A beginner's journal of little interest

[daal]

What makes you say that you don´t have to connect at ?

[Boidhre]

Thanks Ed.

What makes you say that you don´t have to connect at ?

I don't see a way for white to connect after , connecting is nice for me as it links up my weak group in the centre though.

[daal]

Thanks Ed.

What makes you say that you don´t have to connect at ?

I don't see a way for white to connect after , connecting is nice for me as it links up my weak group in the centre though.

White doesn't have a way to connect, but he does have a way to separate, leaving you both with a weak group to take care of. If you connect, only white has worries.

[Boidhre]

Thanks Ed.

What makes you say that you don´t have to connect at ?

I don't see a way for white to connect after , connecting is nice for me as it links up my weak group in the centre though.

White doesn't have a way to connect, but he does have a way to separate, leaving you both with a weak group to take care of. If you connect, only white has worries.

True.

[Boidhre]

There's a Go tournament on in Ireland this weekend, I really want to go. The issue is my sleep cycle has gone into this lunatic 24 hours awake, 12-14 hours asleep cycle and I don't know how long it will last for. I may need to take my psychiatrist up on a referral to a sleep specialist. My sleep is sufficiently bad that I worry that I won't be able to participate in the tournament properly or socialise properly (which is half of the reason to go in the first place for me).

I don't know, I pretty much have to decide today if I'm going to be able to book or arrange accommodation at a reasonable price for the weekend.

[Amelia]

Go.

You're a go player. Socialising properly is optional.

[Boidhre]

I'm getting little done, my sleep is awful, for the past two weeks I've been living essentially 48 hour days with 30+ hours awake. This leads to tiredness, poor concentration and confusion.

I spent about 15 minutes today doing tsumego from what I thought was Graded Go Problems for Beginners 2 on the iPad and feeling really bad about myself because I was getting half them wrong. Turns out it was the second section of Get Strong at Life and Death a book with everything from 10k to dan level problems all mixed in together. It's worrying that my concentration is so impaired that I didn't realise I was doing a different book faster, I mean GGPFB2 is 5 seconds to solve territory for me these days. I shudder to think what a game of go by me would look like right now. :S

[tomukaze]

Pity you missed the tournament B. You may well have had a chance actually as the bar was set quite low, around 6k. Glad you are writing again and playing!

[Boidhre]

Well it's been nearly a month since I played but I met up with Tom and Anthony today and had a nice game. I'm not really within 2 stones of Tom anymore, he's gotten quite a bit stronger, but it's nice to rob a win against the odds every so often.

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=3150

[Boidhre]

I've been doing rather poorly health wise but I won't waste your reading time complaining about it here. I played part of a game with a 4d friend today, he had to leave early and we'll finish it next time we're both on. I'm getting absolutely hammered as one would expect, this I think will provide me with much to think about and study. There's been quite a bit of discussion about fuseki around my level, so I thought some people might find it interesting to see the gap and just how big it is.

http://lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=3461

We'd just entered the middle game and I was already getting many lessons about what move just wasn't big enough, what move I thought wasn't big enough yet actually was and what reduction means.

[mitsun]

Your opening was fine -- I do not think you got hammered in the fuseki at all. You did fall behind in the middle game fighting. My main suggestion would be to adopt a tougher attitude. Resolve not to let your opponent push you around; reject passive answers which slowly give ground to your opponent; try to find more severe sequences.

at P18 would be very large. W can live only through ko, and W needs to make the first ko threat. Did you read this out? If you are not confident starting the ko now, then waiting is fine. Depending on circumstances, capturing the S16 stone in sente might conceivably be better than starting the ko.

Switching to the invasion at R8 is an interesting idea. There is a middle game joseki here which you might want to study. is not one of the joseki continuations, and W got a better result here than he deserved.

At I would almost certainly block at P18 and start the ko. Now that B has captured a stone at Q12, losing the ko would be small, as it would not affect the safety of the B group. B has a nice ko threat at O9 atari. Simply getting two large moves in a row, say in the lower left corner, would be good compensation for losing the ko.

The exchange - helps W more than B. There is not much territory to be made around P14, and it is a shame to strengthen W like this. Imagine that B blocks at P18, then later gets to play H17. Now the W stones are quite weak, and the game exchange would be very bad. The thickness around P14 should be used to attack, not to make territory.

is an important move, which has a surprisingly large effect on the balance of power in the center. B could have played here in sente! B could even continue to press down after that, building quite a bit of center strength, making the W right side over-concentrated. Switching to a large point like instead of this is possible, as long as B is aware of the consequences. However answering at is hopelessly passive. This means B allowed W to make a big gain in sente, which should be intolerable. Either B should take the atari himself in sente, or he should be prepared to ignore a W play there.

feels too close to W thickness. Given the aji at L3 and H3, B will not be able to keep all the lower territory. Now might be a good time to decide between C3 and D2, rather than leaving the play in that corner up to W. If B chooses the C3 invasion, W must choose whether to cut it off and fight (losing all the corner) or let it connect (losing part of the corner but retaining sente). After that decision, B will have a better idea where to continue on the lower side. Or B can play something like D2-C3-L4, attempting to make the lower side into territory.

seems ambitious, but I am not sure. If B does not kill W, the resulting B thickness may not be enough compensation for losing the lower side territory. Note again the importance of . An alternative option for B would be to bump at K3 and attack, intending to build strength and invade at C3 or C7 in compensation. Or B could simply invade at C3 directly.

is risky for W. I think W should atari at G3 and get a good result. With the game sequence, B should get compensation for the W invasion. (Since the game is still continuing, I will not say more, but think about this carefully when forcing W to live.) However B should at least have considered playing at G2 for a kill.

All in all, this was a pretty good game, considering the strength of your opponent. Even at the end, you are not hopelessly far behind. Just try a little harder not to let your opponent get more than he deserves, and play a little more aggressively in areas where you have a strength advantage.

[Boidhre]

Thanks mitsun, I'm starting to play more. Tonight I had a very lucky win, my opponent should have won by 20+ but they made an error in a capturing race at the top towards the end of the game.

I made a complete hames* of the bottom right.

http://lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=3463

*synomym in Hiberno-English for mess

[skydyr]

You seem to tenuki from your weakish groups and dare the opponent to try and kill them, which works here but may not at higher levels.

[Boidhre]

You seem to tenuki from your weakish groups and dare the opponent to try and kill them, which works here but may not at higher levels.

This is an overcorrection from a long period of playing "one move too many" far too often.

[Boidhre]

An unfinished game, since I can count the number of 19x19 games I've played since May on one hand and I haven't been keeping up with my tsumego studies, so yeah I'm not playing well and making more serious misreads than I remember doing. Also thanks to KGS's rating system not having reasonable ceilings for inactive players I'm giving 2 stones to a 5k. Which is nice practice for me but must be terribly boring for them.

Anyway, unfinished game, it may be resumed I don't know, so no comments please on future moves but any comments on serious errors would be greatly appreciated:

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=3681