Another AYD game, today. I lost. I'm not 100% happy or sad about it. It was a challenging game, and there are a few big points that seemed to be bad that I found in a review, just now.
Here is the game with some comments I put in, going over it, again:
Kirby's Study Journal
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Kirby
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Some comments...
In the opening, maybe this was questionable: (1) It's probably better to approach the bottom right.
(2) After aiming for the top right, the play at
seems questionable. I think it might make more sense to press, even if it's complicated if black cuts:
----
Given the situation, I feel OK about the sacrifice:
---
This seems to be too soon: Maybe it makes more sense to just play somewhere else: ---
RED ALERT
This was terrible: There was a naive variation that I thought might work when I cut. But to make a cut so drastic like this, I have to be sure every variation works. This was really, really bad.
Instead, this: ---
This seemed similarly bad: Given that I have weak groups in the area, I think it makes more sense to let black connect, and take the outside: He might still make things complicated: But taking the outside seems like a better idea, I think.
---
So there are two takeaways here that I think caused big damage:
(1) That aggressive cut-type move can only be played when I'm 100% sure it works. It's way too risky.
(2) Seal from the outside if it's unclear - that also seems less risky.
In the opening, maybe this was questionable: (1) It's probably better to approach the bottom right.
(2) After aiming for the top right, the play at
seems questionable. I think it might make more sense to press, even if it's complicated if black cuts:----
Given the situation, I feel OK about the sacrifice:
---
This seems to be too soon: Maybe it makes more sense to just play somewhere else: ---
RED ALERT
This was terrible: There was a naive variation that I thought might work when I cut. But to make a cut so drastic like this, I have to be sure every variation works. This was really, really bad.
Instead, this: ---
This seemed similarly bad: Given that I have weak groups in the area, I think it makes more sense to let black connect, and take the outside: He might still make things complicated: But taking the outside seems like a better idea, I think.
---
So there are two takeaways here that I think caused big damage:
(1) That aggressive cut-type move can only be played when I'm 100% sure it works. It's way too risky.
(2) Seal from the outside if it's unclear - that also seems less risky.
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Knotwilg
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
You could also sacrifice early. This is a tactic I often observe in pro play. After Black has a net investment of 4 stones at the top, while White is nicely developing across the board. After the exchange at the bottom, 
takes an ideal extension.
Black has a net investment of 4 stones at the top, while White is nicely developing across the board. After the exchange at the bottom, takes an ideal extension.-
Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Well, it turns out I was double booked today. I have an ex-colleague who plays go - he is around 12k or so on IGS. He's left the company, but we periodically sync up to see what's going on. We'll chat about life and work while playing a casual game of go, and then sometimes review.
We've both been busy, lately, so every time we tried to arrange a time to sync up this month, it hasn't worked out. I was busy or he was. Or something else would come up. FINALLY, we booked a time that worked for both of us last Wednesday. Cool - we'll meet up. I proceeded to reschedule my AYD game so that we could have our sync-up. But when 8pm came around, something came up on his end, and he couldn't make it. I was a little frustrated, but I told him, "Oh well - let's just sync up next Wednesday at the same time". Then we went about our lives, and I forgot about it... Until today, when it was too late to reschedule my AYD game.
So my hope was that my ex-colleague might forget - or maybe something would come up. Then I'd play the AYD game, and we'd reschedule.
But as luck may have it, he sent me a zoom request at 8pm sharp. Just in time for me to start my AYD game.
After rescheduling so many times, it felt bad to cancel on him, again, so I proceeded to play the AYD game while chatting with my friend casually about work, and playing a second game at the same time along with him.
Needless to say, I was distracted in both pursuits. He could probably tell that I wasn't totally focused on our conversation. And it's clear from the beginning of this game that I wasn't totally focused on it.
Here it is, in all its glory. Spoiler alert - I lost on time.
We've both been busy, lately, so every time we tried to arrange a time to sync up this month, it hasn't worked out. I was busy or he was. Or something else would come up. FINALLY, we booked a time that worked for both of us last Wednesday. Cool - we'll meet up. I proceeded to reschedule my AYD game so that we could have our sync-up. But when 8pm came around, something came up on his end, and he couldn't make it. I was a little frustrated, but I told him, "Oh well - let's just sync up next Wednesday at the same time". Then we went about our lives, and I forgot about it... Until today, when it was too late to reschedule my AYD game.
So my hope was that my ex-colleague might forget - or maybe something would come up. Then I'd play the AYD game, and we'd reschedule.
But as luck may have it, he sent me a zoom request at 8pm sharp. Just in time for me to start my AYD game.
After rescheduling so many times, it felt bad to cancel on him, again, so I proceeded to play the AYD game while chatting with my friend casually about work, and playing a second game at the same time along with him.
Needless to say, I was distracted in both pursuits. He could probably tell that I wasn't totally focused on our conversation. And it's clear from the beginning of this game that I wasn't totally focused on it.
Here it is, in all its glory. Spoiler alert - I lost on time.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Some areas to point out.
Obviously, the sequence with the cutting point here gets me into deep waters:
I was still playing the other game with my ex-colleague at this point, and when he cut here, it might even be too late. But I tried to think of what aji I could use or some way to live. But it was pretty hard to think clearly while carrying on a conversation and playing a second game.
Things were pretty much hopeless around the point where I stopped the zoom call with my ex-colleague: But at least I could have full attention after that.
In the end, it'd seem that I made a comeback: At least according to KataGo:
But I didn't realize I was so short on time, and I lost.
I can't say that this is a very high quality game, but it was nice to turn the game around once I was actually able to focus on it. Overall, my feeling is 60% good, 40% bad.
Next time, I'll reschedule with my ex-colleague, even if it means that our next sync will take awhile. It's not fair to him or to my AYD opponent when my attention is split like this.
Obviously, the sequence with the cutting point here gets me into deep waters:
I was still playing the other game with my ex-colleague at this point, and when he cut here, it might even be too late. But I tried to think of what aji I could use or some way to live. But it was pretty hard to think clearly while carrying on a conversation and playing a second game.
Things were pretty much hopeless around the point where I stopped the zoom call with my ex-colleague: But at least I could have full attention after that.
In the end, it'd seem that I made a comeback: At least according to KataGo:
But I didn't realize I was so short on time, and I lost.
I can't say that this is a very high quality game, but it was nice to turn the game around once I was actually able to focus on it. Overall, my feeling is 60% good, 40% bad.
Next time, I'll reschedule with my ex-colleague, even if it means that our next sync will take awhile. It's not fair to him or to my AYD opponent when my attention is split like this.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
I've been thinking a little bit about the "simul" I played yesterday. I can't fairly say for certain, but I'm fairly confident that I would have faired much better in that game if I were concentrating solely on the game. I ended up losing on time, but if I were only playing that game, for example, I would have had wasted less time doing other things. The point is, the quality of the game suffered a lot by the distraction.
Enter my own life.
Right now, I'm doing the following:
- Full time job as SW engineer
- Enrolled in 8 credits at a community college, taking two classes for personal enrichment
- Preparing for a Korean proficiency test
- Learning the basics of Mandarin Chinese
- Practicing coding on the side
- Doing go problems and periodic go games to try to get ready for the US Go Congress
- Working through a beginner's book on guitar
- Doing crossfit 5 days a week
- Spending a bit of time with kids
- Trying to do home improvements on the weekend (admittedly, at a slow pace
It's not an exaggeration to say that I spend some time with most of these activities most weekdays, with the exception of home improvements, which I try to push toward the weekend.
Where's the focus? It's like i'm playing simul games of go with my life. Naturally, I'm improving slowly all around the board.
I've been here before. The solution is obvious: cut stuff out. But as logical as that solution may seem, it's really hard for me to do it emotionally. If I pick ANY one of these activities and try to cut it out, I can feel the loss from not doing that activity - cut out go, I'll get even worse. Cut out guitar, I'll never learn it. And so on.
There's also the question of enjoyment: am I happy? Maybe in some ways, I like being busy. For example, if I spend 100% of my time on go, the marginal benefit seems to decrease. I like the variety of doing several things... But it comes at the cost of sacrificing quality.
I don't know what the right philosophy here is, but it's clear that many areas of my life lack the depth of quality that they could achieve if I eliminated some of the other dimensions.
*shrug*
Enter my own life.
Right now, I'm doing the following:
- Full time job as SW engineer
- Enrolled in 8 credits at a community college, taking two classes for personal enrichment
- Preparing for a Korean proficiency test
- Learning the basics of Mandarin Chinese
- Practicing coding on the side
- Doing go problems and periodic go games to try to get ready for the US Go Congress
- Working through a beginner's book on guitar
- Doing crossfit 5 days a week
- Spending a bit of time with kids
- Trying to do home improvements on the weekend (admittedly, at a slow pace
It's not an exaggeration to say that I spend some time with most of these activities most weekdays, with the exception of home improvements, which I try to push toward the weekend.
Where's the focus? It's like i'm playing simul games of go with my life. Naturally, I'm improving slowly all around the board.
I've been here before. The solution is obvious: cut stuff out. But as logical as that solution may seem, it's really hard for me to do it emotionally. If I pick ANY one of these activities and try to cut it out, I can feel the loss from not doing that activity - cut out go, I'll get even worse. Cut out guitar, I'll never learn it. And so on.
There's also the question of enjoyment: am I happy? Maybe in some ways, I like being busy. For example, if I spend 100% of my time on go, the marginal benefit seems to decrease. I like the variety of doing several things... But it comes at the cost of sacrificing quality.
I don't know what the right philosophy here is, but it's clear that many areas of my life lack the depth of quality that they could achieve if I eliminated some of the other dimensions.
*shrug*
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Knotwilg
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
I recognize the curse of having multiple interests and talents, which is a lack of focus and therefore an ongoing frustration with the lack of mastery in any of them. In my case it's also the guitar, table tennis, bicycle and family life. Looking at yours, it's even busier. When you can cut out based on passion or love, you can choose on what suits your system. Physical activity is more complementary with our intellectual work and otherwise sedentary lifestyle. I have already sacrificed languages (Welsh and Polish in my case) and if needed I will sacrifice Go in favor of guitar and table tennis or cycling.Kirby wrote:
I don't know what the right philosophy here is, but it's clear that many areas of my life lack the depth of quality that they could achieve if I eliminated some of the other dimensions.
*shrug*
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jeromie
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Your post about life as a “simul” is incredibly relatable. There’s another game my wife and play sometimes, called Agricola, where the central mechanic of the game is choosing some number of actions each turn, but you never have enough actions available to you to do everything you want. We’ve often used that game to describe our lives.
One of the things that I’ve come to terms with in my own life is that my hobbies tend to rotate. Sometimes I’ll send more time playing go, at other times I’ll give greater focus to the mandolin (my instrument of choice), and at other times I might invest my time in photography. This does mean I don’t gain as much proficiency in any of those things as if I were completely dedicated to one hobby, but I’ve come to accept that.
There are other things that are non-negotiable in my life, areas of my life where I want to pursue excellence. I never want to neglect my relationships with my wife or my kids; I want to continue to grow in my spiritual life; I really like my job and I want to give it my best. (And since we own a home, there are certain aspects of caring for it that I can’t ignore.) But I am finite, and I can’t do everything at once.
Thanks for sharing what you’re feeling right now. I appreciate the discussions about the meta-game of how go relates to the rest of life.
One of the things that I’ve come to terms with in my own life is that my hobbies tend to rotate. Sometimes I’ll send more time playing go, at other times I’ll give greater focus to the mandolin (my instrument of choice), and at other times I might invest my time in photography. This does mean I don’t gain as much proficiency in any of those things as if I were completely dedicated to one hobby, but I’ve come to accept that.
There are other things that are non-negotiable in my life, areas of my life where I want to pursue excellence. I never want to neglect my relationships with my wife or my kids; I want to continue to grow in my spiritual life; I really like my job and I want to give it my best. (And since we own a home, there are certain aspects of caring for it that I can’t ignore.) But I am finite, and I can’t do everything at once.
Thanks for sharing what you’re feeling right now. I appreciate the discussions about the meta-game of how go relates to the rest of life.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Thanks for sharing, jeromie. It is reassuring to hear that you also face similar challenges in doing all that you want in life. I like the idea of "rotating", though, even that is hard for me to give in to. I guess I am too greedy, sometimes. I am going to give it more effort, though. I HAVE to choose to eliminate some things.
One thing thing that comes to mind is Korean. I took the Korean proficiency test (topik 2) yesterday. Now that the test is done, it's a good opportunity to stop studying for it. Ironically, in taking the test, there were some parts that I didn't know as well as I wanted to and it somewhat motivated me to want to study even more. But I will save that for another time. The test is held twice a year, so I can skip the fall session and focus on other stuff in the meantime.
One thing thing that comes to mind is Korean. I took the Korean proficiency test (topik 2) yesterday. Now that the test is done, it's a good opportunity to stop studying for it. Ironically, in taking the test, there were some parts that I didn't know as well as I wanted to and it somewhat motivated me to want to study even more. But I will save that for another time. The test is held twice a year, so I can skip the fall session and focus on other stuff in the meantime.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
I sometimes have a problem with sloppiness. I played a game today where I was quite confident that I would win. But I was pretty sloppy after gaining some confidence, and ended up losing by a half point.
Here is the game:
Here is the game:
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
There are a couple of aspects of this game which are interesting to me.
First, I felt quite confident at this point in the game:
Indeed, the version of KataGo that I have on my laptop estimates that white is ahead by nearly 50 points.
Just two moves later, and I am back at it:
This invasion doesn't seem necessarily too deep. However, I am more concerned about my mindset.
1. It's clear that I just made a big profit.
2. Black must do stuff to catch up.
3. The invasion I played is *probably* ok, but UNCLEAR.
I think it would be better for me to just take a big point on the board, without making things less clear.
For example: The move above can't be that bad. I might have to invade the bottom at some point in the future, but that situation may also never arise.
**I should aim to keep things simple**
I recall thinking, around this point in the game: "Why did I get into a skirmish so quickly? I clearly made profit on the left. Now it's not even clear that I will live."
KataGo seems to think that white is still ahead here, but that is irrelevant: I opted for a less than certain strategy, because that's my default mode of operation, it'd seem.
I lose a lot of points with the seemingly innocuous move here: During the game, I didn't think much of it. It seemed too much to play the marked intersection, and I needed to reinforce my stones.
Instead, I should play here: It strengthens my stones and makes miai of the two marked points. The game became closer after this.
Slowly, I lost the lead, until in the end, I lost by a half point.
What is the takeaway here?
* I think I need to focus more on controlling the complexity of the game. I have one mode of operation, but I need to be able to tweak it. When I have a move that is simple, but clearly good, I should take it.
First, I felt quite confident at this point in the game:
Indeed, the version of KataGo that I have on my laptop estimates that white is ahead by nearly 50 points.
Just two moves later, and I am back at it:
This invasion doesn't seem necessarily too deep. However, I am more concerned about my mindset.
1. It's clear that I just made a big profit.
2. Black must do stuff to catch up.
3. The invasion I played is *probably* ok, but UNCLEAR.
I think it would be better for me to just take a big point on the board, without making things less clear.
For example: The move above can't be that bad. I might have to invade the bottom at some point in the future, but that situation may also never arise.
**I should aim to keep things simple**
I recall thinking, around this point in the game: "Why did I get into a skirmish so quickly? I clearly made profit on the left. Now it's not even clear that I will live."
KataGo seems to think that white is still ahead here, but that is irrelevant: I opted for a less than certain strategy, because that's my default mode of operation, it'd seem.
I lose a lot of points with the seemingly innocuous move here: During the game, I didn't think much of it. It seemed too much to play the marked intersection, and I needed to reinforce my stones.
Instead, I should play here: It strengthens my stones and makes miai of the two marked points. The game became closer after this.
Slowly, I lost the lead, until in the end, I lost by a half point.
What is the takeaway here?
* I think I need to focus more on controlling the complexity of the game. I have one mode of operation, but I need to be able to tweak it. When I have a move that is simple, but clearly good, I should take it.
be immersed
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jeromie
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
That's a good lesson, Kirby, and I can relate. I do think that something like the simple corner enclosure would be best, but the other option that strikes me as possible is a light reduction instead of a deep invasion. A move on the 4th or 5th line would make sure that moyo doesn't get too big without giving you the burden of a heavy group deep in enemy territory. Even a shoulder hit at Q6 might keep things in check, letting black get some territory on the right doesn't seem too bad if it limits the potential on the bottom and center. You can retain a somewhat aggressive style of play without going all-in.
This is something I am trying to practice in my own games; far too often I waffle about exactly how deep I can invade and then go one line beyond what I really should have.
This is something I am trying to practice in my own games; far too often I waffle about exactly how deep I can invade and then go one line beyond what I really should have.
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mhlepore
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
I remember a video where Jujo Jiang was reviewing a game his wife (Rui Naiwei) played. He said she sometimes loses games she is winning because she is searching for the optimal move instead of the sufficient move, In other words, she takes unnecessary risks.
When I hear people say they played sloppy, my brain goes to not reading things out. But your reading is good. I just think you sometimes (like Naiwei) always look for the sharpest, most devastating sequences, when you should just be simplifying.
When I hear people say they played sloppy, my brain goes to not reading things out. But your reading is good. I just think you sometimes (like Naiwei) always look for the sharpest, most devastating sequences, when you should just be simplifying.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
@jeromie: I agree. A lighter reduction is also a good option.
@mhlepore: Thanks, Mike. I agree with your assessment. Sometimes I seem to lose sight of the objective of winning the game, as silly as that may sound.
Looking forward to seeing both of you next week.
@mhlepore: Thanks, Mike. I agree with your assessment. Sometimes I seem to lose sight of the objective of winning the game, as silly as that may sound.
Looking forward to seeing both of you next week.
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