Thoughts on playing rated games on smaller boards?

[Boidhre]

and normally losing the first fight puts you in serious trouble, remember you can trade life for thickness in 19x19 but in 9x9 this is usually foolhardy

Actually I think sacrificing in clever ways can be a very powerful tactic on 9x9. I'm far from a 9x9 expert as I don't play it much, but I have noticed that often the strong monte carlo bots win by dying but getting so many forcing moves from the sacrifice they get enough of the rest of the board to win. Humans with their aversion to dying tend to overlook sacrifices like those.

Sure, I probably phrased it all wrong. I've looked at pro 9x9 games with some amazing half-board sacrifices leading to a 0.5 point win or similar. I meant the standard invasion patterns that are common in 19x19 aren't even in 9x9 because of how small the centre is. Using the word thickness there was probably very incorrect.

[xed_over]

playing on 9x9 has helped my 19x19 game, because I'm often afraid to invade in large open spaces, because my opponent's moyo looks so intimidating. But if I superimpose a 9x9 board over the area and think about how I would play in that local area then.. well, then it looks playable.

[happysocks]

Are there any good collections of pro 9x9 games available online?

There was the Ricoh pro pairgo tournament (http://www.pairgo.or.jp), with playoffs for the quarterfinal played on 9x9.

Cool. Didn't see an obvious way to find the game but there was an excellent photograph of Hsieh Yi Min & Satoru Kobayashi pro pair go champions for 2013 on the page. It's awesome that go has so many different ways for us to exercise and compete with each other.


Interesting discussion around the properties and possibilities of the 9x9 game. Either way the dance (fight) does seem go upon the placing of the first stones. Guess that's what makes it such an exciting game to play (will probably always play 9x9 for this reason even once grown into 19x19 as the main). Will continue to keep an eye out for pro play as well as interesting amateur games.

[vier]

Are there any good collections of pro 9x9 games available online?

There was the Ricoh pro pairgo tournament (http://www.pairgo.or.jp), with playoffs for the quarterfinal played on 9x9.

Cool. Didn't see an obvious way to find the game but there was an excellent photograph of Hsieh Yi Min & Satoru Kobayashi pro pair go champions for 2013 on the page.

For an example, see the four "Quarterfinal Advance Determination" games given on www.pairgo.or.jp/RICOH/2005/htm/results_9x9_e.htm or www.pairgo.or.jp/RICOH/2005/htm/games_e.htm (in ugi format). Using creative variation of the URL (or via Google) you can find results from other years. For SGFs see www.cwi.nl/~aeb/go/games/games/RicohPG

[happysocks]

Wonderful. Thanks!

[Mef]

Are there any good collections of pro 9x9 games available online?

Gobase has a good collection of pro 9x9 games from when the Nihon kiin tried to determine proper komi for 9x9.