As a general point, I think you should respect your opponent's play less. You answered most of his moves as though they were good reasonable moves and you should find a reasonable reply. But he is 14k and lots of his moves are crap. Tenuki is often the best answer. He ignored your shoulder hit on the left side, you should be looking for sente to play c10 to punish that very soon: q5 was ok but I might even have tenukid then, q7 I wanted to tenuki but q9 looks dangerous so r10 bump like Bill said and then I would c10 if white s11 rather than n5. The appropriate response to q7 is mocking laughter, not fear.

Thanks for all the input, I'll try to take it to heart, especially the attacking advice.



ignoring would imply that I knew where it was


@Uberdude:
I'll try to tenuki more often, though me being at the same level as my opponents, its often hard for me to judge when the moves they play are bad

It is better to have tenukied and lost than never to have tenukied at all.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Game time, I looked it over an the following comes to mind:

- The attack on the top black group gave me some 6th line territory, but the health of my own group kinda suffered, so this might not have been executed too well, even though it worked out fine in the end
- Blacks center mojo was way too impressive, I ended up reducing it enough to win, but maybe it got too big in the first place.

Overall I think that conceptually the game was one of my stronger ones, but even though I ended up winning the execution was kinda lacking in places.

As always, any pointers are welcome.

A few comments on the opening.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

You can have no better reviewer for the opening than Bill, so I am not going to comment on it and take care of the middle game instead.

As always, thanks for the help.

Seems like I need to surround more and try to kill less, my bloodlust has been getting the better of me for quite some time now, gotta turn that down a little.

How to kill:

1. surround
2. look for cuts in the position
3. reduce eyespace
4. play vital point

1. even if you don't kill, the opponent living small is usually already a success
2. two strings have a harder time living than one
3. smaller eyespaces are more difficult to turn into 2 eyes
4. to turn 1 eyespace to 1 eye

Of course these are heuristics. Sometimes the game requires you to kill big even if it seems impossible. In that case you may have to reverse the order and see where the big dragon ends up. Other times you may reduce to one eye and chase the group, profiting in the process. But usually surrounding and forcing to live small is the easiest profit: you end up with influence or even thickness, while the opponent needs to play an extra move in his terrirory.

New game, I won, but only barely. I feel like I was ahead most of the game, but suddenly a black mojo showed up up on the left side and it came down to komi. Also the top right was kinda messed up, I think it went ok for me, but I'm pretty sure I could have gotten more out of it. As always all comments are welcome.

Some questions for your consideration.

How do you feel about the position after ?

Why did you choose ?

How do you feel about the position after ?

Why did you choose and ?

How do you feel about the position after ?

Why didn’t you sacrifice the two stones with ?

What happens if connects at P-15? Play around with the position.

What happens in the corner if you do not play ?

How do you feel about the position after White 102? Which is more urgent now, the bottom side or the left side?

White 144 is a mistake. What is a better play to capture the three Black stones?

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Questions beg for answers

28: Pretty good actually, I got in two approach moves while he has none, he failed to seal me into the corner and I got a wall with a weak stone next to it, so plenty of prospects for an attack.

32: I failed to find a good attacking move (attacking is probably my 2nd biggest weakness) so I decided to try to grow my wall and give it some security, I have an irrational fear of my walls dying. I also was hoping for some kind of enlightenment and hoping of still finding a move to attack D8.

37: Definitely worse than before. I still like my position more, but even in the game I recognized that I missed a chance to profit there (somehow).

44+46: These moves I quite liked (and I still do actually). I went with R14 instead of Q14 so I wouldn't be undercut after black plays R12. And P14 seemed like a natural splitting move.

52: After that move I was 99% sure that the game was mine(barring any screw ups obviously). I think I have more cash and I didn't see any good opportunity for black to build something big(he proved me wrong....).

60: Good question, I considered it during the game but thought that trying to kill the black stones around R12 would be more feasible, and if he wants to link under I could just take the influence anyway. Also I wasn't quite sure how much center influence at this point would have been worth. Looking at it now it makes a lot of sense to get another wall there and then just invade the left side for the win. But in the game I didn't see that the left side would get as big, since at this point black was still somewhat undercut and an invasion looked possible, even without a strong white wall on the right side.

78: Stuff like this I tend to ignore. I was considering the move during the game, but couldn't read it out so I decided to go for the one that seemed to be working. Reading is what I right now consider my No. 1 weakness (and considering that it seems to be the only area that is not improving it will probably always stay that way).

98: Again reading. I could probably figure it out right now with some visual aid, but until I'm able to read this out in my games the two options I see are: Memorize it or ignore it in favor of something that I can actually improve.

102: Still looking good for me, even though the top could have gone better. Now was probably the time to go towards the left side, but I underestimated how much black could still get there.

144: Reading . But from just looking at it J10 seems to do the trick. In the game I was too nervous to consider shaky moves at that point, since the position went from "Yeah I got this easily" to "damn its gonna be a nailbiter" in a couple of moves.


Thanks for all the good questions, forces me to think about the game again (even though I probably should do that anyways...)

IMO, the exchange, - , is good for Black . True, the influence of the Black stones is muted by the White stone on O-03, but they are still more effective than the added White stones. In addition, Black gets sente and uses to shore up the Black stone on D-08. White has lost the opportunity to pincer than stone.

If you play high instead of low, and then Black approaches on the right side, you can attack the two Black stones fiercely. If Black defends those stones instead of approaching, you can extend on the right side and make more points than if were low.

After my feeling is that the game is close. White has frittered away an early edge by slow and lukewarm play. White does not have much of an attack now against the Black group on the top side, so does not gain much. My inclination would be to use the strength of the White wall in the bottom left to invade the left side at D-10.



Reading out that situation is not so easy at your level. However, if connects, the cut off Black stones have only two dame, If you play around with the position you could learn some interesting things.



You are kind of hung up on reading. If I were asking about , then yes, this is a difficult reading problem. But at the position is one that I believe is well within your capabilities to figure out during a game, and certainly within your capabilities to figure out in the post mortem.

At move 102 White has a won game. As for the whether the left side or the bottom side is more urgent, the game proved that the left side is. It is possible to tell that just by looking. White had chances at moves 106 and 118 to do something about the left side but played on the bottom side instead. How could White have done something about the left side?



Well, as you realized, there is not much reading involved. White 144 at K-10 is one of those shaky moves that make the game a nail biter. It allows Black to play atari at H-11 and then allows Black to push at H-10, swallowing the White stone on G-11. By contrast White 144 at J-10 would threaten to capture the Black stone on H-12 and would save the White stone on G-11. The difference is huge.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I agree with Bill on this issue. As long as you take the attitude, "I can't read", you will be right!

At 138 you had a golden opportunity to squeeze Black with 2 below instead of connecting at 3. This is such a fundamental tactic in Go that, yes, you should memorize it if that's what it takes. Black cannot resist in the diagram below. If Black tries to block at 'a', White cuts at 'b'. Note that White's cut at 'c' is waiting, another basic tactic that came into existence when you cut with H14.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc The big squeeze, 5 at the marked stone
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . X |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O X . . X O O O X O |
$$ | . . . O O . . . . O X . . X O O X X O |
$$ | . O O X X O O O . O . . . X X O O O O |
$$ | . X X . c X X X O 4 . X . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . X . . . . O X 1 2 . X X O X . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O X W 3 O O O X X X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . O X X O . O O O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . O . 6 X . O . . . . O O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . O . O O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 0 9 . . . O . . X X . |
$$ | . . . X . X . . a b . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O O . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . O O O . O . O X X . . . . . . X X . |
$$ | . . X O . . O X . . . . . . . X X O . |
$$ | . . X X O O X . X X . O . O X X O O . |
$$ | . . . . X X . . . O O . . . O O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

@Bill: Thanks for the clarifications. Also it seems like I need to work on my assessment on who is winning x.X

@ez4u: Damn those squeezes. When I do problems where I have to capture stones I rarely miss them, but if the capture isn't immediately apparent I tend to overlook them.

I just looked at the diagram again and my stones are nowhere near as weak as I thought in the game, panic-paK0 does not make smart decisions.

_________________________

On the thing with reading: I know its kind of a self fulfilling prophecy, but if I look on the time spent studying the different areas and how much I improved, reading easily comes out as the worst one.

How do you beat a paK0? Make as many weak groups as humanly possible, he doesn't know what to do with them anyways.

I probably resigned to early, but I was just really frustratet on how the game was going.

Hi pak0,

good. Proper shape and move.

too far. F4 or F3 is better.

good. Good extension and shape.

good ( but you missed the follow up at ... )

Study what happens if you cut instead at D3.
( Then if W ataris C3, you drop to D2. Study what happens next ?
Study the follow-ups. )

You resigned with 101
after a self atari at
and an unreasable cut at

Your frustration was clearly noticeable in these moves so the question is "where does the frustration come from".
I believe it is rooted in a misconception of what is yours, or "territory". When the opponent invades what is yours, you are hellbound on punishing him to the point of devastation, which obviously backfires.

In the opening there is no territory. Even a low enclosure is not fully secure. In the opening you put a stake in the ground which evolves into a sphere of influence. When the opponent invades it, you will take profit under any of these forms:

1. kill a few stones and solidify your groups
2. kill a few stones and solidify that area into territory
3. chase the group and build influence to the other side
4. chase the group and make territory on the other side
5. something else, like solidify your positions while the opponent is left with the burden of a big weak group

only rarely does the position allow or call for a wholesale kill.

In this game, n° 4 happened but it didn't satisfy you because you thought the left was already yours, while chasing the top. So, at I think you thought you just "defended" your territory, while you were actually making territory in the process of attacking, which is a kind of profit.

Now, while a move like should bring the joy of profiting from an attack, in this position it was perhaps not the right choice because your own chasing group in the middle was weak. See the game for an alternative move, maintaining the chase but "giving up" the territory you thought was yours. In fact, while White may seem to be able and destroy that "territory", he may still die wholesale.

Correct me if I'm wrong and if this is not at all what you were thinking.
If you want sth tactical to chew on, look for a tesuji in the resign position to connect your top to the top left or the centre.

A few comments.



Edit: Added a couple of variations.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

@Ed: I will look into it, this shape recently showed up quite some times in my games for no apparent reason.

@Knotwilg: I know that you often don't attack to kill, but for profit. The problem in this case was that I could not see where my profit was coming from, so the only alternative that I saw was to actually kill something.

@Bill: Thanks for the variations, seems like I could have gotten a lot more if I would have been less attached to my stones on the right. I though I got rid of the habit of not keeping everything alive, but apparently not. Also nice to see the punishment on the bottom right, I knew something was there, but I couldn't figure it out in my game.



Thanks to all who continuously (or sporadically) give me reviews and advice, I promise to play a game sometimes that incorporates all of it

( my emphases )



Some time, if you're bored out of your wit,
re-embrace a bit the vastness of Go... here.