Life In 19x19

Chew Terr wrote:if white played 28 one space to the right, it adds to his liberties while giving black less holes to push through.

Somehow that stupid move felt clever at the time! I was worried about black running along the edge. But he wouldn't have had the liberty to do that.

Well, beginners make beginner's mistakes! If only I can learn from them!

Thanks for the helpful analysis!

Thank you topaz and Chew Terr for the analysis. Much appreciated.

SinK wrote:Thank you topaz and Chew Terr for the analysis. Much appreciated.

Very welcome

No problem at all, it's great to see you guys working your way up. =D

kukula 2-0 noodley

Game 1: noodley(w) 22.5-35.0 kukula
Game 2: kukula 31.5-18.0 noodley

(noodley resigned game 1 but it looked settled and that was the score at the end)

Good games guys. Hope I was helpful in some respect.

noodley 2-0 keithlard
Game 1: noodley (B) 19.5-19.0 keithlard
Game 2: noodley (W) 33.5-9.0 keithlard

Tourney's making good progress. Since everyone has played at least one game now here's an update.

Current standings (no. games played in brackets):
1. kukula 2.0pt (3)
2. noodley 2.0pt (3)
3. Sink 1.0pt (2)
4. kiethlard 0.0pt (1)
5. TominNJ 0.0pt (1)

Games still to be played:
TominNJ vs. Sink
TominNJ vs. noodley
TominNJ vs. kiethlard
kiethlard vs. Sink
kiethlard vs. kukula

FWIW: First score in noodley vs keithlard was actually 19 - 18.5

kukula 2-0 TominNJ - Scores: 69.5 - 36.5
SinK 0-2 noodley - Scores: 29.5 - 42.5
SinK 2-0 kukula - Scores: 77.5 - 41.5
kukula 2-0 noodley - Scores: 66.5 - 40.5
noodley 2-0 keithlard - Scores: 52.5 - 27.5

Player - WDL - Points - Points For - Points Against - Tiebreak Ratio

kukula - 2-0-1 - 2 - 177.5 - 154.5 - 1.15
noodley - 2-0-1 - 2 - 135.5 - 123.5 - 1.10
SinK - 1-0-1 - 1 - 107 - 84 - 1.27
TominNJ - 0-0-1 - 0 - 36.5 - 69.5 - 0.53
keithlard - 0-0-1 - 0 - 27.5 - 52.5 - 0.52

EDIT: Ah, you beat me to it SinK, noodley has another win though btw!

topazg wrote:FWIW: First score in noodley vs keithlard was actually 19 - 18.5

noodley has another win though btw!

Noted and fixed.

I want to thank everyone for the reviews. In each 9x9 game I can try to follow the recommendations from the previous games and it's very helpful.

I offered to review games, but I think I didn't realize it would be 9x9. Given how hard I find that board , I am probably more suitable as a player rather than a reviewer...

If we can make changes for next month's tourney, I'd vote for using tie-break matches instead of score ratio. Playing for the smallest loss strongly discourages speculative invasions and puts a dampener on fighting spirit in general. If you're behind, it's important to learn how to invade and reduce frameworks. If you're ahead, you need to know how to defend against this. Neither will happen when both players are worrying about the scoreline.

I would also prefer a 19x19 tournament. While 9x9 is great for absolute beginners, I would always encourage people to start playing on the bigger boards as soon as possible. After all, the name of the forum isn't "Life in 9x9"

keithlard wrote:If we can make changes for next month's tourney, I'd vote for using tie-break matches instead of score ratio. Playing for the smallest loss strongly discourages speculative invasions and puts a dampener on fighting spirit in general. If you're behind, it's important to learn how to invade and reduce frameworks. If you're ahead, you need to know how to defend against this. Neither will happen when both players are worrying about the scoreline.

Actually, I find it can have both effects. The goal is not to play for the smallest loss, it's to play for the biggest win If you are losing, winning is still far more valuable than the tiebreak anyway, and if you are winning, it can encourage even more sharp / aggressive play. However, I agree it does strongly affect play style, and I think this is important to consider when choosing tiebreakers - it's a decision that needs to be made deliberately.

keithlard wrote:I would also prefer a 19x19 tournament. While 9x9 is great for absolute beginners, I would always encourage people to start playing on the bigger boards as soon as possible. After all, the name of the forum isn't "Life in 9x9"

Certainly at least 13x13 makes a lot of sense, as none of you are playing like absolute beginners

I find it irritating that the score is used for something else than determining the winner of the game. I think that it is an important lesson to learn that the absolute value of the score difference is irrelevant.