thank you, chew, for taking the time to "nitpick". much appreciated, and very helpful for sure

Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it!

Okay, if these are useful to people, I may as well keep doing them. =D And if anyone catches errors in these reviews, please speak up. =D

Noodley and Threeve, game two: Just a couple of thoughts, mostly for white.

Noodley, through move 7: I see SOMEONE like the same opening I do. =D
8: This 'kick' does not defend your corner. It can still be invaded. The 'kick' is meant to do one of two things: to pressure stones that don't have room to get a base, or to make existing stones overcondensed. You know how in a 9-stone handicap game, black has the middle star points? If you have a stone around there, the kick is fine, because white could not jump to get a base. However, since K4 is black, that condition is not true. As far as making black overcondensed, the kick forces black to play F4, which makes K4 into an ideal three-space extension from two stones. If K4 were one or two spaces closer, the kick might be worth it, to make black's stones too dense. Does this make sense? If not, let me know and I'll draw some diagrams.
14: Jumping out the first time threatens to enclose black's corner. Since black chose to defend the south (which makes some sense, given the black stones below) perhaps consider something around O16 to seal black in. That would help you build some strength towards your top left corner, creating some potential in between.
18: You have a lot of power on the top, because of that running fight. Consider a pincer to work with that strength. Your opponent is jumping into the heart of your turf, and you don't have to take it. =D
22: Splitting this group from the bottom doesn't buy you a lot. If you split the weak top groups, you can either reduce or attack before you run out or live.
26: The opponent's previous move threatened to cut off L13 from either the top stone or the right three. The three on the right are worth more, so save them with M13 or M14. (or N13, et cetera)
For black, from 75+: To make two eyes, white needs both T18 and T16. If white takes one, take the other. Don't worry about taking either now, since you have miai, but remember that those stones will die if you respond properly.
124: This stone is too late to capture the H6 group. However, if you play on the other side (G4 (or G5, if you're trying to be tricky with squeezes)) you can try to cut off and kill those 8 stones to the left.

_________________
Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Just as a heads up, Maere hasn't responded to my PM about scheduling our matches yet and doesn't appear to have logged in since Sept 30th.

No problem I haven't heard from iambadatgo either. This whole thing seems to have fallen apart attendancewise.

_________________
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.
Teamovich 2
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3062

My (Dead) Study Journal
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=2058

Rafa and I have played our first match, win for Rafa (can't post the game right now). Two attempts to play the second have been thwarted by technical issues, Rafa with no power first attempt and me with USB modem issues on the second. We're scheduled to play Saturday at 14:00 GMT.

_________________
"Play confidently. Make the best of mistakes."
- Janice Kim, Learn to Play Go Vol. 1

Rafa vs Psk31: Let's have a look



6: This moves tries to pressure the approach stone and enclose territory in the corner, but I feel like it doesn't do either as well as I'd like. D5 lets you threaten to pincer, but also works towards building a safer framework. C5 wouldn't be bad, but D5 lets you lean on black's stone a little, which you seem to want.
13: I saw a go problem similar to this, telling you to defend your corner. The correct move was R5, because it defended the corner a bit while also threatening the nearby two-space extension group. After R5, you could either take O3 to button up those corner points, or you could do something in the top right.
14: I prefer threatening back, at Q6, or even playing solidly at Q7. Your move is the correct one to play when you want to lightly reduce territory, sacrificing stones when necessary. However, your straits aren't dire enough yet for you to need to play that kind of sabaki, I don't think.
15: Not bad, but do remember: this move doesn't actually seal up that corner territory. Later, if you want all of those points, you'll need something... maybe P3 or Q3.
16: Taking the corner is pretty big here, though I like the thought of threatening those two stones below.
21: Letting your opponent capture here is big. R17 is more useful for the corner, or O15 helps more if you want the top side.
24: R18 takes the corner, stabilizes your group, and undercuts black's three stones. That said, you have a good idea behind this move, as it extends from your corner and denies an extension to black's stones. If you're going to play it, though, play it on the third line. The fourth line lets black threaten the slide when he takes M17.
25: Playing on the third line here threatens to slide under, and better secures your eyespace. Otherwise, white can play at M17 here, to attach and connect safely.
30: Unless you can read to conclusion a definitively better result, simple is better. Just connect against the peep.
32: Black's connecting threatened to cut at the peep. Now you need to go back and defend it again or have it cut off.
33: Similarly, you can cut white off.
37: Another of those ever-popular rules of thumb is, don't create weak groups near your other weak groups. Otherwise one or both will get attacked painfully.
53: Choose between this move (it's a reasonable option), G8 to save the three stones, and C3 to try to live in the corner. Your move is fine, but these are other options.
61-91: You both used some good fighting moves in here. There were mistakes, but all in all, good instincts/reading.
131: S5 is also safe, but it also threatens, making it sente at least. Also, it's still pretty hard for white to live.
137: You're connecting something that's already safe. N4 is HUGE, because if you don't block, white can reduce you strongly.

You both played a good game. You definitely have a lot of the right ideas, a lot of it is just finding the right specific move in the area you know to play. The two biggest things to work on are these:
First, whenever you make a new group, consider how it will affect your other groups. If there is a chance it might get weak and have to run, such as when you pincer, make sure that you don't have any other groups around that will be weakened as a result. If your other groups are safe, then you're all set. If your groups are not yet safe enough for that, consider defending them first to prepare for the attack.
Second, any time you want to be aggressive, consider this: if your opponent were to get sente from this fight, could he do something nasty to you? If so, you are being too aggressive.

Let me know if you have any questions!

_________________
Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Hey thanks Chew! Just took a quick look at it, good to know that at least we had the right ideas sometimes. As you can tell from the comments we both thought we were doing horrible. Now if I can just figure out how not to lose big groups!

_________________
"Play confidently. Make the best of mistakes."
- Janice Kim, Learn to Play Go Vol. 1

If you figure it out, let me know the trick! Seriously though, losing groups seems to come down mostly to earlier events than you might think. For example, in that game your losses on the left stem, not from any mistake in the fighting itself, but from 37. If 37 were at D15, your group would be much more stable. I know it's hard to give white that much territory/framework on the left side, but it's better to stop and defend than to have to struggle to tread water later. After any game where you lose a group, try to backtrack to the first thing that put it in dicey waters. If it's a 'I tenukied to get a ton of points and would do it again', then perhaps the loss was worthwhile. If the cause was 'I tried to push too hard and maybe should have not tried to cut there,' then maybe you'll keep an eye out for that sort of cut in the future.

You're doing fine, and I look forwards to the next game!

_________________
Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Sorry about lateness I wanted to give the no shows and extra day or two. Final scores will be up by close of play today.

_________________
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.
Teamovich 2
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3062

My (Dead) Study Journal
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=2058

FINAL STANDINGS

threeve (15k) - 3.5
noodley (15k) - 3.0
Stephany93 (12k)- 2.5
nnk (18k) - 2.0
SinK (16k) - 2.0
Rafa (16k) - 2.0
Monadology (18k)- 1.5
Maere (16k) - 1.0
psk31 (26k) - 0.0

iambadatgo (18k)- OUT
kukula (22k) - OUT

_________________
=.=.=.=.=.=.=.
Teamovich 2
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3062

My (Dead) Study Journal
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=2058

Grats to Threeve for winning the tournament, and i hope everyone has enjoyed the tournament like i did. I would like to thank (again) to those who reviewed my games it help me gain an extra strenght, and also many thanks for SinK for hosting the tournament.
I hope there will be more tournaments like this in the future(I am thinking about hosting a blitz one).

_________________
There´s always more important things than someone´s dreams.

Thanks to SinK for organizing all this!

Congratulations to threeve and noodley

Yes, thank you SinK for organizing this. Great fun. And congrats to threeve and noodley.

Here's Rafa's and mine last game from this morning.

_________________
"Play confidently. Make the best of mistakes."
- Janice Kim, Learn to Play Go Vol. 1

Congratulations for winning this tournament, threeve. You really kicked our asses.
Keep it up! You deserved to be a champion

_________________
Stefany, web programmer

Congratulations to all, I hope it was both fun and useful.

A few comments about Rafa & PSK's last game:
6: Wrong direction. If you want to approach this corner, the right side is the open, approachable side.


10: Since the top right corner is low on top, the top is less urgent. The left side is high and large, so I would probably just play on that side. C14 seems really good, with your left side. However, I'd also be a bit tempted to play something crazy like F15, but that may be a bad idea.
14: You're trying to both connect and get out. E14 does both, but gets out faster, so I recommend it.
In this following fight, white has three groups, and tries to support all three. By trying to support all three, you end up forcing black to hurt the one in the middle. Either focus on living with the cutting group first, sacrifice it earlier, or don't play the cut at all. Prioritizing one group is often going to hurt nearby groups of your own, so be careful.
30: Approaches too close to black strength. If black's corner were weaker, this would be a great move, but since it's not, it just leaves a weakness for invasion.
33: I would save this peep until you've figured out what you want to do with your weak single stone. If you need to run with it, you may wish you'd peeped from the other side. Additionally, this bit of extra strength you're giving white could help him attack you a little more.
35: I prefer playing the diagonal at K16. This knight's move lets white try to cut you apart at L16, which looks like it might have a shot.
46&48: 46 forces your opponent to defend, and 48 makes an empty triangle that doesn't accomplish much. Instead of both, simply jumping is better locally. That said, I'd rather switch back to defend your weak stones either in the bottom right or the top left.
49: White doesn't yet have that much in the middle, so you don't need to worry about negating it. Instead of that, I'd just take Q10 to get back up to the fourth line. You're ahead at this point, so it's hard to argue with just taking solid points, especially on the fourth line.
67: This is a ladder that just works for you. F12 to continue it.
78: You're strong here, and need big points. Pincer and fight for everything you can get.
80: This is overplay. C3 is standard, because it can't be cut like this.

This game was good, but there are a few things worth working on.
PSK, in the opening most of all, group safety is key. If you leave unsettled stones alone for too long, they will be attacked and you will get hurt. If you have weak groups, try not to make any others (like at the cut around 16), or else your opponent can gain against one by attacking another. Finally, if your opponent is strong in an area (like the top right), be careful approaching close. Otherwise, you're making yourself weak in a bad sphere of influence, and your opponent can cut you off to make weak groups. Sometimes you just have to take the solid, slower move to prevent future scariness. You had a lot of good ideas, but sometimes pushed a little too hard.

Rafa: You did well in this game. A few refinements from the comments above may help a bit. Taking tengen, while fun, didn't particularly help you here.

_________________
Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Thanks for the congratulations. I think the real win was getting to play with so many other great people. I notice that my playing frequency has slowed down a bit since the tournament ended, so if anyone is interested in setting up another group or league I think that'd be great. Or if you happen to see me online please ping me for a game.

The tournament was great fun and I'm honored to have gotten the chance to play so many of you and look forward to doing so again in the future!

I would be interested in another tournament as well. It was a great motivation to get more games in and practice.

Me too. I want another as well!

_________________
Stefany, web programmer

I'd be willing to participate as well.

_________________
My plan to become an SDK is here.