A beginner's journal of little interest

[Boidhre]

Me getting crushed by speedchase in an even game.



One horrendous blunder where due to the nature of turn based I thought I'd connected two groups when in fact I hadn't resulting in the eventual death of both. Enjoy.

[speedchase]

this probably wasn't your biggest mistake, but what was the idea behind t12?

[EdLee]

Still broken shapes.

[Boidhre]

this probably wasn't your biggest mistake, but what was the idea behind t12?

Me being blind/not playing enough attention.


Thank you Ed.

[Bill Spight]

Good to see another game.



Main focus: Beware of playing too close when attacking or fighting.

[Boidhre]

Thank you Bill.

[Boidhre]

Finally got an Automatch game on KGS:

I'm now 10k apparently.



I'm annoyed by both the quality and rapidity of play of mine in the fuseki. I fell into the trap of playing as quickly as my opponent did. I managed to slow down more as the game progressed. This is my first ranked game on KGS in over a month, and first 19x19 game too I believe, so the 10k rating is to be taking with a large pinch of salt. I was really nervous during it as I'm so unused to real time play online and made some bad reading errors.

[EdLee]

Basics.

[Boidhre]

Thanks for the detailed comments Ed.

My thinking was which side I wanted to give him a moyo on. But yes, I was kicking myself a lot of times in this game for decisions like this one. I'm not happy with how I played at all.

[jts]

Try sitting on your hands while you play.

At the same time, handicap fuseki is stressful, by design. Maybe others will be horrified, but I tend not to think too hard facing 2+ stones... If I obsess over how horrible and vulnerable my position is, I'll have a headache by the time I see the first mistake. (there is a strange tendency, if you look at the malko games, for observers to make "omg w is a fake Dan can't handle so much handi" kinds of comments. The position looks bad because there's a handicap, people. You can't claw back 2 stones in ten moves.)

[Boidhre]

At the same time, handicap fuseki is stressful, by design. Maybe others will be horrified, but I tend not to think too hard facing 2+ stones... If I obsess over how horrible and vulnerable my position is, I'll have a headache by the time I see the first mistake. (there is a strange tendency, if you look at the malko games, for observers to make "omg w is a fake Dan can't handle so much handi" kinds of comments. The position looks bad because there's a handicap, people. You can't claw back 2 stones in ten moves.)

This is true. A friend described playing against 9 stones to me as "I'm going to die everywhere," and then 100 moves later...

[jts]

This is true. A friend described playing against 9 stones to me as "I'm going to die everywhere," and then 100 moves later...

Yes, exactly. It is, of course, not good to play in ways that hope for mistakes from your opponents. But playing as though you were reviewing an even game, dismissing variations because they aren't good for white or leave weaknesses and looking for something better... that way lies madness.

By the way, getting up to get yourself a drink on move 5 is a good way to slow yourself down and think carefully about the fuseki.

[Boidhre]

Back to 11k for the moment.

Played a 7k friend, got killed all over the board. Some major blunders as per usual. I was playing too often in gote I think. I need to get more real time games in, I've played far too few and my thinking under time pressure has gotten very sloppy.

Anyway, enjoy me getting crushed.

[EdLee]

Basics. Basic broken shapes.

[Boidhre]

Thank you for the detailed comments Ed.