Life In 19x19

Relentless came today which was exciting. In it gives the following advice with regards to tsumgo.

You will improve more quickly and have more fun with problems that you can solve without too much effort. If you can't solve a problem in two minutes it's too hard and isn't helpful right now.

This seems worth remembering, and what a wonderful coincidence that the fun problems are also the most helpful. I've decided that the elementary go life and death problems were getting too difficult so I've started on Cho Chikun's All about life and death. It turns out it's intended as reference more than a tsumego book but I'm just treating it as tsumego and it seems to work fine.

Edit: deleted the game to post a different one.

I've started trying to review my games by playing out the games instead of just clicking through the sgf. I still have to rely on the sgf a lot but I think this way but I think it encourages me to think about each move more. There's also a chance I may join a go club and if I do this will be a useful skill as there will be no sgf.

Another game. I'm replacing the one from my last post with this one because I think it's more worthy of review. My opponent obviously didn't want to play me because the automatch kept matching us up and he kept resigning. It wasn't until I'd gained a stone that he agreed to play me. I'm not sure if he realised I was the same person or if he decided a 9k was worth playing. I didn't even realise I'd gone up to 10k so I'm quite happy to be a 9k all of a sudden, whatever the circumstances.

I think you can learn to use some double hane techniques (which requires some reading but not that much). For example, and can possibly be replaced by a double hane.

I'm starting to feel like 3k is not such an impossibility after all, but Lessons in the fundamentals of go is going right over my head. Here's an example:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . X O . .
$$ | . O . X . X O . O
$$ | . . . . . O X O .
$$ | . O . . b a X . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . O
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Apparantly white should play a not b because it's a firmer way of capturing but I have no idea what he means by this. The ladder portion of the book was very beginner friendly so hopefully there will still be other portions of the book that are useful, but the net section is going right over my head.




I've set myself a new rule for while I'm playing games: to always try and read out life and death. It's so tempting to look at groups and just feel satisfied that they look like they have plenty of room to live but it's stupid not to read out something so important. It's also good practice and the goal isn't just to win the game your playing.

gamesorry wrote:I think you can learn to use some double hane techniques (which requires some reading but not that much). For example, and can possibly be replaced by a double hane.

Thanks that makes sense. I saw that I'd risk losing a stone and dismissed those lines out of hand, but I now see that that was hasty.

Splatted wrote:I'm starting to feel like 3k is not such an impossibility after all, but Lessons in the fundamentals of go is going right over my head. Here's an example:

$$Bc
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . X O . .
$$ | . O . X . X O . O
$$ | . . . . . O X O .
$$ | . O . . b a X c .
$$ | . . . . . . d . O
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . X O . .
$$ | . O . X . X O . O
$$ | . . . . . O X O .
$$ | . O . . b a X c .
$$ | . . . . . . d . O
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Apparantly white should play a not b because it's a firmer way of capturing but I have no idea what he means by this. The ladder portion of the book was very beginner friendly so hopefully there will still be other portions of the book that are useful, but the net section is going right over my head.

The 'firmer way of capturing' is the one that leaves less aji or the aji is less useful for the opponent. If you capture with B in this example, white can get outside forcing moves at C and D that may help his group and give him outside strength while sealing black in. If you capture with A, white can extend and then black plays to the left of B. There are a few peeps left, but they don't result in white strengthening his existing groups or getting closer to sealing black away from the center.

I'll agree that this section is not the most clearly written, but the gist of it is that you should capture as cleanly as possible, so that your opponent gets the least amount of use from the captured stone. Sometimes that's the net that prevents a ladder breaker, sometimes it's the ladder that doesn't give local forcing moves, and sometimes it's one net over another for similar reasons.