Path to 9Dan, step by step.

[hl782]

Here's two more games, 1 against a 6k, and 1 against a 5k. I felt that I outplayed my opponents mainly in both of them.

Vs. 6k - Familiarizing myself with white is going rather well.


Vs. 5k - I was pleased with this game.


For problems, I am still recycling 1001 L&D, GSATesuji, GGPB Vol. 4 and LCH Vol. 3.

To become strong, don't get dragged down to your opponent's level.

Worth repeating.

That's fantastic advice. I'll keep it in mind

[Charles Matthews]

Vs. 5k - I was pleased with this game.

Rightly. Not perfect, but you held it together against a disruptive opponent. Felt like you morally had sente.

[hl782]

Here are 3 more games - 1 win and 2 losses.

First, the win - I was pleased. this was convincing!


Second, the first loss - I was a bit disappointed because I had beaten this guy before twice.


Thirdly, the second loss - I was very mad at myself that I had lost this game. I mean look at the 2nd move - I couldn't tell if he was trolling or not.


I didn't have time to make comments/reviews so any would be greatly appreciated, particularly for the losses!

As for problems, I am now going through my 3rd runthrough of 1001 L&D. Thankfully, I am now correctly answering a majority of the questions that I had missed beforehand - i definitely feel that my vital point spotting has improved. Hopefully this will translate to more good games in the near future.

I am also highly considering getting an actual mouse - touchpad on my laptop is so skin sensitive, the lightest brush of the side of my palms causes it to click and play a move sometimes...

[mitsun]

A few comments on the early part of the second loss:

is a strange tenuki, large but not vital. I would prefer to keep pressing in the upper left corner. Presumably W intends to repeat the pattern he played on the other side, crawling along the second line, which would be great for B. When you tenuki, W could cause trouble by pushing and cutting immediately. Fortunately he prefered to crawl, so you got a good result anyway. (Tesuji practice: if W pushes through and cuts after the B14-C13 exchange, how does B capture the cutting stone?)

is normal, but seems like the wrong direction here -- the left side is narrower and has less potential than the bottom side. How about a pincer instead?

has something of the same feel -- neither B nor W can make much territory here. Maybe invade the 3-3 point directly? Or invade/attack around J3? Or develop the top moyo with K16? You could even play N11 to mess with W

is a wasted move. What can W do here? If you are at all worried and want to play locally, pressing at C7 is a fine way to punish the last low W move.

is aji-keshi. After W connnects, you have gained nothing. Without this exchange, there is at least a remote possibility of a later invasion at R3 (perhaps after a P4-P3 exchange), and even a simple descent to S6 becomes larger. Better to just play Q9 for safety and center strength. Similarly, would be better at Q9. The center is much more important than this tiny side territory. Besides, you really want to harass that W stone at O10

W is far behind at this point, so is a good attempt to create complications and get back into the game. You treated this threat too lightly and got into trouble, perhaps lulled into a feeling of superiority by W previous play. at S9 or at S8 look like safe connections.

After getting cut off, seems very risky. It is not too late to give up three stones on a small scale. Enlarging the group like this risks a big loss if they die, and W is pretty strong locally. But hey, its just a game, so go for it if you like. Through you got a fine result. Now K9 and O11 are miai, so you are out of trouble and have a good center position.

is an endgame move, much too small now. (Tesuji practice: if W connects at D1, how do you make eyes in the corner, without risking ko?) K9 and O11 are incomparably larger.

After W passed with :w102: and you cut at P10 (which could perhaps more safely just block at O11), you should win any fight in this region. Maybe someone else will comment on the fighting.

[Knotwilg]

Thirdly, the second loss - I was very mad at myself that I had lost this game. I mean look at the 2nd move - I couldn't tell if he was trolling or not.

(...)

I am also highly considering getting an actual mouse - touchpad on my laptop is so skin sensitive, the lightest brush of the side of my palms causes it to click and play a move sometimes...

1) A common trap to set for oneself: opponent plays strange opening, so I'm morally entitled to win. No, you have to look at the board continuously and try to convert any possible advantage at any stage into a win. No mean feat for even the strongest player.

2) Yes, remove all possible noise from your major positive feedback mechanism: winning games.

[hl782]

here is a game i played last night.

[Knotwilg]

Key points:

ways to take advantage of White's deviation from the usual pattern
did you consider the cut?
contrary to your 99% White is not dead
w130 this weak spot in Black's entanglement can still be exploited for White to live

You won this fighting game, probably by just being lucky with the number of liberties, but also because of good fighting spirit. It was White who tried to make the game complex all the time.

You correctly identified the place where you gave your opponent free 4th line territory.
Good game, good self review.

[hl782]

So today, I played a 5k in an even game and lost pretty badly. It was late, and i very tired after work but it was a rather poor game. I'll post a commented review sometime later in the day.

For problems, I finished my 3rd runthrough of 1001 L&D problems and scored 940/1001 (94%). I missed 30 out of the 60 on the 5 moves to live section - so much harder than killing! I also suck at situations where the eyespace is big/wide. Overall though, I noticed a definite improvement in my vital point spotting, and reading. It's just a matter of spotting these stuff in game, and playing out the right moves.

My biggest weakness though still lies in the middlegame - Fights, proper shape, contact moves, cuts, etc. To fortify this a bit, I'm going to study Get Strong at Tesuji very very thoroughly throughout the week. I went through 60 problems today (in roughly an 45 min or so), and missed 4. I am trying very hard not to cheat/not read through all variations, even though when I am sure that I have found a solution that I believe is to be correct. This habit of 'half-assing' will not do for me anymore. It worked at 10k but not now.

My goal of 3k by Christmas is still very fresh in my head, and I can't wait to get stronger and get better at the game. Until then, happy baduk-ing everyone ^_^

[hl782]

Here's 2 games - the loss from yesterday, and the win from today - For the win, my opponent resigned really early (after 100 moves or so), so I couldn't exactly do a full review of it but i commented on what I was thinking about near the end.

- The Loss -


- The Win -



I am now in my 2nd day of going through GSATesuji. I am scoring approximately 86%, and I am through about 200 problems. It's a bit frustrating because I wanted to hit the 90% range, considering this is my 3rd runthrough of it. However, this is really confirming that i have a terrible sense of shape/what to play during contact fights - because the problems I'm getting wrong are not the corner l&d problems, but the problems regarding thickness, shape, extending, basic atari, etc.

[hl782]

Also, a very big question i have - How can i play more severely/less passively? It almost feels like I shy away from fights/playing severe moves because I have had too many occasions where I made too many weakpoints and got destroyed afterwards.

Any advice from stronger players will be appreciated.

[skydyr]

Also, a very big question i have - How can i play more severely/less passively? It almost feels like I shy away from fights/playing severe moves because I have had too many occasions where I made too many weakpoints and got destroyed afterwards.

Any advice from stronger players will be appreciated.

It's a bit like watching a pendulum swing. First you're too aggressive and overplay, so you overcorrect and play too passively. Then you recognize that, so you switch back to being aggressive, only to repeat the cycle. Ideally, though, each time you learn something about what makes that direction viable and when it's unreasonable, so you slowly dampen down to a happy middle ground.

[Charles Matthews]

Also, a very big question i have - How can i play more severely/less passively? It almost feels like I shy away from fights/playing severe moves because I have had too many occasions where I made too many weakpoints and got destroyed afterwards.

Any advice from stronger players will be appreciated.

- The Loss -


The plays (too tight), (wrong side), (heavy, omit), (bizarre shape), (wrong side to peep), (don't tenuki, cap at K12) seem to indicate you don't know how to handle thickness when you have it.

is the sort of shape that leads to being pushed around. F7 when you have prepared the ground looks much better. can be called an overplay.

Well, maybe you also misread two capturing races in this game. It could have been about you cutting White at M4 and getting two floating groups to attack.

You are competing at this level, but are a bit planless.

[Bill Spight]

Also, a very big question i have - How can i play more severely/less passively? It almost feels like I shy away from fights/playing severe moves because I have had too many occasions where I made too many weakpoints and got destroyed afterwards.

Any advice from stronger players will be appreciated.

I had a similar experience when I was starting out, but I did not shy away from fights, even when I lost three or more groups per game.

It is important to learn how to make thickness and use it for fighting. Taking 5 or more handicaps stones can help to learn that, because it is not too difficult to make thickness with that many handicap stones, and fighting in handicap games is often rewarded.

A good book on handicap go, despite its age, is Okigo Jizai, in 10 volumes, by Hattori Inshuku. Much of it deals with how to attack, especially the high handicap volumes. I have posted a number of games from it here. You might start with

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 32#p175432

Enjoy!

[mitsun]

Comments on the loss -- ways to play more strongly and less passively (much already covered by Charles in a previous post):

should be M4 to separate the W groups. This is both vital and severe. Just contrast this to the result if W plays first, totally enclosing the corner with M5. The game move is large, but you wanted to learn to play more strongly ...

and are absurdly timid, defending the strongest B group on the board, while neglecting the weakest B group on the board. Your suggestion that should jump into the corner is still not the right direction. W would block at D17 to cut off the F17 stone. This would let W make good use of the K16 stone, after which the B wall to the right would become nearly useless. The strong and correct direction of play is to attack the K16 stone from the left, making good use of the B wall to the right. Start with H16 to keep things simple, or consider even stronger moves like H15 or J15. By driving W toward the B wall, you will strengthen the F17 group at nearly no cost (since the B wall is too strong to be subject to any W counter-attack). Then you can use that strength to attack the W corner for profit.

is like , tenuki away from an ongoing fight, when there are still vital moves for attack and defense. F13 would be a simple and good defensive move, better than tenuki. But clearly W will respond by jumping out to K12, after which W will not feel much pressure. So here the preemptive cap at K12 would be much stronger, actively blocking the natural W development. When W responds awkwardly, perhaps around J13 or H14, you get momentum to jump to F13 (or maybe F12 or G12) naturally. This would be a good strong flow of moves for B.

That's it for comments on how to play more strongly and less passively.

(hane at D2) is worth a more careful look. This move is a bit suspect, because the natural W block leaves the stone at F3 perfectly placed. Sometimes you absolutely need to keep sente, while partially protecting the corner, and the hane can then be appropriate. But if you are willing to take gote, there is a bigger move -- the simple descent to C2. If W responds by blocking at D2, B can hane at D1 to take sente. If W does not respond, B has later sente continuations much larger than simply exchanging D2-E2 (which is effectively what happened in the game).

For your reference, did not live. W forced you to live with the bad exchange -

[hl782]

Charles, and Mitsun - Thank you very much for the reviews!

Here are 3 more games I played yesterday - 2 wins and 1 loss. The loss was particularly rough because I got too greedy and blew away a very good chance to win.

First, the Loss


Second, the 1st win


Lastly, the 2nd win.