I’m very new to Go and this is my first review request.
I’ve played my 4th game against human and i did really really bad.
It was a handicap game (I’m the 19k) and i know i played under stress and without structure or plan.
I know I have several dozens mistakes in this game, to start with, continuing the game even when realizing after the first 30-40 moves that i was not at my best.
Anyhow, could someone please give me the biggest takeaway of this game so i can start focusing on a topic to improve?
There are too many for me now as a beginner so, a hint of where to focus my current attention would be good (improving opening, not invading so fast, learn how to defend against an attack, learn to live… whatever it is).
Hi paletochen, it’s great to see your enthusiasm is driving you to ask for help to try to improve. If I have time tomorrow I will try to make a review. But, I think the most important thing at your level is to keep playing games and try not to worry about losing. We have a saying that you should try to play your first 50 to 100 games as quickly as possible (actually, the proverb is sometimes stated as to lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible!). You will learn a lot instinctively from those games based on what works and what doesn’t that is hard to put into words and will serve as a good basis for studying the things you mention. It sounds like you may have played more than four games against bots, but I find that playing against people instead of computers leads to faster improvement because you are more likely to think carefully about your moves.
I was hesitant to ask for a review of this game as I feel the number of mistakes is too big but, i also read often that the best way to improve is to review your own lost games to avoid making the same mistakes again.
I guess, based on your answer, that it may be still too early for me to do that, right?
Anyhow, thanks for your offer and do not feel bad if you reject my request later on. I would fully understand it.
I’m playing against humans now.
Indeed I won another game right after this one against a 15k, thanks to the handicap (the other player could not overcome it). But made me feel better after this bad loss
I thought the proverb was lose the first 100 games. anyways, I played over 160 19x19 games and am 12k. I’ve found out that I started learning about fuseki and joseki at 20k-12k. I definitely learned about basic shapes and basic strategy. I’ve read some books and stuff on senseis and there is no better way to improve than to play. The fastest way to improve imo.
Play 100 19x19 games.
Do 1000 Life and death puzzles.
@iketeru Go for it! You don’t need to be many stones stronger to give useful advice. In some ways, being much stronger can make it difficult to give a review (unless you are practiced at teaching and reviewing) since it is tempting to criticize every move and give alternate suggestions that would be difficult for the weaker player to understand. Once you post your review, I can take a look to see if I find problems with any of your comments and we can all gain a bit.
@paletochen here you go: https://online-go.com/review/152013 I hope it’s helpful! in terms of the example sequences, I sometimes fail to read the most realistic moves, so I hope you can comment if possible @mikemc.
I started looking over @iketeru’s review but didn’t have time to make detailed comments yet. See my comments about iketeru’s suggestion at move 15, though: https://online-go.com/review/151828
@mikemc
Thank you! Really appreciate it.
This weekend i will go carefully through all the recommendations and analysis.
This is my first review request and I’m extremely impressed with the help received. Makes me love this game and community even more and i hope one day i’ll be in a position where i could also help other newcomers too.
