Close loss

[Aidoneus]

I lost this game this morning by 1.5 (including 0.5 komi), too close for me to accurately estimate at the end. I played MFoG at 3 kyu, 9 stones, 30 minutes each. Besides losing my advantage between moves 30 to 60, I think the final difference was not knowing what to do with my isolated stone on the right side. Can anyone give me some variations or maybe point me in the direction of advice on living deep inside territory? The way MFoG kept playing inside makes me think I might have used that stone somehow. Again, thanks to anyone who has the patience to instruct me!

[DrStraw]

All the W moves against the side stone towards the end were unnecessary. There was nothing you could do.

Some general comments are probably most appropriate. Before every move ask yourself three questions:

1. What will happen if I don't play here? Many of your moves are defensive moves which are not needed . Not only do they lose one point, they lose sente.

2. What am I trying to do with this move? Many of you moves seem to be automatic reaction to the previous W move.

3. Now that I know what I am trying to do, is there a better way to achieve it? In many cases you played in the correct area but could have gained a point or two with a different move. For example, at least twice you connected a ko instead of capturing a stone.

These three questions will not eliminate all the mistakes, but they will eliminate a lot and set you on the road to improvement.

[Aidoneus]

These three questions will not eliminate all the mistakes, but they will eliminate a lot and set you on the road to improvement.

Thanks DrStraw. Yeah, I played way too fast. I miss-clicked a couple times (still sipping my first cup of coffee) and overlooked capturing at move 112, etc. Looking now, I see that I had used less than 5 minutes for the game at that point. Because I had been playing with a computer time setting of 15 minutes, I got used to responding quickly. (Even though I now see that I had been playing with 60 minutes for a huge time handicap. )

OK, so MFoG makes pointless territory-filling moves, so I should have lost by even more at the end. How does that go, at least this is not another case of I don't know what I don't know... (How many negatives can I use in one sentence!)

[Bill Spight]

Some comments on the opening.



Main focus:

Avoid playing where you are already strong.

[Charles Matthews]

[quote="Aidoneus"] Besides losing my advantage between moves 30 to 60, I think the final difference was not knowing what to do with my isolated stone on the right side.

You need to put stones on the fourth line in the opening stages, as a platform to the centre. The program certainly uses a lot of bad style at close quarters: this is not where you are losing out.

The weakness of fourth-line stones in a nine-stone game is on the second line, generally. You'll learn more by encountering those tricks, though, than by trying to hold onto corner areas that aren't big enough to win.

[Aidoneus]

Thank you Charles. I want to say how much I have enjoyed your writing, even if it doesn't show in my play! I think that I owe you some money!! My first book was a library copy of your introduction to Go, then a copy of Shape Up! and your series of articles On Your Side from gobase.org.

[Aidoneus]

Hi Bill, thank you for your very lucid comments. In addition to a bad habit of falling in love with kicking, I can see that I need to work much more on separating White's stones, which shouldn't be that hard in a 9-stone handicap game! (And keeping mine connected, of course.) And I need to stop playing unnecessary moves, where I'm strong, instead of large moves elsewhere.