SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan

FinrodFelagund · **#421**

Bill Spight wrote:

FinrodFelagund wrote:

New plan!

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to capture the marked stones $$ | . . , . . . . , . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X . . . . . . . $$ | . X . . . . . . . . $$ | . O X X X X X . . . $$ | . O 3 . . Q X , X . $$ | . O X O 2 Q Q X . . $$ | . . 4 5 1 . Q . . . $$ +---------------------[/go]

Now the whole corner only has 1 eye. White should take the stone to save the corner, but will lose an extra two points if white wants to save everything.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to capture the marked stones $$ | . . , . . . . , . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X . . . . . . . $$ | . X . . . . . . . . $$ | . O X X X X X . . . $$ | . O 2 5 4 Q X , X . $$ | . O X O 3 Q Q X . . $$ | . . . . 1 . Q . . . $$ +---------------------[/go]

White can only take at C1 , then black wins the capturing race with H1.

White would live in sente if :w4:

was played at :b5:

, letting black connect.

I think I still suffer from a huge case of wishful reading. I need to develop the discipline to go back and consider white's best response with the same intensity that I considered black's first move.

Putting yourself in your opponent's place is indeed important in a game. In fact, IMHO, you should do that before you think about your play. If it were your opponent's turn, where would they play? The saying is, The opponent's key point is my key point. How do you know the opponent's key point if you don't look at the board through their eyes?

But to solve a problem doing that is neither necessary nor sufficient.

It's not necessary because you only need to find one move for yourself when it's your turn, regardless of where your opponent might play, and it's not sufficient because when it's your opponent's turn, you need to have a good reply to each of their moves. It's not a question of psychology, but of technique.

For instance,

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to capture the marked stones $$ | . . , . . . . , . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X . . . . . . . $$ | . X . . . . . . . . $$ | . O X X X X X . . . $$ | . O b c d Q X , X . $$ | . O X O a Q Q X . . $$ | . . e f 1 . Q . . . $$ +---------------------[/go]

You have shown replies for a and b, but what about c - f?

Maybe some of these plays are trivially obvious. But to me b and f stand out because they are where Black played in response to a. c is a point where Black played in response to b. And after e Black can still make a mistake.

I don't mean that you need to read every possibly reply by your opponent at every turn, but you certainly need to be prepared for every one of them.

I guess for reading practice, it's best to consider every variation. Especially for such a small space. If I have found one working variation, I can usually reverse engineer the shape to return to the one that worked. Not always though. If white plays a, c or d, black can connect at b and make e and f miai.

If white plays f, black plays a, white d, black e. White is cut off again. (I probably should have just made this a diagram, because I hate when go books describe sequences like this.)

Bill Spight · **#422**

FinrodFelagund wrote:

I guess for reading practice, it's best to consider every variation.

You don't need a problem to practice reading.

To solve a problem you don't need to consider every variation, just every relevant reply of the opponent. (If you're not sure that a reply is irrelevant, pretend that it is.

)

Quote:

If I have found one working variation, I can usually reverse engineer the shape to return to the one that worked. Not always though. If white plays a, c or d, black can connect at b and make e and f miai.

If white plays f, black plays a, white d, black e. White is cut off again.

You left out e. I didn't think much about e before I wrote my previous note. Now I think it might be a better reply for White than c, because it leaves more plausible options for Black, only one of which works. Aside from finding the solution to the problem, that's worth knowing.

FinrodFelagund · **#423**

Bill Spight wrote:

FinrodFelagund wrote:

I guess for reading practice, it's best to consider every variation.

You don't need a problem to practice reading.

To solve a problem you don't need to consider every variation, just every relevant reply of the opponent. (If you're not sure that a reply is irrelevant, pretend that it is.

)

Quote:

If I have found one working variation, I can usually reverse engineer the shape to return to the one that worked. Not always though. If white plays a, c or d, black can connect at b and make e and f miai.

If white plays f, black plays a, white d, black e. White is cut off again.

You left out e. I didn't think much about e before I wrote my previous note. Now I think it might be a better reply for White than c, because it leaves more plausible options for Black, only one of which works. Aside from finding the solution to the problem, that's worth knowing.

If e, then black goes to a, and the shape becomes similar to if white plays at b first. Broadly, black has miai between cutting at a and connecting at b.

Bill Spight · **#424**

FinrodFelagund wrote:

Bill Spight wrote:

You left out e. I didn't think much about e before I wrote my previous note. Now I think it might be a better reply for White than c, because it leaves more plausible options for Black, only one of which works. Aside from finding the solution to the problem, that's worth knowing.

If e, then black goes to a, and the shape becomes similar to if white plays at b first. Broadly, black has miai between cutting at a and connecting at b.

Not really. After White e, if Black plays at b instead of a, Black fails.

FinrodFelagund · **#425**

Bill Spight wrote:

FinrodFelagund wrote:

Bill Spight wrote:

You left out e. I didn't think much about e before I wrote my previous note. Now I think it might be a better reply for White than c, because it leaves more plausible options for Black, only one of which works. Aside from finding the solution to the problem, that's worth knowing.

If e, then black goes to a, and the shape becomes similar to if white plays at b first. Broadly, black has miai between cutting at a and connecting at b.

Not really. After White e, if Black plays at b instead of a, Black fails.

I mean that in all white's responses, black can take one of the two vital points. After e, it's no longer miai and black has to take a. Is there a term for tactical miai instead of specific miai between two intersections. I.e. black has two tactical aims (cut and make the eye false) and can take the one that white does not defend.

Bill Spight · **#426**

FinrodFelagund wrote:

I mean that in all white's responses, black can take one of the two vital points. After e, it's no longer miai and black has to take a. Is there a term for tactical miai instead of specific miai between two intersections. I.e. black has two tactical aims (cut and make the eye false) and can take the one that white does not defend.

OK, I see, thanks.

Well, miai does not have to be between specific points. So you could say this.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to capture the marked stones $$ | . . , . . . . , . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . X . . . . . . . $$ | . X . . . . . . . . $$ | . O X X X X X . . . $$ | . O b c d Q X , X . $$ | . O X O a Q Q X . . $$ | . . e f 1 . Q . . . $$ +---------------------[/go]

After

Black has miai between cutting at a and taking the second eye away at f.

Now, White e prevents Black f because of damezumari. White does not have to actually play at f.

SoDesuNe · **#427**

Thanks for solving the problems with me and insights into reading habits and improvement y'all!

Some straight forward madness this time. (Got it right on the third try...)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to play $$ +---------------------------+ $$ | . . . . . X . . . . . O . | $$ | . . . . O O . . X . . . X | $$ | . . . . O . X . X . . . . | $$ | . . . , . . . X . O . . . | $$ | . . O O O X X . . . . . . | $$ | . . O X X O . . . . . . . | $$ | . . O X O O , . . . . . . | $$ | . O . X O X O . . . . . . | $$ | . O . X O . . . . . . . . | $$ | . O . X O O X X X , . . . | $$ | . . O O X X O O . O . O . | $$ | . . O X . . X O . O . O . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ +---------------------------+[/go]

Kirby · **#428**

SoDesuNe · **#429**

Lost a won game on time today (game was lost, won, lost, won - but who's judging ^^) and another one due to very, very bad fighting skills.

A prevailing theme in my games is direction of play, especially when it comes to attacking and defending. I rarely even consider the strongest moves and I am way too fast/keen to play simply.

Also I often play moves which really don't have a follow-up.

Right now it's quite hard for me to come up with a way to tackle this issues. I'm guessing pro games could help. More playing and reviewing and remembering the review could also help.

I'm at least quite okay with the way my reading ability develops. At least 20 problems a day do their job. Could still be better, of course and I especially often hallucinate or miscount liberties but as far as visualisation goes, I'm happy.

I guess I keep on track with problems so far and try to play more games. If I have even more time, I'll do some pro game study again - this is what started my go hunger (Shuei!), so cannot be bad : )

Kirby wrote:

Farodin · **#430**

SoDesuNe wrote:

... and I am way too fast/keen to play simply.

SoDesuNe wrote:

...this is what started my go hunger (Shuei!)...

I sense a connection here

Coincidentally, I also started studying Shuei's games a couple of days ago, though my interest in Shuei's style rather comes from a need to rein in my abundance of kiai (the FoxWQ kind of kiai, unfortunately). As such, I'll be interested to see how your study of his games changes the way you play, given that you seem to have a calm playing style to begin with. Perhaps there will be more center-facing L shapes emerging in your games ;-)

SoDesuNe · **#431**

Hm, 7th lost game in a row - back to 1-kyu.

Still happy with my reading so far and slight improvement in the kiai-department. There is a lot to be desired in terms of direction of play though. A lot can be credited to lack of experience and having the head full of "learnt" stuff, thus not focussing on or even knowing the important points.

Right now I'm always struggling out of the opening. I do play better (locally) in early fights but I often forget the whole board perspective in the process. I sometimes even forget the local perspective, like if my groups has really two eyes : D

I believe a lot will piece itself together with more games and more reviews. But regarding reviews I - again - have to start trimming it down to the three most important learning points. Information overflow is creeping in again and my feeling is that I have to foucs on strategic reasoning right now. If I miss tactics, I miss tactics - I'll keep on doing my (at least) 20 problems a day anyway. But getting behind on the board due to poor direction of play is something I should be more aware of.

So, I'll go back to those seven games and start making a new list of the biggest learning points I can discover and try to actively work on them. If, in a week or two, that does not work out to my satisfaction, I'm planning to get a teacher.

Regarding problems: I started the Yi Ch'ang-Ho series again - on the side. Finished volume 1 of the tsumego series with one careless oversight (marked for overlearning). First volume of the tesuji series is in progress right now. As is Get Strong at Attacking.

Sadly no time for pro games so far.

I'm now one month in after my last somewhat (but less than now) serious attempt to ramp up my go (summer-autumn 2019). I see a road but it's a long one and I'm just traveling by foot so far.

SoDesuNe · **#432**

Ha ha ha, that's a 2-dan problem on goproblems.com ^^

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to play $$-----------------------+ $$ . . X . . . . . O . . | $$ . . X O O X O X O X . | $$ . . X O O O X X O X . | $$ . . X X X X O O O X . | $$ . . . . . . . . X . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . X . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

SoDesuNe · **#433**

Kiai paid off. Slight misread when killing top left, second move was not needed (I did hallucinate a ko somehow). But in general I'm happy with this game. Ignoring the utter nonsense in the bottom left of course...

Had not enough time to really read the stuff in the middle of the board but luckily it worked out - I went with feeling there ^^

PS: Finished Get Strong at Attacking, 79 out of 136 wrong - so ~58%. Now Cho Hun-hyeon's Lectures on Go Techniques volume 2, then volume 3, then Get Strong at Invading and then going over those 79 wrong ones!

SoDesuNe · **#434**

Farodin wrote:

SoDesuNe wrote:

... and I am way too fast/keen to play simply.

SoDesuNe wrote:

...this is what started my go hunger (Shuei!)...

I sense a connection here :D

Coincidentally, I also started studying Shuei's games a couple of days ago, though my interest in Shuei's style rather comes from a need to rein in my abundance of kiai (the FoxWQ kind of kiai, unfortunately). As such, I'll be interested to see how your study of his games changes the way you play, given that you seem to have a calm playing style to begin with. Perhaps there will be more center-facing L shapes emerging in your games ;-)

Ha ha ha, right now I believe in cut first, think later to get better at fighting and reading. Makes exciting games but more of the "learn"-type ; )

Actually my admiration for Shuei's play has more to do with this sense of underlying strength. I'm often reminded of The Panther by Rilke (since the english translation doesn't do the poem any justice, I post part of the german version):

Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,
der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,
ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,
in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht.

The mighty but stunned will is - for me - a metaphor for the disparity in strength between Shuei in his prime and everyone else. Much like with Dosaku, there wasn't anybody who could really challenge him. Mighty will without the need to flex it.

Here's a 12-kyu-problem from goproblems.com. Please make sure to read it to the end and look for White's strongest counter ; )

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to play $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . X X X . . . . . . $$ | . . O O X X X . . . $$ | . . X O O O O X . . $$ | . . O . . O X X . . $$ | . X . O O . . . . . $$ +--------------------[/go]

Bill Spight · **#435**

SoDesuNe wrote:

Here's a 12-kyu-problem from goproblems.com. Please make sure to read it to the end and look for White's strongest counter ; )

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to play $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . X X X . . . . . . $$ | . . O O X X X . . . $$ | . . X O O O O X . . $$ | . . O . . O X X . . $$ | . X . O O . . . . . $$ +--------------------[/go]

Hmmm. I would have thought this was a 5 kyu problem, and that's based on Maeda!

Bill Spight · **#436**

SoDesuNe wrote:

Ha ha ha, that's a 2-dan problem on goproblems.com ^^

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to play $$-----------------------+ $$ . . X . . . . . O . . | $$ . . X O O X O X O X . | $$ . . X O O O X X O X . | $$ . . X X X X O O O X . | $$ . . . . . . . . X . . | $$ . . . . . X . X . X . | $$ . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

This problem supports my theory that bad players are attracted to bad plays.

My first thought was to capture the lone White stone and make a dead shape. OC, then White can make an eye on the side, but that doesn't work because of damezumari.

Oops! White can connect instead, which also makes miai for the second eye.

OK, back up. Don't connect to make the dead shape, but play to connect underneath instead. White cannot block the connection, because of damezumari.

Double oops! White doesn't have to block the connection, because my stones are in atari. :oops:

OK, back up to the first play. Once I saw it, I wondered why wasn't that obvious?

Because I was attracted to the wrong play. :lol:

SoDesuNe · **#437**

I learnt that the difficulty of a tsumego, you solve in an applet, depends on the obviousness of the first move.

The first move in the 12-kyu-problems is pretty obvious, so is White's first answer and your reponse. White's third move needs calculation but I guess a lot of player will click until now and then start reading : D

In quite some of the problems, I fail, I suffer from a different habit: I read all the way without clicking and when I'm sure it works, I blitz through. When I read correctly and didn't get caught off guard by missed responses, I do good. Other times I fail 11-kyu problems ^^ Now I try to pace myself while clicking, checking if my line really works.

In the second problem the first move is rather not "vital-point-ish", which makes it harder for the trained eye (see Treasure Chest Enigma and the problem "solve in three days to be a professional" (paraphrasing) ^^). Of course I read the capture first, too ; )

"Dead shapes" are a funny subject on their own, see the following problem:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black to play $$ +-------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . O O O O . . . . . $$ | . X X X X O . , . . $$ | . X O . X O . . . . $$ | . . . O X O . . . . $$ | . O O X X O . . . . $$ | O X X X O O . . . . $$ | . O O O . . . , . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . . $$ | . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

SoDesuNe · **#438**

Some recent happenings.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Wc Oh, them endgame blunders... lucky me : ) $$ --------------------------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . X X O O . . . . . O . O O . O O X | $$ | . X . X X O . . . . X O X X X O O X . | $$ | . . X X O O . . . , O . O O O X X X . | $$ | . . . . X O . . . . . O X . O O . . . | $$ | . . X X X O . . . . . . O O X O X . . | $$ | . . X O X O . . . . . O X . X X X X . | $$ | . X O O O O . . . O O X X . X . O O X | $$ | . X X X X O . . . O X X O O X X X O 1 | $$ | . O X X O O O O O X X X X O O O X O . | $$ | . O O O X X X O X . X X . X O . O X O | $$ | . X O X X X O . O X . . X O O O O X . | $$ | . X O X X O O . O O X . . X . X O . . | $$ | X X X X O O . O O X . . . . X X O O . | $$ | . X O O . . . . . X . . . . X O X O O | $$ | O O X O . . . O O O X X . . . , X X O | $$ | . O X O . . . O X X . X . . . X . X X | $$ | . . . . O . O X . X X . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc Black didn't see the danger, enlight him! In the game, I lucked out $$ --------------------------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . O . O X . . . . . X X . . . . . . | $$ | . . X O . X . X X X X O O O . . . . . | $$ | . . X O . X . O O X O . . X O , X . . | $$ | . . . . O X O O X O O . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . X . O O . . X . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . | $$ | . O . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . 1 X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . . | $$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . | $$ | . X O O O . . . . , . . . . . , X . . | $$ | . X X X . X . . . . . . . X . X . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I've been through my last couple of games and one reoccuring theme I can pinpoint: I enter frameworks way too early and I'm terrible in making flexible shape (often in combination). Even if I manage to make good shape (more often than not with the help of my opponent), I then try to rescue cutting stones, which have done their job. Ending up with terrible shape yet again...

I still trace that back to my weak fighting skills in general. Often my opponents end up with a framework because I live small somewhere clumsily, giving my opponents impressive outwards facing structures.

The other - more recent - is: Misplaying a (more complicated/fighting orientated) joseki and ending up seriously behind.

I guess more experience and awareness is needed - so patience? : D

SoDesuNe · **#439**

Played a 4-stones-handicap-game in todays club meeting and ended up just a little behind... but with a lot of good will from Black, so... : D

There was one instance of my favourite weakness nowadays, making flexible shape:

How it came to be...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Wc $$ --------------------------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . O . . O . . O X . . . X . . | $$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . X . X . O . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . | $$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . O . . W . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . O . X . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . X . X O X . . 1 . . . . X . . . | $$ | . . X . X X X O O . . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . X O . . . 2 . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I guess, the marked stone had its virtual "plonk"-value but nothing more. Black played solidly and cut me apart. With :w1:

I was ready to start a fight but Black had other plans with :b2:

^^

So, if I make a flexible shape now, keeping the aji of the cutting stones in check, I should still have a game!

SoDesuNe · **#440**

Yes, that happened:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$Bc pass, pass $$ --------------------------------------- $$ | . . X O O X X . O O O O O X O . . X X | $$ | . O . O . O X X X O X X X X . . X X O | $$ | O O X O O O O X O O X O X X X X X O O | $$ | X O O X X O . X . O X O X . . X O O O | $$ | X X O X . X X X X O O O X X . X X O . | $$ | . X X X . X O O X O X O O X X O O O . | $$ | . . . . . X X O O 7 8 . . O O O X X . | $$ | . X O . O . X X O . X X O . . O . . . | $$ | . X O . . . X O O O O X O . . . O . . | $$ | . O X O O X X X O X O O X X . O X . . | $$ | . X X X O X O O O X O X O O O O O X . | $$ | . . X O X X X O O X X X . O X O X X . | $$ | . X X O X X O O X . . X O O X X O O X | $$ | X X O O O X X O X X X X O X X O O O . | $$ | O X O X X X X O O X O . X . . X X O . | $$ | O O O X X O O O O O X . . X . X O . . | $$ | 3 5 O O X O O O O X X . . O X X O O . | $$ | . X X O O O X X X X . . . . X O O . . | $$ | 6 . 1 9 O X X X . . . . . . X X O . . | $$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Please find a better move for :w8:

: )

SoDesuNe paves his road to Shodan

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