Hushfield's Study Journal

[averell]

Regarding the top right joseki, S17 for S18 is a bad exchange and Q13 is your sente in the correct order, and white got it. so locally, you got the worse result.

[Hushfield]

Harleqin, thank you for the exchanges shown. They all seem so natural once somebody else spells them out for you. I have a lot of work to do . Especially this adding another pincer stone when there's already one in place is something I'm guilty of doing quite a lot in my games. I shall watch out for this in the future.

Averell, thanks for pointing out the mistakes in the top right exchange. However, wouldn't Black Q13 invite white to play something like an ogeima from the top left hoshi, interfering with an extension from my wall? What I mean is I don't understand why Q13 is my sente. Ok, I can shut white in, and that is never good, but white is already alive, no? And aren't there bigger points than Q13 on the board right now?

[Numsgil]

first thing that bothered my eye is move 28.

that is not an attack on black group.
what you did was gave him a shot of vital on a weak black group.
in my opinion E6 is correct attack if you want to attack directly.
is it correct to play E6?? i dont know..(but it appears to be correct but i might be wrong on that)

Wouldn't E7 lead more directly to a favorable attack? E6 leaves D7 as an escape route, which would tend to create a wall running north south for white? Which seems less useful given that black has a stable(ish?) group on the right. Whereas E7 leads to a east-west wall facing the center up top, and another east-west wall facing the side and building territory.

[Magicwand]

first thing that bothered my eye is move 28.

that is not an attack on black group.
what you did was gave him a shot of vital on a weak black group.
in my opinion E6 is correct attack if you want to attack directly.
is it correct to play E6?? i dont know..(but it appears to be correct but i might be wrong on that)

Wouldn't E7 lead more directly to a favorable attack? E6 leaves D7 as an escape route, which would tend to create a wall running north south for white? Which seems less useful given that black has a stable(ish?) group on the right. Whereas E7 leads to a east-west wall facing the center up top, and another east-west wall facing the side and building territory.

i considered your suggestion but E6 is better than E7. if your opponent runs by filling dame then you must be doing something right. also..when you attack make sure you leave him escape route unless you can capture them.

[Harleqin]

This does not work anymore:

$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X X . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . a X O 4 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 3 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X X . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . a X O 4 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 3 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

Because of the cut at 'a', and cannot be saved. needs to be played before forcing White to save his Q17 stone, because then White cannot both save Q17 and capture :

$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 O X 4 . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O 6 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 1 3 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 O 8 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 O X 4 . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O 6 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 1 3 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 O 8 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

If at , a result similar to your game can develop, but you can see that Black has not played the extension to S17. This has endgame consequences around P19 (left as an exercise for the reader).

$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . a . . . . 3 O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X O 6 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1 2 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . a . . . . 3 O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X O 6 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1 2 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

So, in the end, your game result was not too bad, but just because White did not exploit the black mistake.

$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 2 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 2 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

This is also sometimes seen; White gives up the corner for sente.

[Magicwand]

12: i like white's position. i am not sure but black lost points in this corner.. Harleqin already explained fully.
22 & 24: useless exchange. better not played.
26: too far. G17 is correct if you want to play here. (i think i would played G17 so..probably correct)
36: if i was black i would tenuki and play R10 then white is in trouble. remember that such move is not always sente.
39: too early for that invasion. 3-3 invasion require perfect timing...now is not that time.
49: i would answer H4.
61: K8 is a better attack.
75: H3 is a better move
79: this move has no purpose. it is not attacking or making any points. really big mistake. if you dont make such mistake you will be alot stronger. it is like losing your turn.

hope it helps

[Hushfield]

Harleqin, your proposed white 2 came to mind immediately as I played my move, it was a branch I had overlooked (and naturally contained disaster). I shall have to read more carefully.

Magicwand, thanks for the input. Below are some questions I have about your comments, the ones I don't mention are just the regular "Wow, you're right, how could I have missed that?"-sort of thing.

39: I am aware that 3-3 invasions require good timing, but I never seem to hit it just right. How much longer should I have waited? I was scared a white move on the left side would erase this potential, but am I correct in assuming that if white plays a move that actually does erase the 3-3 aji, it is too narrow and I can extend upward along the left side?
49: I don't get H4. It seems somewhat submissive, don't you think? At any rate, shouldn't black try to seize the potential again? You obviously think this is a big move, but I don't understand why. Could you explain it a little?
79: I know I said I wouldn't fanboy, but thank you very much for that comment. A move without a purpose is better left unplayed.

This week I have been very naughty, and haven't attended that well to my go studies. Not too bright a start after only 2 weeks. I've put in a lot of extra time at work, but at least I've managed to do about twenty minutes of tsumego before sleeping every night. The world cup finals and the second phase of the StarCraft 2 Beta didn't help either ^^. Next week I have much less hours at work so I'll be able to make up for some lost time. After two weeks I think it's also important to evaluate how the study program works.
1) I don't put enough time in tsumego. I should make this 1 hour a day, and make it the first thing I do every day. Even if I can't do anything else, I should always do this.
2) It feels like reading a chapter every day detracts a little from tsumego (though going through tesuji is also serious reading practice. I was surprised how many problems I could read out. Well, I think I read them out, because I don't look at the answers ^^), so I will put this later in my routine, and let this drop if there's no time left.
3) Playing serious games again is fun! Though I always get really exhausted after a game (my hands are shaking and my head is like a tomato about to explode), I feel this is very good training, and I should not cut down on playing 4 games a week.
4) I have mixed feelings about analyzing the games, because it takes much time I'd rather spend on tsumego. I think it is necessary to get the full effect from games played, though, so I will continue this as well.

Though I still intend to keep to my originally posted study schedule, I have now also included a priority for each item, as follows: tsumego - playing games - analyzing games - reading a chapter from the study material.

Next week I won't take non-go days, as I've had enough of those this week.

While (hopefully) improving a few stones should be reward enough, I've decided to give myself a little (big) present if I manage to make it to 3k KGS: the complete game collections of Honinbô Shusaku, Shusai, Shuho, Jowa, Shuei and Dosaku, which I would like to incorporate into the next phase of studying (which will include pro game study. (I've also discovered that I got paid for overtime this year. There may be a correlation ^^)

I would like to thank every one who has contributed comments on my games thus far, it is very much appreciated.

[SoDesuNe]

[...]the complete game collections of Honinbô Shusaku, Shusai, Shuho, Jowa, Shuei and Dosaku,[...]

Where I can find this? :o

[Magicwand]

Magicwand, thanks for the input. Below are some questions I have about your comments, the ones I don't mention are just the regular "Wow, you're right, how could I have missed that?"-sort of thing.

39: I am aware that 3-3 invasions require good timing, but I never seem to hit it just right. How much longer should I have waited? I was scared a white move on the left side would erase this potential, but am I correct in assuming that if white plays a move that actually does erase the 3-3 aji, it is too narrow and I can extend upward along the left side?
49: I don't get H4. It seems somewhat submissive, don't you think? At any rate, shouldn't black try to seize the potential again? You obviously think this is a big move, but I don't understand why. Could you explain it a little?
79: I know I said I wouldn't fanboy, but thank you very much for that comment. A move without a purpose is better left unplayed.

39: i will tell you how i time myself on 3-3 invasion. if your opponent is not going to spend a move to solidify the corner then it is too early.
49: i will say it is solid play not submissive. if white plays H4 he is pretty much alive. if you answer H4 then you can expend your moyo and attack that one stone. i will say main purpose is not protecting your territory but attacking that one stone.

[Hushfield]

SoDesuNe: I plan to order them from Schaak en Go-winkel Het Paard in Amsterdam. You can find the books on their site.

Magicwand, thank you for your explanation.
39: That sounds reasonable. Though it all depends on your skill in reading the board from your opponent's point of view.
49: Aha, I am not solely defending my own territory, I am also robbing my opponent's stone of a base. A solid two-purpose move and it is indeed a priority to play such a move at that point in the game.

Su 2010-07-11:
Graded Go Problems for Beginners, vol. 3: Level 1 problems 1-86
(Have to go watch the world cup final now.)

[ethanb]

A solid two-purpose move and it is indeed a priority to play such a move at any point in the game.

Fixed that for you.

[Hushfield]

A solid two-purpose move and it is indeed a priority to play such a move at any point in the game.

Fixed that for you.

You are quite right. That's what I meant of course, obviously ^^

Mo 2010-07-12:
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners, vol. 3: 87-136
- Read Kageyama's Fundamentals, Chapter 1: Ladders and Nets.
- No game today, also no analysis. I absolutely have to play tomorrow. Instead of playing a game I watched Yilun Yang's latest KGS Plus lecture on opening with Tengen and how creative openings should quickly incorporate reasonable follow-ups and depend on solid middle game reading. It was positively awesome and I shall do some more tsumego before going to bed.

[Hushfield]

Tu 2010-07-13:
- Graded Go Problems for Beginners, vol.2: Level 4 problems 232-327 (These went really well, perhaps because I did some sets from vol.3 last week)
- Read Kageyama's Fundamentals, Chapter 2: Cutting and Connecting
- Played a game on KGS (30min + 5x30sec) against Hoshiminy [6k]: W+22.5 (I took Black)
- Played a game on KGS (30min + 5x30sec) against pcuk [5k]: B+Time (I took Black, and won on time. I thought it was a real shame we couldn't play it out to the end)
- I also registered for Trollnament VI today, and I feel it's a good motivational tool, as well as a source of many serious games. I'm going to practice like crazy for this tournament. It doesn't matter one bit if I don't make it out of the league phase, it'll be good training and plenty of fun. Looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I'll analyze both games in detail, because I made some very big mistakes in both of them. And I'll try to do problems 1-230 from vol.2 of Graded Go Problems. Then I can officially consider that book 'solved' for the time being, and move on to vol.3 (and hopefully vol.4).

[edit:] I did one analysis already. you can find it here:
[sgf-full]http://www.hushfield.com/L19/2010-07-13-pcuk-Hushfield.sgf[/sgf-full]

The added comments marked [dv] were made by my teacher, Dieter Verhofstadt

[Numsgil]

B113:

Count the liberties of either group. Black has 3, white has 4. So black shouldn't hane (don't hane against stronger stones). This is a fundamental rule of contact fights (with the exception that you should hane if you can capture any cutting stone easily and locally. eg: hane on the first line). On a larger scale, black is sort of/almost connected to the string of 4 black stones, but then white is sort of almost connected to its own string of 2 white stones. And those are sort of/almost connected to other strings of stones, so I'm not sure exactly how to read this, but I think the 3 to 4 liberty count is valid, since both black and white have unprotected cutting points (not presently cuttable, but if either black or white got in to a shortage of liberty situation those cutting points suddenly matter a great deal).

I'm thinking black should push once more and then take sente (maybe make a wedge along the bottom), but honestly I'm not really sure. But the hane feels almost textbook wrong.

[daniel_the_smith]

I don't agree. 113 hane doesn't look obviously wrong to me considering how much stuff black has nearby. Usually you should hane if you can. Reading is required here.

But 115 is clearly horrible, it must extend, not atari. 115 is like -20 points, maybe more. After black extends, I don't think white's cutting stone has much future.