So I'm coming to the end of the BIBA online study month. I've played 6 games (4 losses and 2 wins, including a surprising one against Benjamin D-G French 6d) and even did some of the homework problems (will try to finish them next month). The reviews from Blackie were good, but the teaching game was rather a missed opportunity as I suicided early.

I also played another European team game, which I ended up winning by half a point! Here's my synopsis:





And Crazy Sensei analysis (it thought I did actually fall behind in middle-game which seems plausible, and then caught up in endgame): https://www.crazy-sensei.com/?lang=en&g ... ation=game

Last weekend was the first stage of the British Championship and (having got permission from the boss to play) qualified for the next stage (8 player round robin Challengers' league) with 5 wins out of 6 which sounds good, but actually I played rather poorly and had easy opponents (all wins against people > 2 stones weaker) so am not particularly confident about the first goal above. I didn't beat any of the other 7 qualifiers (dhu did well and won the tournament with 6 wins and beat 5 of them, maybe he'll post soon) and lost to Andrew Kay (tried to have fun in the opening and lost early) so actually lost rating points despite 5/6 down to 2363 (meaning dhu overtakes me), so 2400 is a way off. Interestingly enough the 7 qualifiers are exactly the top 7 entrants by rating (excluding Walter Gregory 2d who hasn't played in 20 years so his grade is probably too high (though he did give Andrew Kay a decent fight) over Tim Hunt who was 10 points lower). And I've not played on KGS. So a rather unsatisfactory warm up for the Challengers' league, I'll need to play a lot better to do well in it.

P.S. one of my wins was against Sam Bithell 1k, a relatively new player from the Milton Keynes and Cambridge clubs. I had beaten him on 4 stones at the club recently, but failed to clinically kill him and he did well with 3 wins: it's for good experiences like this it's nice to let 1ks play in the Candidates.

My 2nd game from Candidates (because it was broadcast and some people having trouble with sgf):



Game 3 against Andrew Kay, the only strong player I played in the tournament. Funnily enough also ended by resign at move 107, but really it was lost already at move 20. My decision making sucks.

I added a few comments. For example, there were many better ways in kay's game, and he played overly aggressively.

Andrew, in your game against Andrew Kay, if white play at N18, seems to me it's (W)eye vs (B)no eye and white at least get a favorable ko out of it?

Good point, I was too emotional to look so far from his last move. I might not even have been in overtime, I can't recall. I did feel he played unnecessarily aggressively after my disastrous start and could have given me a chance in that fight, but as the game was bad for me I was mentally weak and expecting to lose so didn't try so hard to win, essentially playing out the resign. Andrew K on the other hand never gives up and fights hard to reverse games he is losing.

Yes this can happen even to the top pros! I especially remember the famous "early resignation" by Qian Yuping against Kobayashi Koichi when he was actually half point ahead. He was just too upset with some of his plays to objectively assess his position.

Played the last Euro teams game of the season, lost to Alessandro Pace of Italy (who was top of BIBA group B). Opening felt good for me, but then did the classic endgame move you hope is sente that isn't in a fight. Some comments/variations in the sgf.





One position/move I want to understand better is that below. Lee Sedol played the tiger mouth connection of and I did the same, rather than pole connection at a, or hanging connection at b. I can see how b emphasises centre thickness/shape (it's common for black to peep that cut later, or in my game he just cut and killed me a lot later) but does have the downside of some cutting aji starting with the black empty triangle at 1 or a. As white has made the marked slide for 3-3 exchange (normally a no-no in another order with the jump out of pincer joseki, but here compensated for by the pleasant press on the top and black's approach from the wrong side at top left) you don't want black to cut there as you can't dodge to the 3-3 point as you could without the exchange, so I can see the downside of that. But what is the downside of pole connection? The upside is there is no peep to the left of a, nor would c be an atari after the cut, and that could help deal with the cut (in fact the cut would still be devastating in my game, but it could make quite a difference in another fight. So why did Lee play the tiger mouth? It takes a liberty from the black group, but that doesn't make the cut after d work. I can see it makes a little more eyeshape, and as Lee likes to let his groups get weak and then magically live maybe that's why. Or is it making e not sente, and thus black can't so easily poke through the elephant eye at f to break into the centre (if he does white can break into the top side, though maybe black can play g first).

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . X . X X . . B . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O O . . X . W . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . f . e . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . c O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . b . O X . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O d . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

There's also this similar 3-4 joseki where I once played the same tiger mouth and the centre peep at a caused big troubles later; following which I vowed to never play tiger mouth but pole connection again in the future! Again why is this "the joseki" move rather than pole connection? (Not many pro examples though).

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ -------------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . O . . . .
$$ . . X . X X X . O X . . .
$$ . . . O O O X 1 . , X . .
$$ . . . . . . O . O . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . a . X . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Edit: I just realised one other advantage of the tiger mouth connection is you can safely cut black's 2nd line attachment, if it's the pole connection black could break through at a:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . X . X X . . X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O O . . X . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . O a O 1 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 3 2 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

In fact it seems Lee Sedol utilised this later in the game when black ended up being forced to live submissively with kosumi there (though it also takes white's eyeshape, and Park did end up playing a to attack the whole white group, but he resigned when he went all-in and failed to kill it). It's impressive that despite getting the honte push up, Park's group there later got under pressure.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . X . X X . . X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . O O . . X . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . 1 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . X , X . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . X . X O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . O O O X . X O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . X X O . O X X . . . |
$$ | . . X . . O O O . . . O . O X . O . . |
$$ | . . O O O X X . X X X . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O X X . . . X O O O . O O , X . . |
$$ | . O X O . X . . O . . . . O X X . . . |
$$ | . X X . . . . . . . O . X X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

Looks like B got away with all 3 of his shock contact moves - at C9, O7, and K10.

Yes, the 1st one was a surprise, my feeling is probably not good at pro level, and I think hane above was correct, but maybe not my leaning. If not e2 I think I have a fine result. o7 was a surprise, though I was half expecting o6. Looks a good move: I think I should hane below. k10 I half expected, but no time to plan response. Should play faster!

Yeah C9 can't really be good, your E8 looks like a good idea, my first feeling was C8, though lean can't be too bad.

vs. O7, in hindsight, your extend doesn't look good, so I think O8, double hane. it seems that after you did O8 in the game, you had to extend

O7 does look like a good move, comparing to the standard O6

vs K10 probably directly cut at E7

K10 doesn't look good