Studying harder and harder

So I'm on stand down (only working two days a week) for the next to weeks so I've been hitting my studies hard. I'm currently ranked 3k on Tygem, with 10 wins and one loss. (On Tygem, your record basically goes on fifteen game cycles. Your win/loss spread decides how your rank adjusts, to go up one rank, you must win 10 games. To go up two, you are required to win 14. If you lose 11, you go down one, and if you lose 14, you go down two). So my rank up (after another four games) to 2k is secured. If I continue my streak and win four more games, I'll jump up to 1k. Last night I had my first lesson with Li Ang since I've been back. My game was quite horrible. I overlooked pretty much every move. Well, overlooking isn't just the word. More like saw hallucinations. I made two misreads. At two seperate points in the game, I read out two sequences that lead to white laddering me.. and decided against it, when the ladders were actually in my favor. Not to mention just missing moves. I felt horrible with my game. But it was good exercise. I have another lesson with him on Friday, so I'll redeem myself then.

New player of interest

So, a friend of mine showed me a professional game he thought was interesting. It has lead to my new favorite player being a relatively new 1p from Korea named Na Hyun. The match in concern is his match from the Samsung Cup vs. Kong Jie. He opening with a typical japanese opening, Kong Jie playing a chinese opening, and when Na Hyun invaded, his korean side seemed to come out and just completely dominate his opponent. It's worth taking a look at on go4go. Anyway, continuing to win games on Tygem (I should rank up again in a few more games) and this month of ASR is coming to a close, I'm still in the lead, and I don't see myself falling out of the lead anytime soon. Advancement to the next class is assured.

Continuing to rank up

So before my last patrol, I played as a 5k on Tygem. It was very hard to find out if it was an accurate rank or not though, because it seemed that my opponents varied in strength greatly. Since I've been back however, I have been decimating my opponents. I just ranked up again tonight to 3k, and my opponents still quite aren't really giving me a challenge. I'm estimating that I'll settle around 1k or stronger based off of how I'm playing thus far, but we'll see. It'll be nice to have a first solidly ranked dan account. On note of KGS, I still lead the way in my ASR class by a whopping ten points. As such, I've shifted my focus back to playing games on Tygem, and only occasionally play ASR games now (especially since winning my class doesn't yield me anything). I continue to do Tsumego constantly, both on an app on my smartphone, and via books. I'm currently a bit over halfway through Making Good Shape, and I still have quite some more ahead of me, though I've rearranged the order I'm going through them in. When I start getting better games, I'm thinking of joining GTL to get reviews of my games. As well as give them of course. Until next time.

Leading the way in Delta III

So I decided to join ASR League, though I'm not sure how much I'm going to get out of it. I still play games on Tygem though, just not as often. I added to my studies though, memorizing/analyzing pro games (one every 2-3 days). I'm currently leading the way in Delta class, currently 14:1. But there are only a couple of strong players in my class, and I have yet to play them. I still have just about a month left till the tournament, so I'm still studying hard. Wish me luck.

Study plan

So my current studying schedule is as follows.

A game a day
Study joseki daily (dailyjoseki.com)
Problems in my free time (any type), and when my mind needs a break, watching high dan/pro games
Memorize and study two pro games a week

I'm also starting to study in a focused area. Initially, I'm going to be starting on Life and Death. My problems will be life and death oriented, and as I get a chance, I'll be studying specifics on life and death (ie: L, L+1, etc). After a period, I'll switch off to some other aspect in a game.

Entry 1

So. I figured I'd start a blog in order to help keep me motivated with my go studies. My good friend Nanny does it, so I figured I'd follow suit. I currently just signed up for the site dailyjoseki.com.  Seems like a good way to help study joseki, which I tend to shirk, so my goal is to study everyday, so hopefully my openings will tend to not fall apart. I'm also doing problems daily, on books I have on my Kindle. Currently working through 501 opening problems, though I'm almost finish, I will probably move through the series (next being 1001 life and death problems I believe). And after this move is settled (hopefully this weekend) I'm going to start trying to actually play again, though I'll only probably be playing on Tygem, I find it easier there to not care about rank or how I play, and to be able to play interesting moves and learn while not really caring about rank. I take KGS games too seriously. Hopefully during this next year, I'll be able to play more in person games, I want to get to the point where I'm not so jittery when I sit infront of a real board. It's quite annoying and I know I get wound up tight and not able to properly release my strength. Wish me luck.