Life In 19x19

- 45 Problems
- 3 games (1-2)

Motivation is dead for today, the two lost games severs as a nice reminder of my problems. The first one I lost was due to me getting back into my blitzing habit, nothing interesting there, the other game was this one:

I think it went ok till about 42. O4 was to not get enclosed, but premature probably, should have been G10 or something along those lines. 43 is probably the best move any player can play against me. I have no clue what to do with a base and it hurts me time and time again. As soon as I played P11 I wanted to flip my table, decided against it, still if I had to pick a move that lost me the game it would have probably been this one.

The Invasion on my left was handled poorly, I'm not sure if black is supposed to live there, but either way he lived way to big.

After K10 I had already given up on the game, it still turned into a fight (which surprised me to no end) but my inability to win any capturing race ever put the nail in the coffin.

As always, any helpful advice appreciated especially on how to defend bases with a one point jump (both 2 and 3 spaces).

A couple early thoughts:

First, when black plays K3, it's too far, but if left unmolested, black will later get H4 and ideal shape. White should try to play H3 at the first opportunity to cause black problems.

Second, at , F15 is too timid. White can shoulder hit at K16 to reduce black, or at least extend farther if the primary goal is moyo expansion, as to G15.

At , maybe consider R11 to connect up and let black connect under, since he should be able to anyways. It'll likely make an eye and decent outside strength for white in exchange. The game result where white just gets the corner is kind of painful.

At consider B11 or D11. Where's black's group going to run to or make eyes? At also, white can double hane and cut black into two in exchange for a ponnuki of dubious value for black. If black doesn't cut, white can seal black into a small area where he'll get a two point group... i.e. success.

As for the center fight at the end, it's a result of white's poor result on the right. As a general rule, though, consider if a cut or other move helps you or if it actually helps your opponent once he's done responding to it. Sometimes it's better to leave a weakness unexploited for the moment because, combined with a couple other weaknesses that surface later, it leads to a knockout combination. When you force your opponent to fix a weakness right off the bat, that later problem may never have enough aji to work.

First of all, congratulations with the opening. I don't agree that you should invade at H3 soon. If Black wants to play 4 stones for a stable group so early, good for him. Until you have a fine opening, and is a great invasion! You can be proud.

Next there is the invasion of the right side
could have been used to prevent it (see sgf)
is a normal move but you could have played a diagonal here
but eventually you apply a wonderful sacrifice strategy to limit the damage. If you don't take a lead here, at least you keep the game balanced.

The real issue is the invasion of your big potential territory at the left. Here skyrdyr and I concur. At you applyagain basic instinct, BUT this is where the game may go wrong. With an invasion like this you have two options:

- read and kill
- keep the pressure while taking some profit

Usually, the 2nd option is the one keeping your winning probability high. So

What kind of profit do you want while keeping the pressure?
1 territory in top left
2 territory in bottom left
3 influence in centre

See sgf for the answer

The fact that your loss is mostly due to playing basic technique, while a different option was better for tactical reasons, shows that you are improving beyond the basic level.



edit: last comment at

Knotwilg's suggestion for is a good play, one which shows up frequently.

However, I think that the best idea at this point is the same as it was for the past few moves, to play at the frontier of frameworks. Enlarge your moyo while reducing his. So my suggestion is J-14.

Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it. After reading all this it makes me feel a lot less bad, at least I'm asking myself the right questions during the game.

skydyr wrote: At also, white can double hane and cut black into two in exchange for a ponnuki of dubious value for black. If black doesn't cut, white can seal black into a small area where he'll get a two point group... i.e. success.

During the game I actually considered the double hane, but I couldn't read out exactly weather or not it worked, guess I should have taken a chance there. Well, now I know it, won't happen again (hopefully).



@Knotwilg: I don't really get your suggenstion for 42 . I've seen the move before as well, but never understood it. To me it seems like it hardly helps with the Invasion, and white gets to poke at the shape with Q9.

Also seems like its time to unlearn the "Hane at the head of two stones" thingy. I swear to god, go is 10% learning and 90% forgetting your bad habits.



@Bill: True, that was inconsistent of me. I basically invaded at the bottom because I thought black had more potential than me, but after that was taken care of I should have started to increase my own rather than do random stuff. I also have trouble deciding when to keep building boxes and when to play in the middle of them as to make invasions weaker. I tend to like moyo games, but I still have trouble evaluating who is winning them sometimes.

Hi pak0,

The sequence 43 - 51 was really interesting for me !
Thx for posting that game !

please don't unlearn hane at the head - just understand what strategic goals your basic technique is serving

@oca: Cool to know that I'm not the only one learning from my games

@Knotwilg: Don't worry, it was more of a joke^^. Actually its quite a nice reminder not to follow proverbs blindly.

There is some information about how the shape I proposed helps you defending against attacks at:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?CrossCutAfterTowerPeep
http://senseis.xmp.net/?ShapeProblem5

paK0 wrote:I also have trouble deciding when to keep building boxes and when to play in the middle of them as to make invasions weaker. I tend to like moyo games, but I still have trouble evaluating who is winning them sometimes.

The pros talk about making a deep valley, which is a good thing. You are inviting your opponent to come in where you can attack where you have the advantage. Fortunately, amateurs have a tendency to invade too deeply.

Even when the semester is over university takes quite some time.

But this was the last paper for the semester, one more test in a few weeks, but that's some time away, so more go, here is the report for the last two days:

Two games: 2-0
They were both on Tygem, where I'm still a little behind in rank. Both were won by resignation. Time management is still a problem. One of the games I blitzed for 2 moves which resulted in my loosing 7 stones without much compensation, in the other one I was low on time so I made a couple reading mistakes towards the end.

200 Problems:
Patchouli on KGS (Touhou ftw) suggested to go through Cho Chikuns L&D problems a couple of times, so I figured why the hell not, doing it on my phone was getting a little annoying. The whole not having a solution thing is a little unusual, but my reading hasn't improved as much as I would have hoped, so a little change might do the trick.

I've kinda shelved the joseki study for the moment, I never really noticed it having much of an effect, which might also be because I simply don't understand them well enough, but since I have other things to work on its probably not much of a loss.

In regards to Life and death tsumego without answers, just finding the answer isn't the only important thing. Being able to kill failed variations is also important.

For example, I was doing this problem here and started with the obvious move of black 1. It seemed to work and I could not find a way for white to kill, but I was dissatisfied with the answer being too obvious. Finally, I found this move and black is dead.

In one sense, my answer was a failure - in another, I had suceeded because I feel white 2 isn't an easy move to see.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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Abyssinica wrote:In regards to Life and death tsumego without answers, just finding the answer isn't the only important thing. Being able to kill failed variations is also important.

True for life and death with answers too.

oren wrote:

Abyssinica wrote:In regards to Life and death tsumego without answers, just finding the answer isn't the only important thing. Being able to kill failed variations is also important.

True for life and death with answers too.

Except with the answers you'll just be content with having them and not try very hard.

Today:

- 50 Problems (wanted to do 100, but oh well, it happens)
- gave 2 teaching games
- watched 2 games with commentary
- played 3 games myself (1-2):

Although I lost two games I really only regret the second one, I played good moves locally, but forgot to look at the whole board. Whoops.