dkuro wrote:
Hey everyone, i've been playing for about a month now pretty regularly and I find myself hovering around 9k. However I have a few bad habits, one of which I've noticed is that I tend to go above and beyond trying to gain territory. If I see my opponent trying to form a moyo at all I will invade immediately and start a fight to the death to reduce it, which usually ends up with some group of mine getting put on the run across the board and the struggle to live begins cause all of my other groups are sealed off from the center. I'm just wanting to know how best to balance out going for territory versus creating influence towards the center. Also are there any pro's that play a more center/influence style that I can look at to try and get some ideas and learn from?
We cannot tell from your description whether invading is a bad habit or not. If you have only been playing for one month, can you be said to have any habits at all? It is true that greed is bad in go, and should be avoided.
However, you do indicate a problem when you say that all of your other groups are sealed off from the center. That is not good. Luckily, it is a problem that you can handle without further study. Avoid getting sealed in. A good rule of thumb for group safety that I learned early on is this: One eye and access to the center.
As for balancing territory and influence, that is question that keeps coming up, no matter how good you are.
For inspiration about center oriented play, you might look at games from the New Fuseki era. Go Seigen was a source of ideas throughout his life. Takemiya's Cosmic Go is worthy of study. Fujisawa Hideyuki (Shuko) is good to study to learn about thickness.He is not a pro, but Bruce Wilcox's material is good. One thing he talks about is sector lines and the importance of breaking them, i. e., pushing into the center.
Good luck!
