The result, of course, was going to be predictable. There would be 60 moves of the 9 kyu crushing the 23 kyu and I would call the game off before it got too ugly.

Instead, something totally unexpected happened... the 23 kyu kept up and even won a big fight.

---

This afternoon I went to a go study group with a couple of friends. One of them, Nick, is around the rank of 9 kyu - I play him at 4-5 stones - and the other, Elyse, is ranked 23 kyu on the KGS. The Elyse has only been playing the game for a few months while Nick has been playing for a few years. They have played before, with Elyse losing to Nick after being given an enormous handicap - 9 stones plus a sizable reverse komi.

When we began this study group I thought I could spend time teaching these players what I learn from books and online lectures and we could review professional games and such. But Elyse prefers to learn from playing, so it seemed like a good idea to have the two players play a brief even game and then review it. My thought was they could each play about 30 moves and then I would discuss the opening with them. Elyse feels lost in the opening fuseki and Nick feels lost during joseki, so I figured this would be ideal.

I thought 30 moves a piece would be about right and I was sure Elyse would fall behind fast. But Nick made some big mistakes - possibly from overconfidence - and Elyse, while of course making her own errors, played a fantastic game considering her rank. It was the perfect storm and by the end of it I was baffled, Nick was in shock, and Elyse was thrilled. We agreed to stop the game at move 63. That turned out to be a bit premature, but it wasn't supposed to be a full game anyway. And it was not supposed to be close.

Here is the game:

All of this just goes to show that you never know what to expect when to players sit down at the go board.

Afterwards the two played a second game, and that went much more like how I expected. Elyse made mistakes and I called the game before 50 moves.

---

I would like to know what stronger players think of these games, particularly the first one. It ended up being a bit too complicated for me to evaluate accurately - which surprised me considering that one of the players is a beginner. I'd like to give her some really solid advice about how to improve and I want to make sure I'm accurately telling the 9 kyu what went wrong.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

In the first game, is a bit smaller than the right, but if you're going to follow up to a 3-3 stone, this is a normal way to do it.

I agree. I recommended to black that she approach one of the corners first, but she liked the result she got in the first game and so played it again in the second. It does seem smaller, but I don't think it's a bad move as long as it is used effectively.

Usually I've seen the star point taken to build from the 3-3 stone, but that's in situations where both corners are 3-3 or one is 3-4. I don't typically play with or against the hoshi-sansan opening so I wasn't sure if low was normal here.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

It seem that moves through would be better used (for black AND white) by playing on the right to either make a white extension or black pincer. looks quite small. The 3-3 point can ignore most approaches other than the shoulder hit. is a 4-space approach, which is 2 spaces further than a large knight's move. Black's position on top can be reduced in many places (lows stones on top and corner aji after white is safe on the right) once white extends on the right.

White perhaps took black a little too lightly, which is bound to happen given the rank difference. Sounds like fun was had.

Notes on some of the notes, first game.

A few ideas for Game 2.