Life In 19x19

Hey folks, I've noticed this forum has been relatively quiet. So I'll post a game of mine for comment.

This game was played nearly a month ago, but I have been mulling it over for a while. I feel like after my opponent made a mistake in the UR that lead to my kill of the corner, I should have been ...

You might consider playing human opponents, they can be much more interesting.

Anyway, GnuGo isn't bad. I some times play it on my phone but I have to give it stones.

On a different note, let's discuss , R3.

With the continuation as it happened in the game (R2, S3, S2, R5), you ended up having to protect the cutting point with R5, giving up sente. Then W uses the initiative to ensure his group is fully alive, though from a glance I think W can at least escape to ...

I have to agree with that. It's hard to tell that I'm getting any better from month to month. But a year ago I would look over a random 2k game and see many wonderful moves. Now I look over a 2k game and see many weaknesses and missed opportunities.

I think at 116 you can push or jump into the corner from your ponnuki. The stone at K2 is positioned to support a clamp if he tries to cut you off at m2.

I feel like you missed an opportunity with B33; the double atari at E13 allows you to break through his wall one way or the other, nullifying any influence he has taken in return for the corner.

37 looks small.

I don't like 53: you're making him stronger. His invasion at R7 looks ill-considered to ...

I wanted to follow-up here with a belated thank you, as I played 2 more games against this fuseki today and tried the double-approach; both times I ended up with what I felt was a satisfactory result!

http://files.gokgs.com/games/2011/9/16/issi1120-aurik.sgf

http://files.gokgs.com/games/2011/9 ...

Hello,

I feel like you sometimes make extremely defensive moves that are not needed.
For example from game 1,

Move 21 (B@A4): What was the reasoning there? Are you afraid of coming under attack?
Move 27 (B@S4): Same thing. You are spending a move reinforcing needlessly, when you could instead be ...

Hi there,

I didn't like W124. This saves 2 stones which are relatively unimportant, but allows black to cut off K17 which ultimately turns into a large black area.

I'd rather G17~ or something of the like, which makes points along the top. Let Black have those 2 stones in gote if he wants them.

Man I had everything except the very last move.

The third one I'd set around 3-5k. Finding and moving past the ko without rejecting the first move is the hard part. The other initial moves are fairly easy to refute.


$$Wc White to save the marked stones
$$ ----------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . 3 2 1 O X . |
$$ . . . O ...

$$Wc White to save the marked stones
$$ ----------------------
$$ . . . . . . 5 . . 7 . |
$$ . . . . . . 4 3 O X 8 |
$$ . . . O O X 2 X O X . |
$$ . , . . O X 1 X X O 9 |
$$ . . . O X O 6 O X O . |
$$ . . . . X O . O O O . |
$$ . . . . X X X X X X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |

Again this took ...

$$Bc Killing
$$ -----------------------
$$ . . . . O . 2 . . 5 . |
$$ . . . X O 3 1 4 O O X |
$$ . . . X X O O O O X . |
$$ . , . . . X X X X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |

W cannot block due to a liberty shortage. This did take me a while to find, partially because ...

I would have taken the last corner. Your upper-left 4-4 is well placed to prevent him from doing much with his loose approach.

Your opponent has approached from the narrower side, this makes me want to play the extension at r13 instead of counterattacking.

W can wedge at M16 here to ruin your ...

The best way to get better is to practice practice practice.

When I'm too mentally tired or frustrated to play a game, I like to kibitz higher level games on KGS. In between guessing the next move, I count territories and try to get an accurate picture of who is winning.

Another thing I like to do ...