Well, I didn't know that when I was at Fedya's level. I didn't even know it when I was 4 kyu.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------
$$ . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . |
$$ . O . 2 1 . . |
$$ O . . X . 3 . |
$$ X X . . . . . |
$$ . . . X . . . |[/go]

Besides, this kosumi is worth learning.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

in this diagram gives Black the good move at .

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Ha, so the answer really is #4! But yes, White is alive because Black hasn't blocked it yet (or White could just start with a in my diagram and then pull back to make the L+2 which is alive). Thank you!

Wow, that is surprising. I thought that both the sente-threaten-to-connect sequence (which you learn as soon as you get your 4-4 keima approach pincered, jump in to the 3-3, and then get cut off) and the L group knowledge (which of course I embarrassingly misworded) were things ones learns around 10k. It just goes to show you that everybody learns things in a different order.

I can't keep all the L, L+1, L+2, L's with hanes and J's and J+1s and J's with hanes straight in my games either. Just the most basic variants and a vague idea that to kill it starts with the hane then take it from there.

All I know is that L is dead and each +1 bumps it up one more category of aliveness (both L+1s are unsettled, L+2 is alive). I find that the hane versions are less important in practice at my level because usually there was already a non-hane version on the board beforehand. I haven't gotten to remembering the Js yet

The L and J groups are probably good resources to study.

I have to admit, I haven't studied them enough to remember how to live/kill, so I end up spending time in my games rereading them out. Should probably put them on the list of definite *must know* study.

So many different ways up the mountain.

_________________
Go Books

Things have advanced quite a bit since you were 4k. For one thing, 4k then is probably 8k now.

_________________
Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Apparently I have some pretty big holes in my game.



No, I didn't know that. All I saw was that I was well behind, and couldn't see any better way of reducing Black's big group on the right side.


In the game I played:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

Descending from didn't seem right since I realized Black would clamp at S18. It was only after playing T18 that I realized Black would play S19.


I thought I was way behind! Trying to take away some of Black's territory was more urgent than playing gote moves just to make certain another group wouldn't be attacked!

The sequence was actually approach, pincer, jump, Black jump to P8, slide, Black jump to O4, jump, 3-3, J3. After the jump to P8, I didn't know what to do next. I've since looked it up on josekipedia; I don't particularly understand the ideas behind their suggestions. I'll have to think about that for a while.

Or shodan in Japan.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

That's great! It means there is a really obvious and easy hole to patch. I am always really happy when I find out that I was missing some fundamental knowledge that I should have acquired by now, because addressing it now is usually pretty easy and makes a noticeable difference, as opposed to the laborious task of upgrading a maxed-out 6k brain to a 5k brain.

You didn't say which of the 3 possibilities was true, and instead elaborated on your thought processes during the game (side note: it is good to be self-aware, but I think in general you focus too much on documenting your current thoughts and not enough on figuring out how to swap out those thoughts for better ones), but if you do figure out which one was the case, and fix it, you'll have made a nice qualitative jump, just from one game.


OK, that is another thing to learn for next time. Usually when you jump into the 3-3 point, your opponent will seal you in, which means he will have more strength against your nearby stones than before. You have probably seen this happen a hundred times, perhaps without thinking about it; now you can think about it.


In the saying "urgent before big", "urgent" refers to life or death and "big" refers to points. By the way, your 3-3 invasion is almost certainly going to be gote.

Let's see, Black has about 10 points in the top left, 12 in the bottom left, 18 in the bottom right = 40 plus whatever he can get on the right (which, granted, is a lot). White has about 10 on the bottom left and 45 on the top (just drawing a line between E11 and L16) plus komi = 60+. It's still anybody's game now, but there's only one weak group, and if Black spends the rest of the game attacking it, he'll turn that right side into tons of territory.

Some ideas: S8 or S3 (getting eyespace and taking territory away from Black while making some yourself), N7 or M8 (running into the center while not letting Black make territory while attacking), N4 (pushing down on Black while trying to make eyes). Note that none of these moves are gote (that is to say, if Black ignores them, you have great followups).

I have a feeling that if you were Black you also would have thought you were way behind

Hear, hear! Every middle SDK has large gaps in their go knowledge. Getting a good grounding in the basics is a good way to make progress.

BTW, Fedya, why didn't you play the hane and connect in the corner?

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm52 White to play
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . X . O . . . . . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . , O O O . . X . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . X X X . . . . . |
$$ | . X X O . . . . . g . . . . . X . e . |
$$ | . O O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O . . . . . , . . . . c , b . . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . d . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . a . . B . B . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . W W W . W . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . O . . . X . . . X . X . W . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . O . X . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

What can White do in this position? I agree that Black seems to have the edge, mainly because of the weakness of White's marked group. Black has a huge framework on the right, but it is kind of stretched thin. Black threatens a play at "a", attacking White's weak group while enlarging and strengthening the Black framework. The usual invasions of "b" and "c" have the disadvantage that the ensuing fighting is likely to weaken the stones. The reducing play at "d" is interesting, and is locally a shape play, but it, too, can end up weakening the already weak White group. "e" is an interesting invasion, threatening to go into the corner or into the side. But it is only an invasion. "f" is big, threatening to kill the corner; almost double sente. "g" is big, the double keima on the frontier of frameworks. Don't let the double keima get away.

Here is another thought.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm52 Another double keima
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . X . O . . . . . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . , O O O . . X . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . X X X . . . . . |
$$ | . X X O . . . . . d . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . O O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O . . . . . , . . . . b , a . . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . 5 . . B . B . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O . O . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . O . . . X . 3 1 X . X . O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . O . X 4 2 . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

and prepare the way for the double keima at , preventing the push and cut. White has strengthened his weak stones, and weakened the stones. Now plays like "a" and "b" are live options, and White still has the possibilities of "c" and "d".

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Leaning attacks are by definition aji-keshi -- you are cashing in on the aji in one particular way (asking your opponent to repair a defect), in order to gain strength to advance an attack elsewhere. In this particular situation, B is already low on the bottom, so forcing him to make territory there is fine. Since these moves are aji-keshi, they should be played only after B commits to running in this direction, when you know they will be useful in the attack.

aji keshi & aji cash-in.

I was thinking about the hane followed by the descent, but realized that failed to a Black move on the 2-2 point.

Yeah, hane (on the second line) and descent (to the first line) is useful much less often than one thinks at first, largely because you are not only leaving a cutting point (on the second line, where it's easy to make captures) but also leaving yourself with a small number of liberties. It occasionally is the right move in special circumstances but it generally shouldn't be your first instinct. (Stronger players, please correct me )

It's sometimes good to increase eyespace to allow living where you otherwise couldn't. I tried making an example, but I saw that it was a bit wrong.

_________________
be immersed

I was asking about this hane and connect.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------
$$ . . . . . . . |
$$ . . 2 1 3 . . |
$$ . O . X O . . |
$$ O . . X O . . |
$$ X X . . X . . |
$$ . . . X . . . |[/go]

But while we are at it, how does Black respond to in this sequence?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Example for Kirby:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B B to live (ko)
$$ -------------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . O . O X . . . . |
$$ . . . . O . . X X . |
$$ . . . . . O O . O . |
$$ . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$[/go]