Hello everybody! My name is Shawn Ligocki and I started playing Go about 7 months ago (Sounds sort of like I'm introducing myself at Go Anonymous, right?) and have been pretty captivated by the game since I started! (Heh, probably not super-original for folks on this forum, but what can I say...) I live in Boston and play at the Diesel cafe (Doesn't it sound like a leather bar? Couldn't be further from the truth!) meetup every Thursday (any of you live in the area?).

I've been recording all my games since my first tournament in late October and I thought it might be fun to start posting my games here to centralize my analysis and maybe get some feedback from you all. I don't know how often I'll be able to post, but I'd love to hear any comments from any of you!

I've been improving quickly and am now 8 kyu on KGS. Just this last Sunday I went undefeated at our local tournament at 8k! But even in these games, I made many mistakes that almost cost me the games. So I know I have a lot of work to do.

My biggest goal is to become really proud of my games (I'm only really proud of one my games at this tournament). I don't have any particular rank goal in mind, but for fun let's say I'd feel quite accomplished to be AGA 4 kyu by the US Go Congress in August (Maybe I'll see some of you guys there?).

Here's my first game from the tournament. It's an even game.

I felt pretty smug at the beginning because White was letting make a gigantic moyo, but she ended up cutting up my group and then chasing my weak group throughout her moyo. I should not have lived, but she made a critical mistake.

Here are my main questions about the game:

1. What should I have done differently around instead of just pushing White to slice through my groups? Was this play reasonable up until then (I felt quite good about it!) But when White cut my groups up, I felt like I'd made a mistake.

2. Could I have played better in response to the 3-3 invasion? I was hoping to get sente out of it to invade White's corner.

3. How would it be better to have played starting around ? I don't understand very well how to play when trying to make eyeshape in my opponent's moyo and I should have died. Maybe I should have played more lightly? But I was worried that I'd lose the entire bottom-left group if I left any cutting points. I feel like I could use a lot of help on this section of the game.

Things I know I should have done better:

1. Protect locally at , White's follow up there was devastating and I could have played in sente there :/

2. Many endgame problems. After about Move 146 or so we were in Byo-yomi and I didn't realize how many weaknesses there were in the top right (or how close the game would be).

Thanks!

Hi Shawn,Correct. Big mistakes in your shapes. Start to study Broken shapes. See also Toothpaste and Small gaps.

Thanks for the review Ed!

Those low moves at and are really helpful and I appreciate your explanation of the broken shape that I kept creating. I'll work on that in future games.

But I still don't fully understand why White would play defensively at . This move seems concerning to me:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$-------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O . . . . |
$$ . . X X X O O . . |
$$ . . . . O X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . 1 X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Should I not worry because giving him a panuki in the outside is worth less than the corner?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Continuation?
$$-------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O . . 6 . |
$$ . . X X X O O 4 . |
$$ . . . . O X X O . |
$$ . . . . . 2 1 X 5 |
$$ . . . . . . . 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Or maybe this is better:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Continuation?
$$-------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O . . . . |
$$ . . X X X O O 6 . |
$$ . . . . O X X O . |
$$ . . . . . 2 1 X 5 |
$$ . . . . . . 4 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

These look like they could be worse to me, but I have trouble telling.

Hi Shawn, after , B has miai of (a) and (b) -- so it is B who gets a ponnuki first:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$--------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O . . . . |
$$ . . X X X O O b . |
$$ . . . . O X X O . |
$$ . . . . . 2 1 X . |
$$ . . . . . . a . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Continuation 1. at , at (c) or (d)
$$--------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O . . . . |
$$ . . X X X O O . . |
$$ . . . . O X X O . |
$$ . . . . . 2 1 X 5 |
$$ . . . . . c 4 3 . |
$$ . . . . . d . 6 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Thanks Ed, I'll try not to be afraid of that atari next time.

Here is the second game of my tournament last week.

Overall, I felt great about my opening, I got a huge moyo and only gave White a little bit of territory (say up to ). But then White kept jumping in and trying to spoil my moyo all over the place. I can't tell if this was a bad idea (making lots of weak groups) or a good idea (playing lightly in Blacks area to spoil my moyo). I know I made a huge blunder (not connecting at ) and was saved by White making a similarly huge mistake (responding to my ko threat at White 119).

Here's what I'm curious about in the game:

1. Was a bad play? Just helping White to settle her shape? How about the rest of that corner play?
2. How about the fight from - ? I still felt good having built huge influence while giving White only small life (or is it even alive?). Should I have attacked the top group more?
3. At , should I have attacked this weak group on the left more?
4. Does White have a good response to Black 100 to save the top group? Should I have played differently to avoid the disadvantageous ko?
5. White should not have responded to my Ko threat at Black 118, right? Can I live if White connects? (I don't see how I could.)
6. Does White have any Ko threats for White 121?

Thanks!

At 175, black should play A14 and will then have miai to either capture the two stones to kill the corner, or, if white captures the one stone, then play B12 to kill.

Also, for a long time in the top right, I'm pretty sure black can kill with Q18, followed by a peep.

Note that Black can also just descend as shown below. Now 'a' and 'b' are miai for Black. White cannot achieve anything here.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Calmly!
$$-------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O . . . . |
$$ . . X X X O O a . |
$$ . . . . O X X O . |
$$ . . . . . 2 1 X 4 |
$$ . . . . . . b 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Great, thanks ez4u! That descent looks much better for Black and now I can see that White has a lot of problems.

Here's a game I lost a week ago that I think I could learn a lot from. I reviewed the game with my opponent afterwards and that's the basis for most of my comments.

As always, comments are most appreciated!



My overall thoughts:
* might be in the wrong direction?
* Should not have ignored , the corner was in trouble.
* And in general after this, I should have been focused on getting out and making life with that weak corner group.

Hi Shawn, your is no problem. In fact, it's better than the kosumi variation.

If you made mistakes in the game, it's not here. It's later, in your follow-ups, etc.
Many people misunderstand which mistakes are important to fix at which levels,
and which are not important.

Thanks Ed, I thought that was good, but my opponent told me that the diagonal was better (which I thought was wrong). I appreciate your clarification here.

Hi Shawn, when in doubt, check with a reputable source. Like a pro. Not just any pro, but a good-level pro.
(How to find such resources, you may ask. That's the $1M question isn't it. Bill here is good. )

Kyu advice...

Just had an excellent game against my friend Neil at the local go club on Thursday. After reviewing it a bit I can see that I missed several chances to take great local moves for profit and, in the end, to win the game. But I feel like I may have made some poor global strategic choices as well, any comments on my direction of play and whole board reasoning?



Big things I'm wondering about:
1. Was I too focussed on my one large moyo? Counting points near the end of the game I realized that White will clearly win if all I get is that moyo (It is maybe 60pts, but White has double wing of territory, plus some on the right.) Should I have disrupted White's moyo earlier? How?
2. Around , was there a better way to reduce/invade White's moyo? I was happy to get my reduction in sente, but maybe I really just helped White to solidify his territory?
3. Was it a good idea to let run out so far? I think it was good because my moves were dual purpose, reducing White's moyo and surrounding the invasion, but maybe I let the invasion get too big?

Local mistakes I noticed (Please clarify if you think I read this wrong):
1. should have pushed in at Q7 instead of P6! This would have sealed White in or made him run for his life!
2. should have helped my weak side group, not sure where.
3. : would it be better to connect here? I cannot read this well.
4. should have wedged to get aji while connecting.
5. pushes the wrong way, White is happy to abandon that one stone.
6. (and maybe several earlier plays) should have attacked the invading group? For example at J2.
7. Black 105 at H5 kills, I think.
8. Black 127 should have continued pushing. Let White push from behind and get enough liberties to crush White's group.
9. Black 135 also should have continued pushing. Same reason.

Moved this game over to a new game review thread, because I'm really curious to get feedback on it. Please post comments there.

Let's see if I can catch up on my games for the last few weeks.

I'm a little behind thanks to a beautiful climbing trip up to Rumney, New Hampshire last weekend

Alright here's a game I played 2 weeks ago. It's my 100th game! But unfortunately I lost (playing against 7 stones handicap is quite daunting!)



Looking through it now, here are the mistakes I can tell that I made:

probably should have gone the other way (C4) to take advantage of such a strange . Then if Black wanted to keep me disconnected he'd need another over-concentrated play in that area.

was a disastrous blunder. I'd go so far as to say this one haunted me for the rest of the game and led to most of my weaknesses. I'm guessing just the solid extension at E9 would have been much better. I thought that would be too slow and give up sente, but obviously it's soo much better than the alternative I ended up with.

On a high level I think my strategy of destroying Blacks left side and trying to kill his group was misguided and caused way more problems for me than it helped. I'm not sure exactly where it went wrong, but I think somewhere between - I should have stopped trying so hard to create/save that left group and spent more time developing my top moyo, keeping my bottom groups connected, keeping my top left corner, etc. On a high level I think trying so hard to make this group live hurt me the most in the game.

White 135 was I think the losing move. Blacks cut at 138 was too big and White 135 was much smaller than I expected.

White 157 is too small I think now. There were still big moves like the cut at P10.

White 179 probably should have captured at T10, then Black might have had to fight a little harder to live.

There's not too much to say about this game. I think I played it really well and my opponent played extremely poorly. I proud of the way I ignored many of Black's small plays and let him build some territory so that I could get a massive moyo.