Life In 19x19

I heard she is an ex kenkyuusei(didn't make it to pro though), but then again this was without a source, so it might not be true.

But yeah, her videos are awesome and she tends to explain herself really well.

paK0 wrote:I heard she is an ex kenkyuusei(didn't make it to pro though), but then again this was without a source, so it might not be true.

But yeah, her videos are awesome and she tends to explain herself really well.

Pretty sure she is Hajin Lee, 3d pro. At least the voice seems to match.

3d pro registering as Tygem 5d, such a sandbagger!

Uberdude wrote:3d pro registering as Tygem 5d, such a sandbagger!

Isn't that the highest rating you can pick when initially signing up? Looking at the English language sign-up page now, it appears you can't set an initial rating higher than even 3d.

One of the weakest areas of my game is endgame (yose). This is probably because it is much harder to succeed at endgame by intuition; what "feels" big often isn't, and large gote plays are difficult to resist in order to play reverse sente plays that feel smaller. Instead, endgame is all about precisely counting point values. To fix this, I'd like to calculate in advance some of the most common endgame moves, so that I can avoid having to do so during games.

Today, I want to look at some of the simplest endgame plays, hanes on the first line.

Basic variations
First, let's look at the basic types of hanes on the first line.


Other common shapes
There are a number of other common first-line hane shapes worth examining


Plays in the corner
Things are always slightly different in the corner. Here are two of the more common first line hane situations there:


Given how weak my endgame skills are, it's quite likely I missed something important or made some errors here. Please let me know if you spot any.

Today I wanted to do another Life&Death post. Since I've covered the basic small-L group, the logical next step is to examine the impact of small changes to that group, adding "tails" to the group. There are two different ways to do so:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Possible Tails
$$ ------------------------------
$$ . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . |
$$ . . X O . . . | . X W O . . . |
$$ . . X O O O . | . X X O O O . |
$$ . . X X X W . | . . X X X X . |
$$ . . . . X X . | . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . |[/go]

Both of these shapes are unsettled. With one more move, White can live. If it is Black's turn, he can kill. In both instances, the best way to do this is by reducing the current shape to the previously studied small-L group, which we showed was dead.
(I've tried to minimize the number of sgfs I need to embed in this post by combining a few.)
Black to Kill
First, let's look at the different ways that Black can kill these shapes (or fail to do so).


White to Live
The next step is to look at the different ways that White can turn this group into a living shape.


Descents to the Edge
In looking at the basic shape, we saw that adding a descent stone change the shape from dead to unsettled. Here, adding descent stones mean that Black's best result is now less than a clean kill.


A Note about Hanes
Finally, it is worth noting the status of these shapes can change even if White has hanes in place, rather than solidly descending to the edge. (To understand why this is so, recall that the way to kill these shapes originally was by playing a hane that turned them back into the basic Small-L group.)


As always, let me know if I made any errors or missed any important variations.

After reading through some of the other study journals here, and thinking more about my goals, I've come to the conclusion that I should create a bit more of a study plan here for 2015. Here goes:

• Tsuemego - 20-30 minutes per day. I can probably get this done on my commute.
• Detailed study of common positions - I feel like I've gained a lot from the posts I've already made here. My goal will be to post one of these per week.
• Memorize professional games - Also one per week. I'm hoping this will help both with my fuseki (which I think is a bit weak) and, if I'm lucky, I can try to find a game that features the position I'm studying for the week. My plan will be to study the game over the weekend, and then replay it at least once each day, while also replaying a previously memorized game once per day to try to keep those games fresh too. I'll probably focus on Iyama Yutta's games, as I tend to enjoy his play.

I thought about adding an additional item of working through one book per month, but I didn't want to be overly ambitious in allocating my time. I've already got close to an hour's worth of go study per day on this list. Hopefully that will be enough to push me to the next level.

I wanted to spend a bit of time looking at a joseki that I've started seeing more frequently in my games. I don't plan to offer anything revolutionary here, but writing it out hopefully helps for my memory and understanding. The joseki begins like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . d . . |
$$ . 2 . . 1 , X b . |
$$ . . . . a 5 7 c . |
$$ . . . . 4 6 8 9 . |
$$ . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

The first three moves are very common, especially, I've found, on KGS. However, , instead of A is what begins the joseki I'm looking at today. After that, 5-8 are pretty much forced, with White beginning to surround the corner and Black building a wall. Then, tries to avoid being completely surrounded while cutting off the Black 3-4 stone.

Note: Waltheri's database does have 3 instances of professionals playing at B instead of . Black then descends to C and White plays D to capture the corner conclusively. My suspicion is that modern professionals regard Black's sente wall as too good in these variations.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . b . . . . |
$$ . . . 6 7 a 4 . . |
$$ . X . 5 O , X 1 . |
$$ . . . c . O O 2 . |
$$ . . . . X X X O . |
$$ . . . . . O 3 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

The sequence then continues with White trying to continue to keep the corner. At is where a bit more variation begins. White has to try to kill the aji remaining in the two black stones, and usually the attachment is played, but moves at A and B have also been tried. If White plays A, Black takes the shape point at .

With , Black begins sealing White in. Then and are forced. Now, White must choose how to handle this cross-cut. In general, A is simpler, but I've been told professionals now regard it as a bit too good for Black, so B is gaining in popularity. Waltheri's also shows a few examples of C, but they seem strange to me, so I'm not really focused on them. First A:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Variation A
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . b . 5 . . . . |
$$ . . 4 O X 1 O a . |
$$ . X . X O 3 X X . |
$$ . . . . 2 O O O . |
$$ . . . . X X X O . |
$$ . . . . . O X 6 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

With this sequence, Black can seal White in on both sides, which is why I'm told that Black is slightly better. In a few instances, White plays at :w5, but this is mostly just a change in move order. Black plays 4 at , then White fills, and is sente. After White responds at A, Black can come back to take B and succeed in surrounding White again.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Variation B
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . b 1 5 7 c . |
$$ . . a O X 4 O 6 . |
$$ . X . X O 2 X X . |
$$ . . . 8 3 O O O . |
$$ . . . . X X X O . |
$$ . . . . . O X 9 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Here is where things get complicated, as you can see. But first, a few things to note:

• If Black plays at , it almost looks the another move order switch, but with a critical difference. White responds at and Black then exchanges A for B. But now, White has openings into both sides, and Black can only seal off one of them.
• If White plays at , then it really is just a move order change. Black plays at , White fills, and Black can play at in sente before coming back to close off the top.

Now, back to the main line. With and , White is trying to kill the entire Black corner, but Black can put up serious resistance by playing threatening to capture the entire White group. After , Black must choose between B and C to try to save his group, with B being more common. Here is how that looks, as both sides search for liberties:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Variation B (cont'd)
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . 5 3 1 O O O 7 . |
$$ 6 4 2 O X X O X . |
$$ . X . X O X X X . |
$$ . . . X O O O O . |
$$ . . . a X X X O . |
$$ . . . . . O X O . |
$$ . . . . . . b . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Now the situation has reversed. Black has ended up in the corner, while his outside stones have a serious weak point at A (or White can simply come around to A and hope Black creates a heavy group. The game will now focus on how well Black can handle these stones.

In sum, the final variation is the way that White has found to reject Black's plan of taking outside influence, but it comes at the expense significant blood from both sides.

Although it was a short week and it's not that hard to keep to a study plan initially, I'm still happy to report that Week 1 was a success. I'm also feeling optimistic that I'm starting to come out of a recent playing slump.

For tsumego, I've been working through Cho Chikun's Elementary Life & Death problems. With the exception of maybe 1-in-40 problems, I can usually spot the answers pretty quickly, but I've deliberately picked a copy without answers in order to enforce the discipline of proving to myself that I've gotten the problems correct.

For my weekly post, you'll see above some analysis of a joseki that I'm seeing more often. I haven't tried playing it intentionally (rather than responding when it does arise), but maybe soon.

Finally, for professional games, I spent the last few days memorizing this 2011 game between Iyama Yuuta and Lee Sedol. I think the game really reflects the depth of professional life&death reading, particularly with Iyama's - , - and 117. It's good inspiration for me to keep doing the daily tsumego problems myself.

amatterof wrote:I've covered the basic small-L group, the logical next step is...

Hi AmatterOf, it's great you examine these basics like this.

I have a question (for anyone who knows the answer.)
When people talk about the "basic L-shape,"
are they only referring to the inside stones, or, do they also
include the outside stones ? I notice at Sensei's Library,
they also filled in 5 of the outside liberties, like in your post #2.

It seems to me changing the inside shape a bit
(say, by adding an extra "tail") is one logical next step in this study.

Another next logical step would be to keep the inside stones identitcal,
but study what happens with different outside liberties.
(As opposed to filling in 5 outside libs,
which is one particular status of the inside-L.)

For example:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Diagram A
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . X . X . O . . . |
$$ . . . X . O O O . |
$$ . . . X . . . . . |
$$ . . . . X X X X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

My understanding is locally, White is still dead,
even if White goes first. (That is, we ignore global considerations such as
ko fights elsewhere.) I think this adds a few more variations to the study,
without adding stones to the inside-L.

( In other words, when people say "the basic small-L," do they imply
"the basic small-L with 5 outside libs filled,"
or do they actually mean Diagram A, which is a more generalized case ? )

How do you feel about this direction of study ?

EdLee wrote:Another next logical step would be to keep the inside stones identitcal,
but study what happens with different outside liberties.
...
How do you feel about this direction of study ?

Thanks for making this excellent point. I agree it is worth studying too. I also agree that even having all of its outside liberties free as in your diagram, the White shape remains locally dead. However, the key seems to be that Black retains the marked stones, as these provide a way to turn certain potential eyes false:



As far as the terminology, I'm not actually sure which one I meant. (Since the no-liberties-filled situation feels rather artificial, I didn't even think of it, but it's worth studying.) I'll leave it to others to hash out that question.

From my experience on SL which does not have sgf integration but as a wiki is better suited to write articles, I warn you that such activity won't help you improve. I understand the need for exposure and feedback more than anyone, but articulating your understanding will not consolidate it, perhaps even reduce it. Your thinking about go is many times faster than your writing about it. Be careful for your writing not to dictate the pace of your thinking.

Cheers

Knotwilg wrote:From my experience on SL which does not have sgf integration but as a wiki is better suited to write articles, I warn you that such activity won't help you improve. I understand the need for exposure and feedback more than anyone, but articulating your understanding will not consolidate it, perhaps even reduce it. Your thinking about go is many times faster than your writing about it. Be careful for your writing not to dictate the pace of your thinking.

Cheers

Thanks for weighing in. In general, I'm hoping to get more benefit out of studying the materials in advance of writing, rather than the actual writing process. That's more of a public accountability idea. All that being said, what would you recommend instead?

Fully get the public accountability idea.

I was 2D when I started writing on SL. 14 years later I still am.
Before that I had a major breakthrough by playing a rival for 6 months, no time limits, 3 consecutive wins change the handicap and most of all I reviewed the games by myself thoroughly.

Now it could be I was Born to become 2D at best and this is just An anecdote.
How about the uberdudes: what brought them to 4-5d?

I see the similarity in the urge to write. Through my experience I believe more in evanescence than complete accounting. Unless you want to become a good writer of course.

Extraverts like us will always need a channel to keep up motivation. My advice is to keep an eye on the motivational return on the literary investment.

Cheers

amatterof wrote:Since the no-liberties-filled situation feels rather artificial, I didn't even think of it, but it's worth studying.

I think of it like this: on one end of the spectrum, all 5 libs are filled (a la Sensei's Library, and your post 2).
On the other end, all 5 libs are empty.
In between are different combinations of filled libs and empty libs,
which is what happens in real games.
Now, regardless of the combinations of liberties, the inside-L is dead.
I figure if we understand the case with the most empty libs,
then it should be even easier with fewer libs for the inside-L.

So I was looking for the most generalized case,
given the small inside-L shape.

Another var where W lives:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Diagram B
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . 1 9 |
$$ . X X . . O . 3 2 |
$$ . . . X . O O O 4 |
$$ . . . X . . . 5 6 |
$$ . . . . X X X 8 7 |
$$ . . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Diagram B cont'd
$$ -------------------
$$ . . . . . . . O O |
$$ . X X . . O . O . |
$$ . . . X . O O O . |
$$ . . . X . . . O . |
$$ . . . . X X X X O |
$$ . . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |[/go]