One of the key consequences to rust, in my case, is that I start to lose sight of L&D. Large groups will die or I will make invasions that are unreasonable, simply because I will leave saving them for too long.
As I study and knock that rust off, it happens less frequently, but it seems to be a common trend every time I take some time off from playing.
Shygost (6d AGA) advises one to ask "am I okay", but (no offense to shy), I feel that this misses a fundamental problem with kyu-level players. My answer of "am I okay" is often based on a combination of some reading and a gut instinct. It often isn't easy to tell if a group is "weak" or "attackable." So, for many players, they look at a group and say "oh, I'm not fine" and start adding stones needlessly or will say "I'm fine," when in truth they are incredibly weak.
I recognize that shy's goal is to get people to think about their groups, and that this is a Good Thing™, but I also tend to think that the advice needs to be suffixed with a piece of advice I have been frequently given:
Can I see a specific sequence of attack that I dislike the end result of?
If the answer is "yes" then I should seriously consider playing in the area (barring the possibility of something bigger or more urgent). If the answer is "no," but I am wrong and lose the group or get chased around the board, then afterwards I can see what happened and thus, learn. If I play defensively and I am wrong, then it is far more difficult for me to learn from my mistakes.
The most common piece of criticism I have when reviewing a DDK game is "what were you afraid of?" The answers come back:
* "I was afraid W would cut me in half."
* "I was afraid that W, being stronger than me, could somehow kill that corner"
"Fear is white's strongest ally." -- Jeong Soo-hyun, 9p and Janice Kim, 3p
I guess that if I lose, then I learn. If I play out of fear, then I might as well not be thinking.
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2 comments:
Yes. The sense of being okay is heavily dependent on the player's ability to read the situation correctly. We can't address shygost's question honestly unless we have the knowledge and experience to support our answer.
What follows is an excerpt from a comic that I have yet to complete. It was inspired by a conversation with erislover.
Much fear I sense in you.
Fear leads to gote,
... gote leads to loss,
... loss leads to suffering.
;-D
Oh!!!!!!!!!!! You are back in the blogging world, great! Good insights.
I am trying to do some of those things, and also have started to lean more towards the 'can I see how to kill this?' about my weak groups. If I can't, I often tenuki and yes, learn the hard way that it was killable after all. Lesson learned :)
But I agree, the lesson is not to add an extra stone, the lesson is to work on my reading power and l/d.
Trying to get rid of my cowardly moves.
NannyOgg
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