...I am going to post them in here.

I used to play chess when I was younger. I got to about 1600 USCF, then tapered off at the age of 11. I used to get very nervous playing, and I would feel an immense pressure to win. I was not good at handling losses. And I bring this up to say that I am still not. Something about the no-luck factor makes me feel miserable when I lose, and when I lose at go.

Even worse than this feeling is the nerves I get when I think about playing another game. You'll notice in this game I am a 6k(?), because I haven't played in a week or so. Part of that is for lack of time. But, I will also admit that as I get stronger, I am getting more and more nervous about the way I play. And this nervousness dissuades me from playing in my free time.

All of this is to say that my journal will be a reason for me to persist in playing. I always enjoy reading feedback, and improving myself. But I need to work on overcoming nerves as well.

I have a go tournament later this month. I would like to be more confident in my abilities by then, but who can say.

What I notice in my game is the following: When I was a DDK, I thought anyone 9k or stronger was unstoppable. Now I am around 7k, and I play like an idiot. I'm not sure if this is because a). My ranking should be much worse or b). SDK isn't actually all that strong. On one hand, I've beaten a few 6-8 kyus, which suggests that I'm maybe where I ought to be rankwise (disputing (a)). Maybe a KGS ranking is weak compared to the "true" value of the rank. Or, is it possible that I'm just barely good enough to start realizing how terrible I am at the game? I am not asking rhetorically, I honestly don't know.

I bring this up as a precursor to the following game. I played this tonight at black, and I did terribly. I know I did. is a mistake, and I knew it was dumb before I played it. I just wanted to see how. And I feel the sequence beginning with was incredibly poorly played. I should have played smarter moves to keep the tension, and possibly gain something more than the handful of points I managed to scavenge by game's end. Instead, I feel as though I played into my opponent's hand. Moves like 169 are that of a beginner, and I played them because I forgot white already had two eyes.

I suppose I'd like to be at a level where I can make good moves and bad moves, not childish blunders. And for another thing, I am terrible at counting. I had no idea just how far behind I was by game's end. I knew I had lost, but I imagined by maybe 30 points. Not 50!

So, I submit to the forum: Please help me improve my game. Despite my nerves when I play, I am always very eager to see where I can improve.


Here is my first game. May it be followed by many more:

Hi Kris,

Almost certainly true.

Hi Kris,

Unusual. o17 is a possibility. is a good move. You'll learn soon enough many of our understandings at our current level aren't exactly correct.

P4. If you jump, you have to read W's push and cut.

What's your plan if W cuts at o3 now ?
Did you read this before you played ?

in the real game, this is standard bad habit:
Fix your opponent's problems for him.

P10 -- "get ahead" of your opponent.

Reckless; total disregard of your weak group. Jump out to o9.

Confused. o9.

Misclick, or confused ? Locally, connect S5.

Ah, confused about the status of this group --
hence tenuki.

So I didn't look at the whole game, because I think after the tenuki at 29 its already game over. A tip - even if you think it is alive (or can connect underneath to friendly stones), it's really important to move towards the middle for at least two reasons

1. access to the center is really important, you don't want you your group sealed in and taking no further part in proceedings. Sometimes you have to accept this, e.g. with 3-3 corner invasions, but in not general
2. white has a weak group at P5 with no eyes - it's vital to keep up the pressure on these stones

I would say that if white knows what he is doing it is over after . If course, as white is only 6k he probably doesn't.

_________________
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).

My comment was intended for 6k players. But your comment about 11 is interesting. It's not completely obvious to me that it's disastrous. How does white punish it? I don't see any direct move. For instance, P17 can be answered effectively with O17.

It is not disastrous for a kyu player. But I bet any strong player (5d+) would be able to take advantage of it enough to win.

_________________
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).

The B move in question (N16) is not such a bad move as to be game deciding, at least at the amateur level. It does leave worse aji than the normal joseki, and in a game against an equal opponent I would like my chances after seeing it, but I would not estimate my winning probability at more than say 60%. In terms of efficiency, I doubt if it loses more than 1/4 of the value of an ideal move. At the amateur level, essentially all games are decided by more serious mistakes later in the game.

DrStraw, would you consider it over (at the professional level), if black played this unusual extension below? Or if we say 11 in the game posted was so bad white wins 100% of pro games, but this one is bad but not so much so only 75%? I'm wondering where you think it is on the comparative scale of badness.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

The third line is stronger as there is no undercut to threaten so I would not consider this is bad. But there is still a weakness there which would bother me. I think that, depending on the position in the lower left this may be playable, but I find it hard to think of a position where the 4th line would be playable. I just have the feeling that a strong enough player would be able to take advantage of it.

_________________
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).

The major difference here isn't third vs. fourth line, but tiger's mouth vs. solid connection. Against the tiger's mouth, Black can (and has, in recent pro games, I believe) play either large knight's move or two space extension, but against the solid connection it's hard to play large knight.

Yeah, that's about it. I'm a bit embarrassed by this game.

Thanks for the commentary, everyone. I read it all over. I'll be posting another game shortly, if anyone wants to take a look at it.

I played two new games today. One of which, I played terribly and my opponent punished me for. The other, I played just okay, and my pulled off a win.

I am black in both.

Game 1:




In this first game, I don't even realize the attack before
This is the kindof amateurish thing that I do that needs to be fixed.
134 is just a complete blunder. I don't even want to talk about it. Assuming I had played correctly to cover the atari, does black have enough points to win? Despite the loss on the bottom.





Game 2:





Not sure if is a good idea, just something for me to try out.

Is there a better way to reduce white's corner? Maybe my attachment was a poor idea.
at f15 was a misclick. My opponent let me take it back.
118 has to atari from the other direction, no?

I will reiterate at this point that I feel like a pretty weak player. But I am beating other 7kyus semi-regularly. Maybe Go is a never-ending struggle to not be bad at the game! Let me know what you think.

Hi Kris,

Game 1.

Solid; perhaps too solid. Usually, vicinity of K17.

Usually, C14 or D14.

You basically lost a move. ( See ).

Jealous/panic, perhaps. F4 is fine.
Even if you want to pincer, high is better here (e.g. D9).
Given W's upper left corner, obviously you're not trying to make territory with your -- so, what are you doing with a low ?

Misread ? You're hurting your own corner.
If W simply hanes E5, you extend to F6, W connects at D5,
your 4-4 stone is unhappy.

Don't follow your opponent around like a lost puppy. C5 very nice profit.

Not good. P3 is better.

Misread ? L3 empty triangle.

Similar problem as --
You don't know when a contact is good, and when it's bad.

You've wasted another move.
( Re: ( & ), ( & ) ).

, You wasted two more moves to capture a completely useless stone.

W's magnificent shape at -- please see Toothpaste .

In addition, moves like , hurt yourself (center string got killed),
just like would've hurt your own corner.

It means you're not looking at the whole board,
the global situation, the strengths and weaknesses of groups --
both yours and your opponent's, and how your moves have consequences,
how they ripple through to the rest of the board.

Again, not looking at the whole picture: the cut at P4.

Again, capturing a useless stone. ( Re: ).

Hi Kris,

Game 2.

Did you notice W is starting to have a weak group ?

Just connect. ( Your tiger's mouth is a strange (bad) habit beginners pick up somewhere... )

You're still not aware of W's increasingly weak group.
You can start the attack with a peep ( P14 ).

Reminiscent of in game 1.
With W's large knight, jumping into 3-3 is OK.

Cut. Again, please see Toothpaste and relating pages .

Hi ed,

Thanks so much for giving me such thorough feedback. I can always count on you to give helpful and extensive commentary.

I want to make sure I'm understanding the toothpaste idea. You've mentioned it before in my games, and it seems to be a mistake I make a lot.... now I want to ensure I understand what the mistake is.

Toothpaste seems to be closely related to the idea of vulgarity in moves.. cases where I peep instead of cut, allowing or even forcing my opponent to fix his/her shape. As I understand it, toothpaste is a series of moves that force my opponent to do what they want to do, which often means driving a spike through my territory.

If my understanding above is correct... then in future games I need to be careful. When I play a move, I should ask if I am helping my opponent in the followup move. For example, in game 2 should have been a cut.. if I wasn't comfortable cutting, I should not have played in the first place. Or rather, playing requires me to have already read out white's hane, my cut, and then white's atari. Since I was reluctant to give white the atari, I ended up strengthening white's position.

Hi Kris,No.

Please study the following diagram,
and please point out some differences (you consider significant),
about the left shape (x) versus the right shape (y):

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ x . . . . . . . ? y . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . ? . . . X X . . . . .
$$ . . X X O O . . ? . . . O O O O . . .
$$ . . O O X X . . ? . . . . . X X . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . ? . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Black is much weaker in the right diagram. White has split him clean in two. Black has two weak groups, and white has thickness affecting both.
In the left diagram, there is a fight, and both white and black are split. Advantage perhaps to the first mover?

Hi Kris,Yes.
Yes.B has two groups.White is in one piece. The split is not mutual.Yes. The split is mutual.Unclear (not relevant to this discussion).

Hi Kris,

The key is on the left, the cut is mutual;
but on the right, Black is broken.

There are two parts to learning about these shapes
(much like when we first learn about the atari):
(a) recognition;
(b) evaluation.

We're only at part (a).

Now please go back and review your games again,
and do part (a) ONLY -- see where your shapes were broken.

Part (b) is much more difficult --
we need to examine each case to see if the broken shape is good, neutral, or bad for you.
( Whenever I pointed out a toothpaste reference, it was probably not good for you. )