want to see a game at this low level here are a couple of examples (hopefully the link to the sgf works). You will have to give enormous leeway to the fact that neither player really knows what they are doing and we are both essentially trying to 'mimic' a player who does…and usually failing.

In the first it was actually a fairly even game (and one where we got to the end game - Huzzah!). The key here was in me launching some stupid attacks along the edges that had no chance of success unless my opponent mucks up (which is an unsafe way to play or at least improve) at move 79 and 120. This cost me 6 stones and 12 points. A key stupidity was that in the lower right around move 159 I launch a reduction by sending a Dragon out. This Dragon was not secure but connected via a diagonal with L7 and K6 empty so when making it I reasoned 'if my oppo ever takes one side then I connect on the other' - sensible. Except I became so focused on a different area of the board that when he did take one side on move 177 I failed to notice and thus lost 4 stones (and gave 8 points to my opponent). I lost the game by 12 ish. Enjoyable game though. I do hope that more of my games are like this moving forward.

19*19 vs Edreese

The second is more an example of how I feel many of my wins are undeserved. There was two key captures in this game. The first was when my opponent launched his own unsecured Dragon into strength at move 71 but in this case I surrounded and captured it for around 9 ish stones for +18. But soon after that I attempted some shenanigans in the top left just after move 144. Now the key here is that this is a perfect example of making a play and hoping my opponent does not notice it is badly flawed and should fail. Here hoping they were 'keen' enough to notice they could capture me and not notice  I had just atari'd bordering stones.. . In this case it worked and my opponent instantly resigned. I should never make such attempts though as if he had played F13 Instead of B13 He would have taken those easily. Basically that local attack was in intent the same as the ones in the game above which I lose (as my oppo picked them up). Relying on your opponent to make a mistake to gain advantage will become less and less useful the better the opponents become.

19*19 vs gjollivet

Part of my weakness here is that the best way to improve is to play as the more I play the better I should get at recognising good/bad shape etc. The problem is that I don’t have a huge time to play. So this hump may take a little time to get over.