The following recent game will provide food for thought for those who think sente means sente.

The commentary was was headlined "Hon controls the pace from beginning to end."

Note that Hon was White so he did not start with sente, so you might quibble a smidgeon about the headline, but see how he kept the initiative throughout.



12 to 25 is a known pattern now, after which P9 is a good point for White, but Hon chose to "rush" to 26. Time (= pace) is a major element in controlling the initiative, and that means you can control the initiative with moves other than sente forcing moves. This is something Go Seigen exemplified.

Black chose to answer 26 by starting a fight with 27 (a tsume is an aggressive move) - deluding himself into thinking he has the initiative.

Black further tried to assert himself with the cut at 45 but after 49 and 51 who has sente and who has the initiative? The commentary implies White has the initiative because 49 and 51 were overplays.

White 56 was "a good move" - and not even quite sente. (White has a squeeze line if Black plays M5 here).

With 57 and 59 Black is in a bad way. Not in danger - just battered and bruised. Safe B&B groups are just as bad as weak groups on the lam.

White 62 and 64 are now "sufficient" - gote, but not a fancy honte be it noted. Just plain ol' gote. Which means Black has sente. But does he have the initiative?

White 78 runs away. Gote? No. It is a "severe" move. That is because White 86 is another good move - not what most people call sente but certainly [u]maintains[/] his initiative. It does not give him the "lead", to bring up another term tossed around. It gives him a "superior position" (i.e. a qualitataive assessment rather than a quantitative one). White only got a winning position after move 254.

The above comments are essentially filched from those of Takemiya's son, a 6-dan pro. But the spin and provocation are mine.

After a hiatus due to heavy loads professional work (business trips where I expected to play more go but actually had to go for the compulsory social stuff instead) I played a few games again and continued my training sessions with AI Sensei. I got my 2d rank at OGS but it's still brittle.

The goal remains to play higher ranked players (2-4d) and to apply lessons learnt, like "defend while making territory".

In general I think my games are of a higher quality these days, in the sense that there are no stupid blunders, everything is relatively thought through and mistakes are genuine incapacities in decision making or reading. In other words, I'm playing up to my level of understanding and any lesson learnt is a new insight, or an application of a recently acquired insight, not like a beginner's mistake. I find that encouraging.

If I post this as a problem, many people will get it. Still in the game I thought about it and didn't. What makes it so hard to be consistently good at life and death in games?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Black to play
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . 7 8 . 3 . 4 5 . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O X X O O 6 X O O X . O O . . . |
$$ | . X X O O X X O . . 2 1 X X O X . . . |
$$ | . . O X X . . X O O O O X . X O O O . |
$$ | . . O . . . . X X X X O X X X X O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X O O O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . . X O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Right, this is why some books do "status" problems instead of "play and kill". I spent a full minute thinking "What's he talking about? It's clearly a seki!" before seeing <hidden>. And in a game, without the hint to look for something better, I might also have settled for the seki.