SamT's Study Journal - A Beginner's Journey

[Koosh]

Dragon Hunting is great. You'll get plenty of that if you follow that priority rule. Your opponents will feel pressure from your good moves and start invading everywhere. That's when you load up the ol'dragon arrows.

The whole "profit while attacking" concept can be a little tough to perfect. Wish I knew it well, for starters. The basic principle there is to choose an attack that surrounds on the outside rather than throwing a dagger to the inside (until you have no choice but to do otherwise). If the group escapes, it is no longer weak, and if you attack from the outside a couple of times, you often build a moyo.

[SamT]

Simple when you say it, harder to do, right? I will definitely memorize the priority rules. I've been looking for a sort of checklist to go through every turn, to build better habits, and it seems to be a good framework for a start.

[SamT]

I'm glad you're finding a way to enjoy the game of Go. Best of luck with your continued recovery and never ending journey in the game!

thanks, jeromie!

[SamT]

I've been playing a little against Crazy Stone 2013 (which isn't very strong, I hear, but plenty strong to beat me).

I'm not sure what specifically I could do better, beyond magically becoming better at reading and shape. Kind of frustrated.

Here's a game.

[EdLee]

Hi Sam,

How do you feel about this move ?

I'm not sure what specifically I could do better... Kind of frustrated.

At , let's do a quick inventory of the global situation.

Here are some questions.
( I could be wrong ; these are only my observations and feelings. )

What do you think of your top left C17 group ?

It's OK, for now. It has a base, and it can still get out if necessary.

What about W's top left stones ?

Its shape could use some help, but it's OK for now.

For each of B & W's top left groups, what are some interesting local moves ?

C18 is a big local shared vital point.
If B gets C18 first, B is practically alive, while B threatens to remove W's base.
If W gets C18 first, W starts to make a base, and threatens to remove B's eye space.

On the outside, W can improve its shape with F16 or F15, etc.
Conversely, if W doesn't fix its shape, B has moves like F17 clamp, F16 peep, F15 peep, etc.

How do you feel about W's K17 and o17 stones ?

If W adds a move, like M16, then this group is settled.
As it stands, this 3-space extension is a little thin ;
however, W can treat these 2 stones lightly.

Conversely, M17 is a vital point for B.

How do you feel about B's top right group ?

R14 is low, so this group is more cash-oriented.

If the extension is high (Q14), then it has more power toward the center,
and M17 becomes more severe as a vital point vs. W.

How do you feel about your lower left group ?

The knight's F4 has pros and cons.
The downside includes some weakness.
Examples: E3 through H3 are weak points for B.

How do you feel about W's lower left group ?

W's 3-space extension makes a nice shape for W.
This group is settled, for now.

[EdLee]

Continuing at :

Other than B & W's groups, which big moves do you see ?
And how do you feel about them ?

R6 direction and o3 direction are the obvious big directions,
since the bottom and the right side are the widest open areas.

Since R14 is low and F4 is high (with weakness, re: previous post),
I think o3 direction is more interesting than R6 direction.

These are some of the things I consider at (re: previous post, & this post).
I'm curious how much your observations overlap with mine,
and maybe you notice some things not mentioned ?

Given this inventory, how do you feel about now ?

My feeling is is a bit slow. (I could be wrong)

Of course, it's not a game-over move, esp. not at these levels.

I'd consider tenuki -- example: o3 approach.

[EdLee]

Hi Sam,

W hits a weak spot. Re: post 215.

W shows you the weakness(es) of the F4 knight's shape. Re: post 215.

And you are cut off.
There's still weakness in your corner: B3.

[EdLee]

I'm not sure what specifically I could do better... Kind of frustrated.

At , let's do an inventory of the board again.

Before and , how do you feel about W's lower left group ? ( Repeat question. )

Re: post 215. It has a nice extension, it has a base, but it's not alive (yet).

By , how do feel about your cash situation on the left ?

You gain a very small amount of cash on the left ( B9 area ).

By , how do you feel about W's lower left situation ?

In contrast to B, because W cut off your E4-F4 stones,
W is much stronger now -- if you choose to run your E4-F4 stones,
it starts a big fight, but maybe the B stones feel heavy.
( The fight seems good for W. )

By , how do you feel about your lower left corner ? (Repeat question.)

Re: post 217. Weakness at B3.

[EdLee]

In summary (dead horse),
let's compare and contrast the lower left situation,
before & , versus after :

Before & :

• W's group is OK ( not strong, not weak ) ;
• B has weakness (e.g. E3 through H3), but manageable ;
• B has sente to approach o3 first ( helping F4 from a distance ).

After :

• B gains very few points B9 area ;
• W much stronger ;
• B lower left corner weakness (B3) -- if not careful, this corner could die ;
• W's new strength actually indirectly helps with W's weakness on top, as any fight that breaks out on top may run into W's strength here.

[EdLee]

Hi Sam,

Most likely there are many more (tactical, reading) mistakes after .

But as an exercise in global inventory,
I'm curious if you can now see the difference of the whole board situation at , and at .

Can you now see that the net result of ( & ) by the time of is you gained very few points around B9 area. ( Ignoring that later you killed yourself there, and lost even the tiny gain. )

And the fact that at your eyeballs were drawn to and --
if you can understand this perception issue --
the left side is very small. This may change your game.

[EdLee]

Hi Sam,

- My feeling is this is not a good exchange for you.
Can you see that if you leave your R6 stone on the board,
then later, the situation may arise that you can benefit with the S6 descend.
If W blocks on the outside S7, then you can connect back with S5.
If W blocks with S5, then you have 2 options:
you can crawl starting with S7 (if it's useful for you),
or, you can do your atari, but since you have the S7 drop,
you gain an extra atari at S8!

In the future, it's possible your S7 drop can turn W into a not-alive group!
But after ( - ), you help W remove his bad aji (S6 stone);
you once again make W much stronger than before.

- Bad habit. ( Bad computer habit ; also common beginner bad habit ).
W self-reduces liberties.

[EdLee]

( skipping ahead... )

- Bad exchange. Bad shape for B.
Basic broken shape for B.
See also Toothpaste and related pages.

Confused. ( You're losing points for no good reason. ) Locally, just connect.

( skipping ahead... )

146 - 147 Strange. Study the local end-game variations if you reply at B2.
( Your C9 stones also wouldn't have died. )

[SamT]

Thank you Ed!

I am sorry I haven't responded yet, but I am still digesting all of this. This is great info.

When you had me cycle through the groups, my observations lined up with yours (except I did not know about the weaknesses in the knights move at the lower left (they were obvious once you pointed them out)).

Once you had me walk through the decision making process, O3 became obvious to me as well.

I think it is obvious that I am not playing the opening in the right order; I am playing moves to open up invasion points, but I am playing them way too early. while bigger moves are move available.

I have a plan to start working on this bad habit; I am making a flowchart i will try to step through on every move for several games. Hopefully this will make me assess the situation better and reduce my chances of playing so very slowly in the opening.

.....

Still absorbing your other posts. Will respond soon.

Thank you again!

[SamT]

Hey Ed -

In regards to the situation after 36, I see that it is not good for me. After that I felt i was desperately trying to play catchup all game.

Moving on to the lower right:

Understanding that the result in the lower right is not good for me either is currently difficult for me, but I think I can see it. I see that I'm pressed down, that my stones outside are weak. His stones are strong and combine well with the center.

I knew the moves I took after the double approach joseki were aji-keshi, but I took them because I had no idea how to use whatever aji was left. The stones just looked dead to me. I think I see a better way to use the stone in endgame now, but I was mostly afraid that white would just take the stone and I would be faced with a ponnuki and no stones around to limit its influence. Basically, I realized my own ignorance, and I tried to work around it.

It still did not work, as the stones were later killed.

I guess my sense of direction and positional judgement are very poor here.

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Moving on to the loss of the two stones on the side in endgame... I worked on this for quite a while and I couldn't come up with a way to save the stones. My corner is so weak that if I take the time to connect the two stones, it seems like my corner just ends up dead.


I know the way to save is probably blatantly obvious to most of you, but I am blind to it.

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Thank you for all the great feedback looking at the game.

[SamT]

Today's game, improved. Only losing by 9.5 instead of 25+. Gotta be getting a little better right? (I know that's not true).