Life In 19x19

I want to spend a little more time thinking about my games, and where I play carelessly.

Malkovitch comments begin near the end because I only thought about starting a journal while I was halfway through the game.

Hi hyperpape,

- Is this exchange joseki ?
Seems good for B. The tiger's mouth S4 directly seems joseki ?

W seems busy. 2 unsettled groups.

What's your plan if B counter attacks instead ?
B has multiple options. Example: P15.

B's local reply sequence here feels soft; no fighting spirit.

I dunno what B's doing. ( Problems with B's fighting skills. )

154 Wrong yose ? Q1 hane directly + connect seems better ?

162 Wrong yose ? E2 directly seems better ?

174 This shape... What if B cuts D17 ?

190 Same mistake (bad habit?) as 154 ?

218 Before you connect, H18 atari first ?

224 You give B one more ko threat. G12 connect directly.

There are 8 cases where this corner position was reached, was played in six of them. Not sure beyond that.

Yeah, I was really unsure what to do in the corner. I struggle to read clearly in these circumstances.

174 If D17, C16, and I think I'm ok? Not sure if it's better than just connecting.

224 I think I prefer the point to minimizing the ko threat.

hyperpape wrote: 224 I think I prefer the point to minimizing the ko threat.

Why ?

is listed as joseki at the josekipedia with the other option beeing M16. There are a lot of other options without the exchange of and
should be at R2. After that your group is settle and his is under quite some pressure. If he defends you can attack like in the game, if he defends against your invasion in the game you can attack his bottom group

Just a few comments on the lower right joseki-or-not. One simple joseki is without white o4, but the r6 kick directly. Black would then stand at q7 (or play the more recently popular q8) and then white lives at r2. r2 is big because it is a base for both players. Black usually then answers r2 with the k3 extension to stop white from attacking at l3. Another choice instead of r6 kick is s5, black's simple answer is to extend from the r7 stone, such as q10 or r10, and then white again plays r2 to make a base. However black might not extend but play r2 himself, and then if white pincers at r9 black may tenuki, or if he feels particularly violent cut white with the q7 iron pillar leading to an early fight. The desire to avoid this fight is a big reason for white making the r6 kick, it almost guarantees he will get to play r2 to settle locally. Of course white shouldn't play r2 directly because then the s5 peep is too painful, leading to a locally dead L group.

s4 tiger mouth Ed suggested is not joseki in this situation, maybe he is confusing it with the josekis in which black q2 is at p3. Here it is not good because black can jump into the corner at s2.

The o4 move hyperpape played is a more advanced variant of the first joseki I mentioned. If black answers with the simple block as he did in the game it is a good exchange for white. One reason is in the normal joseki black can surround white at o5/o6 (playing 2nd line hane at s6 and atari first helps bolster the shape)*. This peep stops that in sente. Black should answer o4 at m3 to be more efficient (or n4 push), and then white probably continues with the usual r6 kick. However, another strategic choice, which becomes more appealing given blacks submissive answer at o3 is to go for centre influence with the q8 shoulder hit, and this also looks more globally at this board at stopping black making a big moyo in the top right quadrant.

* For example see my game 4 vs James Hutchinson here: viewtopic.php?p=188451#p188451. If white were to play o4 after move 25 I would obviously now block at n4 to preserve my moyo and sacrifice the 2 stones if needed, so the o4 o3 exchange would have stopped my building the moyo I did in the game.

EdLee wrote:

hyperpape wrote: 224 I think I prefer the point to minimizing the ko threat.

Why ?

Do I even have to win this ko?

hyperpape wrote:Do I even have to win this ko?

That's not the question. You said you prefer your move over G12,
which you eventually have to play anyway,
so why not connect directly with G12 ?
Why do you prefer your move ?

I prefer my move because it takes an extra point from B. I'd rather have a point than a ko threat on this board, because I can always back down from the ko.

Hi hyperpape, sorry, you're right -- I missed the dead L13 W stones.

147, and even more embarrassing, 151, are the most glaring errors for this game. It's also painful how badly I counted.

Here is a game that I lost, and don't have much of a feel for why. 71 is bad, but I feel like I was losing ground for much of the game, but can't really pinpoint the mistakes or better moves. When I timed out, I was leaning towards resigning.

Well, if you play silly openings what do you expect Actually that opening is not bad, but this game shows that to use such unconventional openings effectively is more difficult that standard corner-based openings. The first move I don't like is 11, as his 12 is a good answer that breaks the connection with the centre stones and you can't cut because he has the ladder. In centre openings particularly this kind of large scale topology is key. And then 15 makes sense to want to separate, but you touch a weak stone, thus strengthening it, how about one line higher? But the problem is his 2 stones above are fairly healthy so cutting is not so powerful, and then 17 feels ugly, is p4 better? 23 was good strategy, but shouldn't 29 be one line lower? 33 one to the left might enclose him. The problem is the lower group is pretty safe so hard to engineer a splitting attack, but you did build top side influence at least. 57 I don't like for making a relatively small centre territory with the thickness. Pincer and fight seems appropriate, maybe with corner attach first (but does his tighter one-space jump make that not work?). Also 63 is soft, block at k17 and use that wall!

Thanks. I've played this opening off and on since it was first mentioned on the boards, and enjoy it for encouraging me to fight and get out of my comfort zone. I suspect my results are a little worse than they are with more normal openings, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

What would you recommend in lieu of 11? I remember being a little dissatisfied with it during the game, but didn't feel like I knew what else to play.