Thanks for the comments, a lot of one point things here and there that I missed (good thing I didn't lose by half a point or anything.... ), and then those series of variations on the fight. 131 wasn't a pass I don't think so much as preventing the atari at T8 being unrespondable to.

PeterN

That's true but 131 on Q4 would be Sente and remove the T8 threat also.

One thing to consider, especially after or schawipp's suggestion for it, is that black's lower left corner can still be invaded successfully, and he may be rather pressed for eyespace afterwards and die or just live with a couple points. This is why, incidentally, black's choice to kick on both sides is bad, in addition to the fact that it strengthens white.

That's invadable?!

I really need to look at that bit more later....

PeterN

There's a bit of discussion of weak points, at least, here:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?ClumsyDoubleContact

Invading is pretty similar to the standard invasion after black kicks, white stands up, and black jumps high, once white is strong on the outside.

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started reading 1,001 Life and Death Problems
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games (both by other people)
Other: Started reading Get Strong at Invading

Despite what I was saying last week I decided it was more important to keep going with the tsumego and, as such, decided to start my new tsumego book. So far managed to get about 320 problems in and have got 27 wrong. It feels good not half remebering specific tsumego, but there are a couple of shapes that I'm still seeing instantly, particularly a diagonal connection inside a shape that sets up shortage of liberty (no idea why that specific one though).

Had two games reviewed this week, one on the ASR League and the other at complete random when a 4d watched a game I was playing and offered a review and a mini endgame workshop afterwards!

I also started reading Get Strong at Invading, though not very much as I'm mostly doing tsumego, and my results in it bear out my suspicions. There's no point even recording how many of them I get wrong, almost all of the problems I'm barely even looking in the right area.

PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading 1,001 Life and Death Problems (Abandoned at halfway - 87.7% correct)
Games Reviewed: 6 lost games (all by other people)
Other: None

This tsumego book ramps up the difficulty quite considerably somewhere in the 4xx problem range, and the problems are now taking too long individually for this to be doing much good right now I think, so it's time to shelve this book and move onto a different one. I finished 506 of the problems and got 62 of them wrong, going from what I said last week there's been a definite decline in success over the last 150-200 problems and I can only assume it would accelerate further if I pressed onwards. I'll pick the book up again at a later date and see how I do.

Been playing a lot of go this week and been utterly crushed in the ASR League so far (no surprise as all of my opponents apart from one were dan level... ), fortunately this has resulted in six games being reviewed, sadly most of them I resigned pretty quickly and there were only one or two mistakes to really be pointed out in each (but oh boy were they catastrophic!). Things I can normally get away with, without even realising it was bad suddenly turn into "Oh... you're dead.".

Also been trying out invasions in my games this week to some extent, and it's made me feel like I'm getting worse, rank graph is suffering for it. Need to keep this up though, I cannot go on avaoiding making invasions.

PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners IV
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games
Other: Re-read a little of Get Strong at Invading, Watched Shapes lecture by Dsaun

As mentioned last week I switched tsumego books, and this one is so far a little easier than where I abandoned the previous one, but not by any significant margin. I think there's just a gap in my ability or knowledge here that is going to need to be bridged by sheer trial and error. Get them wrong enough times and eventually the answers should stick.

Still losing all of my games on the ASR League, but got two of them reviewed. Recurring theme has yet again raised it's head. Defend my weak groups!

Watched a 3.5 hour shapes lecture by dsaun on KGS yesterday, the basic content of which I already "know" (albeit don't put into practise well), but seeing the seven reviewed games where shapes are used may become useful as good examples.

Also read a little more through the invasions book as it's a massive weakness, attempting to make an invasion most of my games now, but they tend to go badly. One example is below, think I left it way too late, which is probably one of my main problems for this.



PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners IV
Games Reviewed: 2 lost games
Other: None

The tsumegos are definitely getting harder than they were in this book, getting about 25% wrong and not even in the final stretch yet.

Both my game reviews were by a borderline 1/2 dan at the club this week, and received the odd advice of "You need to be more greedy." Trying this out and I'm just losing so far.

PeterN

And now I'm suiciding my groups to be greedy... I might as well stop playing at this rate

Please don't! Of course, every severe change of style leads to loosing more games. But stopping to play doesn't solve the problem at all. Although it does hurt (I understand you only too well), what is important now is to analyse your losses and to understand where you crossed the border. This will help you to regain the balance of attack (which surely is what the dan wanted you to emphasise more) and defence (which cannot be neglected in "greedy" or active play). Go surely can be a very cruel game which makes us stumble and even fall from time to time. But what is important is getting up again and going on!

_________________

Thanks for the comment Ember

I admit I posted that comment out of frustration. I think my normal "style" is play solid, wait for something I can attack, and then make a desperate do or die invasion which is nigh on doomed if I'm losing. Taking the advice of being greedy so far means neglecting defence. Suddenly losing a game I was winning by a large margin because of that got to me

Probably doesn't help that it's coinciding with starting tsumego books which are currently beyond me as well

Time to get back up and keep on being greedy!

PeterN

I'd be a little skeptical of this advice on its face. He may have been referring to maintaining parity, in the sense of playing with fighting spirit. That is, responding to a 3-4 approach by approaching your opponents 3-4 stone, rather than playing a joseki where your opponent takes sente to make his enclosure, and so forth. Perhaps he thinks you are playing too defensively and need to tenuki more frequently once you are safe? Or maybe he just thinks you need to figure out when 'greedy' moves are actually greedy and punishable, and when they are severe.

A little clarification on this. In the first game we played at five handicap stones he was unable to kill any of my groups or even put too much pressure on them (until the very end when I got desperate), on the other hand he developed so much faster than me that I still lost. He was mentioning instead of extended two spaces, try three, or invade the opponent and don't sit back and let them take it. But I tend to be a little literal and took greed to heart as the advice.

He did also say that I'm likely to lose a lot if I follow the advice but it should eventually work out better. Perhaps overcompensating to learn quicker then working my way back to a happy medium is what he intended?

It's a common theme in my games that I make solid territory but if the opponent doesn't present weak groups to me I just don't get enough of it. Main reason why I started trying to learn to invade a couple of weeks back.

PeterN

Peter,

Hi Ed,

Looking back at my post I only now spot the contradiction. I'll look up this information when I can. Yet more things to think about

PeterN

There's nothing inherently wrong with solidity, but there's a difference between going for solid territory, which is perhaps not so great early on, and solid groups, which may or may not hold territory as a result of being solid. With solid groups, you have the ability to invade or make good reductions without worrying about damaging your position, but the key is to make that solidity without using a lot of forcing moves that make your opponent solid in return. Solidity and thickness are really only relative, in that a group is solid because other groups are less so. If your opponent is playing faster than you, it should follow that they are also playing thinner, so this should leave openings for you to split their groups or press them down and get the fighting started in your favour.

In a sense, also, if you are making territory without fighting, it is likely inefficient and requires too many gote moves. The aim in fighting or attacking is to make territory or power naturally, by pressuring the opponent, and if there is no pressure, then the opponent is free to do as they please.

Ed: -

Sadly I didn't record specifically what games it was, I've just been remembering how many reviewed each week, but if I lined the games up right these two were reviewed by a 4k? and a 1 or 2d. Although neither of these were actually the game I posted, I just thought it was a good example of my invasions.

I took a quick glance over the two games I believe these are and the first one I did play solid shapes in fuseki (in my opinion at least), but once I started attacking I created a weak group and then tenuki'd and created another weak group... and then basically died.

In the second I also played what I thought were solid shapes in fuseki and then just got killed without delay....

sky: -

I generally make solid groups to start with, but with the definite aim of taking territory. Although I have learnt from experience I need some degree of influence or I'm going to lose horribly. In these two specific games this week I can nigh on guarantee my opponent had a much thinner position than me simply because I started with five handicap stones! Despite this I did not try to pressure or attack any of his weak groups until I felt secure with my own, and by that point he was secure (enough) with his own, and also well on his way to having more territory. How much of the defence was due to facing a 1 or 2 dan I can't say.

Overall perhaps I should modify what I said about playing solid. I think I start playing solid, but then switch into attack mode where I don't care about making weak groups, but still care about defending my original positions. And when I tried greedy so far I neglected defence more or less entirely, to the extent of ignoring large groups in atari.

All of this last bit is purely my own opinion, only intended to apply to games against opponents of my rank, and even then almost certainly not overly accurate

Figuring out what I'm doing really shouldn't be this hard....

PeterN

Ah, this is a bit different. As I mentioned earlier, solid and thick are only relative, and if you are thicker than the neighboring groups, then for the time being, you are thick and should use it to attack. So long as your opponent doesn't become thick, he doesn't have time to pick at your weaknesses. You can also go from a slightly thick position to a much more solid one through attacking, if you go about it right.

I would also recommend, if you play it, that you stay away from the attach-extend joseki and similar attachment joseki in a handicap game, as they will make you strong, but they also make your opponent strong, so the rest of the board becomes weaker in comparison and they can use their thickness against your other weaker groups.

Of course, without seeing the game in question, these are all armchair exercises.

Ok, I'm not very good at remembering games, especially five days later and I can only get a little way in, but this is the best I can do.



After this W largely pushed me down to the third line, there were some shennanegans in the upper left which almost cost me my corner and made W's left group safe, and there ended up being a large fight in the centre which didn't go well for me, R9 definitely died, and I believe J3 did as well.

On the attach and extend joseki it's not one I play. I heavily favour backing off low, one space low pincers, and kicks if it's an approach where I have the star point pincer already (I have no idea what the proper term is here).

PeterN