Life In 19x19

Hey ho!

I will start my activity in the forum here by creating my on study journal.

My goal is to play at least one real time game a day (plus many simultaneous games on DGS) and doing tsumego for at least 10 minutes a day.
Also I try to review each of my own games when finished and post some interesting or problematic ones here.

I think some help of you guys would really bring me further, so any comments or reviews are very appreciated.

Of course I will also try to review the games of the weaker players here as well (as a side effect it also helps me improving )

Btw, I always write some notes into the sgf files to explain some main issues where I could need some advice.

Thanks in advance and I hope you will enjoy my games and be part of my learning process

Direction of Play

So here is my first game.
I played against a 2k with no handicap, slow time settings.
Of course I lost But I felt quite okay until I failed to attack one of his groups properly...

What I am focussing on is the direction of my play, especially concerning the first 80 moves or so. I sometimes wasn't sure from which side to play - see comments (moves 11, 15, 27, ...)

Maybe someone could take a look at the game and comment on my questions?

: My first thought is to play R13. I think you're right to play on the right, but with your move, white potentially has the advantage top right.

I'm tempted to R12 and "see where white is going with this". My reasoning is that R12 is a good move and white also wants/needs to play there.

lorca wrote:Direction of Play

So here is my first game.
I played against a 2k with no handicap, slow time settings.
Of course I lost But I felt quite okay until I failed to attack one of his groups properly...

What I am focussing on is the direction of my play, especially concerning the first 80 moves or so. I sometimes wasn't sure from which side to play - see comments (moves 11, 15, 27, ...)

Maybe someone could take a look at the game and comment on my questions?

At I quite like A. It puts a lot of pressure on white's group, and it prevents white's slide at Q18. If white tries to approach from the other side, black can easily play to split the two weak groups. If white tenukis for the bottom, black can look forward to a strong attack on white to build up the upper left.

At 14, I don't like black's joseki choice, as it looks to build two moyos that the white top group may end up running between to some degree. I doubt black could consolidate both of them at once. Maybe just the slide into the corner and 2 space extension is fine instead. Or ignore for P17 as before. With the situation as it stands, black has good potential, though, and can cap at K5 or invade one side or the other in the future. No need to panic.

I think is okay, but when white attaches, it's critical to extend or hane. I think extension is better in this case, but pulling back is painful. By white's weak groups have connected and become strong, and now black needs to worry about the UR corner group and the thin right side. What happens if white dives into the 3-3 point?

is quite the big point for the moyos.

At , your A B C seems better. It may be worth considering just playing C directly, as you don't know if you'd want A or later.

At maybe consider F15, as black owed a move in the corner to prevent white from living there anyways, and this prevents the connection under. Whatever happens, don't let white run through the middle of black's moyo unless you are absolutely certain you will kill, or otherwise need to bet the game on it. Much better to give up a bit to turn the rest into territory, especially as white has the connection under in the game. The sequence around move 56 or so is painful, as black went from having a moyo to driving white right through it and creating a weak group from what used to be thickness. begs white to fix his shape up for free.

What is the purpose of this stone? If you want to use the aji, better to play K3, since it breaks the ladder AND is a move black wanted to play anyways.

After this and white's connection under, black's game plan has completely fallen apart and there's not a lot more to comment on.

On you started to separate both white invading groups, which IMHO is a good strategy. However you changed the plan on .

Instead, I would have played e. g. push&cut via P14 and O13. As a result, white's right group would feel really weak and white would need considerable time to settle it as otherwise the whole right side could become black's area.

At move I would rather think that white feels happy, since both groups are connected and easily settled in black's area. That's exactly what a white player wants to achieve when invading into a black framework. As a result, white gets the freedom to do something fancy elsewhere e. g. invading the left side...

Your own comment on move feels like a casual remark but it's exactly these tiny details, which are game-deciding in the end. I have to learn that the hard way in many of my games, too

@Loons, skydir and schawipp: Thanks very much for taking a look at my game, you already helped me very much!

At maybe consider F15, as black owed a move in the corner to prevent white from living there anyways, and this prevents the connection under. Whatever happens, don't let white run through the middle of black's moyo unless you are absolutely certain you will kill, or otherwise need to bet the game on it. Much better to give up a bit to turn the rest into territory, especially as white has the connection under in the game. The sequence around move 56 or so is painful, as black went from having a moyo to driving white right through it and creating a weak group from what used to be thickness. begs white to fix his shape up for free.

Yeah, this is one of my main weaknesses (apart from reading), I have to stop going all in in my games if it is not absolutely nessecary...

:b73: What is the purpose of this stone? If you want to use the aji, better to play K3, since it breaks the ladder AND is a move black wanted to play anyways.

Somehow I still thought I could kill the white group (or better, must!) and tried to give white a false eye. Anyway as you mentioned, white being able to connect that group to his top one already finishes the game...

lorca wrote:Direction of Play

Maybe someone could take a look at the game and comment on my questions?

http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=4881

is inconsistent: play the other atari, then P5 is possible rather than P6 to net. Maybe you can get sente.

Then Black starts a sequence of underplays.

Endgame: at J18 is middlegame.

From the wrong side.

The position is quite distressing for Black now. You really need to play D11 and hope the central group doesn't die.

At first, thanks Charles for your comment!

Just a few seconds I played a game which was quite interesting from my point of view in some aspects.
I tried to build a large center and somehow managed to do so, the question is at what cost?

Big vs. Small

Any comments and suggestions are appreciated, especially concerning the question which part of the board is the biggest...



Unfortunately big blunders are also included, demonstrating that I am still 6 kyu

I'm about 5 or 6k right about now and the difference I'm noticing between medium strength and strong kyus (I hesitate to use words like low) is the amount of need to respond to every move our opponent makes.

Here's what I think and maybe someone can correct me if I'm too wrong:

I think white just removed the chance of him being able to invade at H3, and his next move is pretty small so I like the tenuki.
I think kicking here is an option because white can only get a two space extension from his two stone wall, but I hate the aji in the corner after the kick so I would probably just play your move.
What if you played L17? What is the best white can follow up with? White r18, black Q18, white atari, black connect, and then tenuki? Those second line corner points sure are big. There's probably something nasty in there that I don't know about, probably starting with the P17 peep, but I still like extending towards the side.

Hi Avyssinica, thanks for your comments!

:b13: I think kicking here is an option because white can only get a two space extension from his two stone wall, but I hate the aji in the corner after the kick so I would probably just play your move.

I also thought about that. The reason I played from below is that I wanted to grow the bottom framework. But when I played the move it felt a bit cramped and not at all well placed, mainly because it seemed to close to the other black stone and also on 3rd line.

:b21: What if you played L17? What is the best white can follow up with? White r18, black Q18, white atari, black connect, and then tenuki? Those second line corner points sure are big. There's probably something nasty in there that I don't know about, probably starting with the P17 peep, but I still like extending towards the side.

Yeah, that's a good question. I kind of wanted to put more pressure on the white group and prevent it from settling to easily. But if white just wants to live he can do this any time anyway I guess?
So probably extending like you mentioned would have been better...

At , and :b139: you have the right instinct but you do so too thinly. When surrounding the opponent or defending a territorial border, pause for a few seconds to see if your lines can't be broken too easily. Otherwise you must be a little more patient and wait for an opportunity to surround without defects.

lorca wrote:Any comments and suggestions are appreciated, especially concerning the question which part of the board is the biggest...

The interesting question is "when did Black get committed to a large centre?" This seems to happen as soon as . Here it must be correct simply to extend along the top side. Try L17. This makes some territory easily.