The first 20 pages of Whole Board Thinking in Joseki, Volume 1 have impressed upon me some principles and ways of thinking about the opening. It's amazing. I love it.

Wow. Played my second game against a human in quite some time. Even game as black with 6.5 compensation to white against another 11k+ on IGS.

It was amazing. I felt actually ok with my plays early, instead of worried and having to defend weaknesses or desperately erode big frameworks. In fact I found myself on the attack the entire game. It was almost a total wipeout in my favor, too, but he got a ko (or I let him get one, I may have to review) for a big group late. And ultimately there was no way I could come up with enough threats for that.

It was about the third group of his I had under severe pressure. He tried to attack a couple of mine, but time and again I'd left my self opportunities in the opening that I could live every time, and in fact use the strength I got defending the attacks to hit him even harder once I got the initiative back.

8.5 point win.

Thanks to those books on the opening, I feel so good about how I'm playing. I need to work further through them!

yeah, for the opening those are by far and away my favorite books. I'm glad to hear you like them.

Thank you for the advice. I'm so jazzed right now.

Just bought them both off of slate & shell. Its too bad theres no 3rd book on the 4-4 point... and based on the publication dates it doesnt seem like there ever will be

Im about to sleep, but thought id take a quick look at the opening of the game. It looks to me like the top right turned out pretty bad for you. If white didnt play 36, and played around the O12 area, its looks like alot trouble.

I wonder if 15 was the right response, but i dont have any better ideas . 21 seems very wrong. I probably would have played R12, and looked towards peep-push-cutting at P16. If white defended against it by playing there himself, id look to mess up the moyo he just built. Maybe by peeping at N16 then following up with M12 or something.

Maybe funkyj could chime in here, since it seems like hes much more qualified to speak about this.

Going to bed myself. I'll get humbled and read tomorrow :-)

I am icepick, 5k on KGS.

I'd read the Janice Kim Learn to Play Go series. 5 books. Teaches the rules and basic strategy.

Your next book should be The Second Book of Go.. This is an amazing book, which covers all of the questions and ideas that will occur to you after reading the Kim series, and playing 20 or 30 games.

Those, and alot of games, should be enough to get you to 10-12 kyu.

Guo Jan (5 dan pro) runs the Internet Go School. It has video lectures on a ton of topics and many courses. 1 euro per lesson.

Prepare yourself for a lifetime of effort.

Opening Theroy Made Easy

I created that.

Ask Me About Playing Go

I liked 21 because I thought he'd have to defend O18. Guess not. :-)

15 seemed standard to me. I didn't get what I wanted up there though, that's for sure. ButI clearly had plenty of room to live, and my right side could stand the out come (though I'm sure you're right that he could have hit me harder there afterward).

Here are a few comments. Please discuss and add your own comments.

If you have the SGF, Sensei's library includes a "convert SGF to wiki" function -- that is what I used to generate these diagrams.

Thanks.

I'm still happy with the game. I've improved I think. :-)

Oh yeah, a much better opening than when you and I played. It looks like a stronger player ("dieter") added commentary to the last diagram.

LOL...sorry go ain't that easy.

I missed this post, heh.

Maybe a couple hours a day studying and playing, with regular coaching to supplement that, for a few years would catch you up to some of them.

Ok, lemme take a glance at this one- this is a good level for me to try and review. I'm only a couple stones stronger (just played my first live tournament, rated 7k), so obviously take any suggestions with a grain of salt.

45: E3- I dunno if you can jump out like this- after D3 D2, white can try E2. If black plays F2, then C2 and B2 kills- it's gote and black gets some thickness on the side, so maybe that's not so bad- but it's worth considering.

53-57: this sequence seems bad for you- you shouldn't play so heavy when you are trying to invade/reduce. I think if he had played around F6 instead of b8 you would have gotten into trouble. Maybe start out with something like F5 if you want to play in the area.

It gets complicated after that- offhand, I don't see any terribly obvious mistakes.

169: I think you should just connect with N3 here. You are ahead and you will be able to increase your territory in the lower right by attacking white's weak group. No need to complicate things. I think white might be able to play J3 and kill instead of M5 on move 174.

179: do you need to respond here? Even if he were able to kill your corner with one more move (which I'm not sure about, offhand), your attack on his group in the lower right is bigger- I'm certain you'd be able to kill him with 2 moves in a row here.

~206: Somewhere around here you should look at M8- you can reduce his eyespace in sente.

216: If white plays N11 or M10 here or on the next move, you are in trouble.

Ok, that's good for now. Lots of good fighting in this game- you can certainly be happy with your play here.

Update the Sensei's library wikipage I made with your comments and then post a link here saying you have done. It really is not hard.

It is a lot easier for folks to follow along when looking at some diagrams. When you do comment on Sensei's Library you should begin your comment with your name or initials.

Dieter, a fairly strong SL member, has already commented. If folks comment on SL then there is more likely to be synergy from other SL folks.

Cyberoro appears to be an international-friendly korean server. However it appears to require its own Windows-only software.

Go Sensations appears to be an interesting site, recording top games played online at a variety of servers, including Tygem which apparently has the best opponent selection but is not practically accessible if you don't speak Korean and I think also only has an MS Windows-only client option.

Everyone should watch the Japanese anime, Hikaru No Go. It's awesome and will make you want to play go even if you've never heard of the game before.

I'd suggest reading the manga instead.

Ditto icepick.

Anyway I played another game today vs an 11k on IGS. I started off so well... got a huge kill.

Then I got over aggressive and he got a bigger kill. Bah.

I like what's happening with my game though. I really do. I just need not to let my newfound confidence cause me to try to run people over.

Meh, I disagree. What does the manga offer that the anime doesn't? The story is pretty much exactly the same. Every scene is pretty much the same. It's not like books turned movies where they butcher the entire plot. Sure, the manga is great for the story beyond the anime, but the anime offers engaging music and color.

I've never seen the television version, but there's no way that it can match the original in terms of pacing and detail.

Even if that were true, and I don't think it is, the awesome music more than makes up for it. I recomemnd you try it even if you've already read the manga.

Boy am I kicking myself right now. Gave a winning position away.

I spent several minutes thinking after this white group of mine got cut off from the middle, and I never think a long time. This deviation from my bad habits was paying off, and I set up this spot.

White to play and live: