Life In 19x19

Hello, I would be very happy with a game review that points out what things could be done differently and especially why. This game I won but that is not important, sometimes I lose with this extremely simple strategy that just tries to stay safe. Also have the feeling I do not use handicap stones well.

LuckyJim wrote:...strategy that just tries to stay safe...

That is likely to get you safety...and little else. If you want to get stronger, you will have to take a few risks.

LuckyJim wrote:... Also have the feeling I do not use handicap stones well.

Your perception is correct. You appear to be using handicap stones to make territory. This is rather inefficient. Your handicap stones are not really good for territory. Look at http://senseis.xmp.net/?HighAndLowMoves

Try being a little more aggressive, like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . , . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . 1 . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . X . 2 . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$|--------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . , . . . . .
$$| . . . 2 . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . 1 . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . X . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$|--------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . , . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . 1 . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . X . 2 . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$| . . . . . . . . .
$$|--------------------[/go]

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Also, you play the 5-3 stone in positions where it does not work too well. See http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 322#p36322

One other thing I noticed is that you tend to crosscut and then atari, followed by giving up one of the sides, which is great for white. Generally, you want to extend from your stones after a crosscut and keep them both alive so that white is split. In a handicap game, black has extra strength on the board, so unless white has taken the time to build up a lot of strength in an area, any fighting, as from a crosscut, should favour black. If you can keep white worrying about weak groups you can take all sorts of moves to build up your advantage while white is running to save his stones on dame, making nothing.

Some comments on the opening.

If you can win by playing safe and simple and good moves, that is great. In your game, I like the opening B moves, up until the fighting started.

is very bad. This is an important point, worth spending some time to analyze. I guarantee you will improve several stones once you understand the reasoning behind this.

The cross-cut at moves starts a fight, which is fine for B. The most important aspect of this fight is that both sides are cut into two groups. Preserving the safety of the cutting stones (K16 for B and L16 for W) is the primary concern in this sort of fight. If either of these stones gets captured, the result will be very good for the other side. Yet you seemed to place little or no value on the cutting stone.

After the M16-L15 exchange, what has happened? First, the single W cutting stone has actually been strengthened, as the two-stone W group is larger and has more liberties and is farther out into the center than before. Second, the B group to the right has also been strengthened. But this group was strong to begin with and the extra strength is duplication of effort and inefficient. Third, the B cutting stone at K16 has been weakened -- W can now capture it in a ladder (J16) or net (J15), which was not the case previously. All of these factors make the atari bad for B.

Well, if atari from the strong side is bad, what would be a better plan? The best result for B would be to capture the W cutting stone outright. Your first thought should be atari at L15 from the weak side. Does this capture the W stone? Spend some time reading this out to see if it works. Unfortunately the ladder does not work, and there is no simple net, so let's discard that plan.

(Digression for high level strategy here. If the fight was very big and capturing the cutting stone was really critical, B might think about ways to make the ladder work. For example, B could think about exchanging Q13 for R13. This would be a local loss, giving W territory on the side, but it might be worth it to then capture the cutting stone with the L15 ladder.)

The next best plan for B is to simply extend to J16 or K15, anticipating a long struggle in this area. This would give a much better result than the game sequence. This way the B cutting stone would be strengthened and the W cutting stone would be weakened, instead of the other way around.

As you can probably gather by now from the previous discussion, the exchange is terrible. B has instantly lost the first fight of the game, as his cutting stone has been captured. W now has one strong group on top, instead of two weak groups. You need to realize that this result is a disaster.

Test -- can you find another instance later in the game where B repeated the same mistakes? What would be a better sequence in that case?

skydyr, Bill Spight and mitsun, thank you very much for the reviews. You pointed out what I hope to understand now as a serious leak in my game: messing up crosscuts because of lack of appreciating the importance of the cutting stones.

mitsun: The test is at move 40 right, Bill showed the way already C8 instead of D8, I gave up D10 there.

Crosscuts happen often during games, often by me just thinking "that has gone far enough", and then regretting it and taking territory or whatever silly while giving up a stone. Because crosscuts happen so often I will have plenty of opportunity to change my play in future games. Great!

LuckyJim wrote: Crosscuts happen often during games, often by me just thinking "that has gone far enough", and then regretting it and taking territory or whatever silly while giving up a stone. Because crosscuts happen so often I will have plenty of opportunity to change my play in future games. Great!

Well, recognizing where crosscuts are possible and where they are a bad idea is also an acquired skill, but it's one that should come if you play them and try to save both sides. You'll eventually see where that's good and where it isn't.