The slide continued with another loss against yet another 2 stone handicap. I wasn't doing too badly until I missed a ko from a first line hane - silly mistake.

I almost continued the loosing streak with the next match (which I would have lost but for the Komi) - so much for feeling "comfortable".

I found a few obvious mistakes in review but I'm sure there are more. It seemed that my opponent was making quite a few slow moves so I felt that I should have done better.

Game 8

White's is a joseki mistake. Later on, (after W16) you can consider invading at R12 or the like to split white, and the upper part will not be able to make two eyes locally.

is aji-keshi, as it makes that invasion more difficult by strengthening white.

to :b21 is playable, but you can also consider F5 for :b21 or :b19 locally. In addition, a checking extension to J17 or so is quite big, as white wants to expand in this direction from the corner shimari. If white invades the bottom side, the idea behind the bottom-side formation is that you can build a moyo on the bottom right when white invades and you still have enough aji to live in the corner and prevent white from making a huge gain.

this seems like it strengthens white, as the one stone is small. O4 looks like a vital point, helping seal white and also being a good point for eyeshape.

You should be able to continue attacking for a bit. M5 pops into my head without too much thinking as a candidate. I doubt white will sacrifice his group to take the big point on the top side.

White gave you the big point in sente, AND white didn't extend all the way to H17. Take your sente to continue attacking the bottom right.

After this sequence, white is settled, and black can't gain much more from pestering this group. Was K15 worth it? Keep in mind that attacking moves are sente.

doing something on the left is a good idea, but white could pincer and fight here to expand the top left naturally. D14 is one classic reduction idea. G15 may also work out decently. Q13 is another move that might be nice. It's hard for white to resist too hard, so black could build his moyo in sente.

This is small at this stage of the game, and doesn't actually help black. White could just tenuki, I think. It also opens up the ko aji at F1 when white responds, which is a clear loss for black.

Wouldn't it have been nice to get to this area first and in sente?

If you push as you did, it's imperative that you follow through and cut. If you weren't planning on cutting, pushing in the first place just helps white.

Looks reasonable. Black may be able to go one point further, to F15. I think he will have miai to connect to the left or the top.

At 113, I agree that the center knight's move is much bigger. You could also consider taking S7 or S8. S17 is also quite big.

At 165, maybe block the other way. I don't think white can capture the stone.

At 169, if you block at A8 and white cuts, you can push with B9, white C9, B10.

I endorse the comment on
White has invaded very deeply. Attack wholesale, no peacemeal.
Grab the shape point and drive white Howards your strong Stones.

Ideas? (Other than o4)

Thanks for all the comments skydyr! In particular:


Thanks for pointing this out. First line kos are something simple that I need to work on - I've really not been looking out for them until after they are played (and even then ... ). I think its one of those obvious things that for whatever reason I haven't been paying enough attention to in my games.


This is another thing that I need to get better at. My natural inclination is to go for a reduction over an invasion. In part this a conservative response - I noticed I was loosing more than half of my ddk games due to failed invasions or even living invasions that cost too much to survive. Switching to looking for reductions fixed this and was often more effective against my ddk opponents (who were expecting the outrageous attack). As I rank up however I realize I need to get better at invading - especially with my efforts to be more territorial. (I got some invading practice in the next game I'm going to post ... practice being the operative word).

Knotwilg,

I'm thinking Black N3, White O3, Black O5 might be an option

It's not the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog.

I was well behind in this game after one of my usual invasion blunders on the top. Lucky for me, my opponents blood lust was up and his reading skills were just as bad as mine. I ended up taking a big block of stones that he could have saved at almost any point and breaking his will to continue (I was double lucky that his counting was also as good as mine - he was well in front at the end even after loosing the group.)

On the plus side - I scraped out life for a couple if my groups, and I'm getting better at counting overall and liberty counting (though he did pull off a nice little tesuji on the bottom to increase his count).

Game 9



Edit: I should give a big shout out to bonobo for his post: http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=171370#p171370 which was echoing in my head after loosing the top.

Good problems for study:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W B to play and kill
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W W to play and kill
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . . . O X X . O . X . . |
$$ . . . . . X O O . O X . . |
$$ . . . . . X X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . O . O O X O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

The first one is pretty difficult, so I suggest playing out sequences on a board. If you solve it, you will have learned a lot.
The second one is simpler, so you could try visualizing the entire sequence, as you would need to do in a game.
In the sequence leading up to the second position, where did B go wrong?

Hmmm...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W W to play and kill
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . 5 4 O X X . O . X . . |
$$ . . 6 3 2 X O O . O X . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . O . O O X O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Is ko

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W W to play and kill
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . . . O X X . O . X . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X O O . O X . . |
$$ . . . . 2 X X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . O . O O X O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Is w dead

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W W to play and kill
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . . X . X X 5 O . X . . |
$$ . . . O X X O O . O X . . |
$$ . . . . O X X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . O . O O X O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Kills!

I'll keep working in the other two parts...

Re saving black

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B B to not be killed
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . |
$$ . . . 7 . 3 O 2 . 4 5 . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . O . . O X O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

I think increasing the liberties on the lhs works for b - there's no eyes for white on the rhs

But I need to check the lone stone...

Edit:
Well it seems the best we can get is ko above but I think the following kills outright:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B B to kill white without ko
$$ --------------------------|
$$ . . . . . . . . 6 . 7 . . |
$$ . . . . . 3 O 2 . 4 5 . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 X O O X . . . |
$$ . . . O . . O X O X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X X . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

I'm not 100% sure but I think move 9 kills white in the first problem

Things to work on:
In no particular order:
1. Start yose a little sooner, grab double sente moves when they pop up
I realize this is not a hard and fast rule and that strictly speaking I should be holding onto yose until all posibility of playing ko is exhausted. But playing against the dan in my club I've noticed that he almost always starts grabbing the yose moves before I do. I'd say it's 50/50 in my games online, but starting sooner would help.

2. First line ko
I really should know this by now but I'd say more than half of my game loosing blunders are first line kos. Moreover I don't look for them as much on my own attacks. Simple thing to fix.

3. Invasions
I come in strong then tenuki and let them die. I need to learn some of the standard corner invasions for different enclosures.

4. 34 point joseki
high I'm good as long as I don't get pincered. Low - no idea.

5. Looking for more sente.
can I play elsewhere before coming back to fix.

These are really good things to work on. Have fun looking for opportunities in your games!


I wouldn't invest too much in this. You can play what you think is proper and then look for the "real" joseki.
Or think outside the box: allow your opponent to make a shimari. Even two.

Couple more losses a couple more wins. One loss was the result of an obvious reading error on my part (no I won't split your group in sente with the first move I found - instead I'll search for another and convince myself that attaching to two(!) stones and dying in gote is far superior) and my inability to kill anything when my opponent has two or more weak groups (I know the theory - lean on one to attack the other - in practice I flop back and forth like a dying fish). Despite my obvious mistakes I only lost by 11 points ... So shake it off and move on.

My most recent win was interesting - two mistakes were key - 1. I over extended in my center group 2. I failed to secure the bottom. Other than that though my game felt pretty good - I still need to learn to count better though - I was pretty confident I was well ahead, but once again we were very close after my opponent resigned.

Game 10

Random comments

too many cutting points
the extra point is not worth the aji of the remaining cutting point
premature early endgame move
premature late endgame move; white becomes stronger for the middle game
-:b27:-:b29:-:b31: very good fuseki flow
the exchange is bad shape
up to here White is thick and Black is weak
creating another weak group in these conditions is rather greedy
on the other hand, this is a good tenuki-sacrifice strategy
missing a chance to capture
go for a shape making move instead
good
:b105: good; Black fully alive
:b111: I think Black is fine here
:b125: this is the winning move - Black connecting here with big territory takes a definite advantage

I did not look at the endgame, though it may be the most determining part of such a game (<6).

Thanks for the comments - I had a couple of questions.


Would p17 (or q17?) have been better? Or is there another move


At the time the weak group was a bit of an act of desperation. I was worried about white getting too strong on the lhs and rhs I think that jumping out on the top may have been the fundamental problem.


I'm kicking myself - I considered it in game but got nervous about the corner- on later reading it's fine though

Here's my take on

Hmmm, no mention of the ko that might happen after Black at E16, D17, E18. Which is possibly the most interesting area of the board right now. There would be a reason for Black to play solidly.

It's 4 against 1 in that corner, in the only quarter of the board to which White has laid a firm claim. I don't see that as a particular urgent place to rush into as Black, not if he can play the rest of the board so that the size of that moyo is kept in check.

Even so, I don't really see the ko shape. Did you mean e16 - d15; d17 - c15; e18 - e15? Can White not cover instead or would the cut at e15 be too painful? I see this as a heavy fight in White's sphere of influence. No urgency.

Another close loss against either a 8 kyu or a beginner with 2000 games - igs seems a little buggy. I felt I was well in front and I'm guessing that my opponent didn't realize how close it was either because they left a couple of points on the board. Again there were a couple of clear points where just a bit more reading would have carried the match - but really my big mistake was going easy after I had clearly "won" the game.

On the plus side - Invasions! I should have been crushed like a bug in the lower right but my opponent was as bad as me at killing them for a change. I also played well on the lower left (let's just not talk about the group on the bottom). I was also pretty happy with my reading on the top right.

Game 11

you have invested in central influence, so there's no need now to fear a heavy group; I would connect here

to try to connect your main weak group to a useless stone. A mistake in judgment on the meaning of that stone at Q5?

takes the big point

B105 locally your variation would be better, but getting ahead in the centre is better in terms of the whole board

you are well ahead by B123

B141 is obviously greedy. The group needs defending and the points lie at the top right.
Correct comment at B147 yet Black has nothing to seek in the strong white corner, despite appearances

At B161 you get a chance to return to your weak group because the corner is already alive. With W162 White turns the game around.

Let's use the sequence from B167 to W176 for learning technique. Could you analyze these moves again?