Life In 19x19

Thank you very much for your detailed review, skydyr! Yes, this passiveness has always been a huge problem of mine. It's gotten better in the last 18 months, but it is obviously still a huge obstacle for progress.
You suggested many interesting moves here and I hope that I can apply some of the basic ideas in future games. Although I suspect it might take some time to get used to one or two of them (tenuki for Black 17 is just too hard for me for now to endure ^^; ).

on 63: I think that it is necessary because S7 can be cut and T7 can result in a snapback. Have I missed something here?

on 79: Playing calmly seems to be another general problem. But I sincerely hope that I'll be more relaxed after having played a number of games in the next few months. But you are right, attaching here was not a good idea. I was thinking about J17, too, but you know, sometimes your hand klicks faster than your brain can sream "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!". Or the like. It's definitely a good point.

on 107: I don't quite got your question. Do you mean to play that before 107? Now, a few days after the game I wouldn't even play R10 anymore for 107 but R12 instead. Maybe that is what you meant?

Thanks again for sharing your ideas!

Ember wrote: on 63: I think that it is necessary because S7 can be cut and T7 can result in a snapback. Have I missed something here?

on 107: I don't quite got your question. Do you mean to play that before 107? Now, a few days after the game I wouldn't even play R10 anymore for 107 but R12 instead. Maybe that is what you meant?

For 63, I was suggesting that assuming the cut works, which I think it may, it's slow for white to cut there right away, so maybe black should tenuki and fix it later.

For 107, If white connects on the side you blocked initially, his group is in no way alive and doesn't really have much in way of potential eyespace. I thought just descending to attach/block white on the side would be fine.

@ skydyr: Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying! I'm having a hard time with these fiddly positions...

Weekly Update #7

This week has been much better than the last one so there'll (hopefully ) be less wailing this time than last time - although I don't think it's too bad too write about the bad times, too, because they're part of the whole thing as well. It's not true that it is always fun and great and all and this journal is not about illusions or lying to myself or to others.

Anyways, in the last week I felt some kind of relief when I fully realized that I'm doing very well concerning my goal for this month (remember 34 games per month to play to reach 400 games in 2014). Playing 6 games in 2 days (= last weekend) to catch up turned out to be the best thing I could've done. Since then I really feel much better and even took two evenings off this week to do something entirely different (at least on one evening, on the other I just changed the game for some Carcassonne South Seas), which I hadn't done in the two weeks before and which might have contributed a great deal to my bad mood last week. The fact that I only played one really miserable game this week (unfortunately the one I had to play for Guo Juan's group class...) and that I reached the rank of KGS 3k for the first time by playing (and not by not playing at all XD) contributed to the fact that I'm feeling great now, that I'm really motivated to go on! Now I really enjoy playing, although it would be even more fun to play more on a real board than playing pretty much only on the internet. I really do have to go to the club more regularly and I definitely want to go at least once a month from now on. I didn't go this week and probably won't go next week so instead I replayed two pro games this week (Iyama Yuta's, of course ).

I also did my dose of tsumego and started to like them again after some time in which I did them dutifully but didn't enjoy them very much. And apart from studying with Jenny Shen (she took over in this week's group class) I also studied a bit for myself by looking at James Davies' Tesuji again. I feel like studying tesuji again for the moment to avert the danger of playing too thinly - like I did in this weeks game for the group class - which is the result of when I try to play more active which is what everyone tells me is what I need to do. Still, most times I try it consciously, I fail big, like in this game. I included it along with two or three comments below so you can have a good laugh if you look at it - it's not even 100 moves long, so it won't take up much of your precious time, either.
My hope in studying tesuji is that it will help me to play more active and at the same time have the confidence that I know when I really have to defend (and where) and (which at the moment feels more important) when not. Let's see how that works out in the next few weeks and after I'm through with the book and if I need more ideas and examples (then I'd continue with Fujisawa Shuko's excellent tesuji dictionary) or continue to study something else (I'm always open to suggestions).

I'm really tired now because we were writing all day to finish the Kisei report for the German Go journal, so I won't post any games today. Still, I'll come back in the next few days to add (together with a few comments) my worst game of the year (yet, but I hope I won't unconsciously try to "surpass" myself there...) and one or two other losses I got today but which (at least for me) were very educational.

Until soon! Best wishes and take care with that crazy weather!

Ember


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+++ Playing statistics +++
Date: 26 January 2014
Games played/to be played: 28 / 372
Days passed/to come: 26 / 339
Games won: 14
Games lost: 14
Jigo: 0
Winning percentage: 50%
Landmarks: First win against KGS 3k on 5 January 2014 (unrated game, own rank: 4k, color: black, no komi), first win against KGS 3k in a rated game on 19 January 2014 (own rank: 4k, color: black, komi: 0,5 points), first time hitting the rank of 3k by playing on 25 January 2014

The "few days" stretched a bit longer because work is a bit crazy right now and of course because I was focussing on reaching the first milestone of this year: playing 34 games in January. And what should I say? This evening I hit the mark and played the 34th game this month!!



To many players it might not sound a big deal (one player I met over the digital board this month had played as many as 24 games on only. one. single. day. ), but for me it is really a lot: Last year to reach 34 games it might have taken... 4 months? Or maybe 5 even? However, it doesn't feel that burdensome anymore like it was at the beginning. Although that might be typical of beginnings in general until you reach a point where you get used to it.

For me it has been a great experience so far and it has been a good (beginning of a) cure for some of my weak spots: OGA (Online Go Anxiety) lessened considerably, my attitude towards the game is in the progress of changing, the games seem to be a whole lot of more fun than before and I finally see some progress again. I can't wait until the end of February when I can finally compare a few results. Although now it definitely might a bit too early to tell, I think that I'm considerably closer to KGS 3k now than I have been before and I really hope for February that I even can keep that rank (setting another goal there? ).
Which consequently means that I should start to beat KGS 2kyus in the near future. Which sounds a biiiiit scary because my boyfriend has had that rank for quite a while - and had a solid rank of EGF 2k at that time. As I definitely wouldn't sign up for a tournament with a higher rank of 6k at the moment.. But I'm not afraid of them KGS 2kyus anymore, bring'em on! And you know why? This is why: It's the game I played last monday for Guo Juan's Group Class against a KGS 2k and even though I screwed up that ko by answering a threat which was no threat at all, I'm really proud of it because I only lost by 6,5 points (it was an even game and he got a komi of 7,5 points which means that I really nicked a point from him, wooohoooooo! ) and because of the whole game in general because I could play the moves I wanted to play (and they didn't turn out they were insanely stupid afterwards).





These are two more games I played last sunday against KGS 3ks. It's kind of funny: I mostly play with automatch and in more than 80% of the time I'm black against a 3k. These games were really interesting and I'm happy that I'm allowed to play stronger players so much lately, but I'm a bit afraid to get marked with a ~ for that... We'll see. Anyways, I lost both games by a large margin of around 20 points, but found them highly educational so I'll post them here where I can have another look at them conveniently and without having to hunt them down. Losing is not even half that bad when you know the reason for it and that you can do better next time because you understood why you lost (although actually using that knowledge in a real game is another thing ).





I'll celebrate this milestone this evening for a bit and tomorrow I'll go on with the games. (nope, no more games tonight - I'll celebrate by going to bed early because I got up really early today and yesterday to watch some moves of the second game of the Kisei title match live.. )

This already got so long it could be a weekly report.. XD Well, see you on sunday for the real thing.

Take care!

Weekly Update #8

The first month has passed and as you might be able to guess from my last post, I consider the whole project a real success until now. For the first time in years I'm really working on my Go and can actually feel and see the positive effects this has on my game. This fact spurs me on right now to continue on this way for I don't want to let the chance slip away to finally overcome the barrier that has held me back so long. A decisive factor in the whole thing was my beloved Excel sheet which visualised that the whole project is doable, but also this study journal which constantly reminds me of the resolutions I made and reminds me of the small steps forward I already took. Together with the much valued comments of everyone who cared to post here, it is a great source of motivation, too, so thanks to everyone!

Here are the statistics for the first month:

Although I thought it was really hard to do so, I played the required number of games these month and even had one day left when I reached my goal, so I can be very satisfied here. My winning percentage in January was at 54% which I think is good. And I also played only one or two really bad games this month, so can't complain about this either (although it could be even less ).

Right now, I'm regularly hitting the rank of KGS 3k frequently, but most of the times I immediately lose it again just to go up again after 2 or 3 games (kind of an escalator rank ^^; ). That's why I decided that for the next two weeks or so I'll only play rated games to get up to 3k again and play free games as 3k to get used to the playing styles of this rank (and get beaten up a bit to see what mistakes I have to avoid to make). After this time I'll play more rated games again to see if I can prove myself better then. If not, I'll continue with the method from before for another week or two and take another look until I feel sure that I'm a stable KGS 3k. This would be my goal for February.

During the last week, I solved considerably less tsumego than before but instead I read Tesuji by James Davies from the Elementary Go Series. The first half of the book felt pretty easy, but the second half seems to be more tricky for me. Maybe a hint on what I should be working on. I think it was a good decision at this point to switch to this book instead of doing more tsumego because in the last week I was able to win a game or two because I could use some of the tesuji I had read about previously which gave me a decisive edge in the fighting that was taking place. After reading Tesuji I'll continue with tsumego. I also decided to finally study After Openings by Kim Sung-rae then, which I had wanted to do for many weeks now. More concretely, I'll study the corner enclosures from chapters 1 (4-4 point) and 2 (3-4 point) and leave the side positions out for now (and study them in between whenever I feel like it).

Therefore, on my agenda are these moves:



Of course, this will take a LOT longer to learn and to digest and to finally apply (hopefully correctly) in my own games than e.g. studying some tesuji. But I'm sure that studying these moves thoroughly will be extremely helpful for my game because these positions show up so much in games of all levels and therefore all the work will eventually pay off in the end. The book will be very helpful here not only as a reference which explains good and bad moves for both sides, but which also hints at other things that should be thought of during study (like what would happen if black or white tenukied here, is white still alive?) but which couldn't be covered in this space.
For now, I already started to study the A move in the "4-4 small keima"-enclosure. I guess it will take me on average about one month to study one diagramme thoroughly (which means that I understand the moves involved and am able to remember them with confidence). The only exception will be the "komoku small keima"-enclosure which has a hell lot of variations. I'd say that one will take at least twice as much time. I hope that by the end of the year I can say with confidence that I mastered the information in this book. Playing a lot will definitely help to drill the information and I want to play those moves as much as I can.
However, I'm still at a loss to decide in which order I should study the positions.. Should I start with the small keima enclosures first because they occur most often? Or first study the 4-4-enclosures and then move on to 3-4? I'd appreciate any opinions here.

Concerning February, I already played 4 games in the first two days, so I'm on a good way in this hardest shortest of all months. But this month has only just begun so we'll see..
Have a good week and some exciting games, see you next week!

Ember

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+++ Playing statistics +++
Date: 2 February 2014
Games played / to be played: 39 / 361
Days passed / to come: 33 / 332
Games won total: 21
Games lost total: 18
Jigo: 0
Winning percentage total: around 52%
Landmarks: First win against KGS 3k on 5 January 2014 (unrated game, own rank: 4k, color: black, no komi), first win against KGS 3k in a rated game on 19 January 2014 (own rank: 4k, color: black, komi: 0,5 points), first time hitting 3k by playing and not by not-playing (25 January 2014), January: succeeded in playing the 34 games needed per month to reach 400 games by the end of the year

Ember wrote: However, I'm still at a loss to decide in which order I should study the positions.. Should I start with the small keima enclosures first because they occur most often? Or first study the 4-4-enclosures and then move on to 3-4? I'd appreciate any opinions here.

I'd say studying those positions first that appear most often is a good idea. That will be most effective when working one's way up into the clouds Besides, switching between 4-4 and 3-4 in this way allows some diversification in your studies and may prevent getting bored easily.

karaklis wrote:

Ember wrote: However, I'm still at a loss to decide in which order I should study the positions.. Should I start with the small keima enclosures first because they occur most often? Or first study the 4-4-enclosures and then move on to 3-4? I'd appreciate any opinions here.

I'd say studying those positions first that appear most often is a good idea. That will be most effective when working one's way up into the clouds Besides, switching between 4-4 and 3-4 in this way allows some diversification in your studies and may prevent getting bored easily.

If you're interested in studying in a more casual fashion (which I prefer personally) this, or positions after you see them in games, seems to be the way to go. There is something to be said, however, for looking at a particular position and then extrapolating to positions with one more stone in a systematic fashion, so you can see how that extra stone affects development there.

Thanks a lot for your help, karaklis and skydyr!

Both approaches are justified but after thinking a bit about it in the last two days I think a more strict and organized way might be better for me. As Kageyama would put it, I need to be scruffed by the neck and be more disciplined if I want to get anywhere anytime soon, so that's the course I'll take.. To mix it up a bit I'll follow karaklis suggestion to switch between 3-4 and 4-4 enclosures. However, while I study the small keima enclosures I'll take a peek at the other enclosures and the moves around them as they show up in my games (although as "peek" suggests I won't study them as thoroughly as those moves which are on the agenda at that moment). That way, there'll be not only more variety but I'll also know which kinds of enclosures to study next.

So far, the study goes well: I worked through the diagrammes for the A and B moves of the 3-4 small keima enclosure. Not a great deal as it's not exactly hard to remember 5 or so pages (understanding the material is not the problem as it is very well presented), but it is a first step. As I've never done anything like this before it will be interesting to see how far I'll get and if I reach this goal.

Weekly Update #8

It is amazing how fast time flies when you are working towards a goal - even if minor things like work and (connected with that) tiredness keep you from doing so. This was a rather awkward week, I was simply too tired to do much related to go during the working days apart from reading James Davies' Tesuji while commuting, getting the yearly membership from Guo Juan's webpage (and looking at like three videos in the last two days) and playing one scheduled game for Guo Juan's Group Class. This game, however, really got my temper going again. Actually I was way too tired to play that evening and I never would have played if the game hadn't been scheduled and had to be played that evening because of this. Well, everyone can imagine how it went: I managed to get off to a bad start and felt I already had a bad position after around 20 moves (although before the review from yesterday I couldn't point my finger on the move(s) that got me into trouble). Then I played one or two quite ok moves (with the kind help of my opponent) which allowed me to settle an invasion group that should have felt a lot more pain and pressure (but I won't complain). Then everything fell apart when I
1) totally screwed up to defend my side territory and he got a definite lead by cutting off some of my stones
2) played a move I thought I had to play to let another group live that was cut off during the split of 1) but which was absolutely unnecessary and which lost me sent
3) managed to overlook a move where I had to simply connect and all only to play a monkey jump and lose more than one third of the afore mentioned invasion group (that's where I resigned).

I'm 100% sure that all three points could have been avoided if I hadn't been so tired that evening. That's why I was really angry that this game got into the review session for the group class because the comment or "advice" on this game was bound to be something like "Pay more attention" or "Read more" or "Do more tsumego" (which it was…) - which is not what I was seeking for when I signed up for the class and which isn't really necessary to implement because usually I DO read (a lot) more than in this game and usually do more tsumego than in the last two weeks (in which I wasn't lazy, either, but put the emphasis somewhere else). This is already the second out of five games I played like this and this really makes me start to think. Maybe I should from now on try to schedule my games on the sunday after the lecture so that I'm sure to have rested well. By coincidence the game for the next lesson actually was scheduled for today and it didn't go that bad even though my opponent is a KGS 1k. It even was a close game with him getting all four corners and me getting an impressive center territory (that's right, not a moyo) but then I screwed it up again when I didn't defend my group at the top properly because I thought that it would be ok and then theoretically played a self-atari and the whole thing (which had looked pretty healthy 20 moves before) died. Well. That definitely proves what a vital role doing tsumego has for me at the moment and that I shall not cut time here to study something else in the future.. Still, after this game I was not frustrated at all because the rest of the game went pretty nicely (at least that's what I think now ^^; ). Here it is, if you'd like to take a look (if anyone has an idea for a more active move instead of just swallowing the two stones with M9 I'd love to hear it):



I wasn't able to reach my goal of playing eight games this week and only played six. However, this is okay since I'm still doing fine concerning the number of games and the days remaining. Apart from the one game I played for Guo Juan it was also a pretty successful week. Since I had lost three games straight last sunday, which got me the 4k back, I wasn't able to start with my plan of playing only free games when hitting 3k yet. However, I'll start from tomorrow with this experiment because I got it back again today. It will be interesting to see how things will turn out, especially after this encouraging game against the 1k today (omfg, I can play ok-ish against KGS 1k! ).
As I've finished reading Tesuji, I'll also continue to do more tsumego again (which hopefully helps against overlooking embarrassingly simple moves) and watch at least two lectures from Guo Juan per week. I plan to loosely follow her study guide and start "from the bottom" because I believe that reviewing the basic stuff one more time will give me a good base for future improvement (although I'm definitely not dissatisfied with how things are going at the moment ). Tonight I'll recapture the moves for the "4-4 small keima"-enclosure I have studied so far and continue with the next move and that's it for tonight (maybe, I've got this new app, Tsumego Pro and it is kind of tempting... ).

Let's see what the next week will bring.

Ember

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+++ Playing statistics +++
Date: 9 February 2014
Games played/to be played: 47 / 353
Days passed/to come: 40 / 325
Games won total: 25
Games lost total: 22
Jigo: 0
Winning percentage total: around 52%
Landmarks: First win against KGS 3k on 5 January 2014 (unrated game, own rank: 4k, color: black, no komi), first win against KGS 3k in a rated game on 19 January 2014 (own rank: 4k, color: black, komi: 0,5 points), first time hitting 3k by playing and not by not-playing (25 January 2014), January: succeeded in playing the 34 games needed per month to reach 400 games by the end of the year

A little mid-week update, I just couldn't resist after the game I just finished. In the last few days, I made a new account on KGS to especially practice playing white in handicap games. Never played it much from this side and I think there's much to be learned from it - let alone from the possibility to give something back to another player in teaching games. First I wanted to play a few games without handicap to get a rating to work with because no one would play me without a rank. So, I started automatch with a guessed rank of 3k and won against a 2k, so I moved up to 2k?. In the next game I got a 1k and thought "Yeah, that's going to be quick, he'll kill me off quickly and nicely" and I just played and... well, see below. Yeah, he played strangely and overly aggressive, but these games still are not easy to win. And.. and... look at the game and his rank and... need I say anymore? I know I shouldn't be too thrilled about it but... right now, it's kind of hard not to be extatic. It's almost too much for somebody who was stuck at around 6k for nearly 5 years and on 6k on KGS. Pretty scary even (although I still won't complain ^^).

I've never managed to beat a KGS 1k before. That's a nice thing to be able to say, even if was an insane move. Pure greed as as far as I can tell. And why shouldn't he be greedy?! Heaven forbid black makes 15 points on the left side of the board! That's, like, the best side! White's own 15-20 point corner can't compete with left side territory!

Your subsequent attack looked like it would get you good profit in the top left, even if white managed to live. That is always important because white should not have let you kill him. A stone like can be attacked, but it shouldn't be able to be killed outright. I do wonder about though - I would usually expect that to be at F13, the knight's move. This might have been a faster way to build the top and continue your attack.

I think was the final nail in the coffin. The atari at F9 seems necessary to keep his group connected and out. Again, it looks like he got greedy - in this case smelling blood while not realizing his own group was in jeopardy.

Also, well done on finishing Tesuji. I still technically need to finish that book, so you are ahead of me there as well. I suppose if you and I do play a game I'll have to take a couple of stones against you.

Thanks for the reply, moyoaji! Yeah, of course the left side of the board is the best side, didn't you know yet?! That's where the flower kos bloom and the rabbity sixs are grilled and the cranes fly directly in your mouth.

On : You're absolutely right, that stone should never have died in the first place. I mean, he broke through my bad shape (elephant jump) and cut me and what happened in the end? He got himself cut, too, and even died... Concerning I'm not sure that the knight's move would have been better. White would be able to get the point of E12 himself and would not only press down on D12 and friends (that cutting point at D13 troubles me a bit) but also would be weakened even more. I'm not sure, but just nobi out feels like this stone puts more pressure on white because he hast to squeeze through between those stones. But who am I to say that? Just some overrated player.
Still, I think that you are absolutely right concerning , that one should have been an atari. Also I think that was a bad play of mine so he should have taken advantage of that. Theoretically.

On Tesuji: In the end I must admit I rushed it a bit because the second half got increasingly difficult.. and because I wanted to read something else. I'm sure that you'll do better than me here. We can test it with a game but I doubt very (very) much that I could give you handicap, not only because I'm bad at it (still). But if you want to play a game just send me a message. ^^

Hi Ember, congrats on the win. It was a kind of blitz -- average ~14 secs per move for each of you --
and White's basics are not good.

Ember wrote:Concerning I'm not sure that the knight's move would have been better.

was terrible. moyoaji was correct here. Either keima (F13 or G12) would've been better, no question about it.
If you want the top, pick the F13 keima. If you want to control the center, pick the G12 keima.

was also bad, similar reason: broken shape for Black -- you hurt yourself.

was bad, same reason: broken shape for White ( ) -- he hurt himself.

See also Toothpaste and related broken shapes Links.

Ember wrote:I'm not sure, but just nobi out feels like this stone puts more pressure on white because he hast to squeeze through between those stones.

Precisely the opposite. Your - broken shape forces W to hurt yourself.

Let's have an empty board for the moment, and just look at this local situation:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W diagram 1
$$ . . . . . . .
$$ . . X . . . .
$$ . . 1 . . . .
$$ . . . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . .[/go]

If it's B's turn, there is only one local reply -- of course B blocks :

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W diagram 2
$$ . . . . . . .
$$ . . X . . . .
$$ . . 1 2 . . .
$$ . . . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . .[/go]

It would make no sense for B not to block...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W diagram 3a
$$ . . . . . . .
$$ . 2 X . . . .
$$ . . 1 . . . .
$$ . . . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . .[/go]

… and to allow to rip apart B's original keima, like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W diagram 3b
$$ . . . . . . .
$$ . 2 X . . . .
$$ . . 1 3 . . .
$$ . . . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . .[/go]

The above diagram 3b is a very bad shape for Black,
which is exactly your - exchange --
just add one W stone to diagram 1:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W diagram 4a
$$ . . . . . . .
$$ . . X . . . .
$$ . . 1 . . . .
$$ . W . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . .[/go]

If B makes the bad move of , pulling back instead of blocking,
we get the same local shape as your - exchange:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W diagram 4b
$$ . . . . . . .
$$ . 2 X . . . .
$$ . . 1 3 . . .
$$ . W . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . .[/go]

See also Toothpaste and related broken shapes Links.

Thanks a lot for pointing out and for explaining the shape problem more closely, EdLee, it's comments like this and the one before that help you advance, thank you! Now I can really understand what a bad play I made there.. I'll work on it. I already looked at the page about the toothpaste. I haven't been aware of this, but I'll try to remember this when I play from now on. Do you know any other material on the subject or will a look at shapes in general be helpful here, too? Could you recommend something?

I took a closer look at the cut I was fearing, too, and have to admit that there isn't really anything to win there for white, it just gets worse for him (at least if I didn't overlook something). You're right in that I should have taken a bit more time, especially here, but since I believed that I had no chance to even reach move 150 (let alone the endgame) and since the nobi just seemed so obvious.. I just played it. How wrong was I!