Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c black to play
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . O . |
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X |
$$ . . . O O O O O X |
$$ . . . O X . X X O |
$$ . O . O X . . . . |
$$ . . . X . . . . . |
$$ -------------------[/go]

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

post scriptum:

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

SoDesuNe, look inside


Maybe Josh would care to share his findings with us

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

I just found several mistakes in my earlier tries, so I guess my move does not work.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Okay, new try =) Forcing moves first!

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

That was the solution I had.

There's a similar problem in the Lee Changho Life and Death series, problem 17 in book 5. It's a few moves further along than the problem Tchan posted.



White can play m19 next and will be able to live.

I'm happy I got the first 2 moves and the idea almost right then (I didn't post any answer, but was checking )

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Anyways, this is different from the model answer, but I don't want to waste any more space on Leyleth's thread on his becoming a pro. But if he wants to try a hard pro like prob, try the middlegame problem I posted on a separate thread.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

tchan001 showed me the model answer on KGS and it's - of course - much cleaner. No Ko, White lives unconditionally or connects out over the top. But at least it involves the same Tesuji eventually ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Started to lose lots against 7 kyus. Makes me depressed and now I'm just mad at everything in sight. Can't seem to win anymore. It's like if I had forgotten how... I'm so mad at myself. I can beat these guys. Hopefully it's gonna be better tomorrow. It's probably gonna sound stupid and girlish, but I just wanna cry. I can win. I know I can. However, my mind forgot how to play well. I make some sloppy mistakes despite lots of reading. I play bad moves. My go simply went from poor to horrible. I'm so mad...

We all have days like that Ley x.x The thing I use to pull through is to think about what the best moves are and not think about winning or losing at all. If this is hard, try playing only free games and when you feel super buzzed in the zone you can pop a rated game or two. But especially for slumps where you think it's all about winning or losing.

It's best to forget about winning and losing and just focus on playing well, not being afraid and not thinking your opponent is stronger than he actually is. Challenge him, don't let yourself be pushed around. Be positive!

)

You'll do better tomorrow. (It's a law; Regression to the mean; don't forget, though, the law says when you have a super good day, you'll do worse the day after...)

I don't recommend spending too much time being angry at yourself, it's not healthy. Go study instead.

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That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
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My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

This "law" makes compulsive gamblers lose fortunes. If it was bad today, it has to be better tomorrow. No, there is no law like this. Luck / randomness on the next day is independent of today's luck / randomness. As Go isn't a game of luck, but one of complete information it is even worse. Odds are you play worse the day after a bad day because you are not calm and don't play your best after a bad streak. Just keep playing and see how deep you can fall. Learning to cope with disappointments and to keep trying will make you a better player in the long run.

If luck were the sole determining factor, then you're correct, it's the gambler's fallacy. But if some aspect of your skill is involved, then regression to the mean is a real effect; on awesome days, you're likely to do worse the next day, on horrible days, you're likely to do better the next day (it also works backwards in time). Of course there's tons of other effects, too (like if you get depressed by a bad result, you can play even worse as a result). At 7k I expect other effects to dominate (e.g., it's possible that Leyleth has just started to understand how bad 7k's really are).

Another way of stating regression to the mean: If your average strength is 7k, then for every day you play like a 9k there has to be a day where you play like a 5k. And vice versa; for every 4k day there's a 10k day. The law is not your friend.

Edit: actually I don't like that phrasing, this is better: If your average strength is 7k, you're much more likely to experience days where you play near a 7k level than days where you play much better or much worse than 7k. So, if you just experienced a day where you played much better or worse, it's likely that the day before and the day after will see you playing nearer 7k.

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That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
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My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

I guess playing free games can help, also don't giving a sh?t about your games. After all, it's a game. It's not still your job Leyleth, take it easy for a while.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

How can you play your best when you don't care about the game in question? Did this work for anyone? (Kawabata says in Meijin how seriously Shusai even took other recreational games. And I believe I heard similar things about other professional players.) I would advice the opposite: Only play rated games and get used to losing a rank in between. It happens to all of us.

Imho it is no good to have a fixed idea of oneself as a 7k or 2d or whatever, these are hopefully nothing but the expressions of a still limited but increasing understanding. Seeing the rank swing back and forth may help more against the whole reification of ranks than anything else. Plenty of unranked KGS players are in fact very rank-conscious outside server play, but can't stand the idea of "not being able to represent it" on KGS.

It's not the gambler's fallacy.

The gambler's fallacy is "I lost today, so I shall win tomorrow." Complete garbage if results are independent.

Regression to the mean is "I had my worst loss (or biggest win) in years today. Tomorrow won't be so bad."* Guaranteed by the laws of probability for independent events.

* Or perhaps you'd prefer "it's extremely unlike that tomorrow will be this bad". The relation between such absolute statements and claims about probability is one of those problems that is too hard to ever be solved.

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Occupy Babel!