How could I have done better?

shmalo · Post by **shmalo** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:38 am

Hello, Life in 19x19

I am an old GoDiscussions user, by the name of ShokuMasterLord.
I quit playing for I don't know how long, more than a year and a half. I have recently begun to play again, and this is one of the games from this resurgence. I know I could have done better, but how, exactly? I know of a few specific problems that I identified in the chatlog, but I can't fathom how'd they pan out if I had played differently.

Thank you very much.

Shmalo is me, and I am black.

Website · Post by **Chew Terr** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:12 am

The biggest thing I can point out is this: around a quarter of your stones are played such that they attach to opponent stones. While this can, of course, be good, you have to be careful, because it has a side effect. For example, let's take a look at move 17. It attaches to a weak stone while trying to help your lone top stone. While it does successfully help your top stone, it also encourages your opponent to support his stones. Every time you attach to your opponent's single stones with a single stone of your own, you encourage him to play a second stone, to help the first. After that, he outnumbers you two to one, and has a slight edge in what follows. In addition, the attaching stone starts with only 3 liberties, giving your opponent a slight target for attack. Had your opponent started by responding with, for example, the hane at G16, it would have started a fight where your stones' weakness shows.

Instead of attaching, consider moves that do not attach but still help your group. For example, simply jumping to H17, going the other way to M16, or approaching the corner at O17.

All of this said, attaching can certainly be great moves. However, just keep in mind that it encourages your opponent to either reinforce his group or attack yours. If this is fine (if, for example, your opponent is super-strong already or you just want his stones to be overcondensed), then attaching may buy you strength for free. But if you are trying to keep an opponent's group weak (such as attacking or considering doing it later) try considering other options.

Take this all with a grain of salt, I don't know anything about this game. =D

prokofiev · Post by **prokofiev** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:44 am

Just a few comments on local improvements to the first few moves: (i.e. I'm mostly suggesting better moves to accomplish the same goal as you intended with your move).

9: Jumping leaves a gap which is dangerous with white's M4 stone right there. Better to extend to M3. (Both players leave this big hole for a while.)

13: This is not terrible, but consider R2 instead (it's "faster").

17: Consider H17 instead. As Chew Terr said, contact is unusual here. When there are so few stones around, contacting will usually strengthen your opponent more than yourself, so only use it if that's okay with you (e.g. your opponent is already strong locally).

19: Similarly, try F16 instead.

Playing away: At 11 and again at 21, it isn't the right time to play elsewhere. All those stones in contact are just waiting for the next player to get the upper hand. (Your opponent shouldn't have played away from the contact moves either.)

Numsgil · Post by **Numsgil** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:49 am

Also, when you engage in contact, you must continue contact until your stones are stable. The magic number of liberties is 5 (6 is also acceptable. 7 is too many.). So what I mean is: make moves that extend from your string of stones that also take away liberties from an opposing string or are diagonal to an opposing stone. These are contact moves. You must make contact moves until your stones have 5 or 6 liberties. Then and only then can you take sente (which you can use to make a local move if it really is the largest point on the board).

eg: Move 7, you attach. Strategic issues aside (as Chew pointed out), you must continue contact moves after move 7 until your string of stones has 5 liberties. So Move 9, which forms a new string, is very wrong. You leave too many weaknesses. White might not even exploit those weaknesses right away, but you are creating weaknesses. Either connect at O3 (you end up with a group with 7 liberties, so it's a bit inefficient) or push at M3 (and maybe push again for good measure, depending on how confident you are you can handle whatever white does at O2 or O3 (that is, how strong you view the link between the P3 and N3 stones)).

The fact that you'd be pushing from behind (that's considered bad) in order to get stable tells you why Move 7 probably isn't good.

Contact Fights goes over the rules I'm talking about above. If you have spare cash to plonk down, you'd find this very enlightening.

prokofiev · Post by **prokofiev** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:54 am

Responses to your questions:

48: This shape is a good one to remember (the descent threatening to catch two stones which already have all but those two liberties filled). Clever tactical moves like this are called tesuji. You'll miss some you haven't seen before, and then maybe you can remember them for next time.

Any of G17, G18, H17, H18 will fix the problem (as your move 49). Perhaps G18 is best.

(Edit: Of course, if you protect, there isn't really much for white to do, but this tesuji of white's is useful when you want to get the descent, have your opponent protect, and then do something else with those stones, say.)

129 and following: N18 was an overplay by white. Your atari at N17 was good. After that instead of O17, play O18 to capture the stone (then if white plays L18 you can just take his N18 stone and his L18 stone will be dead too). If you don't see that, then, yes, it's better to connect at L18 than play what you did.

147: You caught the same situation as in move 48 and fixed it. Nice job!

Harleqin · Post by **Harleqin** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 3:04 pm

Move 9: Black played the marked stone. What can White do? What should Black have played instead of the marked stone?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$W $$ --------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . , . O . . | $$ | . . . O O . . . . | $$ | . . B . X . X . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------[/go]

Move 48: White has just played the marked stone. Black has four possibilities to save his two stones. Which are these, and which is the best?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B $$ --------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . W . . X X . | $$ | . X . O X X O . . | $$ | . . X X O O . O . | $$ | . . . O . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------[/go]

Move 68: How can Black clean up the upper left corner in the simplest, cleanest way?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B $$ --------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . O O X X X X X | $$ | . O X O X O O O . | $$ | . X X X O O . . O | $$ | . . . X X X O O . | $$ | . . O X O O . . . | $$ | . . . O . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------[/go]

Move 72: Does Black need to play once more in the upper left corner?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B $$ --------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . X O O X X X X X | $$ | X . X O X O O O . | $$ | . X X X O O . . O | $$ | . O . X X X O O . | $$ | . . O X O O . . . | $$ | . O . O . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------[/go]

Move 78: Does Black need to play once more in the upper left corner?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B $$ --------------------- $$ | . . X . . . . . . | $$ | . X O O X X X X X | $$ | X . X O X O O O . | $$ | . X X X O O . . O | $$ | . O . X X X O O . | $$ | . . O X O O . . . | $$ | . O . O . . . . . | $$ | . . . O . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------[/go]

Move 132: Black's turn. What is the white threat, and how can Black best counter it?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$B $$ --------------------- $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . X O . . . . | $$ | . X X O X . . . . | $$ | . X O O . . . O . | $$ | . . . . , . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ | . . . . . . . . . | $$ ---------------------[/go]

Dusk Eagle · Post by **Dusk Eagle** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:04 pm

I like what you did there Harleqin. That seems a good way to improve.

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