Small victories

On a slightly (though only slightly) humbler note I thought I'd document a couple of little recent wins.

1. After three 2 stone handicap games as white I finally beat akira2. It's pretty obviously a club account but I'm pretty sure that I played the same person each time (big fan of the two space jump in response to Keima approach to a hoshi stone - very strange). The first game I got thumped after a misread in a capturing race I should have won. The second my mind was not in the game (rushed game, dealing with "sleeping" kid at same time, really just wanting an even match etc - I was set up to fail) and I got thumped again. For the third match though I'd done my homework - studied up on a better way to punish his wired joseki and his and my overplays from the first two games. While I did punish the noseki a little more - mentally I was in a better place and that made all the difference.

2. I ran a couple of bios for Japanese players through google translate. Long story short, I'm not the only one feeling frustrated while trying to get over this rank.

3. I beat a 3kyu ... nemesis is probably too strong a word ... perhaps frienemy? ... no ... casual rival on dgs for the first time. Then I beat him again - very nice.

4. As you might gather I've been playing more correspondence games at a higher level on dgs. It seems to be helping my game. I've also started a couple of teaching games - one player at least is chatty - and another is suspiciously strong (I may loose but let's see).

5. Another victory against the 1k at the club. At 6 stones handicap but I think I could go to 5.

In any case my rank is all over the place at the moment but it seems to be going in the right direction.

8 kyu

As expected I lost my first couple of games at 8k. Nothing extraordinary - the first game was just plain foolish (though despite a couple of mistakes any 20k would have avoided I was able to gringo the score back to 15pts - so I save a little bit of face there), the second was a little better but not by much (I was thrown a bit by a slightly unusual opening but the real problem was a lack of focus). Part of my problem is also performance anxiety - I always play a kittle worse just after going up a rank for the first time.

My third game though I feel was more review-worthy. Despite being a win (which is always fun to share), I made some poor choices early on and was behind up to move 122. At that point I got lucky with a fight and a ko and managed to turn things around in a big way - but there was definitely some poor judgement leading up to it. (Ps the 3 opponents had between 4000 and 30,000 games so we are still well in club account territory).

Hi S2W, on , you had 2 choices to connect: D18 as in the game, or C17.
Think about what's the difference when .

Why ?

locally, can you do better ?

Hmm, in both cases I was clearly playing without reading. W84 was the fear of ko or some bad aji from the single stone rather than the reality


Hmm I'm still struggling with that one. In game I considered the double hane but I didn't like the shape after black cuts and ataris. The one space jump seems even worse.

What don't you like about it ?

It seemed that it could lead to a big fight where black had more to gain than white.

Here's some thoughts:

But if White 104 attacks with the knight's move, instead of pushing one step behind, Black is in trouble. And there is another weak group at the top.

Hi S2W, in your main branch, as Charles noted: your main branch's 104 push induces
105, making a broken shape for you (with ) -- do you see it ?

Hello Charles & Ed,

There's a bit of a miscommunication here on my part. But there are also some things I'd like to explore - so I'm going to press on (and likely cause more confusion). If it works out as I expect we'll end up arguing about the impact of Ebola on the state of American education (btw I'm for it - but only in purple states).

Stu

1.

I was actually thinking that black was in trouble without the keima -the keima definitely does look like a stronger attack though.

2. Ed - yes I noticed that white was squeezing black toothpaste from behind. ... ... Ok I did just write it - I'll leave it ... but in this case I guess I thought that white was strong enough that it didn't matter - black would be in trouble anyway. But maybe there is a way to exploit that bad shape that Charles is noticing (which might be again source of confusion)

3. I was thinking though that the second branch (or possibly the third with the tigers mouth) were stronger responses

4. Ultimately though it seemed that playing the hane at 94 would lead to a great deal of complexity - I guess I was not sure enough about the outcome to stake the game on that move. The nobi seemed more honte (?) maybe.

Extending rather than playing the double hane is not in itself weak: sometimes it would be correct. As it happens you have massive influence above.

I think it is sometimes helpful to think about the quasi-proverb "there are no safe plays". Like most proverbs it is not precisely a truth. Here there are two kinds of danger, in that you (a) may play safe and make your influence into territory, but have the game counted wrong; or (b) start a fight that you then mishandle.

I think the fight is easier to understand than the positional judgement, in this case: in some sense this is a clearcut position. Black cutting up rough will be seen to be an overplay quite soon.

I see what you are saying Charles - here the certain loss associated with extending outweighs the potential risk associated with the hane. I have to confess that playing such a move is hard though - given that I can't be certain of the outcome of the fight - but perhaps given that I would be behind anyway ...

Playing such a move is also more difficult at this level at least - as a slightly more defensive stance seems to work well at 10/9 k. But perhaps the danger is that I am trading defensive play to compensate for lack of depth in reading. Something to think about and watch out for.

That said I am still struggling to find a good counter to the hane variation. Any suggestions?

Perhaps I can add some clarification, or confusion, with a dissenting opinion: I think your extend was fine. It was my instinct too, though that's not to say my instincts are correct (they are good enough to be around 3d KGS level for mindless blitz). Even after some thought it seems ok, perhaps better than hane.

Firstly, well done for considering black cutting and fighting rather than simply pull back to n5 after the atari. It is always better to anticipate fights than be surprised when your opponent makes one.

Second, well done for considering the hanging connection rather than solid connection after the cut. This is a good move that makes it hard for white to safely enclose the black cutting stones as if white pushes at n7 he is left with a cut at m7. A common downside of this shape is white can play q6 atari forcing p7 connection and p8 becoming an empty triangle, but here that is not bad for black because q6 is practically useless for white whilst p8 is useful for black with regards to getting out (enabling him to hane at n8 after white n7).

Third, regarding squeezing the toothpaste and the knight's move after black's suboptimal solid connection: both of them lead to black dying. It doesn't matter if white breaks his own shape if it captures all the black stones. White's 28 is not an important stone in that line so it doesn't matter blighting it. Black can't capture it and even if he does it's not two eyes. In fact the pushing from behind could be better than the knight's move in that white doesn't have a cutting point on the outside after black keeps on squirming with n10. Now here the n5 atari helps white deal with that, but a one-way street with no outside cuts looks a good plan for white.

In summary, extend was fine for your level, probably fine for my level and if you spent as much analysis on all your moves as this one you will soon be a dan player.

Can you say atari, boys and girls?

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Some comments.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Every now and then I wonder why I'm not a 1 dan - the answer is not that hard really.

Not much live go for the last couple of weeks - my family and I (in that order) were struck down with a fairly debilitating virus (I was wiped out most of the weekend and I'm still feeling a little light headed). I have been going well on dgs though - my 4k rank is holding at least a little longer and until about an hour ago I thought I was going to get my first even win against a 2 kyu - but I think they have one too many ko threats - we'll see.

During the break my live play has gotten a bit rusty. I've played 5 or 6 matches on igs since getting 8k - and only won two. At least one or two of those were due to simple mistakes, and the wins well they weren't my best effort either. Just need to get my head back in the game.

Anyway - here's one of the wins. I got some big points, but I was probably too willing to sacrifice my stones and was lucky that my opponent played some slack moves in the middle game.

seems B needs one more move lower right corner. Maybe O3 big ?

seems wrong shape.

bad to allow hane F10 -- hane at both the head AND the ass.

hane F10 seems only move.

you got lucky because of .

?

you cannot let the cutting stones at G12 die.

should be game over.

Highlight of the game: the mild ladder breaker at

At you start coming back. In the end Black loses by making more mistakes.

Ed, knotwilg - thanks for your comments - it definitely was not my best game it's surprising how much even a week of not playing live games gets me out of the flow of playing. The ladder breaker - sigh - a classic "wouldn't it be cool if" move... Read fool, read.

Somehow - despite all odds I've managed to cling to my 8k rating. I thought I'd lost it last night in a 2 stone handicap against a 6 kyu but I managed to eek out a 5 point win thanks to endgame and the reverse komi.

Tonight's game ... another slightly desperate win ... a 3 stone handicap game against an 11 kyu+. I was hoping for my opponent to make a mistake - which they did in spades. But I'd rather be good than lucky (and boy was I lucky).



On the plus side my dgs games are going great! There's one in particular I can't wait to share.