Hello everyone, I'm new to L19 and I'm excited to participate in the Malkovich game. I'm currently ranked as 1kyu on KGS, but unfortunately I don't play anywhere else enough to give another ranking. I participate in the ASR on KGS mostly, with occasional rated games. I've never played a correspondence game like this, so hopefully it goes well!
I'll give an example of my game style for those curious (sorry if this doesn't work, I'm trying to figure it out!):
Generally I'd describe my style as fairly aggressive, with a heavy emphasis on reading. I feel I need to improve the most on direction of play, fuseki, joseki and sabaki, while my relative strengths are attacking and yose. I'd love to hear any feedback that anyone has on this, since it's hard for me to know exactly what I need to work on.
I've been playing go off and on for several years, and chess for many years before that in my childhood. This game seems like a great opportunity to not only chronicle my own thought process, but eventually at it's conclusion recieve some great feedback as well. I look forward to learning together (hopefully!) with graemy over the next weeks (or months?).
@ graemy
Hi graemy, I'm very excited about this game! I won't be around to move probably until later tonight (I'm on Pacific Standard Time), but I figured we could nigiri and discuss rules first. I don't actually have a color preference here, so if you do then we can skip nigiri and I'll play whatever. As for rules, I'm most familiar with Japanese, but again, if you have a preference such as Chinese or AGA that's quite alright as well. I look forward to an enjoyable match
In case you would like to nigiri, here's the stone amount: [hide]6
_________________ "It has cost me much, but I have learned... Lemon need not squeeze lemon to survive..!"
Last edited by uriel on Sun Aug 18, 2013 11:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hello everyone, I've played go off and on for many years. I played only online until I went to college and found a go club for the first time. I've mostly played on KGS, but I like tygem as well. I've played a few correspondence games, but never a malkovich game, I hope this will be fun. I'm about 1k in strength.
I'm new to this too, haha! Japanese is fine O: I'll guess even.
O: I guessed correctly, I'll take black then, I guess.
I like to open with this 4-4, although previously I have favored opening with two 3-4's. It seems to me to mostly be just a style choice to make, so not much to say.
Last edited by graemy on Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
Looks like I take white then! Also, how does no books/databases/outside resources sound to you? That's usually how I play, but if you prefer we can include them. I'm going to edit my first post with a bit of my introduction according to Joaz Banbeck's Malkovich rules.
I've never really played diagonal fuseki, and so for my first game on L19 I'll continue that pattern. I chose the star point here because I prefer a flexible opening, especially as white. I do not want to play c4 or d3 because graemy could then take the corner my stone is facing, which I feel generally gives a good approach move for black here. Then again, I feel my fuseki is generally weak for my rank, so I'm hoping to just get an even result into the middlegame.
_________________ "It has cost me much, but I have learned... Lemon need not squeeze lemon to survive..!"
Micro Chinese would be the circled point instead of . I'm not sure if would be better placed at d6, but I know is playable as a response from many professional games I've seen.
The reason I don't want to pincer high here is I'm afraid of something like this:
Captures: B=0 W=0
and unfortunately I don't really know this joseki. I'd probably kick at e5, but it's really hard for me to say what's best here. I'd rather play something I'm more comfortable with.
I've taken to playing the Micro Chinese as black quite frequently, but it seems not very popular since I rarely play against it as white. Of course, graemy could just skip the Chinese variation and we could play this way
Captures: B=0 W=0
Another variation I've played as black but rarely must play against as white.
Either way, I think my choice is white 4 is probably best given my limited knowledge of the positions. I prefer to play as flexible as I can in the fuseki since I'm often unsure of what positions to commit to, and if things start looking bad I'd rather cut my losses and fall behind 10 points than 40 points.
_________________ "It has cost me much, but I have learned... Lemon need not squeeze lemon to survive..!"
Looks like we're playing Chinese! Since I've been drinking, I'm sticking with my initial response. If I choose the 1-space low pincer variation I mentioned before it seems like we'd end playing a very influence oriented game, which I think I'll avoid for just now. There's always later for that kind of fun! For now I expect the standard, either Mini or Micro Chinese, in which case I'll need to decide what to do with sente...
_________________ "It has cost me much, but I have learned... Lemon need not squeeze lemon to survive..!"
I considered enclosing in the lower right, but I'm not sure how I feel about that, while I like this move. Let's see what he does. I think he might split on the right some how, but I'm not sure where or how.
Last edited by graemy on Tue Aug 20, 2013 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
I guess we're playing Mini Chinese. This has fallen out of favor among Korean and Chinese professionals for the Micro Chinese as far as I know, but I've never read any good reason for it. So supposedly this is better for me..! If only I were 9 stones stronger... But for now I just have to play my best. There are two responses to the Mini Chinese fuseki at this point:
Captures: B=0 W=0
Here I expect black to pincer, probably 1 space low or possibly 2 spaces high, since it works well with his framework on the bottom. So then what this typically boils down to is white taking the corner in exchange for influence towards the bottom.
After looking at it, since taking the corner is my choice after the pincer, and the blocking at is the correct direction, this seems inferior for black. I don't expect him to play this, since there is more aji at R9
I'm sure I knew black's responses at one point, but I guess it's time to figure out for myself. I'm looking mostly at a-e since those seem the only good responses. I suppose black could tenuki this,/n but then I could approach the corner as well.
Here I expect black to continue at , because if graemy chooses to tenuki I could follow up at a. Assuming graemy plays , I can play b or tenuki. This gives black great influence towards the left.
I would like to build the bottom of the board, maybe he'll invade and I can get an attack going. If not, maybe I can get a lot of territory there. I wonder what he will do. I think he will either jump in the corner at a or change directions at b
Hmm, I actually didn't expect this particular pincer. I think this may be slightly better for me than the one space low pincer. It seems to me I now have three main options:
Captures: B=0 W=0
I can take the corner with a, or change directions with b or c
I really don't think black can block towards the top, so then this is joseki. There is more aji in this position than the other ones I considered, so I feel relatively comfortable with this.
Here I guess black has two options probably. The standard joseki response that I see is a, but I'll be careful to see that b doesn't leave me in a bad spot.
This is probably wrong somehow, but I can't see this fight being bad for me. I think the other variations of of are good enough to risk a bit of danger.
EDIT: Uh oh :I I didn't think about him putting the other stone in atari... :I oops...hopefully he just follows the above :I If not, I'll just play it by ear.
So far this is all going according to plan, more or less. The question is, is my plan a good one? So far I feel comfortable in the game. If this continues in the manner I expect, I'll need to figure out a good plan for reducing his growing moyo. However, I tend to do this a lot in my games, so I feel confident that I'll manage.
_________________ "It has cost me much, but I have learned... Lemon need not squeeze lemon to survive..!"
Actually, as a rule, one attaches to a stronger stone so as to build strength against the weaker one. is the weaker stone, therefore, the attachment at "a" would have been my choice.
_________________ Ontological imperative holds that my losses occurred only in imagination.
Actually, as a rule, one attaches to a stronger stone so as to build strength against the weaker one. is the weaker stone, therefore, the attachment at "a" would have been my choice.
I would say not "the weaker one", but "the one you want to attack". And Attaking the top to get strength for the left side looks more promising to me here, as you can invade left easier.
With attacking the pincer stone you maybe can get a moy bottom south, but the area looks so huge, that it will easily be invaded.
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uriel
. I'm not sure if 
would be better placed at d6,
is the correct direction, this seems inferior for black.
, because if graemy chooses to tenuki
are good enough to risk a bit of danger.
? Taking a part of the corner at b seems favourable for black.
is the weaker stone, therefore, the attachment at "a" would have been my choice.