Life In 19x19

Glad to see you back at it! (Note: The link to the SGF file did not work for me.)

A few questions/thoughts from a weaker player:

Overall, I thought you played well. However, I wonder if the game would have been much closer if black hadn't tried what turned out to be a kamikaze invasion on the right and had instead started building up in the top left quadrant of the board.

7: I thought you came out well in this, despite not having seen it before. However, the outcome does put your opponent in good position vis a vis your two stones in the bottom center. Perhaps your variation 2 at move 9 would have allowed you to give up the corner in return for a central facing bottom position on the bottom? This might have put you in a position to make a move like 29 without those black stones in the center.

21: Why this version of the joseki rather than R10? Was the hope to prevent him for playing K17 in the R10 sequence?

22: Why not O13? Seems like a mistake to forgo the opportunity to hane given the developing moyo.

24: Agree. Seems slow for black.

25: Tenuki seems right, but why approach here rather than the black corner or splitting the left or top? Seems like you are approaching a partially enclosed corner when there is still a corner with no approach moves/enclosures yet.

28: This seems like a weak move. D2 seems stronger to me.

29: I think the move is good, but too early. Better after doing something to strengthen you stones in the area first. Seems like the threat of this gives you a chance to strengthen them at this point. If your stones in the bottom center were strong first, then this move would be great.

39: Your moves starting here were the only ones that I really didn't follow. Isn't dealing with the top and left top more urgent? Or am I missing something.

51: What about S10?

ez4u wrote:Play 207 at M19?

I think I must have seen a ghost. I thought that M16 would take away white's other eye, but it looks like I was imagining this.

BlindGroup wrote: 7: I thought you came out well in this, despite not having seen it before. However, the outcome does put your opponent in good position vis a vis your two stones in the bottom center. Perhaps your variation 2 at move 9 would have allowed you to give up the corner in return for a central facing bottom position on the bottom? This might have put you in a position to make a move like 29 without those black stones in the center.

Yeah, I'm not totally satisfied with the way I responded here.

21: Why this version of the joseki rather than R10? Was the hope to prevent him for playing K17 in the R10 sequence?

I wanted to play this way since I thought I had potential on the right. Not sure if it's an overplay or not.

22: Why not O13? Seems like a mistake to forgo the opportunity to hane given the developing moyo.

Might be possible. My rationale during the game was that P11 would make secure territory on the right more of a possibility. Not 100% sure if it's the right choice.

25: Tenuki seems right, but why approach here rather than the black corner or splitting the left or top? Seems like you are approaching a partially enclosed corner when there is still a corner with no approach moves/enclosures yet.

My rationale was that I might be able to help out the F3, etc., stones in an efficient way. I couldn't think of a good response locally, so if I made that area small, F3 and K4 could later become useful. It's hard for me to say if this is bigger than the unapproached corner.

28: This seems like a weak move. D2 seems stronger to me.

I think splitting is useful for black, because it keeps the two white stones weak.

29: I think the move is good, but too early. Better after doing something to strengthen you stones in the area first. Seems like the threat of this gives you a chance to strengthen them at this point. If your stones in the bottom center were strong first, then this move would be great.

Agree. I think the 3-3 was a bad idea.

39: Your moves starting here were the only ones that I really didn't follow. Isn't dealing with the top and left top more urgent? Or am I missing something.

I thought I was reducing the bottom, while making the right side bigger. Playing on the top is probably big, too.

51: What about S10?

Good move for this shape. I'm a little more inclined to start from the outside. Not 100% sure.

A problem I got hung up on today, which I haven't solved, yet. I'm posting it here, so I don't forget about it.

If you solve it, please use hide tags.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc White to play
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . X . O . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . X X X O . . . . O O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X X O O O . X X X . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . X X X X X X . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Played a game for the AYD today.

I lost by 0.5 points (I had 6.5 komi).

Here is the game record:


I don't have time to review the game now, because I want to do some stuff for my day job (at night! Imagine that!!!).

But I do think that I should have played here for the endgame, instead of 'a', where I actually played:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Position at move 171
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . O X X . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O O X . X . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O X . . O . X O . . |
$$ | . . O O . . . . . O X . O . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O X . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O X O O X . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . O X X X O X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . O X O O O X X X . |
$$ | O O . . . . . . . . . O X X X O O O X |
$$ | X O . O . . . . . , . O X . . O X X . |
$$ | X X O . . . O O X . . O X O O O O X . |
$$ | X . X O O . O X O O O O O X X X O X . |
$$ | . X . X . O X X O 1 X X O O O X X X . |
$$ | . X X O O O X X X 2 . X . X O X . . . |
$$ | X X X . X O O X . . O X . X X O X X . |
$$ | 3 O O , X O . X . , . X O X O O O X O |
$$ | . . . O O . X . . . . . X O . . O . X |
$$ | . . . . . O X . X . . . X O O O . O a |
$$ | . . . . . O O X . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I think that this would have probably made a difference in the game result, but I haven't reviewed thoroughly to confirm.

I played mistakes throughout the entire game, but maybe I can take away one lesson here:

This is the second game within the week where I've lost by 0.5 due to careless endgame!

To be honest, I never cared much for studying the endgame. But maybe this is a sign that I should.

Why not take your sente at move 184?

Bill Spight wrote:Why not take your sente at move 184?

Indeed. I feel like my mind drops out completely during the endgame, and I feel like, "hmm, games over. Let's just play these last moves and see who won."

Do I get the 1 point move, the 2 point move, or the 3 point move? Was it sente or gote? I don't really pay much attention to it.

If I remember, I'll try to focus on playing a good endgame - at least taking sente moves, etc., the next time I play a game where it gets that far.

Well, I signed up for the US Go Congress this year. I haven't been playing or studying at all, but I want to go maybe more for social reasons than in a spirit of real competition.

I had to cancel last year with the whole chemotherapy stuff going on, and I was pretty depressed about not going. My son had a relapse back in October, so we did a lot of chemotherapy after that to get him back to remission and to try to proactively prevent another relapse. A second relapse is definitely possible (about 50% chance they say), but it's unlikely that further chemotherapy would cure it if that happened. Taking a week off in August seems reasonable, given that regardless of what happens, there's not much further to do about the situation. Hopefully it all goes smoothly, and there are no problems at all.

So on a happier note, I look forward to seeing you at the Go Congress this year If we've never met in person before, I look forward to chatting with you. Please introduce yourself. I'm looking forward to it!

In 2015, my focus was to try to win games. This year, my focus is to have fun, take a break, and enjoy the social atmosphere. Getting a few games of go in will be a bonus.

2015 was a good year.

• My son didn't have cancer.
• I did a good job on a challenging project at work.
• I got promoted at work.
• I exercised every day for about 1.5 hours, ate salads, and lost about 35 pounds.
• I studied go, played in the AYD, and won the US Open 1d section with a score of 6 wins and 0 losses.
• I didn't know about AlphaGo, yet.

Really, it was a great year. In 2016, things seemed to get a bit more challenging. I got a bit depressed over the AlphaGo stuff (my hero, Lee Sedol, had been beaten by a computer), my son got sick, I had to skip a lot of work to be at the hospital so projects suffered, I was depressed and gained a lot of weight, I posted here on and off about go, but didn't study much, I didn't go to the US Go congress...

The stark contrast that occurred in such a short period of time has been somewhat depressing to me.

But recently, I remembered a philosophy that I had repeated to myself in 2015 when I lost a lot of weight. I'm not quoting it exactly correctly, but the basic idea I heard from Andrew Jackson on one of his go videos with Frank, I think, talking about "hard stuff that's easy" vs. "easy stuff that's hard".

The basic idea, as I understood, was that some things are "hard", but once you get the hang of them, they're easy. Calculus is a good example - integrals might be complex or difficult, but once you figure them out, you can chug away and do them without a problem. Hard stuff that's easy. In contrast, some things in life are "easy". Losing weight is "easy". Just diet and exercise, and you'll lose weight. It's scientific. But it's also difficult. Though the steps to accomplish this are easy, it's difficult to maintain the motivation and desire to lose weight when you want to eat a cheeseburger (or whatever you like to eat).

It was with this philosophy that the 2015 Kirby lost a lot of weight. Something clicked inside of me that said, "You know what? It's actually easy to lose weight. I AM in control of the situation. I just need to exercise and diet. Easy!" And I did that. Sometimes, I slipped up and would gain weight. But I actually enjoyed that. I'd see the effects of what I had done. If I ate too much one day, I'd see the result of the action. It was a result of my actions.

Great feeling.

The person that's typing to you right now is 2017 Kirby. And I think that 2016 Kirby forgot a little bit that actions have a result. There is some degree of hopelessness that comes along with a cancer diagnosis, which I won't get into, but that situation aside, my actions *do* have an effect within some given constraint. Cancer diagnosis is tough, but it's just a constraint in life - a constraint that you can work around. I was thinking about this more in the context of programming. If I only know how to search through an array linearly, it might seem helpless to search through a sorted array in O(lg n) time. But if I have that time constraint added to the problem, then the problem is still solvable - I just need to find a different approach (e.g. a binary search)...

So I guess what I'm saying is that:
1.) Life has difficulties and constraints.
2.) They are sometimes challenging.
3.) Given whatever constraints there are in life, no matter how difficult, the actions you take do have an effect. It's "easy".

Even with the example of losing weight - maybe genetically, the 2015 Kirby doesn't lose weight as easily as someone else with different genetics. But 2015 Kirby still lost weight, because given the constraints of his genetics, he took actions that allowed him to lose weight.

In this manner, I have found a new motivation in my work, in study, in go, and in losing weight (again).

I have constraints in my life. But I also have control of my actions in order to optimize the situation around those constraints.

So with that in mind, let's proceed with this journal, play more games of go, and do some game reviews.

Today's game is my "comeback" game, which I played on KGS after a long break.

My rank had drifted to the famous [2d?], so when I played automatch, I was paired against a KGS 2d.

As my luck may have it, I "won"/"lost" this game. The game seemed somewhat close in the middle, but then I threw away the game to give my opponent a huge ko, which made my loss certain. But then he decided to give the game back to me, I guess - probably from playing too fast.

Anyway, here is the game record:

I would like to take my time on reviewing this game, so what I've posted are my initial thoughts. I'll run the game through CrazyStone later tonight or tomorrow, and then post some highlights.

Well, I haven't done that "thorough" review of my last game, yet. I also didn't do any go problems. I also didn't do any other form of go study, yet.

But I don't want this to stop me from being active with go, so I played another game today. I think I'll try to keep playing no matter what study I get in, and then if I can get some study in, that's a bonus.

I played as white with no komi against KGS 2d, and got smashed. I think I gave too much on the bottom, and then misread trying to get something back from it.

When I lost all that on the bottom, I should have regrouped, and try to make a more sensible strategy.

Here's the game:

Some highlights from my last game.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I played the marked move here - not sure if it's correct. I like black's move on the bottom, because it makes me uncomfortable as white.

I don't know if what I played was best, but it was the best I could think of.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . . , O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I regret focusing on the right side with the marked move.

I prefer this way:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . . , O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O W X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

If black does atari, I think my shape is not bad:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . . 3 . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Seems quite reasonable.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . W . . O O . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . O , O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Not sure it's worth protecting the cut, above. I think it might be worth pushing, even if there's some danger of a cut:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . O , O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . W X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I think black's corner got way too big in the game.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . O O . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . O , O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X X . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . W O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . O . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

This direction felt right to me, but given this board position, I think I like to block from this direction better:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . O . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . X . . X . . X O O X O O O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . O O . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . O , O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X X . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X W . . . . . O . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

After this, I felt definitely behind and fell apart. I should have been more calm.

I also need to practice reading. I don't know how to read that well.

Did some go problems this evening, for the first time in months.

On one hand, it was soothing. It reminded me of the times I used to study go problems a lot. On the other hand, I could come to realize how hard go problems are, again. I did some problems from a book I've already mostly finished before, and in an hour, only got through 14 problems.

I'm at the bottom of the hill, again. But I'd like to try to climb up, again.

It's a nice hill, at least

I played another game today. I'm on a roll.

I lost, though.

I think I played alright. I used to think 2d were scary. Now I think that they are pretty good, and I can lose to them if I make a couple of mistakes. But at least they seem like normal people, now.

Here's the game record.