Life In 19x19

Some thoughts on the first game:


The second:


In the second game, white's hoping to use the tengen stone to handle lots of fighting and weak groups. Just make sure you stay strong and keep white split up, and you should be able to counterattack well. Somewhere around 1-3k you may see this heavy fighting soup nazi style ("no territory for you") and dealing with it is an important part of development. It's all about staying solid, knowing how to attack, and playing moves with miai followups.

@Shaddy: Thanks, understood

@skydyr: Thanks for the comments. It seems a lot more work is needed on what is large and small. On the second game I think I was running scared of W to some extent, I had no idea what was happening and just tried to go into some weird scared safety mode... and seem to have failed at the safety part of that

(first game) - Not sure what you mean here, B made a mistake in jumping or W made a mistake in playing here? I know B came out of this fine, but maybe I shouldn't have.

PeterN

PeterN wrote:@Shaddy: Thanks, understood

@skydyr: Thanks for the comments. It seems a lot more work is needed on what is large and small. On the second game I think I was running scared of W to some extent, I had no idea what was happening and just tried to go into some weird scared safety mode... and seem to have failed at the safety part of that

(first game) - Not sure what you mean here, B made a mistake in jumping or W made a mistake in playing here? I know B came out of this fine, but maybe I shouldn't have.

PeterN

For , white should have jumped with the outside group first, I think.

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners IV
Games Reviewed: 1 lost game
Other: None

Been a bit of a manic week at work this week, only played 5 games online, 3 of those today. My one lost game came from losing a capture race, but looking back through it again I could have got out of it and won it, but reading failed me at the time.

Continuing with the tsumego, feels to be going better than last time. Except for bent four in the corner. I am useless at making those things appear.

Feeling optimistic about finally getting to 3 kyu soon, and way way behind target for my goal, just need to work through the inertia of KGS ranks (and then watch me cry about losing everything next week). Hopefully I will have more time next week.

PeterN

The only way I've found to deal with being afraid of losing a few games in a streak is by playing many games, and stopping immediately as soon as I start to feel discouraged about a recent loss.

This also means each individual game has far less effect on my rating, which now barely moves at all. Not that this frustrates me. I'm just mentioning it.

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Finished reading Graded Go Problems for Beginners IV (76.2% correct)
Games Reviewed: 1 lost game
Other: Joined the L19 Menotring scheme

Tsumego is continuing with some improvement, but nothing to really note on that front.

Have signed up to the L19 mentoring scheme as a student, though not yet managed to get a game, slight issues with time zones but hopefully nothing that can't be overcome.

Don't normally post up games I won, but sometimes it feels like successes need to be listed too





Oddly I felt like I'd just been running or something at the end of this game, felt physically exhausted!

PeterN

Here are some comments on the first game:


I don't feel qualified enough to comment on the second game much, but because it was so close, it is probably a good one to have reviewed.

Congrats on the win! Here are a few brief comments on the second game

was slow -- white just reinforced here, so take your sente and go somewhere big!

feels like the wrong direction, and seems slow --- your stones on the lower side gets separated from the corner so they become weak, and I don't see anything horrible white can do if is omitted

this cut is so small, white is happy to give you that stone in exchange for shape!

and what is white doing here happy times for black !

and onwards, you're pushing from behind and helping white make quite many points in the center -- maybe better to just play L17 instead, and take some territory on the top

not that it mattered in the game, but before starting the ko, E5 was 1 point in sente

1st
Unexpected, but I really like it. It might just be a higher level mistake, but I still like it.
This seems really, really bad for white. A solid wall facing a closed corner, with not that much territory in return. This can't be joseki ...
Seems a very tight place to invade. R11, then R7... white has no base, and must flee. Oh, that's exactly what happened, too.
H9 puts lots of pressure on the white blob, and builds a wall facing white's biggest territory.
+100
This is kinda slow. skydyr's G5 suggestion is lots better.
Aw, now it escapes. F10 was my first thought, too.
Fairly sure L3 works, but on the other hand, there's no real need for going in at full throttle now.
This would have been brilliant from white.
+200
White goes into full on goof mode. This move actually works, since black MUST respond to keep the ko fight alive, but now white can capture.
White should have analyzed what was bigger.
I would have played G19, here. White makes a mistake, though, and it's actually harmless to try if white responds at G17. Sometimes it really pays off to be a bit cheeky.

2nd
or must be a mistake? At least somewhere before white does a silly thing, given the outcome.
Well, that's ... unexpected. You have 3 corners, shut off. Against 1d, no less. I would be very happy with this.
WAY too small. Seriously, look at the bottom left corner. GO FOR A FULL QUARTET!
White secures that last corner. Probably would have lost much sooner without this, but still in trouble.
This isn't 100% wrong, but if you want to make white super nervous, invade the left side. I would probably go for C7. Not sure if this super nervous making move would actually be best, but I like my opponents flustered, especially when they are behind.
I do not understand, but hey, free points!
Would you be able to run away with a stone at H14?

You seem to cut a little bit more in general, which makes things more exciting.

That second game really shows how much it pays to capitalize on mistakes. The opening and white's loss after provided you with enough points to survive your losses at other times.

Thanks for the comments.

The first game was a little insane at the end with that monster ko fight.

Seems I still need to be working on those slow moves and direction of play.

And I was so happy with in the second game when I played it... oops .

@Sennahoj. On where would you go instead? I'm looking at this and the only thing I can think of is you mean I should tenuki.

PeterN

PeterN wrote: @Sennahoj. On where would you go instead? I'm looking at this and the only thing I can think of is you mean I should tenuki.

I'm not sure How about kosumi on the other side? Perhaps white will attach at and try to cut off the marked stone --- but that stone is relatively light (and might still escape later), and you can take sente to play first on the super wide left side.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X X . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . X X O O O . . . , . . . . . X . X . |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . O . O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Y . . |
$$ | . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . X . . . . 1 . 3 . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . 2 . , X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . O . X . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Started reading 1,001 Life and Death Problems
Games Reviewed: 1 lost game, 3 won games
Other: Played through games 55-59 of Invincible, Finished reading Perceiving the Direction of Play, Started Reading Catching the Scent of Victory

Feeling good about my progress this week, moving closer and closer to that 3 kyu boundary, just haven't played enough games to push me past it yet.

Start of the tsumego book is the easy section, so little to note on it this week.

My first won game reviewed this week is probably the one to take the most lessons from, playing far too timid (more like cowardly....) when I have influence, being far to nice in not cutting my opponent off, and winning only due to a major mistake from my opponent. Oh, and I came close to a giving a game losing ko to my opponent which was thankfully missed. Was reviewed for me randomly by a helpful 4D



Played through a few more games of Invincible because I felt like carrying on with it and finishing Perceiving the Direction of Play has shown me I'm pretty much useless at said topic as soon as it's beyond the most simple of formations on the board.

PeterN

Progress Report: -

New rank: 3 kyu!
Tsumego: None
Games Reviewed: 1 won game
Other: None

On the bright side I finally managed to climb up one more rank to the dizzying heights of 3 kyu! (Now let's see how long that lasts before dropping back down to 4 kyu) On the down side it's essentially impossible for me to hit my stated goal by now, not that I was expecting to hit it anyway.

Also been a really busy week at work, so haven't done any studying this week, other than having another game randomly reviewed for me (Thanks!). Still problems with small moves, still problems with diving into end game too early (it's not double sente if there are still larger moves about... ).

PeterN

Progress Report: -

Tsumego: Continued reading 1,001 Life and Death Problems
Games Reviewed: 1 lost game
Other: None

PeterN

Progress Report: -

None

Easter week, so nothing done this week.

PeterN