The sin of laziness in Go

Ian Butler · #1

I played a handicap game today against an 8 kyu (2 stones).
Because it was a handicap game, I decided to make it an exercise, rather than playing as I would in an even game. Meaning: try to get in a few fights (which in my usual style I generally avoid).

The funny thing is: I did okay in the fights (a few of them ended real well for me), but I still lost in the end. The biggest reason why is that after I won my 2nd big fight, I thought I was ahead and I played way too leisurly.
Turns out I was not ahead, or if I was, I played too passively and gave away more points.

So I consider this a mental loss, more than a loss of technique/ability/tactics/...
Main thing to learn from this game: Don't play slack moves!

(I especially played slack when white made a move and I just took the capture, while it would only take about 10 seconds to read out I have enough liberties left to react...)

So not entirely happy with my game, because I'm guilty of laziness in this, but the positive I try to take away from it is that my fighting had some top moments!

Any other pointers are welcome!

Jujube · #2

Well done for seeing the descend and cut when White made the joseki mistake at P3. If you had played Q5 instead of P5, you would have captured the three stones. The P4 cut is violent, and it works (but you have to make the follow-up moves that also work). In dangerous / do-or-die situations like this, evaluate whether taking away an opponent's liberty is the strongest move, rather than than making a stronger shape.

I'm not strong enough to comment in detail. That being said, I feel that around move 100 you showed White a lot of kindness. White has weak shapes: 2 space jumps, knight moves, extra large knight moves, etc. The extension at C11 and the crawls on the 3rd line you made after that focused solely on your own points and you should have focused on the opponent's weaknesses.

You have to say 'no' to the opponent. Even if it eventually results in your own destruction, you must approach the game from that point of view.

Tryss · #3

At move 210, you have a much better option (in the same area).

Ian Butler · #4

Jujube wrote:

Well done for seeing the descend and cut when White made the joseki mistake at P3. If you had played Q5 instead of P5, you would have captured the three stones. The P4 cut is violent, and it works (but you have to make the follow-up moves that also work). In dangerous / do-or-die situations like this, evaluate whether taking away an opponent's liberty is the strongest move, rather than than making a stronger shape.

I'm not strong enough to comment in detail. That being said, I feel that around move 100 you showed White a lot of kindness. White has weak shapes: 2 space jumps, knight moves, extra large knight moves, etc. The extension at C11 and the crawls on the 3rd line you made after that focused solely on your own points and you should have focused on the opponent's weaknesses.

You have to say 'no' to the opponent. Even if it eventually results in your own destruction, you must approach the game from that point of view.

Thanks for that advice.
And I'll never ever forget what to do in the joseki "variation" now. Never

Yeah I kind of started playing the famous Go variant called 'chicken go'

Tryss wrote:

At move 210, you have a much better option (in the same area).

Cool variation, thanks! I had the feeling something was possible there, but wasn't reading very deep by then.

Joaz Banbeck · #5

Laziness, I'm sorry to say, is a good description. You made few if any really bad moves, but you made many slightly inferior moves, often playing the obvious local small move without any apparent effort to find something bigger elsewhere.
The good news is that this should be an easy fix. Just ask yourself how big your move is, and is there anything bigger. Do that and you will be easily 8K yourself.

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38: S10 is huge. You can kill his right side group, or let it live in gote if he wants to spend a move saving it. Either way, you have reduced it to irrelevance. It might as well be in a black hole someplace.

46: This is a yose move. You can threaten two stones. Or you can play something bigger.

60: You are saving two stones in gote. What are those two stones worth? They do not cut anything nor do they connect anything.
If he captures them, he gets a net five points in gote.
Let him have them. You can play bigger moves. ( M4, M7, B10, J5, etc )

66: N15 captures, I think. It is maybe a net 15 points.

80: I like this. I can't say that it is best ( M4? N9? ) but I like the fighting spirit.

88: L8. Be strong, then kill.

101: A fine move by your opponent. Imagine how different this game would be if a black stone had gotten there first.

110: You are saving ONE stone?

120: The yose play locally is N18. Of course, you don't have to play locally. Moves like C18 r C2 are bigger. K10 can be fun too.

124: Yes!! You played one of the biggest moves on the board.

126: Noooooo! Filling either L8 or K9 works.

138: Good

144: Another big move!

182: He's dead. You don't have to kill him any more. Try M19, which seals him in and is worth a few points reducing his territory along the top. And, IT IS SENTE.

184: This is a one-point gote move. There are bigger gote moves like D19 or D1. ( And E17 is a sneaky sente )

Ian Butler · #6

Joaz Banbeck wrote:

Laziness, I'm sorry to say, is a good description. You made few if any really bad moves, but you made many slightly inferior moves, often playing the obvious local small move without any apparent effort to find something bigger elsewhere.
The good news is that this should be an easy fix. Just ask yourself how big your move is, and is there anything bigger. Do that and you will be easily 8K yourself.

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Thank you for those comments. It's very helpful.

I've already gone over the game with my sensei, too, and this game has been good for me. Why? Because it's a lesson I'll never forget.
It was lazy play. Very lazy.

And I'll never play like that again :tmbup:

So that's a successful game, isn't it?

The sin of laziness in Go

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