Are you familiar with the Kalamazoo Go club by any chance ?

A few thoughts:
For move 8, is a classic response when black tenukis from the magic sword pincer, and is the reason it's usually not abandoned. Playing into that by transposition seems like a fine line too. You'll have 3 stones in the area, so you can play closer, which is to say, more severely, without trouble.

At 73, I don't think connecting under is gote is any good at all. Black has no eyeshape, just got heavier, removed aji in white's position, AND gave up sente so that white can take the vital point while making a corner enclosure.

Regarding the all out fight at the end, based on my experience in our series, at least, I get the impression that you start looking for this all-out finish when it isn't warranted, which is to say, when the game is relatively even or you are ahead by a bit. It can be a hard habit to break, but careful counting before you embark on such a measure is not a bad idea.

I have heard of them. I attended the Two Cities United Tournament at the Kalamazoo Club last year. However, their usual meeting times haven't really worked well for me in the past. I'm busy on Thursday nights. I hope to go to one of their meetings at some point. Perhaps I'll simply have to cancel my usual Thursday night plans and head down there. (You complain on here that there are no go players in your area, but there are three clubs within driving distance of you... )


I did that in one of our games. In general that would be my response to a tenuki there. However, I wanted to do something besides that and, considering how poor was I don't think I needed to be that severe. (What? Do you feel bad for you computer or something? )


I agree. I just noticed that black could have connected under during the game and wanted to make note of that. I realized after doing it that the pattern ended in gote. If the connect under was sente then I think it might be worth it, but definitely not in gote. (So you noted that in your game for nothing. )


Yes, I agree. And when I do count and find that I am ahead by a decent amount I tend to back off. The problem is when I continue the game blind without counting and I see something that looks like an overplay by my opponent. So many times I try to go for the jugular. I need to make counting a habit again. Whenever I count I do much better than when I don't. (So you again come to the conclusion that counting is important. You've come to that conclusion how many times now? )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I'm not sure it's worth doing before black lives with that group. It's decently sized endgame, and hypothetically in sente, for sure. On the other hand, once black connects, the group is still heavier, which makes any attack on it that white attempts that much more sente. It would certainly be way too slow for white to play another move to prevent it, so black should hold off until just before that point, assuming it were sente. A corner approach from the 3 stones would be much nicer, for example.

So I'm slowly getting back into things. I watched the last two Nick Sibicky lectures and I appreciated both of them greatly. (Of course you did. He makes his lectures for DDK players. That ways you have a chance of understanding him. ) His 4-4 joseki workshop was mostly review for me, but I still enjoyed the problems. What I want to talk about is his lecture on the first Gu Li vs. Li Zhe Longxing final match. Here is the game.


This game was very interesting to me for a number of reasons, but the biggest one was the sacrifice of black's "stick" in the lower left. looked like a game-breaking tesuji to me. I would be mortified if my opponent ever played a move like that. (You've been mortified by your opponents playing 9k moves let alone 9p moves... ) At first it looks like Li Zhe is going to save his stones - that may have been his original intention even. Yet from it is clear that his intention now is a bold sacrifice. It works because he can see what he will get from it. He can see that white's group in the center has just become weak. White is clearly committed to killing the black stones, so he must save it. And that allows black to gain a monstrous territory on the right. Everything lined up for black to do this, but it took strong reading and a great understanding of the game to find this sequence and best one of the greatest go players of our time.

I think this game allowed me to see the wall that has formed in front of me. The reason I struggle with attack and defense - the reason I struggle with anything beyond the opening really - is that I can't read on a large scale. Locally my reading has improved greatly. Yet even when I play a move that has global implications - however good it might be - I don't read what is going to happen as a result. Whenever I make territory from attacking or gain a box in the center it always surprises me. A part of me sees profiting as a sort of magic. If you just attack well you'll naturally form points, right? (We're back to this nonsense again? Did you even write an essay about the importance of reading? Have you just been pretending to read your whole go career? ) There may be some truth to the idea of points forming naturally from attacking, but it is certainly not magic. I need to understand how attacking profits.

So this is what I must work on; I must see how the magic works. I must piece together all of the parts of the board and understand how they interact. I must truly think globally. I must read how my opponent and I will develop our territories and try to picture how the board will look, not in 4 or 5 moves, but in 40 or 50 moves. (You want to read 40 moves? You? You don't even have the right to sit at the same board as someone who can accurately read 40 moves let alone doing it yourself... )

I want to start with this game. I want to use this game as a way of examining global thinking and how to profit from attacking. Considering that this game showed me where the fault lies it seems like a good place to start. (All well and good, but you're gonna forget these lessons in a week.)

And so that I don't forget these things, I intend to memorize this game. ( ) I have never done this before, but I think this game is a good one for me to do that with. I'm not looking for a parlor trick where I can just play out this game. I want to understand the moves. I want to burn into my memory the ideas that make this game interesting to me. The idea that attacking is not magic. The idea that you can feel free to sacrifice something for the sake of something better. The idea that sente matters. All of the things that the game shows are things I need to work on. So I'm going to take this step. (I'm not sure how I feel about this... )

It is time for me to start thinking differently in my go. I need to let go of my kyu reading and start trying to read like a dan.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

Seems like you and I share a similar wall for progress.

I like the game you posted, especially the way black plays. Black's moves are in a style that I tend towards as well, which makes it a prime candidate for me to memorize as well. Thanks for sharing!

I'm always looking for more opponents, so if you see me on KGS and want a game, let me know. Maybe we'll figure this global stuff out that way ...

So yesterday I had an interesting experience. (That's a first. ) I was spending time with a friend of mine going to a coffee house in downtown Grand Rapids where they play chess. (Really? A chess story? ) We mentioned to the other players that we were from Grand Valley's Go and Chess Club. Most of them had heard of go and one of them had dabbled in it. He said he had a friend who moved to San Fransisco and was a 3 dan. We had just started to talk about the culture of go clubs - the idea that most strong players are willing to help weaker players with their game - when something crazy happened.

AT that moment two guys walked into the coffee house. One was carrying a Yellow Mountain Imports stone bag and the other carried a go board. (What?! )

I have never run into other go players in Grand Rapids like this. I immediately abandoned the chess games and struck up a conversation with them. The players were 12k and 15k, but they were both eager to play a stronger player. I played a game with each, giving them handicaps and reviewing afterwards.

Surprisingly, they were both players with my style. The 12k apparently decided to study the opening heavily and primarily needed to work on reading. I gave the 15k a 100 point reverse komi and he proceeded to open with the Low Chinese! He didn't know all of its intricacies, but it was surprising to meet a 15k that played this opening. Meeting these players was like running into myself a year and a half ago.

So my evening went from moderately interesting chess matches to an exciting evening of playing go. (Huh. And here you always complain about how there are no go players in your area. ) Of course I told them both about the West Michigan Go Club and with any luck they will attend sometime this summer.

---

As for my studies I'm still working to memorize the Li Zhe-Gu Li game. So far I've got the first 60 moves or so memorized and then smatterings after that. I keep forgetting the move order and just how many stones black adds to his sacrifice in the lower right. He gives up an additional seven stones beyond the four that he started with. He potentially gave up nine additional if he hadn't saved the couple on the bottom.

I also counted during the game and the finish was actually much closer than I'd thought. White is only down by about 6 or 7 points after komi and he has the first move. But I suppose that is just too much. I don't see any great sente moves for him and black's massive moyo is all but irreducible. (Are you surprised the Gu Li kept the game close to the end? It's Gu Li. )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

This game between Ichiriki Ryo and Nakane Naoyuki also features an impressive sacrifice. The position is much more advanced than in Gu Li's game so it's maybe less global, still I find this kind of decision impressive

That is impressive. The scale of this sacrifice is also much larger than Li Zhe's, and the position is way more complicated, but it's a great game nonetheless. I think I'll take time to review this one while I'm memorizing the other. (Won't that just hurt your ability to memorize the Li Zhe-Gu Li game? ) The games are dissimilar enough that it shouldn't hurt my memorization and I think it might be worth my time trying to understand the global implications of the moves as it does seem like a game where the professionals are intensely focused on the whole board situation. (Are there professional games where the players aren't thinking about the whole board? )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I haven't been posting to my journal, so I want to rectify that. (Good. How has your progress been?)

I haven't studied much go the last couple of days. ( ) I did read some in "Attack and Defense" and I have done some more work on memorizing that Li Zhe game. I currently have it up until around move 170, but I haven't advanced in that because I haven't been practicing. (So you aren't improving because you aren't practicing. Discovery of the century right here, folks. ) The ko is fairly straight forward, but the exact order of the moves in it and right before it are eluding me.

But I do have something to say, even if it is brief. The only thing about go I really learned today was something I already knew: the fundamentals matter. I was doing more go problems and I came across this one: http://goproblems.com/8151 It's rated 1 dan and I was struggling to get it right. Then I remembered something that was in "Lessons" - the chapter on life and death.

Sure enough, Kageyama was right. Eye space before vital points. (Wow. You just spoiled the problem for them. Way to go...)

This principle also applies to what leads up to the ko in that game. If I remember correctly, the professional's moves follow this pattern. Black and white first work to maximize their own eye space while minimizing their opponent's. In fact, that's basically all the fight comes down to. I should make sure that in my next time through the game I see if there are any vital points that one might be eager to play. Then I can better understand why the professionals ignored them. (They ignored them because they know what they are doing when they play this game. )

Perhaps the time has truly come for me to give "Lessons" another read. I skimmed it again after my first time through, but considering that I want motivation, and that I seem to have hit a wall in my whole board thinking work, it could be time again for that book. (Do you think this book is magic? )

Hope you all have a great weekend.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I have had a lack of motivation as of late. Michael Shumacher once said "Once something is a passion, the motivation is there." I do believe I am passionate about go. And I think the idea behind this quote is probably true. But I was wondering... if the motivation is there, then where is it hiding? Why have I not wanted to get onto the KGS to battle against opponents on the e-kaya fields of the go board?

Whenever I wanted to play, I would think about how hard go has become. My opponents can read just as well as I, if not better. The game requires great mental effort. And, frankly, I have found winning to be hallow and defeat to be crushing.

So I did not play. I stayed away from the go board. It was not necessarily fear - although that probably has something to do with it. (Or a lot to do with it.) It was more lethargy. I felt exhausted whenever I thought of playing an opponent near my strength. And I always seemed to be too weak, too tired, too burnt out to justify playing.

So I now know this:

When you have lost the will to fight.
When you have lost the will to work hard.
When you have lost the will to even try to win.

All that remains, if anything does, is the will to play.

That is the motivation that hides away when we seem to be lacking in a desire to work at go. If we can tap into that, then we will never lack the motivation to do what we are passionate about. (But you lack motivation... isn't this"revelation" like the blind leading the blind? )

And I did play a game tonight on the IGS. I won and I think I actually played very well. It is a shame the game was not even - I think my opponent and I could have played a great game on even footing. The biggest difference this game compared to most. I was paying attention to the whole board situation. That is the most important thing that I am working on. This is also, I believe, the best review of one of my games that I have ever done. (So you are not only getting stronger at go, you are getting better at reviewing... Didn't realize that was the goal here. )

Tomorrow is go club and I can go to it. If our 2 kyu player comes, I want to play him. First, because I think I can win. And second, even if I can't, I know for sure that I can play.

(This is only true if you consider that mess you put on a go board to be playing... )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

By move two I knew you were going to win. Just skimmed over the game, I don't have much to say (just woke up) but you were clearly at the very least even with him. Good job

_________________
Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

It is nice that you found enough motivation to keep playing

Just a few thoughts on the game, as usual this may just be complete nonsense or just a matter of personal preferences

I would have played at the top (f16 then k17, or even k17 immediately) as this seems to be the region b wants to develop. I think the result to 23 does not work very well with b's lower right wall.
maybe kick at r15 first to reduce w's possibilities ?
not sure about the change of direction...Now that d16 has been left alone, it is hard for b to develop the top. So I would have cut w in two and developed the right side.
at this point I don't feel the b stones are really working together. Maybe it is to early to think in terms of territory...

@RBerenguel - Yes, my opponent helped me out a fair amount in that game. (As in all of moyo's wins... )

@Shenoute - For I actually did consider K17 directly in the game. I've been experimenting with that move a bit and just about played it. But, as with before, I wanted white to give me an excuse to use my wall. I was assuming we would play the typical 2-space high pincer joseki where white makes a low base that is out and black gets the corner. So I thought I would get to play F16 and then come back for K17 in the end. (Because almost playing a good move somehow means something? )

At I don't like the kick. If I'm going to defend the corner I'd want to do so solidly. As mentioned in my review, I almost played that way, although I do wonder which direction is better to cap white's 2-space extension.

seemed like a good idea at the time, and I think it is good locally. My N17 stone is ideally placed for this. However, as you noted, the top is hard to develop. I think I should have blocked that way so I had two walls facing the right. Which was my original intention when I played N17. So changing direction was inconsistent. (In other words, it was bad.)

For I also considered splitting white with a kosumi. However, as noted later, the K3 stone is not weak. I saw no good way to attack it and I assumed white would simply go for the corner. But again, as I saw after the game, such a wall following the invasion would be good for black.

-----

I still have a desire to play, but I don't have much time today before club. I got in another blitz game, though. It was fairly easy (my KGS blitz rank is low because I don't play on it much).

The only huge mistake I saw in the game was on the bottom side. I needed to connect to kill white's stones. Then I would have captured them. Otherwise I played a lot of slow moves because of the clock and because I was ahead.

I feel the only reason I won is because I know my Chinese fuseki and white foolishly invaded early. And tried to live like a crazy person... (You again win because your opponent messed up. Will you ever win a game on your own merits?)

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

Who wins if their opponent plays perfectly?

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

W+0.5

@Bill - A good point, but if I want to improve I need to start to think more in terms of perfect play and less in terms of "well, my opponent let me get away with this, so that's fair" kind of play. (Perfect play? Well good luck with that insanity. )

@Abyssinica - Don't you know the old story about the two omniscient gods who sat down to play a game of go? One took black, thought for a few years, then played his move. His opponent thought for a few years, and then said "I resign."

I got in another IGS game today. It felt like I was in command of the game the whole time. In the end, my opponent made a horrific blunder and resigned. (Can we get a loss again soon? These wins are, um, less helpful in improving your play. )

I have been quite satisfied with my reading recently. I made a couple mistakes this game out of greed, but otherwise it has been good. (Good by 3 kyu standards is horrific blundering by 9 dan standards... )



I did not get to play the 2 kyu at my local go club this week, but I really want to. I think I may have improved some since our last game. If he hasn't also improved I may finally get a win. (Ah, okay. Thanks for letting us know where your next loss is coming from. I was getting worried. )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I got another undeserved win today - but this one was actually undeserved. My opponent resigned when he was up by about 20 points. (Yep, moyo at his finest, everyone. )

It was a game on the IGS and my opponent was given 3 stones against me. I'll probably change that setting to put it within 1 stone. I did poorly in the handicap game, not sure how to proceed. My opponent ignored me and, when I failed to kill his group, I had all but lost the game. Even after a questionable ko fight at the end which won me about 10 points my opponent was still well ahead. Then I played the first real end-game move and he resigned. (So another stunning victory! )

I'm not sure if my 10k opponent just couldn't count or couldn't read, but I was sure to lose that game if we continued. The IGS seems to have made me 8k now, so I'll have a lot of games around that rank in the future.

Here's the game:


I'm also starting up more OGS correspondence games. I've got 2 with unknown opponents and I sent some invites to some others I've played in the past. The two unknown opponents are playing rather strange moves, however. One opened at the point of the Ear Reddening Move. The other opened on a 5-5. We'll see how those go... (I thought you wanted to play strange openings? )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

10 kyus should not resign.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

This would be an example of why that is common advice. Unless my opponent just had to leave his computer or resigned for some reason besides that he thought he was losing. The world may never know. (Nor does the world care... )

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves