I've been experimenting with playing games on KGS with fast time limits (10:00 + 5x20 byo-yomi) rather than medium (25:00 + 5x30 byo-yomi). I generally prefer slower time limits, but a faster game lets me get in a game during my daughter's nap without worrying about whether she'll wake up before it's over. I make more mistakes at a fast time limit, but it's good practice for learning to think and read more quickly. And, of course, playing a game is always better than not playing a game.

This was a position at the end of one of my recent games. I was playing white, and black quit after I finished sealing off his stones on the right side. (Unfortunately, he did not resign... just let time run out.) It's black's turn, there is no komi, and if he is able to convert the lower left corner and all of that large central moyo to territory he will certainly win the game. Where is the best place for white to reduce / invade if black makes a move around K7 to reinforce the central area? (Or is there a more important place for black to reinforce?)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B End of game - but where should it continue?
$$-------------------
$$|...................|
$$|.XXOO....X..XOOXXO.|
$$|X.XXO..OOXOX...XOO.|
$$|X..XO...X,XOOOOOXO.|
$$|.XXO.OOX..XOXXXOXXO|
$$|OXOOO......XXOOXO..|
$$|.OXO.........OXXO..|
$$|.XXO.........OOX...|
$$|.XO..OX......OXXX..|
$$|.XO,OX...X...OXOXXX|
$$|.OO.OX.......OXOOO.|
$$|..X.X.........OXO.O|
$$|..............OXXO.|
$$|..X..........O.XOO.|
$$|..............OOXX.|
$$|...X.....X....OXXO.|
$$|......X.....XXXOOO.|
$$|.............XOXO..|
$$|...............X...|
$$-------------------[/go]

I've run through a few of my own variations: it looks like white can win with a successful invasion on the lower left 3-3 point, and I think there is enough room for me to pull that off. But once I do that, the central moyo is much more secure and the score is close enough that I'm not confident that is the best place to begin. The central area looks to b susceptible to invasion/reduction, but I'm not quite sure where the best invasion point is. I'd be very interested to hear from any stronger players who can point out the right direction of play.

I've played 2 more games on KGS and 2 in person since my May 27 post, so I'm up to 14 games total. Here's the breakdown:

KGS: 9 games
Tygem: 1 game
In Person: 4 games

The in person games were at Denver's Fiery Rain of Go Stones club. This week I gave handicap stones instead of receiving them: 3 stones for the first game (lost by resignation) and 2 stones for the second game (won by resignation). The games were fun, and I learned something important about playing in person: don't be discouraged from playing your best go when your opponent makes self-effacing statements about their play. My opponent may have won anyway, but I certainly let that affect me in the first game. In the second game, I felt much better about my play.

I've also been working through Tesuji and re-reading Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go. In Tesuji, my success rate on the problems in the chapter on capturing races was pretty horrible. Much of that chapter was done while I was busy with the end of the semester, so that doesn't come as a horrible surprise. I also was more interested in other aspects of the game, though that is obviously an important part of play. I haven't missed any problems in the following chapter.

I've sporadically been doing problems from Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol 3 on my phone as well. My mind hasn't been into tsumego lately, especially without a textual introduction to concepts. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into that soon; I know it's important to developing reading ability. The answer might be to work through some easier problems for the time being. They still expose me to important shapes without being so taxing.

I've noticed an annoying trend in my recent games: I've been getting off to a good start and then letting large groups die and swing the momentum in my opponent's direction. I think there are a few reasons this is happening over and over again in my games.

1) To some degree, my strategic understanding of the game has exceeded my reading ability. These two aspects of my go occasionally get out of step, and when my reading ability lags behind it leaves my groups open to attack.

2) On a positive note, it reflects the fact that my game is growing. I'm thinking more about sente and playing big moves, and I'm trying not to play any more moves than are necessary to settle a group. Unfortunately, this can occasionally mean playing one move fewer than is necessary.

3) Sometimes I just make a blunder, particularly when I'm under time pressure. When I can immediately see a better move when reviewing my game it doesn't feel like a matter of ability so much as maintaining a clear head during the game.

4) One small but real contributing factor is that I had at least one game where my opponent left because I was moving too slowly for his or her taste. I'm a little self conscious about being perceived as moving slowly, so I can occasionally make a move before I'm really ready to do so. I think I need to be okay with using the time allotted for the game as I see fit without concern for how my opponent will perceive that use. (As long as I'm using it to the best of my ability, of course... I'm not talking about walking away from a game while my opponent just watches the clock wear down!)



Game count:

KGS: 16 games
Tygem: 2 games
In Person: 4 games
Fuego: 1 game

I was out of town for a few days without a way to play Go, so I'm a little behind my intended schedule. Hopefully I'll have a day where I can play a few games and catch up soon.

Wow. Today was a bit discouraging. I played a lot of games and lost them all. As a result, I'm in the midst of the longest losing streak I've experienced since I started playing go.

In most of the games I played, my play was downright embarrassing. My play was just off for some reason. When I finally had a chance to win my last game, I played one unnecessary move inside my own territory at the end because I was short on time and didn't want a complication I overlooked to cause a problem and lost by half a point. I made a big step toward achieving my goal of playing 100 games this summer, but I had hoped to see steady improvement. Today just felt like a step backwards.

I'm not sure why my play was so poor today. Part of it was playing on Tygem for the first four games, where the style is very different from KGS. Those games were also played on my iPad in a coffee shop, which certainly makes it harder to concentrate on the game. But there was something else going on, too, some blip in my mental capacity. Perhaps I was reading lazily or just a bit too eager to play for the capture instead of making solid moves. Regardless, tomorrow is another day. Hopefully I won't lose all of my games!

Game count:

KGS: 20 games
Tygem: 6 games
In Person: 4 games
Fuego: 1 game

Total: 31 games

I've played a handful of new games since my last entry, and I've had much better luck than the day I lost all my games. The most fun (and interesting) game was probably the one I played in person with a 3 dan player at a local club. He gave me nine stones and I won, though it's likely he wasn't going all out. I missed a few big moves and made a few mistakes, but overall I was pleased with my play. I recognized when my groups were under threat and saved them while taking profit, and I generally made an intentional effort to play moves that were sente. I'm not too fond of high handicap games online, but in person they're a lot of fun.

Current games total:

KGS: 23 games
Tygem: 9 games
In Person: 5 games
Fuego: 1 game
IGS:1 game

Total: 38 games

I've made enough progress that my "100 games by the end of the summer" goal still seems realistic. I'm going to be out of town for a few days next week, though, and I may not have internet access. I'm not sure how I'll handle that situation.

Halfway there!

I've jumped back up to 9k on KGS, and this time it seems it might stick. On another thread, someone said that they have never improved; their opponents have just started making more mistakes. That's what things have felt like lately. The tsumego I am working through have gotten a tad easier (despite being from the same book). My opponents are making more mistakes (despite having a higher ranking). I think my practice might be starting to pay off.

Of course, sometimes I get an opponent who just plays in a bizarre fashion. I've attached one example of a game where my opponents moves didn't seem to make any sense. These games are actually kind of hard to play; a lot of the time I play reflexively in response to certain shapes appearing, and those known shapes just don't show up as often in this kind of game. I can also lose concentration since it's hard for me to anticipate the flow of the game. I've lost at least one game where my opponent played crazy moves, and I know now not to take them lightly. I won the attached game by a lot of points, but there was a moment where I was afraid I'd let a key group get cut off, in which case my opponent certainly would have won. It wasn't entirely clear I was ahead by territory all game, either.

Playing games like this is a good reminder of how far I have to travel in my go: my impulse may be to scoff at unconventional moves, but my opponent can apparently win enough games to share my ranking. Despite my knowledge, I'm not a better player at this point. These games encourage me to understand the game well enough to play against any sort of opponent, not just respond properly to "correct" moves.



Current games total:

KGS: 33 games
Tygem: 10 games
In Person: 5 games
Fuego: 1 game
IGS:1 game

Total: 50 games

Why 226 and 228 ?

With 226, I may have been making sure he didn't connect to the corner without really reading. I wasn't worried about losing a point at that stage. With 228, I don't think I had any purpose besides helping black realize the dragon was dead.

Do you need either move ?

Neither is strictly necessary, but omitting 226 involves confirming that the capturing race works for white (it does, as far as I can tell) and leaving a huge ko threat on the board. With a big lead and only small endgame moves left, I'd probably play that move again just for the peace of mind.

228 was entirely superfluous, and I knew it at the time. When black played 227, I really though he or she might not have noticed the group was dead. I could have gone ahead with the proper endgame moves, but I didn't feel it was necessary to get 10 more points of profit when I was nearly 100 points ahead. It was basically a pass to let my opponent decide if he or she wanted to end the game before playing out the rest of the endgame. Since black played on, I did too.

On a side note, 218 was probably a mistake since it allowed a ko for life. I think B10 kills outright, though it does involve reading through another semi-complicated capturing race.

Which cap race ? What ko ?

The capture race would be between his E13 group and my D12 group. White wins by one move in every variation I could see.

I didn't think there was another ko that would develop on the board at that point, so I could have played elsewhere. Honestly, I was probably being overly cautious. I've lost won games by playing one move too few on a group I could have saved. Watching many of my stones disappear off the board in a single move is a surprisingly powerful motivation to change behavior (and improve my reading).

I guess the question at stake here is what is whether a kyu player looking to improve should try and get the most points out of the endgame or merely play the moves that are necessary to win. I'll admit that the former probably offers the most learning opportunity, but I think there is also value in playing moves that reflect the score on the board. Perhaps I'll make maximizing my score in the endgame a subgoal that I focus on in some of my upcoming games.

What's the status of your D12 group ?

I can't find a path where it's not unconditionally alive, whether or not I play 226. I've uploaded an sgf with a few of the variations I tried. If I'm missing something, could you point me in the right direction?

That's correct: your D12 group is already alive, so there is no cap race, and no ko.

Each of 226 and 228 is -1 point in gote, worse than a pass.
You removed 2 points from yourself, in gote.

In this game, it doesn't affect the result. But in other cases, -1 point in gote could be a losing move.

When over 100 points ahead I think playing -1 point in gote moves to ask your opponent to resign is fine and not worthy of criticism. Better to review a game you lost by 100 points.

Last time I posted a game that I found odd, but it didn't really have a lot of value for review. This time I'll post a game that I lost, which probably offers a better chance of pointing out my errors. I'm often reluctant to post losses, since I often don't feel they represent my best go. I can usually find a number of significant errors in my personal review, so posting the games doesn't always feel like it's of great value. Of course, I might be missing something fundamental.

I also should admit (to myself, mostly) that I don't like showing off losing go. But taking ownership of my poor play is an important part of continued improvement. Not only will it allow me to get valuable feedback, but it's important that I don't play passively out of fear of playing a move that will turn out to be bad later. If I think a move works when I do my best job of reading it out, I need to play it and allow the consequences to come as they may.

This is a game I played last Saturday. I was a bit distracted while playing, so I made some reading errors I may have otherwise avoided. Still, this is my go. I put some of my own comments in the sgf file to give you an idea of how I think about my own games while reviewing them.




Total games as of 7/17:
KGS: 42 games
Tygem: 11 games
In Person: 7 games
Fuego: 1 game
IGS: 3

Total: 64

A few comments on an early position:

and are excellent moves to get some compensation for three dead B stones, but things went bad for B in the continuation. It was good practice on your part to try to analyze this position after the game to look for improvements. Let's dig a little deeper.

is actually a mistake. Your analysis found a much better response than in the game, but you still got the order a bit wrong. Go back to and see if you can find a real tesuji to capture the three W stones unconditionally. This is a fun reading problem, which comes up often in tesuji books and real games, so take some time to analyze it. If you manage to pull this off in a real game, it will be quite enjoyable

Oh, of course! The diagonal tesuji at G19 is obvious now. I think the big wall black gets by sacrificing those stones may be better than saving them, though. Either choice is better than what I did, of course!

Which diagonal tesuji ? Do you mean hane ? (On which move? )
Who is sacrificing which stones ?