"IF YOU DON`T KNOW LADDERS, DON`T PLAY GO"

 is a well known Go proverb ... just like for example 

 "The opponent's vital point is my vital point" 

 

"Hane at the Head of Two Stones"

"Don't touch stones you want to attack."
  
"Don't follow proverbs blindly"  

 

A lot of these usefull proverbs we can find and study here at Sensei's Library.

But back to the ladder ... I really thought that once i`m a single digit Kyu player i will never misread a (simple!) ladder again.

But i actually did heapen again 2 days ago.
I was not drunk or very tired neither  in a bad mood or sick.

I just made the same mistake as often before:  
Out of too much self confidence i wanted to play without thinking! 

In fact i was thinking, but not much,  just:  

"ohh, haha, this stone there is one point too far for beeing a ladder breaker ... this will work just fine"  :•)

Everytime when i, out of this attitude of mental laziness and too much self confidence, start to play fast and kind of "intuitiv" without making much effort to read and judge the positions correctly ...  i fail.

I know this is no big insight but perhaps this is one thing that a lot of kyu players, like myself, should understand ... and the reason why teachers allways are pointing out how important the tsumego study is ... without taking your time to read out a situation kind of deeply you will not become much stronger!

Go does not mean, playing a nice relaxing game and just play wherever i want to...

Even when Go is a very creative game in general, and in lots of situations there is not "the only move" ... constantly there will be situations where there is only the one and only move! 
(in fact i`m saying this  primarily too myself, because i keep forgetting it  )

 When i started to play Go i was (and i`m still)  fascinated by the creative part of the game, ...  and then a teacher suggested that i should regularly solve Tsumego...

Damn. How i hated it to look 10 minutes on a simple pattern and feeling stupid because i did not find the "black to live" move ...

But my appreciation for Go has grown more and more ... and i realised: if i don`t learn the Tactics (Link: SL Tactics ) i will never become a serious Go player.

And as we see below, of course i was white,  i`m still not a "very serious Go player" :•)

“Do nothing which is of no use” Miyamoto Musashi