6 Yi Se-tol games in hand (mind?)
Using the combination of Drago, Mnemosyne, and KifuReviewer, I’ve memorized 6 Yi Se-tol games (first 50 moves). Here are them, from the order in which they are memorized:
| White | Black | Event | Date | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yi Ch’ang-ho | Yi Se-tol | 3rd Toyota Cup (semi-final) | 2006-09-01 | B+R (komi 6.5) |
| Hane Naoki | Yi Se-tol | 3rd Toyota Cup (round 3) | 2006-08-30 | B+R (komi 6.5) |
| Cho Hun-hyeon | Yi Se-tol | year 2006 Korean League | 2006-06-22 | B+R (komi 6.5) |
| Cho Hun-hyeon | Yi Se-tol | 2nd Korean Prices Information Cup (league D) | 2006-05-25 | B+R (komi 6.5) |
| Cho Chikun | Yi Se-tol | 19th Fujitsu Cup (round 2) | 2006-04-10 | B+R (komi 6.5) |
| Yi Se-tol | Yamashita Keigo | 10th LG Cup (round 2) | 2005-05-18 | W+R (komi 6.5) |
All the results are Yi+R. No, Yi Se-tol does not always win by resignation. The games are deliberately chosen as such so that I can easily memorize the result.
I can’t say that those games improved my own play. It does broaden my joseki knowledge, especially on the komoku ones. I also found some surprising moves, such as approaching a hoshi enclosure from below and invading a double enclosed hoshi. However I won’t write more about it primarily because I just took note of them and haven’t bothered to study the positions in depth.
The openings are especially hectic. In most of the games, a complex fight starts early from one of the corners and spreads towards the center. When a fight like that occurs, other corners and sides will be untouched.
My purpose of memorizing the games is just to warm myself up for the real improvement activity: tsumego. If you can’t do life and death and solve tactical problems, you won’t get far.
I’ve started doing the Korean Problem Academy sets from gobase. For book 1 (200 problems, rated 25k-15k) I got all of them correct. Not surprising since I’m now 8k YIC and because I’ve been through book 1 quite a lot. For book 2 (200 problems, rated 15k-5k), my score is 96%. The mistakes are getting seki while a better solution exists. I’m currently redoing it again.
I’ll probably do daily goproblems.com (downloadable) soon. 30 minutes a day should be enough. I also need to study more advanced life and death concepts by reading Sensei’s Library (also downloadable). In the past, my theoretical study of eyeshapes (farmer’s hat, bulky 5, rectangular 4, etc) and elementary L&D techniques (nakade, throw in, oshitubushi) really helped me. There’s still very much to learn, from notchers to the dreadful carpenter’s square.
Though memorizing games isn’t my main priority now, I’ll add my collection from time to time.
