Half Board Semeai

Mnemonic · #1

I've recently made 6k on KGS but this game clearly shows I'm not ready yet. This 8k had enormous fighting spirit that I wasn't ready for. In theory I could have won on time but I think that would have been cheating to I gave him an additional 5 min which he used to destroy the fragile connections between my groups :sad:

This game contains a huge amount of reading and judgment error from both players and is quite interesting so I thought it would make a good game to get reviewed.

Thanks :mrgreen:

Shaddy · #2

Mnemonic · #3

Thanks for your comments.
To summarize there weren't too many strategic mishaps but a lot of joseki errors or just plain old misreads. Guess I'll have to catch up on my tsumego.

red_z06 · #4

black 40 looks better at O18

Shaddy · #5

There might have been strategic mistakes, but I wasn't paying attention because there were so many tactical issues. Don't worry about strategy so much, focus on reading and fighting well

Joaz Banbeck · #6

I disagree: you should study strategy more.
If you properly counter his strategic mistakes, you won't need to get into the the do-or-die fighting where one slip is death. ( And you should have died several times if he had been paying attention on the right side )

Let's look at one example.

Black's move 14 at N14 strikes me as an ugly move. It feels like the wrong direction: he should either expand the wall with something around P12 or Q18, or use it with something around L16.

When faced with this, at move 15, IMHO white should come under at Q18 and make black over concentrated in sente. Then he is strong enough to play 'a' at the right moment.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Wc $$------------------------- $$ . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . 2 1 3 . . | $$ . . . . . . . 4 X O . . | $$ . . . . . . O . X O . . | $$ . . . . . . . . X X O . | $$ . . . . . B . . X O O . | $$ . . . . . . . . a . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . X . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Another way of looking at it is this position:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]Wc $$------------------------- $$ . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . X O O . . | $$ . . . c . . . X X O . . | $$ . . . . . . O . X O . . | $$ . . . . . . . . X X O . | $$ . . . . . b . . X O O . | $$ . . . . . . . . d . . . | $$ . . . . . . . e . X . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

How many of us as black would play 'b' in the above diagram? I think most of us would play 'c', 'd', or 'e'. But rather than exploiting his misplaced play at N14, you try to live under it, and end up in a position such that - to quote Shaddy :bow:

- you should resign.

I advise studying strategy more so that you don't have to fight your way out of resignable positions.

daniel_the_smith · #7

If you fix your reading, your bad strategy will fix itself (or at least get better) as you stop trying to do the impossible. But fixing bad strategy won't magically help your reading, and I'm not even sure you can fix the strategy without fixing the reading...

Shaddy · #8

Joaz Banbeck wrote:

If you properly counter his strategic mistakes, you won't need to get into the the do-or-die fighting where one slip is death.

I see it this way: The opening is a delicate thing. If MHO wants to play a reasonable opening and go into the middlegame even, and I know I can outfight him, I can just play tengen and start a war immediately. But MHO cannot force me to play the opening and beat me in strategy.

Bill Spight · #9

Shaddy wrote:

Joaz Banbeck wrote:

If you properly counter his strategic mistakes, you won't need to get into the the do-or-die fighting where one slip is death.

I see it this way: The opening is a delicate thing. If MHO wants to play a reasonable opening and go into the middlegame even, and I know I can outfight him, I can just play tengen and start a war immediately. But MHO cannot force me to play the opening and beat me in strategy.

No disrespect, but that is my favorite approach by my opponents. If my opponent is a better fighter than I, but I am better in the opening, that means that my whole board judgement is better. And that matters in opening fights as well a placid openings. It is possible to lose every battle and win the war.

You cannot be good at the opening unless you can handle opening fights.

Half Board Semeai

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