Hi Sam,

- My feeling is this is not a good exchange for you.
Can you see that if you leave your R6 stone on the board,
then later, the situation may arise that you can benefit with the S6 descend.
If W blocks on the outside S7, then you can connect back with S5.
If W blocks with S5, then you have 2 options:
you can crawl starting with S7 (if it's useful for you),
or, you can do your atari, but since you have the S7 drop,
you gain an extra atari at S8!

In the future, it's possible your S7 drop can turn W into a not-alive group!
But after ( - ), you help W remove his bad aji (S6 stone);
you once again make W much stronger than before.

- Bad habit. ( Bad computer habit ; also common beginner bad habit ).
W self-reduces liberties.

( skipping ahead... )

- Bad exchange. Bad shape for B.
Basic broken shape for B.
See also Toothpaste and related pages.

Confused. ( You're losing points for no good reason. ) Locally, just connect.

( skipping ahead... )

146 - 147 Strange. Study the local end-game variations if you reply at B2.
( Your C9 stones also wouldn't have died. )

Thank you Ed!

I am sorry I haven't responded yet, but I am still digesting all of this. This is great info.

When you had me cycle through the groups, my observations lined up with yours (except I did not know about the weaknesses in the knights move at the lower left (they were obvious once you pointed them out)).

Once you had me walk through the decision making process, O3 became obvious to me as well.

I think it is obvious that I am not playing the opening in the right order; I am playing moves to open up invasion points, but I am playing them way too early. while bigger moves are move available.

I have a plan to start working on this bad habit; I am making a flowchart i will try to step through on every move for several games. Hopefully this will make me assess the situation better and reduce my chances of playing so very slowly in the opening.

.....

Still absorbing your other posts. Will respond soon.

Thank you again!

Hey Ed -

In regards to the situation after 36, I see that it is not good for me. After that I felt i was desperately trying to play catchup all game.

Moving on to the lower right:

Understanding that the result in the lower right is not good for me either is currently difficult for me, but I think I can see it. I see that I'm pressed down, that my stones outside are weak. His stones are strong and combine well with the center.

I knew the moves I took after the double approach joseki were aji-keshi, but I took them because I had no idea how to use whatever aji was left. The stones just looked dead to me. I think I see a better way to use the stone in endgame now, but I was mostly afraid that white would just take the stone and I would be faced with a ponnuki and no stones around to limit its influence. Basically, I realized my own ignorance, and I tried to work around it.

It still did not work, as the stones were later killed.

I guess my sense of direction and positional judgement are very poor here.

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Moving on to the loss of the two stones on the side in endgame... I worked on this for quite a while and I couldn't come up with a way to save the stones. My corner is so weak that if I take the time to connect the two stones, it seems like my corner just ends up dead.


I know the way to save is probably blatantly obvious to most of you, but I am blind to it.

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Thank you for all the great feedback looking at the game.

Today's game, improved. Only losing by 9.5 instead of 25+. Gotta be getting a little better right? (I know that's not true).

Hi Sam,

A bit shy; R7.

Playable, or, overplay, depending on your plan.
K3 or K4 to help your pincer stone seems natural.

Now you are split.

If you want to get out and split W, M5 is a candidate.
If you're not familiar with this shape,
study what happens if L3 tries to link up with W.

Very bad feeling, if this was your plan with .
If W simply connects at Q4, you'll either suffer a big loss on your right,
or, if you reply, then W connects in sente and will counter attack.

Please see Toothpaste and related pages.

{ , , tenuki } This sequence by W is very strange.

No. Lower right corner: find one local sequence such that W's shape collapses.

How familiar are you with the top left corner sequence ?( You're very welcome. ) Maybe you can share your flowchart ( jpeg? )...
others could benefit from it, too.

Did you also consider S15, to split W.

R16 is another variation.

What happens if you atari instead at S17.

No. You ignored very big sequences elsewhere -- (re: ), and now also top right corner.

Thanks again, Ed.

re: the cut at the beginning
Now that I see the game after a day away, I see how much of bad plan the cut is. I was doing problems regarding another joseki that uses the cut, and I saw a "familiar" shape, so I played it. But it was wrong here because I didn't have the other side of the cut.

I guess I did better this time because the computer did worse

re: 30
I'm familiar with the Joseki in the top right. I've tried the cut at C15 before, but it never turns out for me. I usually feel like I just wasted a turn where my opponent gets a big point. This is likely made worse because I only know a handful of double-approach joseki, so if the enemy gets a double-approach I usually get a bad result.

re: the urgent move on the bottom right?
I think it's O3, to force him to connect and I can capture his one stone?

re: the invasion joseki at the top right
I've only seen this a couple of times, not super familiar with it. you're right, I missed an important move to get part of the corner. Also, I like your alternate variation where I don't throw in, just connect. I did consider splitting, but since I didn't know that joseki at all, I wasn't sure I could pull it off.

Hi Sam,

Yea, this takes some experience ( and adventure-ness ).
After enough experience, you'll feel OK to tenuki and deal with the double approach on your star point --
after all, that is one meaning of the 4-4, that it is fast-paced.
Even if you tenuki thrice from a 4-4, it won't die ( if your opponent double approaches and caps at 5-5 ).
With experience -- it's a Catch-22, how can you get direct experience with the double approach without diving into that situation yourself ? --
you'll feel OK with it. No hurry, the time will come when you want to experiment with the tenuki. You probably meant o4. Yes. The local (and global) shared vital point.See if you can find a local big move top right corner at .

r18 and then s18

they look obvious now

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BTW, thank you very much for coming back and posting such detailed follow ups after your initial comments. It works out well for me because you usually end up doing a post about the opening, then point out a couple of middle game mistakes, then a couple of end game mistakes. It helps keep my thinking straight. That said, I welcome feedback in any format!

Training Update:

I have been training on InternetGoSchool most recently. Their leaderboard really has me competitive. I currently have a 13 day streak, and I got to 5th place for the week yesterday. I've dropped down today since I haven't done enough problems (it seems to be about 330 a day to keep 5th right now)

I am focusing primarily on my opening, since I seem to have serious shortcomings there. I have serious shortcomings everywhere, but the game is easier if you have a good opening, so it seems like the wisest investment of time. Most of my problem sets are either from the Opening Training course (I'm currently at lesson B2) or from the Basic Shape course (I've completed all of these).

I currently have 1,341 problems enabled (out of 9,000 or so available). (As background, before you do them, they start as "new". Once you've done them, they pass into the "learning" state. After you are comfortable enough with them that they are more than 48 hours due, they pass into the "review" state.

Currently I have cleared out my new and learning queues, but I still have 887 in the review queue, meaning I have to choose between doing a new course or catching up on the reviews I need to do. It's a tough choice.

----

Overall review:

I like the new system a lot. It makes doing the problems quite fun because you can't really lose. Even if you don't get a certain place on the leaderboard, it's only because you didn't do enough problems. And if you do the problems, you're making some sort of progress, right?

Is it making me better?

I don't know. 13 days isn't a lot. I think I read a little bit more, and certainly the shape training has helped immensely. Also, there is only one Ladder course, but I took it, and the tips (and the problems!) have helped me made my ladder reading more accurate.

I kind of wish they had an array of whole board counting and positional judgement problems because I do not count enough. But they have not built those problem sets yet (the courses do exist, though).

I have noticed one problem. I have developed an illusion of competence regarding certain shapes. If one shape looks similar to something I'm studying I'll play a move (perhaps too quickly, without reading enough to see that the shape is actually critically different). Basically it's a Dunning-Kreuger effect. I think I know what I'm doing because I've seen something similar, but I really don't know the shape. This has happened to me twice recently.

Another thing:
The life and death problem sets used to just kill me. They just wouldn't "stick". Finally, though, they're starting to come together. Slowly.



I'm wondering if anyone else is on GJ's website, and what are some good problemsets that have helped you make sudden break throughs? Basic Shapes and Ladders were really good for me. I'm looking for more courses like those, that help you make sudden leaps.

Hi Sam,Umm...close, but no cigar. Try again ?