A beginner's journal of little interest

Boidhre · **#861**

EdLee wrote:

Hi Boidhre,

:b9:

P5: lots of vars to study; enjoy.

Yup, my instinct was P5 but I backed off as I couldn't even begin to read out the variations so I chickened out. It was interesting to look at when I got home last night.

Boidhre · **#862**

Nice evening tonight, went to the club meeting, it was very small just three of us, myself a regular and a new person. I ended up playing simultaneous five stone games with them. I'd forgotten how draining that is even when the games aren't serious. My concentration didn't really hold up and I made two large errors in the end game of both resulting in losing two groups. It was nice to see a new face at the club though, the regular who was there tonight has been making a bit of a push to get more people involved which hopefully works out. I haven't been getting much study done, sick + kids + tired. I've a few games going on Dragon Go though.

Boidhre · **#863**

I think my play has started to stabilise and look more like go again. I've been playing on DGS, my rank had slipped back to 12k due to timeouts but not knowing how much the break would affect me I decided to play games using that handicap. This turned out to be not such a good idea and I've had five straight resignations basically due to the games being very one-sided. My rank is 9k now so things should start getting much tougher but hopefully better for learning.

This was probably the hardest game for me out of the lot, it was a reduced handicap of five stones but it still felt too high. I felt my play at the bottom and on the lower left was quite slack. I also made a bad misreading in the fight on the top giving the white group an eye. Overall I thought my play was quite sloppy and I coasted by on points made in the early game. I think I was still far ahead if my opponent had played Q18 and given up those two stones but eh, so much to improve on from this game.

EdLee · **#864**

Boidhre · **#865**

I'm trying to put some structure on my study, at the moment I just pick up whatever book I feel like and do some problems or read a bit of theory. Is it efficient to study ko and the tesuji for creating them at my level? Or should I just focus on general tesuji and life and death problems to improve reading accuracy/depth instead since that's never a bad idea? (I realise I've only two weird games thrown up since I got back so it's hard to give any specific advice)

tentano · **#866**

Tsumego only for ko feels a bit wasted. Most of the work in a ko fight is evaluating how many ko threats each side has which are larger than the ko being fought over. You need to be able to make an informed choice on whether that ko fight should be started or avoided.

Most tsumego collections contain problems which deal with avoiding or finding a ko, in between all the rest. It's fine to work on whatever you think you can get yourself to do, though. It's a lot better than not doing it.

Bill Spight · **#867**

Boidhre wrote:

I'm trying to put some structure on my study, at the moment I just pick up whatever book I feel like and do some problems or read a bit of theory. Is it efficient to study ko and the tesuji for creating them at my level?

Interesting question.

I don't know the answer, but there are certainly books that include a lot of problems where the answer is to make ko. Perhaps because the results are unsettled, studying such problems may help to develop your judgement in assessing life and death.

Boidhre · **#868**

Thanks both of you. My thinking was the only way to really learn about ko is to play through a lot of them. To play through a lot of them means being able to spot them. Tsumego for ko seem to have a lot of interesting things going on with shape and liberties and I can't really find a reason not improve on both of those. That said a good L&D set will have a fair amount of ko in it so doing both wouldn't be a bad way to go perhaps?

Boidhre · **#869**

Had a 3 stone game with topazg. I think with better endgame I could have won this but there were unforced errors that did enough to lose it earlier. Still, it was a good game and I think my go has sharpened in the past few weeks after so long away from the game:

EdLee · **#870**

Boidhre · **#871**

Ed,

I considered the other points. I think I underestimated the severity of E16 or something. M17 was on my mind, was overly concerned about white being able to approach the bottom right from o3 perhaps.

mitsun · **#872**

Just a few comments on the moves which bothered me most:

:b26:

What is the strategic purpose here? Surely this sort of contact play will make the weak R12 group stronger, which helps W more than B. In return, you get considerable thickness, but facing directly into the O15 stone. If the plan was to use the thickness to invade around M17, then it would make sense, but it does not look like you had any ambitions in that direction.

:b52:

saves what appears to be the most worthless stone on the board. If W ignored ten other moves, allowing his group to be surrounded and reduced to one eye, so that this became the killing move, then it would be time to play here. Otherwise it is almost dame, or maybe even worse, as it converts a single weak stone into a larger weak group, which is no longer light enough to give up.

:b76:

has no effect on the safety of any group. As a pure yose move, it is very small, maybe five points. If you pause and look around the board, I am sure you can find many larger places to play.

This would be a good time to pause and evaluate the whole board situation. Are there any weak groups? Are there any large invasion possibilities? What is the score estimate? Where are the largest remaining plays?

:w77:

strikes first at a vital point, should win. Great move!
:b84:

punishes a W mistake, should reverse win. Great move!

Boidhre · **#873**

mitsun:

was a straight strategic and tactical blunder. I thought I'd get a better result and be able to invade at M16. After the sequence I was defeated psychologically there and didn't feel the fighting would go well for me if I invaded.

:b52:

was me just responding automatically. I don't think I thought much about that move. Which is worse than what was behind :b26:

I think.

was just tunnel vision on the local area. Another bad habit.

Thanks for the comments.

mitsun · **#874**

Boidhre wrote:

mitsun:

was a straight strategic and tactical blunder. I thought I'd get a better result and be able to invade at M16. After the sequence I was defeated psychologically there and didn't feel the fighting would go well for me if I invaded.

It's only a game -- invade anyway, all the way to M17! You built enough thickness to support this invasion, so be consistent and go for it. Psychologically, won't it feel fantastic if your invasion is successful, backed up by the thickness you built, making it a high level leaning attack? Also psychologically, if the colors were reversed, and your opponent invaded here, would you not be worried? Finally, just from a fighting point of view, the invasion seems reasonable because you have three ways to run: jump out to M15, connect under at O18, dive in deeper around K17. That seems likely to provide enough play to get a good result.

Boidhre · **#875**

mitsun wrote:

Boidhre wrote:

mitsun:

was a straight strategic and tactical blunder. I thought I'd get a better result and be able to invade at M16. After the sequence I was defeated psychologically there and didn't feel the fighting would go well for me if I invaded.

It's only a game -- invade anyway, all the way to M17! You built enough thickness to support this invasion, so be consistent and go for it. Psychologically, won't it feel fantastic if your invasion is successful, backed up by the thickness you built, making it a high level leaning attack? Also psychologically, if the colors were reversed, and your opponent invaded here, would you not be worried? Finally, just from a fighting point of view, the invasion seems reasonable because you have three ways to run: jump out to M15, connect under at O18, dive in deeper around K17. That seems likely to provide enough play to get a good result.

Thanks mitsun, good advice. I let these things get to me too much.

Boidhre · **#876**

Another DGS game. I'm mostly concerned with the opening third of the game, I felt I played it quite poorly and I think I was more behind than I should have been after :b51:

I can see some slow moves, I'm not sure I like :w44:

,

and I really dislike :w50:

. Actually I dislike the whole sequence for white after :w42:

so I'm suspecting that it was a poor choice. My opponent left me back into the game with some middlegame errors. I'm curious around white 104 if black's top group can be killed.

(game was played at 7k, not 6k, just 6k rank by the end)

It's been weird on DGS, my rank had dropped back to 12k so I had to play up but I've lost just one ranked game so far and that was with a clubmate. I expected to hit a brick wall sooner, DGS ranks were generally closer to EGF than KGS when I used to play there.

EdLee · **#877**

Hi Boidhre,

:w14:

too early. End game move. You would play this much later, when the right side is 100% B's territory.
But it's still in the opening. You may want to jump in -- you don't know yet.
But this move will help B turn his right moyo into solid cash, make him much stronger there;
then you have much less aji to do anything there. Don't do this now.

:w32:

did you consider B may counter attack and push-and-cut you ?

:w44:

C5.

usually the first feeling is push up, at D9. If D9 doesn't work,
then you had better had other plans before you jumped in.

Boidhre · **#878**

A messy start to the game, many mistakes to be sure.

Far from an even game but better to highlight my oversights perhaps. Some crucial mistakes in the early fighting left me struggling to maintain parity. To be expected but still something to learn from.

EdLee · **#879**

Hi Boidhre,

:b13:

C10. When you played :b9:

at G17, you were already going for speed.
Take care of C13 ( :b7:

) now.
If C10 now, you have no weak groups. Compare to what happened in the game.

Another option is to hane inside (C16) on :b11:

-- connect to C13 ( :b7:

), give up G17 ( :b9:

).

seems slow. How about just turn. If W blocks, you hane, then tiger's mouth. Good for you; likely W would not play like this.

:b23:

not the way to fight. E6.

:b29:

too much. E6.

:b37:

two siblings fighting each other (top and center groups); pushing from behind. Busy.

:b39:

-

bad habit; broken shape; pushing from behind -- all wrong.

:b45:

good

L12. Which direction has better prospects for you ?
This also feels like a broken shape -- you hurt your E8 group, which should not have died, but did.

:b71:

strange ? If you want to fight, hane T17. If you want to force him to live in the corner, extend to R15.

:b75:

at least hane S14 and connect. In the game, W had a chance to connect under at T15.

:b85:

before this you need to prepare. P15 first ?

:b91:

if you had simply passed locally, W could not have got this result.

:b93:

if you're sure your E8 group will not die, you can play like this.

Else, just B4.

:black:

115 C1 better ?

:black:

125 why not G10 ?

:black:

127 why so scared ? N11.

:black:

129 very scared. M3.

ez4u · **#880**

What did you think about in rejecting the push and cut at 27? I am not sure that it's good but I am very much a "He can't get away with that!" type of player myself. It causes no end of grief but I wear my scars with pride. :rambo:

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A beginner's journal of little interest

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