Life In 19x19

Sumire lost her game against Feng Yunjia 1p in the Chinese League.

I haven't put the game into Katago yet but it seems to me that the turning point was move 126. I was fully expecting white to come back to the center (G8 maybe?).

According to the IA used in Fox, the mistake would be the #138 atari. White had to connect the two weak groups there. Then, the black stone (H7) wouldn't matter anymore.

Sumire's chances went from some 70% to about 20%. When I see such a drop, I like to think "she played well, she needs to keep focus". But it could also be "opponents could feel that they can always expect a blunder".

I don't know... I hope it's a mental problem and not a lack of skill.

I looked at it with KataGo's strongest model, and a lot of computation power. It seems that she just focused on the wrong area in a situation where deciding what the right area is takes Katago 25000 visits. It considers move 136 as almost as bad as 138. So could it be that the result was kind of random because it became too complicated?

Here's my Katago's analysis:

Today Sumire beat Xie Yimin in the last game of the B prelim of the Gosei.

The beggining of the game followed the usual pattern these days: Sumire starts well, gets and advantage, then tries some attack, it fails, gets into a bad position, game over.
I was watching and when I had to leave, Sumire (white) was way behind, playing small moves to secure life. Painful.

When I came back home, I was just in time to see her win by 0.5 points. Really, really close. All this made me think:
- Sumire has already beaten Xie before, she should be comfortable with this game.
- She can still play well early on. Luckily, this hasn't changed due to her current slump.
- She still fights back. It requires a lot of mental strength not to give up in this situation.

Not out of the woods yet, but I hope this game can be a turning point. In the Gosei, she will face some stronger opponent in the A prelim.

In 7 days, Sumire will face So Yokoku 9-dan in another A prelim (Judan). I think that they have played before, but I might be wrong. Let's see if she can beat a 9-dan again.

pajaro wrote:
In 7 days, Sumire will face So Yokoku 9-dan in another A prelim (Judan). I think that they have played before, but I might be wrong. Let's see if she can beat a 9-dan again.

I quote myself

This game just finished, with a convincing win for Sumire. I am looking forward to see JK's video about it. I'd say that she was never in serious trouble. There was a ko towards the end, but the result was surprisingly favorable to white (Sumire). I say surprising because there was a move that I didn't see coming, but perhaps was the obvious one.

With this, Sumire wins the first game of the A prelim, and I think she makes sure to play at least in this prelim next year. That's good, because her streak of loses has made her lose a few seeds.

About her losing streak, is it over? I'd love to say yes, but I can't. If the next couple of months she has normal results, then great. But it's too early.
What I can say is that So Yokoku is ranked 36 in mamumamu and is perhaps the highest ranked player she has defeated. Both Asami and Rina are right now above 36, but I don't know their rankings when Sumire beat them. So Yokoku is a Honinbo challenger. This has to mean something. Anyway, pretty close.

pajaro wrote:

pajaro wrote:
In 7 days, Sumire will face So Yokoku 9-dan in another A prelim (Judan). I think that they have played before, but I might be wrong. Let's see if she can beat a 9-dan again.

I quote myself

Pajaro wrote: This game just finished, with a convincing win for Sumire. I am looking forward to see JK's video about it. I'd say that she was never in serious trouble. There was a ko towards the end, but the result was surprisingly favorable to white (Sumire). I say surprising because there was a move that I didn't see coming, but perhaps was the obvious one.

With this, Sumire wins the first game of the A prelim, and I think she makes sure to play at least in this prelim next year. That's good, because her streak of loses has made her lose a few seeds.

About her losing streak, is it over? I'd love to say yes, but I can't. If the next couple of months she has normal results, then great. But it's too early.
What I can say is that So Yokoku is ranked 36 in mamumamu and is perhaps the highest ranked player she has defeated. Both Asami and Rina are right now above 36, but I don't know their rankings when Sumire beat them. So Yokoku is a Honinbo challenger. This has to mean something. Anyway, pretty close.

Amazing win!

Elom0 wrote:

pajaro wrote:Sumire did it.

In the 3rd game of the female Kisei match, she won Ueno Asami to become Nakamura Sumire female Kisei.

It was, as expected, a fought game. After a good begginning for Sumire, Asami came from behind, and I thought her experience would prevail. But Sumire fought back again and after a few big exchanges (that I still don't understand) and an important ko fight (which was probably the compensation), the game was settled. There was no mistake in the final moves, and Ueno resigned.

This is, as everybody knows, a new record. Sumire is not 14 yet, and this is the first of, quite likely, many titles.

Omedetou gozaimasu!

(also, I think this means she will play in the NHK tournament)

Congratulations to everyones favourite child geniuos! I am totally amazed that she beat Ueno Asami in a best-of-three speed match! おとめでて! Wow, she's improving faster than I expected or realise. She may be the real deal.

I don't know if anyone has talked about this but Nate Morse (aka Telegraph Go) has posted his excellent commentary on all three of these games. His telegraphgo channel is extremely addictive:

Nakamura Sumire vs Ueno Asami for Female Kisei title
Game 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b3K0b9wLvw
Game 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3gW3SOcYxw
Game 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a96_lcqWHPk

And throwing in also Nakamura Sumire vs Choi Jeong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gFZS4GzWYM

I hadn't seen this but having title match coverage in English is a treat. Thanks for sharing.

I watched the review of the first game and it was well done for my level. Much appreciation to Telegraph Go.

I didn't know about this channel, thanks for the info. Easy to understand. Makes you wonder, why didn't I see all this?

About today's game, just one more thing: Sumire is 1 game away from the last prelim, and then 1-2 games away from the main event. It's a long shot, but wouldn't it be great if she could go to one of the big ones?

I'm genuinely surprised and slightly sad not everyone knew about Telegraph Go . . .

Should the goal now is to make it through prelims to a main knockout tournament before Uni age?

Elom0 wrote:I'm genuinely surprised and slightly sad not everyone knew about Telegraph Go . . .

His channel is quite new, so it shouldn't be so surprising.

Elom0 wrote:Should the goal now is to make it through prelims to a main knockout tournament before Uni age?

I expect her to achieve that goal before that age.

Sumire is now in middle high school. Third year, I think, out of three. After that, senior high school. Three more years. I don't know if Sumire will attend senior high school. It's not mandatory, and most pros are already pro by that age, so they decide to dedicate their time to go. BTW, Hikaru covers this topic too.

If Sumire doesn't go to high school, all her time will be for go. In this case, I expect a boost in her performance. See Ueno Risa, she is 3 years older and she has improved a lot since she finished junior high school. By the time Sumire turns 18 or so, she might be a regular in the main tournaments.

I came across Telegraph Go only this week. Very good explanations of pro games. Does historical and current games. I hope he sticks with this content and doesn't go into "watch me play" like so many channels before him. Baduk doctor for example has completely given up on educational content. Of course these guys tune their decisions to their money making potential so I shouldn't complain.

Telegraph Go also streams live on Twitch (the recorded lecture videos are a relatively new thing), and if you like that sort of content he does it well too. I think it's nice that he keeps that content separate from the more lecture-ish content on YouTube. Hopefully the YouTube videos are popular enough that he'll keep it up.

Knotwilg wrote: . . . I hope he sticks with this content and doesn't go into "watch me play" like so many channels before him. Baduk doctor for example has completely given up on educational content . . .

Interesting, earlier there was a post complaining about there being a lack of watch me content . . . Both types together are best!

Sumire sensei has gone two wins one loss so far in the Korea Women Baduk League!

Knotwilg wrote:I came across Telegraph Go only this week.

Yeah, me too. Really impressed with the channel. Fills a niche, imo, interesting and educational content aimed at strong kyus and weakish dans. I don't always agree with some of his opinions/conclusions, but appreciate the effort he has made to understand and contextualize the game.