Life In 19x19

thx for your comment Uberdude, I think I made a lot of mistake in my reading...
these L and L+1 are style very difficult for me

In the mean time I also played a new game, 3 stones handicap, that went also really bad for me.

but at the really end, when removing the dead stones, my opponent resigned ... weird... he would have won by something like 30 points or so....

here is the game... with a few comments of mine. Any comments welcome.

oca wrote:In the mean time I also played a new game, 3 stones handicap, that went also really bad for me.

All-out fighting.

Must be Q6, no choice.

Can try Q3 to make White over-concentrated, and settle your stone.

You can try S5 to fight. Otherwise the result will be poor.

Must be double hane at G2 to make sense of your way of playing.

Not a good idea.

Interesting.

But this doesn't work ...

...because the other atari is better than this one, given the cutting point at E3. Spot the shunt.

Should probably just be N8, though Black also has to worry about getting cut. As it is, Black's shape falls apart.

Thank you very much Charles !
at Q6 was my first instinct, I should listen to him somethimes, too much thinking is not always good...

Here is a game I'm happy with. it's a 9 stones handicap, where I tried to not focus to much on territory.
the game went fine for me despite I think I missed a nice killing move at 138 and certainly a lot of other things...

So here is the game

Some ideas about the variation on move 48:



But it's late so take them with a grain of salt.

Thx for your variations S2W, really a lot of possibilities... (to die... )

Hi,
Here is a game where I did a 3-3 invasion on a hoshi stone.
This situation arrived again (see moves 31 - 42), where black plays this hane at which should be at "a"

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

I liked marcus idea of clamp (http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 37#p172237)
but here that is bit annoying ...
I still tried these clamps during the game and that was somehow was ok... but I'm curious what you would have done in that situation.

Here is the game

I think the move above protects against the clamp on the right, but leaves a big endgame reduction at A5 - see in the variations below at move 40

p7 = ???!!!

It's slightly more reasonable with the supporting stones, but here are a few ideas:

Move 43 should be r16 (or maybe something more adventurous like q17), it's absolutely massive to connect your stones there. Your 3-3 lived in sente. A fine result already. Those cuts or clamps are some bad aji of black's that you may exploit later. Other areas of the board are far more important now.

Thank you all for your variations ... that give me lot's of idea !

Hi,
Here is my latest game. 2 stones handicap, against Jake1 like in my previous post, but this time, I resigned.

Highlights :

Somehow ok till move 15
21-27 keep that for later
39 : to deep invasion
41-50 : no hope sequence for me
31-53 : not a that bad idea to make a ko given the situation...
187 : the actual huge ko fight ( but I really lose them all on that one)
233 : The only not to do move
264 : the resignation (That I may even have done earlier)

More comments in the game itself

Any comments welcome !

Hi Oca

It is very useful that you have provided comments, so that we can understand what you are thinking. There are many things to say about this game and the thinking behind it. I would say that the most important issue is to

1. Understand the function of stones

At you say "but I wanted to strengthen L6". However, after the capture of your group in the centre, the stone at L6 is a useless waste of a stone, thrown against a strong black position. You shouldn't try saving it, not connect it or strengthen it, not before the late late endgame where the 2 points it represents may be the largest value.

Compare this stone with your stone at E16 which is contesting the large open top left area. That one needs strengthening, for example by attaching to the opposite black stone at C17. This stone is worth about 20 points. You understood this well at move . The idea behind this move is good.

2. Keep track of liberties

Near the end you lose a couple of groups by lack of liberties. This is an important point to pay attention to, because you throw away victories that way. We should always be aware that near the end liberties become scarcer and our territories may need connecting or eye making moves.

3. Stay away from strong groups

In the early middle game, at you try attacking Black strongest group. There's no need to do so and it is pointless. You should accept that some opponent groups will survive and this will be especially true for their strong groups. At you try to "live by ko" but there is no ko in miles around. The white stones are captured, as was to be expected after they attempted to attack a strong, connected black group with eyespace. In fact Black could have attacked these stones on a much larger scale, but that is another matter.

So, to recover:

1. understand the function of stones: useless stones, important stones in contested area, important cutting stones, stones with some potential remaining
2. keep track of your liberties towards the end (as throughout the game)
3. stay away from strong groups

If you can focus on these things to improve, you will improve on the whole by a lot. In terms of increasing your victory %, n°2 is the most important one. In terms of your growth n° 1 is most important while n°3 will give you long term growth.

Knotwilg has hit on the main points. It seems that you like my trick of invading then wondering where your opponent got that big wall from.

A few comments on the opening.