Uberdude's journal
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 5:26 am
I thought I'd start a journal as I have some recent motivation to get stronger again. Maybe I'll even break the habit of a lifetime and do some tsuemgo! A few years ago EdLee collected people's unfulfilled ambitions and I said I'd aim for British Champion, which I achieved last/this year (the final game of the 2015 championship was in February 2016) but since then I had a few bad losses/tournaments (I lost in the first round of my first 6 tournaments as champion!) and my rating has gone down a lot to Euro 3d (see graph below). I think this was probably because I felt 'mission accomplished' and got lazy/relaxed/arrogant. I missed out on the title match this year as I had 3 loses (Junnan and Charlie, the top 2, and Bruno) in the Challengers' tournament. I have done a lot of international Go tournamenting recently with the WAGC (did well on paper but really only so-so with 4 easy wins, 3d-, 5d+, 6d-, 4dforfeit) and Gold Cup (lost all 7 games against strong field, but had 3 disappointing loses I could have won, see http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 12&t=13554).
So my goals are:
- at least play in if not win British Championship title match next year
- get 2400 rating
- get solid 5d KGS from non-blitz
The 2400 target is one we had with the BGA strong player training weekends with Guo Juan a while back. I don't think anyone who wasn't already there (Matt Cocke, Andrew Kay) has made it, though I did get very close just after the title match with 2396. It's kind of tough to pick up rating points in British tournaments as there aren't many strong players and if I beat a 2d 4 times and lose once I lose points (I had my first loss against Alastair Wall after 12 wins in a row in April, unlucky 13!). So I really need to up my consistency and reduce blunders. To find stronger players probably means London Open or foreign tournaments. I haven't played many serious games on KGS the last few years, just silly blitz in odd moments so I will try to find fewer but longer periods of time to play serious games there, hopefully around one a week (wife permitting). In those shorter moments I'll try to do some tsumego, perhaps http://senseis.xmp.net/?GokyoShumyoTsumegoSeries (thanks Dieter for inputting those!) or from tasuki's site. I'm also playing in the European Team league, I'll review my game from yesterday in the next post.
So my goals are:
- at least play in if not win British Championship title match next year
- get 2400 rating
- get solid 5d KGS from non-blitz
The 2400 target is one we had with the BGA strong player training weekends with Guo Juan a while back. I don't think anyone who wasn't already there (Matt Cocke, Andrew Kay) has made it, though I did get very close just after the title match with 2396. It's kind of tough to pick up rating points in British tournaments as there aren't many strong players and if I beat a 2d 4 times and lose once I lose points (I had my first loss against Alastair Wall after 12 wins in a row in April, unlucky 13!). So I really need to up my consistency and reduce blunders. To find stronger players probably means London Open or foreign tournaments. I haven't played many serious games on KGS the last few years, just silly blitz in odd moments so I will try to find fewer but longer periods of time to play serious games there, hopefully around one a week (wife permitting). In those shorter moments I'll try to do some tsumego, perhaps http://senseis.xmp.net/?GokyoShumyoTsumegoSeries (thanks Dieter for inputting those!) or from tasuki's site. I'm also playing in the European Team league, I'll review my game from yesterday in the next post.
- rating graph.png (4.88 KiB) Viewed 40752 times
n6 big decision, could it be overplay? But I can't abide answering and him sealing centre better than without q8-r8 exchange.
l7. I wanted to d9 and declare game over, but then n10/n8 peeps were annoying and my centre feels weak. Hence doubts of the one point jump. If I am going to gote here maybe should q12 hane, he jumps then play here. His cutting stones still need to get home.
d2. Don't think I should ko. Should just d9 to connect and if he does another move in corner I can n17, maybe with n14 r15 exchange first.
thought about tenuki if it means sacrificing only 2 stones, but then saw t11 kills all. Phew!
Also, after White tenuki, Black tenuki is even more popular, the 62% choice. Black's decent is somewhat passive, and it also leaves any extension by White with an open skirt, so White is not looking to make much territory with those two stones.
white attached with 
and lived on top, creating a cutting point on the outside which black took gote to capture so white lived in sente.
as kosumi seemed a bit odd to me, particularly as I played the hanging not solid connection so the attach is less powerful because he gets an atari. One-space jump is normal, or 2-space current fashion seems possible, or knight's move. Or peep.
answer high or low? I think pincer is inappropriate, but maybe not as his kosumi is high not the one-point jump so if he takes the corner and I play 3rd line on the top afterwards then it feels a bit sad, but that top wouldn't be territory either which is sad. My original plan was to play low (high makes it too easy for him to 3-3 or later come in side) and then make the low shimari if he extends to k17 (I figured k17 was better balance with the kosumi and makes invading harder). It feels rather low to play 2 3rd line moves like that and I would expect as a kyu player to get told off for doing so in the KTL, but something I've noticed in pro games is they are quite happy to play 2 low moves like this to be solid these days. For example Ke Jie made the low shimari with the knight's move and k16 shape in the Bailing cup semi-final 2 years ago: 
As white played high rather than low on top I had second thoughts about the low or high shimari (it feels rather "meh, what next?") and his k16 made invading easier and bigger, I have both ladders, and I like to invade (compare h3 my last Euro Teams game). Is it ok? The game result was great, but he could have played better.
surely big mistake, as I have ladder of game. Should either m18 in which case I probably L14 in sente, he fixes top and then I can tenuki or thickly connect across to corner. Or is L14 cut and then extend possible: it breaks my ladder of the 2 stones but I imagine I can find some miai.
rather small profit for the ladder, and makes kosumi inefficient: could have peeped here instead of kosumi. Maybe L14 cut to make a mess instead? Although white got some profit, I solidified my side too.
felt very happy to defend here (it sets up a net to capture laddered stone).
Thought about a pincer (probably 1 or 2 space high), but decided to grab some points.
I expected hanging connection so he could extend one more space and then r12 is not a possibly good point for me in the future.
surprised me, isn't it slow?
Not a move I would have played a year or two ago, but I've seen this shape in pro games. Is it slow, or good power building? L11 has a problem with k12 peep and then net of j16 fails. I could tenuki but then he can press or squeeze my liberties. Maybe c4? I think I can tenuki my corner and treat p18/r12 as miai.
suprised me again, did he really worry about his group if I connect here? Yes it does leave some follow-up at 3-3 too, but not I didn't feel so bad about my possibly slow previous move.
Probably this is too slow. It means I can cut off p2, and I didn't like o5 jump because then p2 still exists but that would at least give me a more powerful attack on the right group if he keeps tenuki-ing as in the game.
Big decision time. Should I c4 or c3 instead? I did think he might tenuki again to the corner after the threatened invasion and it's not clear how to kill or attack for profit the resulting wall.
Go for some attack. It's funny: I thought should I m4 first and probably he doesn't defend his group and allow l3 because that would be inconsistent with his "grab points and leave a hard to attack weak group" strategy but didn't as figured aji keshi. But as it turns out that would have helped in the kill.
n9 also possible for compromise.
I hadn't anticipated ko, but decided to ignore once I found t8 tesuji.