I haven't posted for some time, but now I have two questions at once.

In the first game, both players are about 3 kyu (UK). I had black.
The question is how to handle the marked play by White. It looks odd,
because Black can dive into the corner, but White ended up playing on
both sides, which is often said to be to be good.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c How to respond to this Noseki move
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O @ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . X . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O O . O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . X . X X . O . O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X . X O . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The game record is hidden below.



The second question is from an 8-stone game in which I also had black.
Is there a better sequence for Black after the marked white move?
The sequence in the game continued up to white 'a', then I played away at 'b',
but I felt swindled.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c How to handle the marked White move
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O . . . . . . 3 2 4 . 8 . . . |
$$ | . O O X . . b . . O 5 . X O . 7 6 a . |
$$ | . O X X , X . O . X . . X @ . X 9 . . |
$$ | . X X . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . X . O . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . O . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . . X . . . . . . . O . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . X O O . X . X . O O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The game record (before the time-scramble) is hidden below
There are some comical mistakes, but I was probably still
ahead when White ran out of time.

P3 kick ?
The turn seems OK.
J18 ?

Curious about Leela for the two variations:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W If ladder, can chose avalanche or not
$$ -----------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 X . . . . . X . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

( Not sure var 2 looks good for .)

8-H game:

bad habit; weed it out.
( Normal local choices: F18, E17, tenuki. )

P2
Connect solidly at N15 ?

[The first diagram originally showed a 3-3 corner, one-space approach, 2nd line attach, which is weird whereas the sgf showed a 3-4 and avalanche so I edited it to that.]

Q1. The split as you played is, of course, the only move. If you don't like the resulting position (I like black) then that means the high approach or avalanche was bad, not the split. White's e17 extension is maybe not as awful as it first appears: although it makes c15 look stupid it also makes black's d16 look a bit silly (although a joseki move this bumping in the avalanche is an example of the bad shape bumping head of 2 stones -- I heard an amateur invented this joseki initially as it was too ugly for pros to consider). Move 39 is the big decision point, and your move maybe a mistake. The big question you face is do you let white slide at k18, which makes a base and takes away your top right potential, and connect over the top, or do you prevent the slide and force white out, in which case you corner (which isn't alive yet) will get separated? For the former consider moves like j17, j18, k17, for the latter your j15, f16, h15. A consideration here is how strong is white's c14 c11 group? Are you happy to play pushing moves like d14 against it as your corner comes out with the first choice, or would you prefer to connect over the top and make the pincer at c9? Not so easy a decision, but I am reluctant to allow white the k18 slide as the top right is black's big potential this game.
j15 is maybe a bit soft for my tastes, but isn't clearly a mistake. g15 I don't like though: g16 press. b17 is good though, if white cuts there both his groups are safe, it's big for territory, and also the exchange of hane for block actually helps you make eyes in the corner. White should have k18 slide instead of b15, and you should have j18 to take advantage of this. c9 is still a nice aim, coupled with b4/5. g16 exchanges help white.

Q2. Not going to answer how to answer marked stone yet (but your sequence looks reasonable), but I will say white's a was a mistake (should be s18) as you can wedge at p18 and if white wants to keep the corner you can reduce eyeshape in sente and at first read if white tries to save the 4 stones the corner dies (so n14 unnecessary). Also d17 was a very bad (but common) mistake, it's better to not play anything as then instead of b afterwards you could have cut on the top side much more effectively with f18 which is sente to kill the corner (whether you can play f18 instead of d17 is not so simple given the cut and not having c12 yet to help).

Thanks Uberdude and EdLee for your comments.

The move at D17 in the handicap game is one I would never have made if the position were rotated 90 degrees clockwise. That's the orientation in which I studied White's knights move in similar situations. If my aged brain can no longer recognise rotated positions, I'll have to see if it can rotate my equally old head when studying the board.

Special thanks to Uberdude for correcting my diagram mistakes. In fact, I made the same corrections when preparing the post, but they somehow got reverted before clicking submit. Some thoughts on how this happened are hidden below for my ease of reference.


I note that commenters are making increasing using of strong AIs when reviewing games. Seems everyone will need to start doing that in order to keep up. Unfortunately, I cannot get Leelazero to run: the details are recorded in r/baduk. I am getting used to nothing working properly as I get older, but I still don't like it.

About making diagrams, I use http://www.hiddema.nl/diagrammer/, https://senseis.xmp.net/tools/sgf2diagram.php, and for pro games the handy diagram export of go4go. Also the Web Go Board chrome plugin for opening sgfs in-browser has a diagram export feature.