OCA's log

oca · **#161**

Thank you all for your variations :clap:

... that give me lot's of idea !

oca · **#162**

Hi,
Here is my latest game. 2 stones handicap, against Jake1 like in my previous post, but this time, I resigned.

Highlights :

Somehow ok till move 15
21-27 keep that for later
39 : to deep invasion
41-50 : no hope sequence for me
31-53 : not a that bad idea to make a ko given the situation...
187 : the actual huge ko fight ( but I really lose them all on that one)
233 : The only not to do move
264 : the resignation (That I may even have done earlier)

More comments in the game itself

Any comments welcome !

Knotwilg · **#163**

Hi Oca

It is very useful that you have provided comments, so that we can understand what you are thinking. There are many things to say about this game and the thinking behind it. I would say that the most important issue is to

1. Understand the function of stones

At :b61:

you say "but I wanted to strengthen L6". However, after the capture of your group in the centre, the stone at L6 is a useless waste of a stone, thrown against a strong black position. You shouldn't try saving it, not connect it or strengthen it, not before the late late endgame where the 2 points it represents may be the largest value.

Compare this stone with your stone at E16 which is contesting the large open top left area. That one needs strengthening, for example by attaching to the opposite black stone at C17. This stone is worth about 20 points. You understood this well at move :b79:

. The idea behind this move is good.

2. Keep track of liberties

Near the end you lose a couple of groups by lack of liberties. This is an important point to pay attention to, because you throw away victories that way. We should always be aware that near the end liberties become scarcer and our territories may need connecting or eye making moves.

3. Stay away from strong groups

In the early middle game, at :b39:

you try attacking Black strongest group. There's no need to do so and it is pointless. You should accept that some opponent groups will survive and this will be especially true for their strong groups. At :b55:

you try to "live by ko" but there is no ko in miles around. The white stones are captured, as was to be expected after they attempted to attack a strong, connected black group with eyespace. In fact Black could have attacked these stones on a much larger scale, but that is another matter.

So, to recover:

1. understand the function of stones: useless stones, important stones in contested area, important cutting stones, stones with some potential remaining
2. keep track of your liberties towards the end (as throughout the game)
3. stay away from strong groups

If you can focus on these things to improve, you will improve on the whole by a lot. In terms of increasing your victory %, n°2 is the most important one. In terms of your growth n° 1 is most important while n°3 will give you long term growth.

S2W · **#164**

Knotwilg has hit on the main points. It seems that you like my trick of invading then wondering where your opponent got that big wall from.

Bill Spight · **#165**

A few comments on the opening.

oca · **#166**

Thanks all for your comments,

I played a new game, but despite a won by a few points, I'm not really happy with it, way too much blunders...
I failed to apply what you all just said to me...

Here is the commented game.

Any comments welcome ! [edit] even if these still apply to my playing in that game (but Rome wasn't built in one day...)

Knotwilg wrote:

1. understand the function of stones: useless stones, important stones in contested area, important cutting stones, stones with some potential remaining
2. keep track of your liberties towards the end (as throughout the game)
3. stay away from strong groups

[/edit]

S2W · **#167**

Some comments on the first half - I liked the ko in the corner - not sure if it was the best move but I never would have though of it.

S2W · **#168**

oca wrote:

I failed to apply what you all just said to me...

I feel like apologizing for that every time I post something.

oca · **#169**

Hi S2W,

Thank for your comments, I like your 3-3 variation where you keep sente with the keima at :b9:

! I remember seeing this on backupMovies, but I totaly missed
that idea during the game, in your variation that look really great at :b11:

!

Knotwilg · **#170**

Here's the story of that game and also of your game in general I believe, in a Memento fashion:

1) When the Black centre group is cut off with 200, it can be killed with a simple push at H8, reducing the shape to a bulky five. This becomes progressively apparent as the stones fill up the board. When White effectively does so, she fails to play the vital point of the bulky five. Both players ignore this for about 50 moves.

2) At 155, Black fails to see the ladder that catches his big chain. White captures and completely reverses the balance of power in the centre. Before that, both missed a basic net at 134.

3) At 127, after living small in two parts of the left area, Black tries to save two very weak stones, making the capture larger. Reducing the White area from a little further is a better idea.

4) At 85, Black ignores a kothreat which unsettles the complete left side. This is clearly larger than the ko itself which was White territory to start with. See the game for another idea. Ko is an advanced topic, so don't worry too much about this for now.

5) When White starts his awkward 1st line adventure with 24, Black shouldn't even respond. White eventually gives up and all the territory AND influence is Black's. There was almost no way to go wrong here.

Lessons to be learnt:
1) do some ladder & net exercises and very basic L&D exercises.
2) play away from strong groups
3) ignore absurd moves by the opponent such as 1st line jumps in the opening

oca · **#171**

Thank you very much Knotwilg,

I like your variation at 85. I often underestimate ko threats... understanding ko is not easy...

Here is my story with ko (more a joke then something else but... not that far from truth)

- 8 months ago... "Weird it's like my opponenent just played two moves in a row... but what did just happend ??? magic ???"

- 6 month ago..."a ko is a rule" we cannot play a move that leads to the previous position

- 4 month ago..."a ko can be use to... do something... but what ? and how ?"

- 3 month ago "a group can live or die depending on ko... ho... that's nice theory... but that's never occurs in game...

"

- 2 month ago "oups... ko occurs in game very frequently... "if you don't like ko, don't play go"

- 1 month ago "with a ko, you can invade in very small spaces... and either live or win something... OR LOSE THEM ALL"

- today : try to eliminate the "OR LOSE THEM ALL"

oca · **#172**

Hi,
Here is my last game.

I won by a lot but I still did a self-review, and saw that I did a lot of overplay :cool:

...
here is the game, with comments to move 190

As always, any comments welcome.

skydyr · **#173**

Some comments:

EDIT: At Move 36, I meant O15, the one space jump, not O16.

Knotwilg · **#174**

I made comments in parallel with skydyr so you may want to see where we concur or differ --dv

oca · **#175**

Thank you both very much for your comments :clap:

!

So my

seems to be the first very wrong move... Now I understand that playing it at C4 would be way better !

I also saw that I there are lots of move where I should have cut black, well I used to cut a lot, maybe to even much, in other games, and I decided to play this one more carfuly,
I still need a better reding of when a cut works and when it don't... cutting and connection is a so fascinating subject...

Also when looking in pro games using http://ps.waltheri.net/
I saw that the first move that is not in any pro game is the 3-3 invasion at :b9:

(in the only game left, black played :b9:

on C3)

oca · **#176**

Here is a new game I played recently.
I losed the game for a few points.
I think the first wrong move is my :w10:

where I should have played the hane at Q13 before playing on the 3-3 point in the corner... anyway I had lots of pleasure playing this game.

This week-end I will participate to my first tournement. I quite existed

!

skydyr · **#177**

I don't think taking the 3-3 point as you did was a mistake. The first thing that comes to my mind as a 'don't do this!' is :w40:

and the sequence following. Connecting to :w40:

isn't big, but black is so thick there that running after it's cut is just throwing more prisoners your opponent's way. It's better to leave all that for later and play somewhere else.

At :w58:

black is giving you the ability to connect, if you attach at S5.

:w74:

is bad direction. Why invade this small extension when there are huge unplayed areas? G16, G3, and D10 all look great. If you look by move 91, despite black's broken shape, black is alive on both sides, while white has a heavy group of stones that isn't threatening anything.

Black 107 is a mistake, and very odd looking. Cutting seems like good punishment.

At White 116, though, pushing along like this is painful. White has a ton of liberties, so you can play more aggresively. G13 pops in to mind. Certainly by black 127, white's upper left is crying, though black kind of throws it away with 135. This was kind of a theme through the later middlegame and endgame... black makes terrible mistakes, and white takes advantage. You did this well enough that I don't have much to comment on regarding it.

Out of curiousity, why the reverse komi?

oca · **#178**

Hi skydyr,

Thx for your comments, I will check them soon, just quickly about this one :

skydyr wrote:

Out of curiousity, why the reverse komi?

I even didnt noticed this :lol:

I suppose IGS calulted that as I'm "supposed" to be stronger (14k+ vs 15k? where ? means the rank is still to be confirmed... )

S2W · **#179**

That's right igs gives a reverse Komi to white of 5.5 for a one stone difference - so your opponent was 15+ but the + was left out because their rank is provisional. Your rank won't be affected by the win or loss though until their final rank is determined.

ez4u · **#180**

When Black answers 188 at 189 ( :w1:

below), White can capture with :w3:

. Black has only 2 liberties to White's 3. There seems to be no hope for Black's whole group. As long as White answers 4 with 5 and avoids allowing Black to play 'a' with effect, the game is over. ;-)

What now for Black?

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