Also think about if you need to defend the cut. What can white do if you tenuki? Something yes, but is that something the biggest move on the board?

Some comments on the opening.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Again, life got in the way of my go studying, what did I ever think going to university...

- One game (won)
- 100 Problems

Almost all tesuji problems, I'm a lot worse at those than L&D, but they are less fun to do somehow, capturing single stones or connecting is not nearly as satisfying as killing groups

I'll try to look over some pro games in the near future, maybe I'll get something out of that. That might also help me with my lack of joseki knowledge.

Well, today I got a bit more done, and I still have some time, but its gonna be spend on something other than go, the last game I played was to gruesome to follow it up with anything.

- 70 Tesuji problems
- Memorized 3 pro games(at least to the point where they start to play tenuki on every 2nd move)
- 2 games (1 - 1)

I played on KGS on a whim and got to 9k, which is kinda neat, but for the second game I fired up Tygem and played a game where after 10 moves I cared more about it being over than me loosing. Next time **** like this happens I'm just gonna resign outright, its not worth my time or nerves.

For reference:

Why would you not want to play this game?

Right. Why not play against this guy? It's not like he's Go Seigen, eh?

Through move 20 you had built up a nice lead.

You worst move in the opening was . Letting Black live with sente blew your lead. Where do you think would be a good play instead?

You lost this game through poor attacking. Playing this opponent will give you opportunities to practice your attack.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Its hard to give an objective reason, its more like a feeling thing.

But I guess you're both right, should have just played normally and treat it as a learning experience instead of playing random moves to get it over with.

Black was playing a very unorthodox fuseki. This may have cost him points but not much more than 10-15 in total. Amateurs make successions of mistakes in middle or end game which are much more costly than that. The previous emulation of "correct" fuseki is mostly makebelief.

Also, Black put psychological pressure on White by pretending he was moving in a private familiar ground, putting the weight of the orthodoxy on White's shoulders. Such psychological pressure can easily turn into sloppy play or even self defeat.

I know what you have been feeling. I don't really appreciate it myself when an opponent starts with Big Wall variants or 7-7 opening but I'm not really angry with the opponent, rather with myself being intrinsically incapable of proving unorthodox fuseki wrong.

The 4-4 point is unthinkable.

True dat, gonna start learning all those 7-7 Joseki.


Today was crappy go wise.
- Reread the attacking part of Attack and Defense
- 65 problems, but of the last 20 I got 17 or so wrong, guess my brain is telling me it doesn't want to work today.

So no playing for today, got a bad feeling about that, I guess I'll spend some time watching games on KGS or memorizing a progame or two.

- 45 Problems
- 3 games (1-2)

Motivation is dead for today, the two lost games severs as a nice reminder of my problems. The first one I lost was due to me getting back into my blitzing habit, nothing interesting there, the other game was this one:

I think it went ok till about 42. O4 was to not get enclosed, but premature probably, should have been G10 or something along those lines. 43 is probably the best move any player can play against me. I have no clue what to do with a base and it hurts me time and time again. As soon as I played P11 I wanted to flip my table, decided against it, still if I had to pick a move that lost me the game it would have probably been this one.

The Invasion on my left was handled poorly, I'm not sure if black is supposed to live there, but either way he lived way to big.

After K10 I had already given up on the game, it still turned into a fight (which surprised me to no end) but my inability to win any capturing race ever put the nail in the coffin.

As always, any helpful advice appreciated especially on how to defend bases with a one point jump (both 2 and 3 spaces).

A couple early thoughts:

First, when black plays K3, it's too far, but if left unmolested, black will later get H4 and ideal shape. White should try to play H3 at the first opportunity to cause black problems.

Second, at , F15 is too timid. White can shoulder hit at K16 to reduce black, or at least extend farther if the primary goal is moyo expansion, as to G15.

At , maybe consider R11 to connect up and let black connect under, since he should be able to anyways. It'll likely make an eye and decent outside strength for white in exchange. The game result where white just gets the corner is kind of painful.

At consider B11 or D11. Where's black's group going to run to or make eyes? At also, white can double hane and cut black into two in exchange for a ponnuki of dubious value for black. If black doesn't cut, white can seal black into a small area where he'll get a two point group... i.e. success.

As for the center fight at the end, it's a result of white's poor result on the right. As a general rule, though, consider if a cut or other move helps you or if it actually helps your opponent once he's done responding to it. Sometimes it's better to leave a weakness unexploited for the moment because, combined with a couple other weaknesses that surface later, it leads to a knockout combination. When you force your opponent to fix a weakness right off the bat, that later problem may never have enough aji to work.

First of all, congratulations with the opening. I don't agree that you should invade at H3 soon. If Black wants to play 4 stones for a stable group so early, good for him. Until you have a fine opening, and is a great invasion! You can be proud.

Next there is the invasion of the right side
could have been used to prevent it (see sgf)
is a normal move but you could have played a diagonal here
but eventually you apply a wonderful sacrifice strategy to limit the damage. If you don't take a lead here, at least you keep the game balanced.

The real issue is the invasion of your big potential territory at the left. Here skyrdyr and I concur. At you applyagain basic instinct, BUT this is where the game may go wrong. With an invasion like this you have two options:

- read and kill
- keep the pressure while taking some profit

Usually, the 2nd option is the one keeping your winning probability high. So

What kind of profit do you want while keeping the pressure?
1 territory in top left
2 territory in bottom left
3 influence in centre

See sgf for the answer

The fact that your loss is mostly due to playing basic technique, while a different option was better for tactical reasons, shows that you are improving beyond the basic level.



edit: last comment at

Knotwilg's suggestion for is a good play, one which shows up frequently.

However, I think that the best idea at this point is the same as it was for the past few moves, to play at the frontier of frameworks. Enlarge your moyo while reducing his. So my suggestion is J-14.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it. After reading all this it makes me feel a lot less bad, at least I'm asking myself the right questions during the game.



During the game I actually considered the double hane, but I couldn't read out exactly weather or not it worked, guess I should have taken a chance there. Well, now I know it, won't happen again (hopefully).



@Knotwilg: I don't really get your suggenstion for 42 . I've seen the move before as well, but never understood it. To me it seems like it hardly helps with the Invasion, and white gets to poke at the shape with Q9.

Also seems like its time to unlearn the "Hane at the head of two stones" thingy. I swear to god, go is 10% learning and 90% forgetting your bad habits.



@Bill: True, that was inconsistent of me. I basically invaded at the bottom because I thought black had more potential than me, but after that was taken care of I should have started to increase my own rather than do random stuff. I also have trouble deciding when to keep building boxes and when to play in the middle of them as to make invasions weaker. I tend to like moyo games, but I still have trouble evaluating who is winning them sometimes.

Hi pak0,

The sequence 43 - 51 was really interesting for me !
Thx for posting that game !

_________________
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

please don't unlearn hane at the head - just understand what strategic goals your basic technique is serving

@oca: Cool to know that I'm not the only one learning from my games

@Knotwilg: Don't worry, it was more of a joke^^. Actually its quite a nice reminder not to follow proverbs blindly.

There is some information about how the shape I proposed helps you defending against attacks at:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?CrossCutAfterTowerPeep
http://senseis.xmp.net/?ShapeProblem5

The pros talk about making a deep valley, which is a good thing. You are inviting your opponent to come in where you can attack where you have the advantage. Fortunately, amateurs have a tendency to invade too deeply.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.