the willow way

[skydyr]

I noticed in my malkovich game with Topazg that I am not always confident of my assesment of trades and urgent points, even if I am in the right. Even though I know on one level that I took one and my opponent took the other, and I judged the one I took to be more important, seeing that other move hurts and leaves me feeling I misplayed.

I think that confidence plays a large part in playing well. When I am on the up side of my game, I don't sit and evaluate trades for very long, or prevaricate over them. I know that my opponent is giving me exactly what I want and that he is taking the worse option. That 3rd line territory for a wall? My half was better. That 30 point corner I gave up? That result is going to lose them the game. I think this comes out well because I don't play halfway moves, or lose sente by going back to fix in a panic, destroying the meaning of the original move I made. So long as I am confident I made a good exchange, I also don't panic about my opponents moyos, because I got enough in exchange and can calmly reduce them instead of invading rashly.

Another thing that I've been thinking about, but which that malkovich game really drove home for me, is that there is no territory without a fight. I've also been concentrating on keeping the corner open for invasion when I play around a 4-4 stone (perhaps too much), which is a way of playing to that idea.

For your amusement regarding the last idea, I'm including a game I played about a month ago to drive home the point. Almost all areas of the board were exchanged at least once, and there is absolutely no way I should have been able to win like I did.

[DeFlow]

Hey Skydyr! I just wanted to say that I've read your journal with a lot of pleasure. You seem to have a very good relationship with Go. It's strange to read you've got online anxiety though, you were so spontaneous when I first met you on KGS! Would it help if we played some games online?

[skydyr]

Regarding online go anxiety, I think it has to do with playing people I don't know from anywhere else in particular. Now as I'm thinking about it, I think when I first started playing it was playing with a clock that made me anxious, because I took a lot of time. If I played someone I knew, I could play with time settings that worked for me, but if it was against someone random, it would often be on their terms and then I'd get in a crunch.

Even these days, I go on KGS fairly frequently, but when I go on, I'm much more likely to talk to people I know and go over their games, or look at the beginner's room and review a game for people than I am to play. Part of that is because it's harder to get a lot of time when I'm in a good state of mind to play and I can expect to not be interrupted by the dog, my wife, etc.

[skydyr]

The word on the street, by which I mean according to the really strong players at my club, I don't attack enough or try to kill hard enough, and play too peacefully. I think this is why I feel like I've been slumping of late.

There's a tournament coming up this saturday that I intend to enter, the local Slate and Shell open. I think I will try and play more actively there and see how I do.

[skydyr]

Last week I played three rounds of the tournament, going 2-1. The last game I played in a manner I wasn't satisfied with, but I don't recall it well enough to post here as I developed a splitting headache in the middle and took a bye for the last round to go home and take something.

Come Monday, I was told I had done well enough to win a book, and picked up The Go Consultants. I must say, I highly recommend this book. It gives a very good idea of the sorts of moves professionals are considering, and why they choose one move over another. The other part I found incredibly validating was the description of the shock and trepidation they seems to feel when one team tenukis earlier than they thought, or plays a move overlooked, or gets to one of a couple miai points first. It's nice to know that the intense feelings of disappointment I feel at not getting somewhere first or missing something aren't there just because I'm not good enough, but rather because I play go, and that they can come at every level.

[skydyr]

This is a game I played on OGS in november and december. I tried it as an experiment in reduction, and thought I was doing fairly well until I made a couple endgame misreads. Would someone care to comment on the game? I'm particularly interested in what people thought of my response to white's original reduction move in the top right (Move 54) and my invasion of the left side.

[skydyr]

Here's a 13x13 game I lost on OGS today:



I think I know what I did wrong.

[schawipp]

At move 46 you could also try to play calm, e. g.:

$$Wm46
$$ -----------------------------
$$| . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . . X X O . . . . . . . |
$$| . X X X O . . . X X P . . |
$$| . X O O . O . . . X . . . |
$$| . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . O . . . . . . X . . . |
$$| . O . . . . . 7 . . . . . |
$$| X O O X . . . . . . . 6 4 |
$$| . X X O O . . . X X X 2 3 |
$$| . . . X O . X X X O O 1 5 |
$$| . . X X O . O O O . . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$---------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wm46
$$ -----------------------------
$$| . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . . X X O . . . . . . . |
$$| . X X X O . . . X X P . . |
$$| . X O O . O . . . X . . . |
$$| . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . O . . . . . . X . . . |
$$| . O . . . . . 7 . . . . . |
$$| X O O X . . . . . . . 6 4 |
$$| . X X O O . . . X X X 2 3 |
$$| . . . X O . X X X O O 1 5 |
$$| . . X X O . O O O . . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$---------------[/go]

By this way you can sacrifice L11 (B on L9 in move 49 was too easy, after 49 on L10 it would be difficult for L11 to survive) and still have good chances of winning just by territory.

[skydyr]

At move 46 you could also try to play calm, e. g.:

By this way you can sacrifice L11 (B on L9 in move 49 was too easy, after 49 on L10 it would be difficult for L11 to survive) and still have good chances of winning just by territory.

I considered something like your 46, but decided I may as well make what I could of the aji from the corner stone, as I probed there initially instead of taking a bite out of the corner, and the corner is more secure than the side. I am not sure what you mean by the comment about as there is a white stone on L10?

[schawipp]

I am not sure what you mean by the comment about 49 as there is a white stone on L10?

Well, I thought that black can treat the invading white stones more severely, e. g. after

$$Wm46
$$ ----------------
$$ . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . 5 6 . |
$$ . . X X O 4 . |
$$ . . . X 2 1 . |
$$ . . . . . 3 . |
$$ . . . X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wm46
$$ ----------------
$$ . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . 5 6 . |
$$ . . X X O 4 . |
$$ . . . X 2 1 . |
$$ . . . . . 3 . |
$$ . . . X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . |[/go]

it looks difficult for w. However in another sequence...

$$Wm46
$$ ----------------
$$ . . . . 7 a . |
$$ . . 6 5 . 8 9 |
$$ . . X X O 3 . |
$$ . . . X 2 1 b |
$$ . . . . . 4 . |
$$ . . . X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . |

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wm46
$$ ----------------
$$ . . . . 7 a . |
$$ . . 6 5 . 8 9 |
$$ . . X X O 3 . |
$$ . . . X 2 1 b |
$$ . . . . . 4 . |
$$ . . . X . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . |[/go]

... a and b are miai for life. I am not perfectly sure about the status of the white invading stone (maybe someone stronger knows...?), but I think the black move 47 (not 49, which I mis-typed in my last comment) was too soft.

[skydyr]

I feel like lately, I've gotten to a point where in my games, things are a lot tighter, in the sense of walking the line between disaster and success much more closely. There is a strong move to be played, that I think of almost immediately, but it doesn't win outright, or can make everything more precarious in the name of getting a good result. When I read it out and see that the result is precarious as far as I read, I start looking at other moves which lead to more stable positions, and often make these plays instead. In exchange, though, I take an inferior result which puts me somewhat behind, or doesn't quite work, because I was afraid of the real move, or didn't judge it correctly.

Of course, for the past while, I've often played in a way to complicate even when I didn't need to, so there's a balance to be found. I'll try and post some games where I see this happening, but quite often they are in person and unrecorded long enough that I forget them to some degree. Does this make sense to you stronger (dan level) players out there, and what did you do to break past it?

[skydyr]

I recently finished this game, and despite a couple of misreads, think I did pretty well. I really enjoyed the situation in the bottom left later in the game, so I'm posting it here to show it to everyone.

[skydyr]

Success! I beat a local AGA 5d last night with 5 stones, though I got a bit lucky in parts. I've included the game below, which has some branches where I am remembering the order a little oddly, since it was last night, but the gist of the game is there.

We went over it afterwards, and I've included some of the comments, but more are always welcome.

[skydyr]

This is a game I played recently on OGS and lost horribly. I'm not certain exactly where I went wrong, so comments would be greatly appreciated. I've included some notes in the SGF.

[Claint]

I like this willow way, for overall progression strategy in things.

Honestly, I was started reading this journal, and it looked a lot like my adventure with the game. I learned go, played some games for a few months, then came back years later.

I also became stronger without expecting it, from different sources. But also many years have passed without play.

I hope you become shodan and progress beyond.