Path to 9Dan, step by step.

hl782 · **#21**

Bill Spight wrote:

Why do you think that a territorial style is more aggressive than an influence style?

Besides which, why worry about your own style? Just make what you think is the best play.

Great advice - I think what I should have said was I am worried that I might become too influence oriented, and i am not getting the basics on how to invade, attack and reduce properly. I want to become a more balanced player

skydyr · **#22**

hl782 wrote:

Bill Spight wrote:

Why do you think that a territorial style is more aggressive than an influence style?

Besides which, why worry about your own style? Just make what you think is the best play.

Great advice - I think what I should have said was I am worried that I might become too influence oriented, and i am not getting the basics on how to invade, attack and reduce properly. I want to become a more balanced player

Influence is all about attacking, invading, and reducing properly. You gave away territory to your opponent in exchange for it, so how else would you make the game equal? You use the influence to support all those things.

I think one of the best ways to learn how to attack well is to play games with fairly large handicaps (say 4 stones or more) against suitable players, and to make sure you play actively rather than trying to secure territory right away. It's all about using the influence effectively.

DrStraw · **#23**

hl782 wrote:

I realize I am starting to become a more influence-oriented player, and for some reason i am not a fan of this. I would rather like to play a more territorial, aggressive game.

I always thought of a territorial style as a passive style and an influence style as an aggressive style.

hl782 · **#24**

Another game i played today - The opening was absolutely miserable but my opponent made numerous critical mistakes and that helped me win the game.

hl782 · **#25**

0.5 point win against a 9k. I was ahead of the game by 20+ at some point and then i made some stupid stupid mistakes that made the game so close. I even made a critical mistake that should have cost me the game, but my opponent was gracious enough to undo it. Scraped through the skin of my teeth with this one.

hl782 · **#26**

Didn't get to play a game today but I finished my first runthrough of Get Strong with Tesuji at 68.7% accuracy. I plan on running through the problems i missed to nail them on to perfection. These seem like a good way to get concepts of sente, etc.

But i gotta say these were a bit of a chore to go through - it wasn't as great as many people on Life19x19 hyped it up to be.

hl782 · **#27**

Just played a very late night game against an 8kyu and i won!

any reviews would be very appreciated! EdLee perhaps? Your review last time was very helpful

SoDesuNe · **#28**

hl782 wrote:

Didn't get to play a game today but I finished my first runthrough of Get Strong with Tesuji at 68.7% accuracy. I plan on running through the problems i missed to nail them on to perfection. These seem like a good way to get concepts of sente, etc.

But i gotta say these were a bit of a chore to go through - it wasn't as great as many people on Life19x19 hyped it up to be.

Well, people like different books. I for one don't get the hype about Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go.

I really like Get Strong at Tesuji because it fills a gap when it comes to shape problems and problems to get Sente - kinda real life problems. It is much more subtle than your common connect/capture/kill-Tesuji book. And it has a whooping 534 problems, which are very fast to go through =)

hl782 · **#29**

SoDesuNe wrote:

hl782 wrote:

Didn't get to play a game today but I finished my first runthrough of Get Strong with Tesuji at 68.7% accuracy. I plan on running through the problems i missed to nail them on to perfection. These seem like a good way to get concepts of sente, etc.

But i gotta say these were a bit of a chore to go through - it wasn't as great as many people on Life19x19 hyped it up to be.

Well, people like different books. I for one don't get the hype about Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go.

I really like Get Strong at Tesuji because it fills a gap when it comes to shape problems and problems to get Sente - kinda real life problems. It is much more subtle than your common connect/capture/kill-Tesuji book. And it has a whooping 534 problems, which are very fast to go through =)

Hmm yeah i agree its a good collection of problems! maybe ill enjoy it more on my reruns when i dont have to go through all 534 problems again x)

In the meantime - i started going over 'Making Good Shape' by richard bozulich. Gotta say I'm loving this book so far - the abstractness of the questions (its more than just tesuji/l&d) is really making me think and testing my reading ability to my limits! I think I'll finish going over this, 1001 L&D Problems, then GGPB Vol.4 - Then go through reruns of all that I've missed.

Also I'm already halfway towards 9kyu - hopefully i'll be able to achieve my goal of SDK soon

hl782 · **#30**

Another victory against a 9kyu!

hl782 · **#31**

1 more victory against a 9 kyu - and this time Hikky (who is around 1k/1dan) helped me review this game in extra detail!
He also agreed to give me more frequent lessons/tips which I am very thankful for

OtakuViking · **#32**

I didn't look at the game in detail, just pointing out a few details.

@12, approaching at f3 is the wrong direction. Black should deny white the extension from his wall, ruining his future prospects and taking a very nice lead in the fuseki. That joseki is for when white already has an extension near the start point on the left side.

@16, playing at the suggested place of 2 is bad for black, even just jumping out is better. The kosumi is the right kind of idea, except you might want to attach on top of the white stone.

@24 Backing off with the small knights move is probably better. since black's stones on the right side are low his prospects for developing a moyo with the influence is kinda low. Black is also playing more territorially and the knights move both takes territory and reduces the potential of white's upper left side wall.

@37 D8 is bad. You are helping white build another wall. Two huge walls facing eachother is a very good territorial moyo. It would be much better if you pincered at C11.

@52 your idea is better than the suggested move of simply solidifying. It is unambitious and weak spirited to do that. Black should expand his influence and force white to invade. If u want to continue here maybe play a knights move instead of the slow push. I might descend in the upper right to threaten white's corner, then extend as far as possible to the left. That also increases the moyo and strengthens the upper right group. You don't actually need to play where u did in the game. Imagine if white pushes there, he will force you to enclose a huge territory on the right side which would be very nice

@56 You don't need to kill this invasion. You can use it to get benefits at the bottom and at the left side if u want. A simple move is to cap it at M9. Try to force weak stones against your strong position/wall. Your move in the game 012 is almost redundant. It makes an absolutely tiny amount of points and doesn't attack white properly. It's the opposite direction of what you need to do.

That's all for now

hl782 · **#33**

OtakuViking wrote:

I didn't look at the game in detail, just pointing out a few details.

@12, approaching at f3 is the wrong direction. Black should deny white the extension from his wall, ruining his future prospects and taking a very nice lead in the fuseki. That joseki is for when white already has an extension near the start point on the left side.

@16, playing at the suggested place of 2 is bad for black, even just jumping out is better. The kosumi is the right kind of idea, except you might want to attach on top of the white stone.

@24 Backing off with the small knights move is probably better. since black's stones on the right side are low his prospects for developing a moyo with the influence is kinda low. Black is also playing more territorially and the knights move both takes territory and reduces the potential of white's upper left side wall.

@37 D8 is bad. You are helping white build another wall. Two huge walls facing eachother is a very good territorial moyo. It would be much better if you pincered at C11.

@52 your idea is better than the suggested move of simply solidifying. It is unambitious and weak spirited to do that. Black should expand his influence and force white to invade. If u want to continue here maybe play a knights move instead of the slow push. I might descend in the upper right to threaten white's corner, then extend as far as possible to the left. That also increases the moyo and strengthens the upper right group. You don't actually need to play where u did in the game. Imagine if white pushes there, he will force you to enclose a huge territory on the right side which would be very nice

@56 You don't need to kill this invasion. You can use it to get benefits at the bottom and at the left side if u want. A simple move is to cap it at M9. Try to force weak stones against your strong position/wall. Your move in the game 012 is almost redundant. It makes an absolutely tiny amount of points and doesn't attack white properly. It's the opposite direction of what you need to do.

That's all for now

Thanks for the review! is 12 really the wrong side approach? Ive heard people say to stay away from opponents strengths when approaching a corner. can you also explain why 16 is bad as suggested? Hikky's explanation made quite alot of sense to me.

hl782 · **#34**

Another win against a 9kyu! i think this is my longest win streak yet

i'm particularly happy with how i used the aji of the dead stones to kill his corner in the lower right which gave me the win. I got a bit too cocky during the game though thinking I had killed his largest groups when in fact i had played it out wrong xD

If anyone could help me review the game (in particular the lower right corner in the beginning) that'd be great. I'm terrible at the 3-4 point openings and i think my start was pretty bad.

SoDesuNe · **#35**

Overall, I feel White had the advantage right until the middlegame blossomed but your fighting saved the day. My advice would be to try to play some calm moves when you have multiple follow-ups and do not strengthen your opponent's stones needlessly.

Though, I am also a weak player, so everything I say could be wrong : D

Have fun!

hl782 · **#36**

Thank you for your reply Sodesune - i'll be going over your variations later tonight

btw your guide to getting stronger at Go is fantastic - i'm loving the book recommendations and study methods in them.

Bill Spight · **#37**

Some comments on the bottom right corner.

OtakuViking · **#38**

hl782 wrote:

Thanks for the review! is 12 really the wrong side approach? Ive heard people say to stay away from opponents strengths when approaching a corner. can you also explain why 16 is bad as suggested? Hikky's explanation made quite alot of sense to me.

The rule is very good to follow, but it doesn't mean play on the other side of the board and give your opponent the perfect move to build a moyo

In this case white has played a wall without an extension. This white wall usually has an extension in place at the star point or just below it otherwise you wouldn't choose that joseki. If there's such a wall, you shouldn't approach it, but since white is aiming for an extension you should consider taking that away from him by splitting the side under the star point and ignoring the corner approach for the time being. Also, if white doesn't extend from the wall he doesn't have a base for the group.

*Basic rule of walls is that they aim at a side extension. Taking this extension away is usually always a good move.

Alright screw it, I'll take the bait and show a few variations @move 12, 16 and 51-52

hl782 · **#39**

Bill & Otakuviking, thank you for your variations/replies! I cant believe i missed the pushing up on the 4th line - shows that I have to expand my horizons and keep thinking harder when reading.

In the meantime, finished my first runthrough of 'Making Good Shape' by Bozulich at 55% accuracy. This was by far my lowest scoring problem set, but I think i picked up some valuable concepts from it that will help me in the long run and I plan on going over this again soon after I finish 1001 L&D problems (at #600 now), and GGPB Vol. 4 (just started and it is fantastic).

After i finish those 2 books I plan on repeating the cycle of
[GGPB Vol. 3 -> LCH Tesuji Vol. 4 -> LCH L&D Vol. 1 -> GS At Tesuji -> Making Good Shape -> 1001 L&D Problems -> GGPB Vol. 4] twice with the problems i missed from them.

Hopefully when I am done with the three rounds, I'll be hitting solid 8-7 kyu, and I'll move on to heavier theory and more difficult problem books such as the later volumes of LCH Tesuji/L&D books, and the famous Fujisawa Shuko Tesuji Dictionary

OtakuViking · **#40**

No problem! You seem to be pretty good at reading for your level, so If you can find them, consider reading Otake Hideo's Opening theory made easy and All about thickness by Ishida Yoshio, extremely good books. I especially like All about thickness because of the simple almost textless diagram format. Brilliant and quick to go through several times for some very nice principles. Couple that with Opening theory made easy and you'll easily gain a couple of stones.

Path to 9Dan, step by step.

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