Hi guys,

I'm trying to learn to play calmer, usualy I play very aggressive.
At the same time of course I'm not going to let my oponent get away with everything.
I'm black.

My own review:
29: extend once more, otherwise you get the cut.
39: different invasion point ? but which ? I get very cramped shape
100: ignore ko threat I can live in the center without it. Cannot read completely though.
103: could not find ko threat, any I missed ?

Any thoughts are greatly apreciated !

Cheers,
Otenki

My thoughts:

Move 13: Black may want to take a big point like Q10 before attacking this group. Also, black can attack more severely with a play like L16. I'm kind of surprised white didn't reinforce this group.

Move 15: I feel this helps reinforce white's side...

Move 21: Should be high to keep the pressure on white's group.

Move 23: Is 3-3 the best invasion here? I am not sure, but something like a 5-2 point or even a keima approach bears thinking about.

Move 29: Maybe B2 as a forcing move to allow the hane to work?

Move 39: Consider a cap? It's hard because of the result from the bottom left. Once white hanes, black can also consider crosscutting for sabaki. With this fight, white is making territory on two sides while black struggles.

Move 69: Thank you move. Black helps white fix his shape while playing bad shape. I think black has the support to cut directly.

Move 100: I would ignore the threat because if white wins the ko, white can now threaten the black UR group in sente, and I am not sure what a follow up move would accomplish for white.

Move 105: If there is no follow up to 103, then it wasn't really a ko threat, just gote. This helps tell you that black needed to finish the ko earlier, I think.

After this, the center fight is ugly. I think black could have come out okay if he sacrificed a bit on the top right of the fighting, but he's in a tough situation.

Overall, I think a lot of the issues in this game came from A) not attacking the top white group well, and B) invasions that left black without much to show for them compared to white's stronger position.

B7 - Four out of five times the pros will approach the unfinished corner in the lower right (based on nearly 600 games in GoGoD).
B11 - It seems too late for this since White just staked out the left side. Being calm means changing your plans based on what the opponent plays. If you stubbornly concentrate on one small area, your opponent is free to move about the rest of the board unopposed. In fact you are letting your opponent get away with everything!

W10, 12, and 14 versus B11, 13, and 15. Who came out better here?

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The hane at move 29 is a little thin, but the W cut is not a disaster. Restrain yourself from playing immediate atari at either B6 or C7 and just block at B2 to see how W answers. If W connects at D2, then the atari at C7 captures the cutting stone. In the game sequence, you did block and W did connect, but only after you had already played atari at B6, so you swindled yourself.

Before living in the corner, you should push once more at B7. This move is worth quite a few points and is sente for both sides. Letting W block there for free is intolerable. Moreover, if you exchange B7 for C8, the corner is already alive, so you can play a much larger move than B1 somewhere else on the board.

Part of calm play is taking time to examine the position carefully, and figuring out how to take best advantage of the possibilities.

A few comments on the opening.

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Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Here I have some comments, I apologise if any of this was mentioned before.
When I saw your kgs nickname I remebered we played in February on KGS, at that time I wanted to give you a review but then I thought that might be rude. That's why i give you some comments on this game instead.

I hope this helps and as always please correct me if I'm wrong, I also want to go to dan

Hi all,

Thank you so much for the reviews, they really help me a lot.

To explain a bit more on why I played this way I should explain that I'm in a transition mode at the moment I think.

When I first started playing go I played for teritory.
Then soon after I discovered walls and using walls to make teritory.
Then my oponents started punishing me for this by reducing the moyo teritory so I started playing moyo fighting.

When playing stronger oponents I realise that playing moyo fighting is extremely difficult so now I'm trying to change to a "solid group" (teritory + influence) style.
So when playing this game I thought well white can expand on the board as fast as he wants, I'll invade and live later. For now I'll just create strong groups.
But then I played too slow , which leads to having to invade like an idiot later which brings me even further down in balance of power and teritory.

It's because of these kind of games that I feel like going back to very agressive fighting instead because I simply have more success rate with that.
But I know I should just keep on practicing this more "calm" way too play, so I'll try it a bit more... I'll probably be thankfull to myself in the end.

I'll try to take all your comments and ideas to the new games I play... lets see if I can play this style but better developing over the board.

Cheers,
Otenki

I'm no stronger than you, so do with this as you will, but I think I may have some thoughts worth sharing. (hopefully we're thinking of the same thing when we say solid style...)



To me, the solid group style and the moyo style are just two sides of the same coin because, imho, they both require you to look at the board in the same way. Both styles are about preparing for later fighting.

-A moyo player tries to expand their influence in such a way that they can profit from an opponents invasions.
-A solid group player tries to build positions that can support later invasions/attacks. (This often means pre-emptively countering what your opponent will gain after you invade.)




Maybe I'm reading too much in your choice of words, but I think this may explain where you're going wrong. You don't "just" create strong groups. You need to plan for future invasions/reductions etc and make sure you're strong where you need to be strong.

Take move 15 as an example:

1. Black is already strong here, so this doesn't actually further your goal of creating strong groups.
2. I agree with skydyr: this strengthens white. It's very nearly a contact move, and naturally induces white to strenghten his stone by playing an actual contact move. Since strength is relative we could say that this is actually working against your goal of playing solidly.
3. I'm not saying it's the best move, but imagine you invaded the left side later. (D8 maybe) White would have to strengthen the D10 stone, or your strength at the top could allow a severe attack later, but that strength also means that his group will have little hope of further profit. Conversely, you'll find it much easier to settle your stones because white can't attack as severely, and the resulting group will be better positioned to affect what happens in the more empty portions of the board, where both players have potential for development.

The same ideas apply to move 11:

1. Your top group is already relatively solid.
2. You still have option of creating another solid group on the bottom. Letting white play there first pretty much guarantees that you'll have to make a weak group there later. With this in mind I would take a long term view and treat playing on the bottom as the solid option.


I could be way off with all this, but I hope it's at least some food for thought.

I don't have a style in mind when I play normally. I just always try to find what I consider to be the best move. My judgments in what the best moves are are what end up forming my style of play, not any conscious decision on my part to play in a particular way.

(There is an exception for well-known fuseki, where I tend to play certain ones that I like more, but after the game leaves the path well-traveled I don't consciously think of style while playing.)

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