Hi all,

I want to tell you guys of life in 19x19 what im going to do. Now I have found some time to play go, but as you know I play only against computer because I want basically to think a lot on my moves without annoying my opponent. I want to start from zero and play and lose 100 games and I will post them here. Basically one game a day + my review, and I use a real goban to avoid playing too fast that's one of my worst bad habit.

I ask for some quick commentary if you want to (very much appreciated). I post here because I want to take this thing seriously: so I will post even bad loss If it's the wrong section feel obv free to move this thread.
I want to use only this post, because I don't want to flood the analisys section: if you are contrary I will open new post every time (but I think it's not good)

GAME 1

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

Move 7 at F17 should be your first thought. K16, K17 or C9/C10 are also things you could think of. But playing on the right side is smaller. Approaching the open corner is bigger than making a reinforcing move in your framework on the right.

Move 92, you shouldn't be thinking about tenuki to the lower left--it's smaller than your corner. You should play in the lower right: S5, S4 or S2. S2 invites a ko, so it might be complicated to read.

Based on this game, I would worry about only playing gnugo--it can be quite passive. Maybe try letting it give you a handicap, or play humans.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

Thanks for the advices!

I want to try to make a sort of experiment. I think that if I beat gnugo at level 7/10 I may be well beat some other kyu guys on the internet, and I want to avoid handicap games, I think they can't teach me good fuseki habit. Can't understand why it may be wrong I want to take my time on every move, and online people don't always want to play slow, and games always are more or less blitz to me

I want to train myself a little, before playing humans. Is this wrong?


GAME 2

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

Hi Fllecha, game 1: result at -- you're right. Please see also toothpaste.

Yes, I think that's the most common beginner's error. I see that you make that notice quite often, that's why I immediately found a way to punish the bot.

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

should be at Q5 or K3. Chinese fusekis usually go for development of the bottom. Q5 is the better point as it secures the corner. From there an extension to K3 is possible. If White takes K3 you can take K16 in miai.

From to White gets outward influence and Black gets territory.

is good move. Now all you need is a follow-up and you played in a good place. Though, I would have played at M7 or L7; the White moyo at the top is very big. is the reason why. Remember that your opponent's key point is your key point as well.

should be at O17. Playing this move at P14 is too soft.

is too deep an invasion. The 2nd Golden Rule of Go states, "Invade enemy territory gradually." should be at K5 since playing this move at H3 will not give you a good base.

should be at J13 to start helping the 3 Black stones on the 16-line and attack the White group in the middle of the board. White has a lot of territory at the top, so you will have to make up the difference somehow. By White has a strong yet undeveloped formation in the center. You can attack (that is, threaten to kill) this WHite group and get territory of your own in the process.

You did not play too badly for a 20k player. However, at your level mistakes abound and so weeding out bad habits is job No. 1. Best thing to do in addition to losing your first 100 games (to get experience playing Go) and having them reviewed (to know where you made mistakes) is to replay pro games and do lots of exercises, primarily life & death and tesuji ones. Even at my level (13k on OGS) one cannot understand why professionals play the way they do and so some will say that it is useless to replay pro games, but they hardly make mistakes during play, so just replaying a pro game record from start to finish can be very beneficial; pros have spent A LOT of time weeding out bad habits in their play. In the replaying of pro games you will have a source of ideas that you can apply in your own games. If you play against amateurs all the time, you will learn their playing habits whether you win or lose, so I believe replaying pro games from stary to finish is good to help you get over learning obstacles and to get better at Go in general. After a while of doing this, you can get a game collection with comments to help you know what goes on in a professional game. (John Power's Invincible, the Kiseido books on the 2014 jubango between Lee Sedol and Gu Li - and the first 5 games can be seen here - http://www.kiseido.com/printss/ten.htm - and Kaoru Iwamoto's 1971 Honinbo Tournament are such books.) Be warned, though. You will have to lose several games and study a bit before you can begin to understand the meaning behind the comments. Replaying pro games will help you to get accustomed to reading out long sequences on the board - which helps with solving hard tsumego as the most difficult ones tend to have long solutions - and you will get to internalize good playing habits. Of course it will take some time to get to shodan, but constant practice and refinement is the fastest way to get there.

To start, you can go here for pro game collections. http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10643 However, you may at first find it difficult to replay a game from a diagram, so look for move lists such as those found in Arthur Smith's The Game of Go or Xu Zhaoxi's How to play Go. The latter book I highly recommend as it is of very recent publication (the former is from 1908) and it does a good job of explaining Go fundamentals. (Go here: http://www.amazon.com/How-Play-Go-XU-Zh ... 1936273764) Other good books to look for are Kaoru Iwamoto's Go for Beginners and Oskar Korschelt's Theory and Practice of Go. Although this last book was published back in the 19th century, it is easy to follow and the book by Arthur Smith is based largely on this one.

As for exercises, do exercises in all categories, fuseki, joseki, middle game, endgame, life & death, and tesuji. The last 2 categories are the basis for everything else, so for now at least do mostly those. About 75% of your exercises should be life & death and tesuji, and the other 25% everything else, with endgame being the most important; many close games are decided during the endgame, so it is important to develop skill at the endgame. Avoid doing really hard problems as this will not benefit you. Better to do plenty of easy problems as this will help reinforce patterns in your head. This means you will, with the passing of time, be able to read out even tricky positions on the board quickly and accurately. There are plenty of problem books out there. The Get Strong and Yoshinori Kano's Elementary Go Problems series from Kiseido Publishing are good. Although these do not have answers, the exercise collections here are good for beginners and advanced players alike. http://tsumego.tasuki.org Kim Sung-Rae's Speed Baduk series is also good. If you have a smartphone of tablet, Tsumego Pro and GpAndroid are good apps to download. Plenty of easy exercises at a low price, with a small collection downloadable for free.

Well, hope you get stronger at the game and enjoy it more in the process

Frist of all thank you for your support and review, in the beginning one needs it!! I'll study for sure, but go it's really hard!

Now it's time to game 3, played with white. A complete disaster. But I still want to publish it since if one put his/her error under the bed he/she will never be a good player. As usual look at my comment and feel free to insult

GAME 3

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

Hi Fllecha,

descends to B3.

Hi all.

I am proud of this loss, I really played a good opening and some middle game, but eventually I made some brutal mistake... Lack of experience...
As usual any comment appreciated, especially on my own commentary

GAME 4

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

Game 4:

hane C18.

hane D18.

your comment: No. The game is still open;
both sides missing big moves.

your comment: again, No.
You over-estimate your position, and you don't see some of the weakness in your shapes.

o2.

o2.

See toothpaste .

Yes -- your is small; this monkey jump is big yose.

small.

small, slow, almost a pass.

, small, slow.

Thanks for the comments. Now I understand why it's imperative to hane: it avoids monkey jumps...

Today it's a good day: I just defeated the bot, and I'm really proud of it, using actually a monkey jump to kill... I thought monkeys were vegetarians!!

As usual any comment is gold. Can somebody tell me something about my playing style (like estimated level etc..)

GAME 5

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

No, those 2 hanes have nothing to do with monkey jumps.

Game 5:

is not a pass; it's a big move, to fix your weakness, as you said.

not a monkey jump.

can you elaborate this (the meaning of that hane) or is too much an advanced topic for me? I think basically that thouse type of hanes simply " fairly share the corner"...

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

This game is somewhat "normal". I must confess that I belived to win during the middle game, but eventually a point here and a point there made the diffence: what a pity that at move 40 I didn't noticed a great coup...

GAME 6

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

I agree with this post apart from this. (And I'm personally not a fan of reviewing games at this level, but what do I know).

These two books are horrible. Especially the Korschelt book.

I don't know how it sounded in the original German, but the book has been translated into what I can only describe as ham-fisted, wooly, terse windbaggery, and I have no desire to read it again. The first time put me off this game for several years!

I'm not sure Korschelt knew what he was talking about, either. He seems to regard the game as an interesting but inferior version of chess. He doesn't really tell us anything about joseki, tesuji, yose, handicap strategy... I could go on.

Just... don't buy the book. It should have died a long time ago.

_________________
12k: 2015.08.11; 11k: 2015.09.13; 10k: 2015.09.27; 9k: 2015.10.10; 8k: 2015.11.08; 7k: 2016.07.10 6k: 2016.07.24 5k: 2018.05.14 4k: 2018.09.03 3k: who knows?

I like it for the historical perspective. It was also the first Go book I ran into, but I agree with you about not reading it to learn Go. There are far better intro books out there.

Speaking as a 12kyu (so I could be wrong) the hane is big here because:

Black to play & hane: settles black's shape,
White to play & hane: can take away Black's base and chase him into the centre, White gaining by building on the lower side.

Monkey jump is a large knight move onto the 1st line, played in the endgame as an invasion tesuji.

_________________
12k: 2015.08.11; 11k: 2015.09.13; 10k: 2015.09.27; 9k: 2015.10.10; 8k: 2015.11.08; 7k: 2016.07.10 6k: 2016.07.24 5k: 2018.05.14 4k: 2018.09.03 3k: who knows?

Hi all.

Bad game with white due an un-orthodox opening by black and obv my stupidity. As usual, in the decisive moment i cannot find the bigger move, and I play passively and I lose control of the match. I really hate myself literally when I play this way, but we still have 93 games to improve...

GAME 7

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)

hi all,

A nervous game with white, eventually in tilt I misplaced a stone and the whole position collapsed.. I learn to try to avoid such cutting game because one has to watch always everywhere. Another lesson to learn is that if you have both flanks of a base wide open it's impossible to defend. Simply one has to grow from a base or invade more wisely.

GAME 8

_________________
Don't play 1-2-3
Just play 3

(Go proverb)