The January Tourney Thread.

[Koroviev]

Couldn't find the second game between Mnemonic and Koroviev so I gave the win to Mnemonic.

I think I've identified a reading error.

[Monadology]

I am sorry, but I suddenly got hired in UK, so I won't be able to take part in this wondeful tournament, I am very sorry. I would like Monadology to accept my deepest apologies, and would like kindly to ask the judge to give him 1 point instead of 0,5

No need to apologize for real life, which is much more important than some forum tournament.

Besides, you surely would've kicked my butt.

[Chew Terr]

What I think:

17: I could be wrong, but I feel like you can (and therefore should) take E17 first.
25: Feels slow. W can't cut, since there's the ladder. W may be able to take the clamp at B12, but
26: I like this move. Take the corner safely, in theory.
32: I like P3 here.
54: I don't like that empty triangle, and it accomplishes little. Black even has the ladder (bO7 wN7 bN8 wM8 doesn't work), so this move doesn't actually keep W connected. O7 would work though.
61: While this move is good shape, you can't really harm the corner too much. Better to attack the only weak group on the board: the bottom right. O11 is interesting, though it's super-aggressive. Another, safer option you could consider is jumping to P14. That cuts off some of W's support, while building your potential framework.
87: H15 seems urgent.
90: You have to defend here, sorry.
101: If anything works, it's E18?
136: F2 would save most of that.

Well-played, both of you. My analysis is really shallow and may be flawed (I'm quite tired, today), but hopefully a little of it helps.

[Koroviev]

Mnemonic and I couldn't play our game last night as I had IT problems and couldn't get online.

Is it possible for us to play our second game this week, or is that too late? If it's too late I'm happy to forfeit the game, but of course I'd be even happier to play it.

[SinK]

Mnemonic and I couldn't play our game last night as I had IT problems and couldn't get online.

Is it possible for us to play our second game this week, or is that too late? If it's too late I'm happy to forfeit the game, but of course I'd be even happier to play it.

If you can play it in the next couple of days then go ahead. No cahnges to the round two match ups so those games will carry on as normal.

[Koroviev]

Many apologies, but I will have to pull out, as my home internet connection is still not working and won't be fixed until next week.

[SinK]

Many apologies, but I will have to pull out, as my home internet connection is still not working and won't be fixed until next week.

Fair enough. Match ups edited. I've given you a bye this round so if you do get your access to the interweb in time for next round you needn't drop out.

[robinz]

viprr and I will be playing at 10am GMT on Saturday. (I'm not sure whether that'll be both games or just the first one - hopefully we'll have time to play both. But we'll certainly be playing at least one game then.)

[robinz]

We managed to play both games. I won them both, to win the match 2-0. Thanks to viprr for the games, and to Loons who happened to see the end of the second game and gave us a review of most of the game before he disappeared

Game 1:


Game 2:

[viprr]

We managed to play both games. I won them both, to win the match 2-0. Thanks to viprr for the games, and to Loons who happened to see the end of the second game and gave us a review of most of the game before he disappeared

Thank you for the games and the kind review.

[SinK]

After both of us missing the start time for independant reasons we did finally get round to playing our first game:



Next game:


SinK 1 - 1 Rafa

[Monadology]

Mnemonic kicked my butt all up and down the street for both of our games. My play was embarrassingly awful.

Thanks for showing me how a real 11k plays, Mnemonic.

[Mnemonic]

If there is one thing you should take away from our games, it is this joseki:

$$B Black 5 is key
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 8 6 7 . . . .
$$ | . . 2 3 9 W . 1 .
$$ | . . 4 X . . . . .
$$ | . . a 5 . . . . .
$$ | . . 0 . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Black 5 is key
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 8 6 7 . . . .
$$ | . . 2 3 9 W . 1 .
$$ | . . 4 X . . . . .
$$ | . . a 5 . . . . .
$$ | . . 0 . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Shortly before we played I flipped through some of your games, trying to figure out your style, and I noticed you missed the chance to punish one of your opponents. So when the same situation appeared in the game I though: "Why not, maybe I'll catch him with his pants down". There is a reason why black does not play a after (as I demonstrated in our game)

$$B Joseki mistake
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 6 7 . . . . .
$$ | . . 2 3 . W . 1 .
$$ | . . 4 X a . . . .
$$ | . . 5 8 9 . . . .
$$ | . . . 0 . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Joseki mistake
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 6 7 . . . . .
$$ | . . 2 3 . W . 1 .
$$ | . . 4 X a . . . .
$$ | . . 5 8 9 . . . .
$$ | . . . 0 . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

The cut at a is deadly.
Anywho, here are the games. I'll post my thought in a separate post.

[Mnemonic]

I'll only post my thought on my moves so reviewers can respond to them directly. Since we have better qualified persons on this forum than me I'll let them handle the review for Monadology. (Unless someone really wants to hear my stumbling)

Game 1
10: I didn't really know where to play now. Maybe the double approach was wrong?
38: Maybe extend at N15 instead?
48: definitely play F16
62: His moyo is getting pretty solid. Is it already too late to try and reduce it?
72: Feels wired. I thought my group would die.
100: I should have pushed one more time
118: I'm really not happy with this move. But I couldn't find anything better in that area.

Game 2
9: didn't really know what to do here. Would tenuki be better?
47: probably way to close to thickness.
63: wrong direction of play
79-89: Should I’ve played more aggressively here?
95: Way to early
111: I should have first cut at N3. This is no good.
153: I didn't really know how to respond to that monkey jump
157: Wired move. Didn't really think that one through.
177: I should have done this earlier.
219: useless move
223: And again

[SinK]

1. Mnemonic (2.0)
2. robinz (1.5)
3. SinK (1.0)
5. Rafa (1.0)
4. Monadology (0.5)
6. viprr (0.5)

Once again we've lost a player.

Round three match ups are:
robinz vs Mnemonic
SinK vs Mon
Rafa vs viprr