Game for review

[jts]

I never am able to remember to make .sgf's of my club games these days, so I'm never able to get criticism from you guys. (And am not getting much better at remembering my games, either, when you get right down to it.) However, this game was played out as an .sgf while a friend and I waited to start our matches at a Go event.



21: The following sequence does not look good for B. But it's hard to say what would be better. M3, C3, F3... none of them look super exciting for B, but they at least have the advantage of not being outright bad.

23: Apparently not joseki; counter-hane is better.

N.B., 53 has a misclick variation

62: Seems to be a mistake in direction for W.

76: From this point the sequence on the right side seems to have a broad branching/ interposition factor. I'm not at all confident either B or W played soundly.

86: Seems to be slow for W. W didn't see Q4.

169: A bad and dangerous mistake for B? Giving up C14 gets sente to connect.

202: W took a mulligan on his ko threat, so there is a misclick variation.

212: Misread.

223: Misread. J8 is best for B?

247: A mistake for B: I think after this B loses his sente at A10...

257: Another endgame mistake for B? Probably worth two points.

[Joaz Banbeck]

7: A pincer ( probably 2-space high ) looks like a perfect dual-purpose move.

9: A teeny bit slack. D15 is big. R8 is probably sente.

13: Maybe the avalanch with D16? You have the ladder. I'd like to hear from someone better than I at this joseki.

21: You are solid on the left and in the lower right. I'd go for something a bit more enterprising, like F3.

[jts]

Thanks, Joaz. You're definitely right that if k17 is slack, 9 should be a pincer. Can you suggest some ideas with the 2-space high? I've seen the orthodox fuseki lead to the two space low pincer often enough, so I may have a prejudice.

My thought with k17 was that it's an interesting way to leave W without great options. At the time I was avoiding r8 because I was still thinking over the implications of W's weird jump on the right side, but I guess it's senseless to try to use the aji of that long jump without playing r8 first.

Avalanche: yes, it seems perfect, I don't know what I was thinking. I was happy with my result, so it didn't occur to me to look for an even better one. It's actually hard to get comfy with the avalanche because chances to use it rarely come up in my games.

Interesting that you like f3. I guess just as a low-cost reduction, it has certain merits.

[EdLee]

maybe 3-3 is simple (and good?) ?

[Bill Spight]

A few comments on the opening.

[otenki]

Bill Spight,

I wonder why you think w6 is wrong.

Normaly the wedge you sugest is wrong because black can aproach the hoshi stone on the top left and make a framework in sente. Howhever I agree since there is no hoshi stone in the top left this framework creation with the wedge is possible.

So I do agree that the wedge is possible in this board because of the 3-4 stone at the top left but I don't see why it would be better.

Can you elaborate ?

Thanks,
Otenki

[Uberdude]

Bill Spight,

I wonder why you think w6 is wrong.

Because he's old-fashioned . It used to be that wedge was normal and approach was considered bad as a pincer is nice, but pro opinion has changed to generally favour the approach.

Also in Bill's reviews when he says "see variation" I don't know whether he means "that was bad, variation is better", or "that was ok, here's another choice".

[Bill Spight]

Bill Spight,

I wonder why you think w6 is wrong.

Because he's old-fashioned . It used to be that wedge was normal and approach was considered bad as a pincer is nice, but pro opinion has changed to generally favour the approach.

Also in Bill's reviews when he says "see variation" I don't know whether he means "that was bad, variation is better", or "that was ok, here's another choice".

I believe that the wedge variation is jts's.

And I cannot say that the wedge is wrong. IIRC, it has a pretty good track record in the pro databases.

As for suggesting variations without comment, I have a couple of reasons. First, players often do not even consider all of their reasonable options. Sometimes they do not even consider the right play. So often I will show possibilities. Second, I may prefer a variation, but not strongly. So I just show the possibility and let the player make up his or her mind. A soft sell. Third, I may think that a variation is better, and I think that the player should be able to see that or figure it out. In such cases I think that it is better to let them do that.

[jts]

Yes, I should say that perhaps one-third of the games I play against this particular opponent involve the orthodox fuseki, and invariably W plays R14, which inevitably leads to him generously explaining to me during the review that R10 is wrong, which, (a) it's not really wrong! and (b) neither of us played R10! Naturally when we were reviewing after this game, that was the first variation he wanted to explore. There are other variations from our review at 61, 83, 84, and 256.

Thanks for the review, Bill. Lots of interesting ideas.

[EdLee]

...which inevitably leads to him generously explaining to me during the review that...

What's his approx. level, do you happen to know ?

[drmwc]

Bottom left after your diversion:

$$B
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . 7 . 2 . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . O 1 . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . 5 X O 4 . . . O . . .
$$ | . . . . 3 6 . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ -------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

$$B variation for W
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . 6 . O 1 . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . 5 X O 4 8 . . O . . .
$$ | . . . . 3 7 9 . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ -------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B variation for W
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . 6 . O 1 . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . 5 X O 4 8 . . O . . .
$$ | . . . . 3 7 9 . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ -------------------------[/go]

I would take the corner after the cross cut, which looks OK for B. In the first diagram, the stone retains a lot of aji. In the seond, B gets a big corner whilst reducing W significantly.

If you don't want to take the corner, this may be the best move:

$$B
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . O 1 . . . . 5 . . .
$$ | . . . X O 4 . . 3 O . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ -------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . .
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . O 1 . . . . 5 . . .
$$ | . . . X O 4 . . 3 O . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ -------------------------[/go]

W can't resist strongly, or he will collapse. But he or she is likely to get a big corner whilst you break up the side efficiently.

I think these variations mean that W 2 in reply to the crosscut is a mistake - I would play at 4, although an atari may be possible (it would need some reading).

[jts]

Thank you for the idea ... not sure why I didn't consider giving atari from the other direction! Your variations make it looks so simple and elegant.