Excellent point (as usual). During the game I remember being afraid of the aji around O18, but looking at it now there wasn't nearly as much there as I thought.


Does this really threaten something more severe? If it made R11 work, I could see it being useful, but I'm not sure it changes much there.


Wow, I can't believe I missed that. During the game I thought P15 was sente, but now I can't figure out why.

Thank you very much for the comments!

I agree! You could even take it a step further and play blindfold go, calling out the moves during the run?

A few updates because it's been a bit since I've posted here. That's mostly because I've been on vacation and haven't had a chance to play much. I'm back now but still suffering from jet-lag so the few games I tried playing ended up being pretty terrible. I was mostly just playing on instinct as if it were blitz rather than having the discipline to actually think about my moves, so I don't feel there's much value in reviewing those games.

Separately, I'm worried I've fouled up my study plan. I had previously been using my commuting time to do tsumego on my phone. A few weeks ago, without thinking much, I signed up for the DGS Dan Round Robin tournament. I've been enjoying playing there over the past few months, but underestimated how different having 8(+4) games going at once would be. (I had always kept myself to 4 or less until now.) Now I feel like I'm constantly having to re-study the board for one game or another, and that's taking up my previous tsumego time. I'm trying to treat each move as still a tsumego-like reading problem, but it's not quite the same thing. Maybe I'll get lucky and be eliminated in the first round?

Hoping to get back to the serious, live games next weekend.

Game B-4
Life has continued to interrupt my hoped for plan to play a serious game or two each weekend, but this afternoon I decided to try to sneak a game in. Unfortunately, distractions cropped up about halfway through, and things fell apart a bit. Overall, I was reasonably happy with my play up until that point though, so I guess I can't be too upset.

Here's the game:
https://gokibitz.com/kifu/41X1FBWTZ

I looked at the game and can't say anything about it except that I was impressed by the level of play. I'm looking at a high dan game here.

Game B-5
Things at work have been very hectic, but I finally found time to sit down and play a serious game this afternoon. The result was something I'm pretty pleased with, and I'm starting to allow myself the hope that I really am improving at this point.

In possibly related news, I actually hit my 2016 running goal on a treadmill this week. Still a fair bit of work before I can do it outside, but it's nice to see progress on all fronts.

Here's the reviewed game: https://gokibitz.com/kifu/NJ5dvL5ab

Thanks for the kind words!

Game B-6
I should know better than to play Go when I'm tired. It's not that I make reading mistakes when I'm tired, but rather that I just don't have the mental discipline to read in the first place. That lack of discipline showed in today's disappointing 2.5 point loss.

To continue the running analogy, I also went for a run this afternoon and ran into a similar problem. It's not that my muscles are any more tired on a day like today, it's that I lack the mental energy to convince myself to keep going.

My hope is that this mental discipline is something that can be improved with practice, but I'm not 100% sure if that's true. In any case, here's the game: https://gokibitz.com/kifu/E1JCGyS0b

Game B-7
I actually ended up playing three games on Saturday, which is probably more than I should play in a single day if I want to keep the quality up. But, after I lost the first game quickly due to an early reading mistake, I went a bit into tilt-mode and wanted to keep playing. Fortunately, I won the next two games and was able to call it a day. Below is the first of these two games.

A few thoughts for this journal:

• I'm still really enjoying the territorial style I've been trying to play with. I find winning games on points to be the most fulfilling, and I've found that by assuming the game will go to counting, I don't feel as obligated to over-reach in the early/middle game.
• If I'm going to keep trying to win on points, I should probably do more to further strengthen my endgame. Any recommendations for good dan-level endgame books?
• I'm worried I've resorted to just going through the motions and playing games, rather than deliberately practicing to improve. If I'm going to hit my goal of Tygem-6dan this year, I'm going to need to get more serious. I think what threw me off was the large number of DGS games caused by the tournament I mentioned before. Those games are mostly wrapping up now, so I should be able to focus again on other methods of improvement. Picking up on some comments from John Fairbairn, I think I'm going to try to be more diligent about replaying professional games on a regular basis during the week.

Here's the somewhat unimpressive game: https://gokibitz.com/kifu/VyfOjs2RZ

From 78 White makes a series of strange moves IMHO. At 78 I think the diagonal play is normal when we want to continue on the left. Don't give Black any help strengthening the bottom.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

At 80 surely White should play from the other side. In the game 80 is a neutral point. The likelihood of engineering an attack on Black's right-side stones is essentially zero.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

The ideas behind 86 and 92 seem like aji keshi. Particularly 86 is wrongly placed. The shape point for White is J8 rather than H8, isn't it? Surely White is better off to just push Black across some neutral points and not decide things in the center and along the bottom until later?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . X O O O . O O O . |
$$ | . . . , O O . O . X . X X X X X X . . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . O O X . X O O O . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . X X . . X X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . X O O X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . X O X . , . . 5 . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X O . O X . X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O . . . . O 1 3 . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X O . . O . O . X 2 4 . X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . X O . . |
$$ | . . O X . X . . . , . X . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . X . . X O O . O . . . |
$$ | . . O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Yes, I'm really not sure what I was thinking here. If I recall, I was focused on trying to make eyes by pressing against the bottom stones, but I think I was just blindly trying to keep Black's two groups separated without realizing they were already alive. Your explanation of where I came up short is far clearer than how I would have explained it. Thank you!

Game B-8
I played a rather eye-opening game last night. My opponent had recently been demoted from 6-dan, but he was clearly more skilled than me. I was outplayed across the board. It's been awhile since I played a game where I felt so overmatched. Hopefully I can use it as motivation in the coming weeks.

Here's the review: https://gokibitz.com/kifu/NyjBanV1f

I can't really criticize p11, but if you want to strive for greater efficiency and learn about the big shimari you could 3-3 attach as a probe and if black hanes then tenuki to make your own shimari, and if he extends to 4-4 then you don't mind slightly slow p11 because you have easier corner aji later. One reason to probe before tenuki is because if black gets those strengthening moves near the shiarmi/extension after his standard invasion there then he can more aggressively try to kill the 3-3 later.

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to give this a try.

Game B-9
I played three games this weekend, and (again) went 2-1. My overall winning percentage also seems to be settling around 66%, but unfortunately I need 75% to move up to 6dan. Also, I seem to continue to struggle playing as White. Both of my wins were as Black, and my loss was as White. Any general suggestions/resources for playing as White would be greatly appreciated. My review of the loss is below, but I think I just played too slowly in the opening.

https://gokibitz.com/kifu/EyyZjx1lM

I think you were lucky when Black played 37 at the top instead of against the two stones at the bottom. White 38 was a good choice IMHO. However, look at the board. White has played 18 stones in a row on the second or third lines up to this point. This can't be good.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm37
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . O . O O O . |
$$ | . . O X . . X . . , . . . . X X X O . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . 1 . . . X X . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . . . . 2 . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X . X . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . O O X . . . X . O . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Worth repeating.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Absolutely true, although I still fault for this situation. If I had been able to approach Black's corner first, I think I could have created a more balanced position. That said, it's a good reminder that I shouldn't be *too* indulgent of my love of territory.

Game B-10
Another weekend, and another 2-1 performance. I'm feeling a bit frustrated since 6-dan continues to be tantalizingly just out of reach. I reviewed the lost game below, but it basically boils down to a series of reading errors in the first major fight, and then me trying unsuccessfully to catch back up. I was pretty happy with my second win, though, and I'll try to find a chance to review/post that soon.

Here's the review: https://gokibitz.com/kifu/NkRAFvOlz

Game B-11
I had the time/energy for two serious games this weekend, and managed to win them both. Neither one was a work of art, but it got the job done. That puts me only two wins away from a promotion (which also makes me a bit nervous to keep playing). Hopefully next weekend I'll have the courage and time to play those games well.

I've also spent a fair bit of time watching a variety of youtube videos by strong players (Haylee, and yithril's translations of NHK videos), hoping that I can pick up a few pointers, or at least slowly improve my sense of shape. It's a nice way to keep go at the forefront of my mind when I don't have the energy to play.

Here's my review of the first win: https://gokibitz.com/kifu/VyUUybzWf