When I was 14k, occasionally I would come into contact with players who were more or less giant berserkers; they would start the game by attaching right next to your first stone and then never tenuki and give up the fight. Sometimes I even dreaded playing on automatch because, "What if I get another player like that?" I usually ended up making severe blunders even though I was ahead which cost me the games. This game is another one of them, but I fared much better? I'm sorry, but I really hate games like these.

Here's the game and some comments by me:



If I hane here, it feels like I'm asking for more trouble.
Feels safe enough for tenuki
Uhh, it's not the same situation, dude.
Thanks for the thickness. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to attack towards it so I just made points with it.
Overplay probably and I can possibly kill the group on the bottom, but I was content with letting it crawl.
:b153: It really feels like my cutting points were dodgy right here. Around the L8 and P4 area
:b163: It's like he feels I'm obligated to take the ko.
:b167: Found the time to connect my groups. I doubt only a little bit that my group that was surrounded up there could've died, but it would've struggled to make two eyes I feel.
:b169: YES, I CAN STILL FIX IT SINCE YOU'RE DEAD IN GOTE!
:b179: I know he will respond to this, so I'll use it to make some points.
:b197: Greedy of me, but at least not greedy enough to where I die up there.

If you think hane is asking for more trouble,
what about your hane ? Your is "hane head of two," which is big. But did you also consider just nobi on ? Already 4th line territory --
not good enough for you ? If was nobi instead of hane, then you could've definitely hane'd on .

Also, with your hane, did you read the cut ?

I'm not saying whether your hane is good or bad. (It may be a very good move; I'm not sure. )

Also, what's your reading if hane ?

Your feels strange to me.

Maybe something like this could happen? Which seems completely awful for white.

http://eidogo.com/#C90gldXy

I'm not all for creating too many cut points for myself since I don't really like fighting all too much. If I kept extending at to take more 4th line territory, it feels like I'm just giving my opponet a massive wall that will severely affect the rest of the board. When will the extensions end? I don't think I can one space jump to get ahead on the 4th line. I was almost tempted to play O14 at 7.

Hi Abyssinica,

I really don't feel confortable with that kind of game too... that's why I think
I would just be playing in another corner and ignore the shoulder hit of ...
To me, it doesn't seems as urgent as it would be on a 3-3 point.

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Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

A couple of comments.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Maybe try san-San openings instead of hoshi. Hoshi is open to attack for such a long period of time. While professionals and top level players make bank on nice orderly developments, you have to put up with joe hamete, and all of his trick plays. With San-San there are only three or four joseki, and two or three common non-joseki and two or three vulgar openings, with that you should be able to defend yourself from joe hamete.

You have too much fear. It is better to play moves you are scared of and die and learn, than be a chicken. Even better spend a bit of time to read (you spent only 13 seconds) and then you can play without fear. For example this ladder shouldn't be too hard to find:

http://eidogo.com/#399gtfenm

You should welcome opponents who play like this. They should motivate you to study a book on tesuji. You would be able to counter almost every one of their moves with a little study.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

I would point out that you don't have much to be afraid of if this is how you play against it. There may have been some missed opportunities, but black's easily 40 or 50 points up, if not more, and white barely has any territory on the board. I usually get really angry only when I lose to people who play like this, because I know their moves are wrong and it's on me to show them why.

It wasn't how I always played against it; I used to do really horribly and I guess that's stuck with me for a while now.

It's almost as if you've been getting better

Or even better ladder it the other way so you don't give your opponent a ladder breaker. A little blind spot for me there.