For once I went over a game without using Crazy Stone (yet), so I'm posting it here without computer assistance in the hope of getting some human thoughts. This was a live game played against a friend last night. I was very happy with my opening (though I'm not sure yet how happy I should be!) but made some big strategical and tactical mistakes at the end and lost by 2.5. Thanks in advance for any comments.

141: Can you omit the connection and take sente?

164: For the move on the top that you didn't take, I believe the sente hane and connect is better than the gote clamp.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

Thank you for the comments!

141: Yes, and Crazy Stone confirmed this. In fact I ran into a similar situation a few days later when playing a training game against Crazy Stone, where a stone two diagonal points away from a first-line hane can help reduce the severity of the second-line cut. So hopefully I will recognize this in the future.

164: Yeah, I have to learn to recognize sente and gote sequences more easily.

In going over the game later with Crazy Stone, the biggest mistake that I made that I didn't already have some idea about was that a push at D4 (during the middle game) would have been very strong, because the cut at C3 is huge.

Yeah, that's one that you see a lot after that joseki in professional games, sometimes surprisingly early.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

I just got back from another AGA tournament, going 1-3 as a 3k, but one of the losses was giving 9 stones to a 12k, and all my other games were interesting. The result should bring me back down to 4k, but that's okay. I'm now 4-8 as a 3k, which is decent enough that I'm still going to keep entering tournaments at that rank. And I have four (well, three really) more serious games to learn from!

I guess it's time for an update. I've played 7 tournament games since the last update and went 4-3; my AGA rating is 4.3k but I'm entering tournaments at 3k and feeling confident. In my last two casual games I beat a 3k and a 2k by resignation.

I joined AYD in the spring and have played 15 games in it. It's been an awesome experience and I've already signed up for the next two seasons. The lectures are outstanding (you get access to the full backlog) and getting your games regularly reviewed by a very strong player who knows your play personally is gold. It also has helped with my nervousness about playing games, since I feel like the point of playing is to get a useful review, not as much just to win.

I also have been watching lectures and doing problems at Guo Juan's site. The spaced repetition system is something I was already sold on, and it's been great for retaining things like joseki as well as training my pattern intuition. There is a small mismatch in that In-seong (of AYD) is very up-to-date on the latest fuseki and joseki developments so sometimes I will be memorizing a joseki line that he regards as obsolete. Not a huge deal in practice because obviously the joseki can't be that terrible if everyone was playing it until 2015, but to get the most from his reviews I want play things that he recommends and maximize the review time spent on other things.

I've backed off of all the tsumego (still haven't finished Maeda vol. 1) and am concentrating on playing and studying the areas that those two sites focus on. 1d may still be a while away (and I may never get there) but I feel like my play is a lot more mature than a year ago. Most importantly, I'm still feeling very motivated and enjoying go a lot.

My third AYD season just ended so it's time to take stock again.

My energy has flagged a bit so I've eased up on my brain-busting active studying such as tsumego problems and my activities have mostly been more casual:

• Guo Juan's lectures and spaced repetition problems
• AYD games and reviews
• Serious non-tournament live games with friends

The good news is that in my most recent AYD month I beat a 1d in a serious even game for the first time, which is one box checked off on my list of go goals.

I haven't played a live tournament game since my last update (they stress me out, which is probably another thing to work on), so my AGA rating is still 4k, but I just totalled up my live games since that update, and looking at my even games in that period, I'm 7-0 vs players 4k or worse, 4-4 vs 2k, and 1-0 vs 1k. So I am pretty comfortable assessing my skill as at least 3k, and 2k opponents don't scare me at all.

From AYD and Guo Juan I definitely feel like my sense of "Go culture" on the board has improved a lot over the last year. I feel like there are signposts to guide me in my decisions and I flail less. One promising thing that I've noticed is that my mistakes are smaller. I'll make what feels like a big mistake and beat myself up about how terrible my position looks, only to find when I look at the game on the computer later that I was only down by 5 points or something. If my perception of mistakes is getting more sensitive, that should mean I'm getting better, if that makes sense.

When I look at tsumego I still always feel like a total beginner, but my reading seems to be okay for my level so I'm happy to concentrate on other things for now and just enjoy playing the game at my current level rather than go back into intense study mode. I don't feel like I currently have the motivation to seriously push for 1d (the way I felt a year ago), but if I keep playing and enjoying the game, I hope to maintain my current skill and enthusiasm, and maybe I can make a push later on. Just the fact that I can give players at the 1d/1k level a good game makes me happy with the level that I've reached.

I'm currently going through the Chinese equivalent of Speed Baduk 10-12 (the "Intermediate Series here). (They're great, by the way). I just got to this problem, #16 on p. 68 of volume 11:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc B to play and kill W
$$ | . . . , . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X X . . . . .
$$ | . X X . . X . . . .
$$ | X X O O O O X X X .
$$ | X O . . . . O O X .
$$ | . O . . . O . X X .
$$ ---------------------[/go]

My solution:

The book's solution:

What am I missing?

(Meanwhile: still enjoying AYD, still around 50-50 in live games against 2k AGA friends, just beat a 5d AGA friend down to a 4-stone handicap (went 3-0 with 5 stones). I'll get a reality check at the US Go Congress in a month.)

Maybe this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc B to play and kill W
$$ | . . . , . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X X . . . . .
$$ | . X X . . X . . . .
$$ | . X O O O O X X X .
$$ | X O . . . . O O X .
$$ | . O . . . O . X X .
$$ ---------------------[/go]

_________________
The Adkins Principle:

At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?

— Winona Adkins

If a3 is not there so black can't play a1 next:

Aha, thanks. So my move does work but the official solution is better because it is more robust to small changes in the position? Should we consider the presence of the stone at A3 a bug in the problem? (I just double-checked and it is part of the problem, not an extra stone I typoed in.)

I suggest that the stone on A-03 is a typo.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:

At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?

— Winona Adkins

I'm inclined to agree with Bill that there's probably a mistake in the book: this is a realistic looking position and black getting a stone at j1 is a plausible thing to happen in a game because it might have some follow up to the right. So the problem is basically: show why j1 is sente on the white corner group (and if it was sente to the right as well you got a nice double threat). Conversely black getting a stone at a3 is very unlikely to do anything useful towards the left side given black already has stones at b4, c4 etc so it's very unlikely a stone will end up there in actual play.

US Go Congress Day 0

Uneventful flight to Richmond followed by 1-hour minivan shuttle to Williamsburg. Many Boston players were attending the congress, including on my plane Mr C 5d, an older Korean gentleman who moved to the US 4 years ago (I'll generally use initials for relative anonymity). Mr C regularly put me to shame all week by fearlessly plunging into conversations with new people where I am likely to hold back.

The rain was torrential as we arrived, and throughout the week the weather alternated between heavy rain and mere 100% humidity. Luckily we were inside most of the time. After a mediocre meal in the cafeteria (next time, no meal plan!) was the opening ceremony, during which I started a casual game with fellow Bostonian SM 6k, which we finished up after the ceremony ended. It was highly entertaining and featured the largest number of big exchanges of territory in one of my games that I can remember. I wrapped it up when, after sacrificing a big group on the right to totally shred Black in the lower left, I managed to save a fair portion of the sacrificed group:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . X O . O . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . X X O . O . X O O X . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . O X O O X O X X X X . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . X X X O O X . . . X |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . O . O X X X . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . X . . O O O O O . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . X X . . . X a X 1 X . X O . |
$$ | . . . , . O X . . , . . 5 2 4 X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . O . X . O . O c O O O b . |
$$ | . . X . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . X O . X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O X X O . X . . X . X . X . X . . |
$$ | . . X O O O O O X . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X X X X O . O . . O . O X O . . |
$$ | . . O . X O X . . . . . . O . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O O O . . . . . . . . O . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

If Black plays at a, I can connect under with b, so he played c, after which I played a. In the end I won by 16.5.

I had finished up my latest AYD season with even-game wins against a 4d (!) and a 1k (AGA), giving me a lot of confidence, but then hadn't really played for the last week, so I was happy to play this game to get my Go juices flowing again. I headed back to the depressing converted-motel dorm (next time, Airbnb!) to rest up for my first US Open game the next morning.

If Black plays like this, would he still have a game?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . X O . O . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . X X O . O . X O O X . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . O X O O X O X X X X . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . X X X O O X . . . X |
$$ | . O O . . . . . . . . . O . O X X X . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . X . . O O O O O . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . X X . . . X a X 1 X . X O . |
$$ | . . . , . O X . . , . . 4 2 5 X X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . O . X . O . O 6 O O O 7 . |
$$ | . . X . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . X O . X . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O X X O . X . . X . X . X . X . . |
$$ | . . X O O O O O X . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X X X X O 8 O . . O . O X O . . |
$$ | . . O . X O X . . . . . . O . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O O O . . . . . . . . O . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Good eye. Black did indeed get in later on and erased a lot; it was embarrassing of me not to have blocked that off earlier. However, I think he could have done a lot more damage than he did, and that may be coloring my view of how much territory White has at the bottom.

During this period I was attempting to count and was consciously avoiding looking too hard at that region, I guess fearing that the result would be disappointing. This is no way to play go, as Kageyama would say.

US Go Congress Day 1

My AGA rating going into the tournament was -4.1 (4k), though I have been up to -3.6 in the past. I intended to enter the tournament at 3k to get more challenging games, and I thought it would better reflect my current strength given my recent online and live non-tournament games, but the tournament director decided not to allow any self-promotions of fewer than 3 stones, which although disappointing was a decision I can understand. So I was in the tournament as a 4k and faced a veteran 4k in my first game (I don't think I played anyone between 25 and 70 the whole tournament). I was Black, and the defining position was this, after she played a 3-3 invasion in the upper right and made some weird followups:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Black to play
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X O . |
$$ | . . . X X O . . . O . . . . . X O O . |
$$ | . . X , O O . . . , . . . . . X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . X a . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O O O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . O . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I can block at a, killing White locally but allowing her to push and cut giving me a weak group on either side, or do something like extend at the top, make her play a move to live, and try to outplay her from there. My weakness in generally is playing slackly, so after a fair amount of cogitation I decided that I had to try to play the principled move and indeed played a. I played well in the subsequent fight but did use up a lot of time. At one point she apologized for not resigning, which is the kind of behavior I really don't approve of; either resign or play on! Anyway, she got a fair amount of center territory during the counterattack as compensation for the kill, but I thought I had more than enough points on the board, so coasted to the end of the game, even playing a couple of those DDK -1 point in gote moves to make absolutely sure that I didn't lose the game due to a stupid endgame error... and lost by 0.5 points. I told you my weakness is playing slackly! Neither of us could believe it. She very kindly noted that she didn't beat me, I beat myself. Thanks!

I get really wound up before tournament games but while I'm playing them I'm usually relatively calm, and I tend not to flip out about the result. Still, this was pretty disappointing, although I think I was supernaturally gracious in defeat. It didn't help that I went to a pro game review session after lunch to get it reviewed but someone cut me in the virtual line and the session ended before the pro got to my game.

I had thought about not drinking all week in order to really maximize my ability, but at that evening's dinner with Boston folks I really needed a beer, and had one. After that it was off to a lecture of In-seong Hwang of the American Yunguseng Dojang, where I have been a member for over a year. I had never met him in person, and his live lecture was even more engaging than his online ones. Afterwards he set up in the lobby and did live game reviews for AYD members, which was a really great experience. As good as his online game reviews are, it's a qualitatively different thing to have him in front of you. I think he really enjoyed having a bunch of live humans around instead of just talking into a headset in his home, and was kind of hamming it up, which we all lapped up. I managed to get a review of my first round game (basically, I played well, including the decision in the above diagram, but then really slacked off), so in retrospect I was happy not to have been able to get a review earlier.

Energized by the reviews and my fellow AYD members, I went back to the dorm still feeling happy about go despite my loss and excited to do my best the next day.

US Go Congress Day 2

In the morning was round 2 of the US Open. This was a McMahon tournament, so as an 0-1 4k I was going to play either another 0-1 4k or a 1-0 5k. It turned out to be the latter, who was another veteran (at the awards banquet, he was given a prize for largest age discrepancy between opponents for a game he played with some kid). Playing Black, I was immediately suspicious here:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ Position at move 12
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . W , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . b . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . X O . a . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I wanted to play a, and thought I remembered that this was supposed to be the "punishment", but was unaccountably worried about White b (I just cut and have a fun fight while White scrambles to live in the corner), so I tenukied. Later on I got to split White's group on the left and had fun chasing it for a while. I think the turning point was this sequence, which I was pretty proud of:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Moves 61 to 67
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 7 . 6 1 2 O O X . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . O . 5 4 . O X X O . . |
$$ | . . X , O . . . . , 3 . . O . X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . O O O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O , . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . O X X O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | O . O X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . X , O . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . O . . X . . . X O . . . |
$$ | . . O . O . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

In an instant, White's top, which used to look like a nice framework, has become no points and two weak groups. In-seong pointed out later that should have been one point higher and should have been one point to the right (to separate better), but I was still happy to have come up with the concept. I attempted to kill the top left group and failed, then attempted to kill the top right group and succeeded. This time I counted carefully and knew for sure that I could afford to give away plenty of points while making absolutely sure all of my groups were strong, and then when everything was winding down peacefully and I was in byo-yomi while filling dame, my opponent plopped down this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ Position at move 246
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . X X O . O X X X X X X O . O . . . |
$$ | . . X O O X O X O X X O X O O O X . . |
$$ | . . X X O O O O O . X O O O X X O . . |
$$ | . . X O O O O X O , X O . O . X X . . |
$$ | . . . X X O X X O O X X . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O X X X O X . O O O X W . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X O X O X X X X X . . . . |
$$ | . . X X O . X O O O X . X O X . . . . |
$$ | . X X O O O O . O O X X O O X . . X . |
$$ | . X O O O X X O . O O O O X X X X . . |
$$ | . O X X O O X O O O X X O X O X O X X |
$$ | O . O X X X X X O O O X X X O O O O X |
$$ | . O O O X . O X X O O O X O . . . O O |
$$ | O . . O X X X O X X X X X O O . O . . |
$$ | X O O X . X O O O X . . . X O . . . . |
$$ | X X X X X X O O X X X X X X X O O . . |
$$ | X O X O O O . O O O X O O X X O . . . |
$$ | X O O . O . . . . X O O . O O O . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

My heart rate doubled over the next 30 seconds, but everything continued to work by one liberty and I won by 35.5 points.

In the afternoon I went to another couple of In-seong's lectures. At one point the fire alarm went off during what was downtime for me but was the middle of round 2 of the Senior Tournament. I hope everybody knew how to stop their clocks. Outside I spotted DN 6k (swannod here) who I had briefly met in the 2016 Congress in Boston, along with his friend IC 9k, and had a very nice conversation; we continued to hang out regularly while they were around (they both had to leave before the event was over). You can read his own account of the Congress starting here. When the smoke cleared (see what I did there?), it turned out that my Boston compatriot Mr C 5d was now 2-0 in the Senior Tournament, which he was pretty pleased by.

Another pleasant dinner ensued with Boston folks and AYD member LS 7k and her husband DG 10k, who happened to be at the next table over when we arrived, and then it was off to see In-seong face Facebook's AlphaGo Zero-inspired ELF OpenGo at 7pm. Facebook was running "simuls" for a few days where lots of people got to play ELF and I had already seen a few friends get slaughtered. In-seong was clearly taking it very seriously, thinking for a long time at various points, and the game got very complicated, with lots of possible exchanges in the air all the time. Unfortunately there were some errors on the ELF side (not clear whether it was due to the operator or the interface), and a couple of times the operator had to back up and replay a move, which wasn't always the same as the one ELF chose last time! One of these happened right after In-seong had thought for a really long time, and if I had been him I might have ragequit. I intended to stay for the whole thing but left near 10pm when it was clear that things were still going strong, and I guess it went well past 11pm. ELF ended up winning by 1.5 points, but as you probably know it plays very slackly in the endgame when it knows it will win, so it wasn't quite as close as it looked.

I was happy to have pulled myself out of my 0-1 hole and was looking forward to my round 3 game the next morning, but perhaps looking forward even more to the off day that came afterwards.

Isn't the capture clean enough?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Position at move 246
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . X X O . O X X X X X X O . O . . . |
$$ | . . X O O X O X O X X O X O O O X . . |
$$ | . . X X O O O O O . X O O O X X O 2 . |
$$ | . . X O O O O X O , X O . O . X X . . |
$$ | . . . X X O X X O O X X . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O X X X O X . O O O X 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X O X O X X X X X . . . . |
$$ | . . X X O . X O O O X . X O X . . . . |
$$ | . X X O O O O . O O X X O O X . . X . |
$$ | . X O O O X X O . O O O O X X X X . . |
$$ | . O X X O O X O O O X X O X O X O X X |
$$ | O . O X X X X X O O O X X X O O O O X |
$$ | . O O O X . O X X O O O X O . . . O O |
$$ | O . . O X X X O X X X X X O O . O . . |
$$ | X O O X . X O O O X . . . X O . . . . |
$$ | X X X X X X O O X X X X X X X O O . . |
$$ | X O X O O O . O O O X O O X X O . . . |
$$ | X O O . O . . . . X O O . O O O . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

It is indeed. I was in byo-yomi (and am not the best reader) and played differently, which ended with White extending that stone out but losing the capturing race. In fact many moves work for Black. Tell that to a 4k with 30 seconds on his clock, though!