Life In 19x19

(Delayed) Progress Report: -

Tsumego: None
Games None
Other: None

It's been Easter, so busy week and no study done whatsoever. I prefer playing to studying so still found time for playing some games and to my utter amazement beat a 1 kyu in an even game (I'm assuming he wasn't playing too seriously against a 5 kyu), but either way here is the game: -



Two major things I need to look into on this game though, and W150. The first went badly, the second was a total disaster.

PeterN

Congratulations on your win, Peter. Beating a 1 kyu even is a nice accomplishment for a 5 kyu player. I haven't even done that at 3 kyu.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you extend to N14 at ? That seems to just work to seal in his stones.

While I haven't quite read it enough to say for sure I think even the double hane to N13 could be considered. I don't see any obvious reason it wouldn't work since you are driving white right into your ponukki and considering that moves like O10 threaten his group on the left so you can help your 3 stones get out if he tries to counter-attack.

Some thoughts:

You may want to play the small knight's move to get sente.

Alternatively, perhaps you should approach the top left distantly now and leave the top right to its fate?

Through It's good that you end in sente, but this does seem to be playing according to white's wishes.

Attack through What the heck is white doing?

Through This is painful for white, as now his topside looks quite thin next to that black wall. Chinese fuseki fail.

After this, black did fairly well. Not sure if you should have sacrificed the bottom group. Black may have been able to destroy the left even after saving it. I think the result on the right was fine. White got a small group that didn't do much in the game, and black solidified a lot of it.

Thanks for the comments.

- Uh... here I was simply protecting the cutting point and I don't think I lot more thought went into it than that.... I'm not sure if I'd have spotted that if you didn't point it out.

- Normally if I back off I'll play high if I have any 3rd line stones at all on the side, and low if not. I don't know how good that is though.

- Finding the biggest move is a definite issue I have, I was thinking finish (sort of) the joseki and making an extension from the enclosure was good. It does concentrate my stones all on one side though.

Through - My thought processes in these situations go somethng like "Corner... territory... yay." Perhaps jump out and then J4 if W defends on the left?

Through - I was getting worried throughout this whole thing, I was not feeling confident in how much my stones were having to run while watching that lower left W moyo form.

Through - This still looks worrying to me, that W area looks huge at first glance, though counting up it's "only" around 40 points.

That bottom group of mine was most definitely not sacrificed, not on purpose at least. I failed to live. At that point I thought I may as well get as much use out of it as possible.

PeterN

Regarding and , that's not a bad line of thinking in general. One other consideration, though, is that the small knight's defense tends to end in sente for black, and the one-space jump defense tends to be more (but not absolutely) gote. I suggested the small knight's move in order to take sente to approach on the left, but as you mentioned, it doesn't balance quite as nicely with the other stones on the right side. Both moves for are playable, though. With the one space jump, you can still take sente, and I think should in this case, but at some point you'll want to come back and look at the weakness there.

If you look at the board, it's basically the kobayashi opening by white except that black has the corner enclosure. If you had white play the chinese opening directly, black's corner enclosure makes the top much bigger than the bottom, since it wants to develop on the right side and undermines the bottom for white. So, once white has really claimed the top, you don't want to allow them to make it even bigger with a chinese formation or a corner enclosure.

By tewari, this would be equivalent to making the corner enclosure, having white make the chinese formation, then claiming the right, relatively uncontested side in exchange for white being able to expand his moyo. Instead, you'd want to have black approach the white chinese formation on the top side, to limit it there while expanding his own potential, since the bottom is less valuable.

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading 1001 Life and Death Problems
Games Reviewed: 2 won games, 1 lost game
Other: Watched the NGA lecture on KGS about urgent moves in the fuseki

I'm now at 897 problems done with 125 of those being wrong. The last section of this book is punishing me

All reviewed games were from the ASR League, the won games against a 12K and a 5K, the latter revealing a lot of my groups running perilously low on liberties given I hadn't read the fights out anything close to fully, but we couldn't kill any of them in the review between us, so bit of luck there.

Lost game was against a 1D, pointed out some bad direction from me (don't push towards weakness even if I think it's a clever plan ) and my invasions are still not up to scratch.

Urgent fuseki lecture was fun, but highlighted yet again a weird blind spot I have. Walls are invincible. Doesnt matter if they have no eyes, doesn't matter if they have no base. To my mind they are invincible until it's literally impossible for them to make life.

Been thinking on skydyr's idea of knight defence more to keep sente, hasn't come up often in a situation where I wouldn't have played it previously though.

PeterN

PeterN wrote:
Urgent fuseki lecture was fun, but highlighted yet again a weird blind spot I have. Walls are invincible. Doesnt matter if they have no eyes, doesn't matter if they have no base. To my mind they are invincible until it's literally impossible for them to make life.

As long as you are aware of it, you'll get over it eventually. You have to get to imagine eyeless walls as just "sticks." You can try to lay "sticks" on the board beside real thickness and then play moves that threaten to remove the base of said "stick."

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Read through 1001 Life and Death Problems (82.3% correct)
Games Reviewed: 3 lost games
Other: None

The previous week I just found myself with no interest for doing tsumego or studying, so I skipped a week.

I have finally gotten through this tsumego book, getting another 52 problems wrong in the last 100(ish) problems! So much pain on those last ones, often coming close to getting the answer right, but not quite. I am definitely switching back down a level of book to one that doesn't want to make me suffer.

My three reviewed games all had one very basic obvious blunder in each which cost me the game, I'm sure there were more, but these leapt out at me: -

1 - A 3x3 square which is entirely surrounded is not alive
2 - Trying to atari a group of stones by playing a stone in atari is a bad idea (this wasn't a situation where a throw in or something like that was applicable)
3 - Throwing more stones into a dead group trying to save it is doubly bad when you both fail to save it and kill another two of your own stones nearby and then lose by less than 2 points

Also a very delayed response to RBerenguel. I'm imagining actually replacing the walls on the board with sticks at the club and wondering what people's reactions would be

PeterN

:D:D I meant laying just lines of stones and imagining attacking them :D:D:D

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners III again
Games Reviewed: None
Other: None

Ah, what a difference it makes to be doing tsumego I can actually manage. I've gotten most of the way through this book in just a single week, 329 problems in, 18 of those wrong, and around half of those I shouldn't have got wrong but was going through a tad too fast really.

No games reviewed this week, though I did play a game that was a great example of how to lose a won game. Was winning, slacked off, let my opponent get every last end game point on the board, lost by 10 points. Just how many of my games are lost by carelessness? And how many won by carelessness on my opponent's side?

Edit: My lead was not truly significant (as kind of pointed out by losing) and I had not counted, my area just looked large enough....

In non study related progress I am starting a Go Club at work! First session meets later this coming week and I've had ten people say they're planning to turn up!

PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Finished reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners III (94.8% correct)
Games Reviewed: 3 lost games
Other: Started reading The Endgame again

It took me an additional two days to finish the tsumego book, so estimated time of somewhere between 280 and 350 minutes, a result that's both quicker and more correct results than last time!

I'm beginning to feel that I've reached (or may have done some time ago) the point where end game is bearing a significant result on who wins and loses in my games, assuming the ever present blunders cancel out for both players anyway. This book is not going to be easy to read through if I remember rightly from my first not partucularly in depth read through.

All three lost games were disasters and all on the ASR League, amusingly end game played no part in them at all, games are below: -







PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: None
Games Reviewed: None
Other: None

Another of those weeks where I have lost every single game I played and don't feel like doing anything else after that.

This study journal will come to an end soon one way or the other, either I hit my goal (which is only 1 stone better than I currently am), or I may as well accept I'm never improving.

PeterN

I haven't lost nearly as many games as you as of lately (I took a look at your game archive), but I've just lost three games in a row by a large margin feeling like a complete idiot, so I know a bit how you're feeling right now. Although it is hard, we have to continue because giving up will not help us reach our goals and make our dreams come true. Eventually, there WILL be better times. A few weeks ago, I saw a postcard in a shop which said "Setbacks are the foundation of success" (I hope I translated that correctly, the saying was in German). Although at first this might seem neither helpful nor consoling, it actually is when you have calmed down a bit and think about it again: You're suffering from a hard time now, but if you work on what went wrong, then all those losses won't have been for nothing. That's for sure! So don't let the game beat you but beat the game! (ok, with Go that is impossible, but at least try to )

Hi Peter,

Game 1 v. Guishu. and did you consider attaching under at B11 ?
. did you consider the other direction M17 ?
After cuts at o3, did you consider giving up the corner for o8 ? Your wanted to build your right-side moyo anyway. o8 was huge.
. seems wrong direction. Did you consider M8 ?

I think you played quite well, until you let your M7 cutting stones get in trouble. What to do with P7 was also important.

Hi Peter,

Game 2 v. Guishu. Starting with (or possibly before), you had already lost the spirit.

You greeted Guishu with, "I'll try to last longer."
You had already figured you would lose anyway,
and were just trying to postpone the inevitable —
this is no way to play Go.

With at G3, and at K4 open skirt,
you were not going to make a big bottom anyway.
You must invade; you cannot just defend and let W push you around
like starting with , and subsequently,
making bad shapes for B. ( broken shape for B. )

The result of your LL 3-3 was not a good combination with K4;
maybe consider instead simply approach F3, or D15.