Life In 19x19

Very cool!

Problem 1

$$Bc Problem 1 - Black to play
$$ ----------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . O X X O X 9 . . . .
$$ | . O O X O X 8 0 . . .
$$ | . . X O X X 6 7 . . .
$$ | . X X O O 2 4 5 . . .
$$ | . X O X 1 . 3 . . . .
$$ | . O O ...

Game 4, position 1
$$Wc
$$ ---------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . X O a . . . . . .
$$ | . . X O . . . . . .
$$ | . b X O . . . . . ,
$$ | . 1 X O . . . . . .
$$ | . X O ...

It's interesting that KataGo judges even the first couple of moves as being worth ~20 points. My understanding was that the value of the first couple of moves was approximately 2x komi, or 13-15 points.

Focusing on a few basic mistakes starting at move 124:

136: It's essential to be able to recognize at a glance that this move doesn't work. This second-line capture technique will appear multiple times in every game from now until you're 7d.

142: This works only if you've already completely ...

$$Wcm30 Black to play.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . B B O O . . . |
$$ | . . X . . O . . . . . B O O B . O . . |
$$ | . X . O . . . . . , . . O B . B . . . |
$$ | . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . X ...

Great video! I've found myself in these variations a lot, and I find it's pretty easy to go wrong for black if you're not well prepared. There's one simplifying variation I've started using thanks to Leela if I don't want to stake the whole game on the corner fight, which is to squeeze the white ...

This is another way to play the corner out.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . O X X . . .
$$ | . . 4 O X . X . .
$$ | . . 1 3 O X X . .
$$ | . O 2 O O O X . .
$$ | 5 . O X O X X . .
$$ | O O X X X . . . .
$$ | O X X X . . . . .
$$ | X X . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

I've lost huge groups in the fuseki but kept playing and came back and won. That is way too early to resign.

I calculated how much all the moves were worth but couldn't find the sequence to get tedomari and win the game. Nice problem.

Starting from this position:

$$B Tedomari problem 1
$$ -------------------
$$ | . . X X a X O . . |
$$ | X X . X O . O . . |
$$ | X O X X O O O O O |
$$ | X O O O . O X X b |
$$ | O O . O O O O O X |
$$ | . O O X O X O X X |
$$ | . O X X X X X . X |
$$ | O O O O X . . X . |
$$ | . X c X X ...

- Play L3. It's such a big difference between black and white getting this point. This move should appear automatically in your head as the key point after black strikes diagonally on the third line versus your fourth line stone.

One thing I would add is "experiencing improvement". I would say it's different from "personal playing ability" in that playing ability is about the level you are currently at, whereas improvement for me relates to noticing yourself being stronger at something than you were just a short time ago.

You can even kill the corner on move 138, and on 140 you can get a ko, which is better than nothing.

Your original black 8 was correct. The one you updated is not as good (though that's a really useful sequence sometimes and is worth remembering). For one, that's not an L-group - if white gets C18 next, that's what we call a large L-group. It's one bigger than a typical L group. Compare the two so ...

Can the white stones live after Black B14?