I started this post with "Still thinking" ... but I came to the conclusion that I'll definitely learn from this regardless of the outcome. Here's the reasoning I followed to get to where I ended up.

I'm really not sure how best to handle this position ... the right is not urgent enough for me to play there, I think.

Here's what I'm considering as moves:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm37 Move 37 - Prisoners: B=0, W=0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . O . . O . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . X d . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . c . . . X 1 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . a . . b . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . . O O X X . . . X . X . . O O . X . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . X O . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . O . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

A) Black's lower group seems like the easiest group to attack ... but how? I saw a move like 'a' in a recent pro game that Araban posted (the "Strength Analysis Experiment" game that recently completed; Game 4, Move 42 at L5 here), and I've been looking for positions where it might be good since then. It threatens to split Black at H3 while still leaving an open skirt on both sides. In addition, H5 can be trated as a light stone, but the aji can help me to reduce the amount of influence that group can attain.

B) In a similar way, I could peep at Black's weak point here. When Black connects, I was thinking about making a jump out to N6, again focusing on influence over territory. I suppose it invites a fight, but at this point I'm backsliding into my more fighting style of play. I don't think I'll ever learn to play a calm game.

C) On the other side of the board, I was thinking that 'c' is a dual purpose move, threatening escape by my top group and threatening to expand my influence towards the center with my right side group.

D) Again, the idea is to strengthen my weakest group.

Hmmm ... I think I might try for the following sequence:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm37 Move 37 - Prisoners: B=0, W=0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . O . . O . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . X . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X 1 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 2 . . 4 . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . . O O X X . 3 . X 5 X . . O O . X . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . X O . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . O . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

You know what? It's time to play. This is probably a mistake, but I need to learn how to fight with influence and it's the best idea I have for this board. I'm treating and as light stones, and I'm looking to use them to expand my moyo on the right.

This is mostly from the gut. I looked at some variations, but didn't find anything too severe.

I see that he is very willing to tenuki. I can reduce his right a large amount. His left isn't territory. I still can hassle his top group.

Well, here goes nothing! And, if this doesn't work out, I really DO get nothing!

What is this ... I attached to his stone, and then he threatens to cut one stone. It does make the right bigger, but if he cuts this one stone, I'll s6. Also, I cannot just connect this. It gives me horrible shape, and then lets him keep attacking. It'll start a big fight, but I feel confident that I can do well.


My move here is to settle my group. Also I have an eye on doing something on the left. This should help with that.

If he decides to concentrate on that stone, so much the better. Gimme my moyo! LOL

I have no clue how the game will proceed from here. I might be getting a little greedy here.

This is sente, builds my upper left a bit. Also, he can't just attach underneath my stone here. I'll cut, and I haven't seen a variation that doesn't end well for me.

I'm still eyeing the possibility of reducing his right. I notice that right now I'm far ahead in firm territory, while he has better potential.

I suppose he could pincer my high stone ... but I really need to build up right now. Can't get too caught up with local moves if I want to catch up.

Also, I've been having too much fun playing tenuki so often. Why stop now? This move has the added benefit of linking up my top group with my ever-expanding moyo on the right.

Plus, I want my opponent to follow ME around the board. Eventually, I have to fix things that I leave behind ... but let's see how much I can do at my own pace instead of my opponent's.

Oh ... I'm still about 25 behind in territory, by my rough estimate. However, Black needs to respond to my moyo before it gets too big. That will allow me a few moves to pick up the slack, I think.

I don't want to be rude (at least, I normally try not to be), but what is this nonsense. Peep, then tenuki when your opponent ignores it?? That's not a peep, it's arty farty stone throwing. If you make a threat, and your opponent lets you follow it up, follow it up or it was a non-threat in the first place. In this case, that cut was huge:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm42 Move 42 - Prisoners: B=0, W=0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . O . . O . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . X . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O . . O . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . . O O X X . X . X 1 X . . O O . X . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . X O . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . O . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

:w38: is the first move I saw in this game, and I think it looks really weird. c13 looks a lot better to me.

I'll take my sente points here.

White was winning at the top of this page and is now quite a bit behind.

Ok, no tenuki this time. Which direction will he choose? Will HE tenuki? Let's see ...

This game is exciting me. Regardless of the outcome, I'm enjoying myself. That counts for something, right?

I guess I've stopped giving useful information about my moves. To be honest, I'm experimenting. I'm pretty sure, given the level of the commentators that seem to be leaving messages, that they are providing a bit more detail than I am, and probably have a better idea of what to do as well. Once I reached 5k or so, I discovered that I had no clue how to play in the middle game. I'll correct that eventually, but for now my middle game is probably as erratic as someone of 8k or 9k would be.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the observers are saying about the game, and I admit I'm partially choosing some of my moves to entice discussion. What good are these games if not for discussion?

I'm particularly interested in opinions on overall strategy. When White chose to tenuki to Q10 and to D10, was that sound strategic reasoning? How should White be using those stones? Was leaving the top group as it was the right call on this board?

I can't find a reason for white's last move. It seems really bad shape, so I'll let it punish itself. My move is sente. If he tenukis I'll scoop out his entire side. I'm hoping to gain some agi to get the S6 cut working well.

He DID! He DID tenuki! It's not like this move was all that unexpected. I need to keep him as low as possible. My rough count didn't include much territory here for just this reason. He can STILL reduce further.

I need to pick my timing and surround a chunk of the center.I'm also watching to see if I can make a bit of a reduction to that corner ... I haven't worked out the best way to do that, though.

I see this coming. It's looking like this will be pretty big sente endgame, or he'll take sente, but leave a lot for me. He can also choose a lot of transpositions.

I agree with topaz here.

I don't know what it is about this game, but I don't think either one of them is playing their best. Why not take the cut at L4? It was ignored so you should definitely take the cut. It's so big! I think both players are trying way too hard or something that's throwing off their game. I don't think half of these moves would've happened with regular time settings.

I supposed sometimes having TOO much time is a bad thing. There is honestly no rush to these games so I do not really understand where these odd/awkward moves are coming from.

Lastly, I just want to clarify that I don't mean to single out any of the two players. I've criticized white's moves more than black, but it's most likely because I feel he's making some very odd mistakes, more so than black. For example, I don't like black's answer to white's peep either, but the follow up after the peep is what just confuses me very much. Am I not reading this correctly?

I think MagicWand's and Topasz' discusion about W38@H4 shows this W38@H5 is aji keshi. That is spoiling opportunities to be exploited later on.

It's kind of paradoxical, but I think that the key to playing good go, at least around my level (which is pretty much the same as these players), is to trust the fundamentals more than your own brain. This happens in chess as well. So many times I see someone (often myself!) say, "Well, the normal honest move would be to play at a, but I think I see a tricky reason to play b instead," and 80+% of the time they're wrong. Another good example of this, not to pick on individual people too much, is happening with some of Jordus's moves in the ongoing rengo game. It's not that we don't understand the fundamentals, it's that we keep looking at them and tossing them aside because we think we know better!

In both chess and go, I've really noticed myself improve when I am able to put my ego aside and really accept that the fundamentals are smarter than I am, and if I am trying to contradict them, chances are that I am wrong. I think this is one reason that strong players think that anyone should be able to get to 1 dan; they see even 1-2ks breaking simple rules all the time, and really, how hard should it be to just stop doing that?

I expect him to at least respond to this. My right side territory is greatly reduced ... as expected. Unfortunate

I'm definitely going to have to go back over this game after it's done. I can't wait to see the comments.

So, what's going to happen? I'm being reduced heavily, which I expected ... but I MUST be the first to tenuki.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm52
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . O . . O . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . X . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O 3 4 |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 1 2 |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . O . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O . . O . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . . O O X X . X . X 5 X . . O O . X . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . X O . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . O . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

He's going to reduce my right side to virtually nothing, so I think I should look at grabbing what I can on the bottom.

I don't know if I feel good about this game, but I feel like I still have about an equal chance.