Go is hard when you keep falling behind early on

Calvin Clark · Post by **Calvin Clark** » Sun Apr 22, 2018 9:57 pm

I also don't think you need to pincer. I would think rather about blighting the right side. The following a idea has already been mentioned. It is also Leela Zero's preference (although it rates only slightly above directly invading the 3-3 at 'a', which should come as no surprise by now.

) In any case,

makes it harder for black to develop the right side.

Remember that you don't need to have a strategy against the strongest player in the world. It just has to work against your current opponent. I have spent too much time myself chasing percentages and magical beings much stronger than myself. Opponents of your level can be expected to continue at a, b, or c. Sure, they may try the avalanche, but in most cases, they will comply and you'll blight the right side in sente.

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But if you are afraid of them emphasizing the right side, you can always forestall it like this. (This is my idea and I doubt any engine would like it.) This a bit different from the game variation of the knight's move for

. If you care about Leela Zero's follow-ups, think of a, b, or c. If you like to chase ghosts, that is. But from a practical point of view, you can take sente. With a pincer, who knows who will end in sente? I don't.

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Post by **Joaz Banbeck** » Tue Apr 24, 2018 8:45 pm

Calvin Clark wrote:...you don't need to have a strategy against the strongest player in the world...

I disagree. Aiming low can result in substandard performance. Play the move that you would play to beat the strongest player in the world. When your opponent turns out to be not that strong, you will win even faster.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Tue Apr 24, 2018 9:00 pm

Here is another idea, one that I have used from time to time, but not in this specific case.

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extends along the side, in this case to make the Black wall inefficient.

is not only tempting, it is not small. Now White can play

, or perhaps "a" or "b".

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Tue Apr 24, 2018 9:04 pm

Joaz Banbeck wrote:
Calvin Clark wrote:...you don't need to have a strategy against the strongest player in the world...
I disagree. Aiming low can result in substandard performance. Play the move that you would play to beat the strongest player in the world. When your opponent turns out to be not that strong, you will win even faster.

Bridge champion Marshall Miles wrote that he and his partner, although they mostly played in the local Los Angeles club that, while not a weak club, did not offer world class competition, kept in fighting trim by pretending on every hand that they were playing against world champions.

dfan · Post by **dfan** » Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:17 am

I don't try to pretend that I am trying to beat the world champion, because it is too demotivating for me, but if my position is pretty bad but not resignable, I try to motivate myself by noting that if I played like a world champion for the rest of the game, I would almost certainly come back and win, so it is too early to give up.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:01 am

dfan wrote:I don't try to pretend that I am trying to beat the world champion,

Well, if you do that, it doesn't hurt so bad when you lose.

because it is too demotivating for me

Yeah, there's the snag. If it's demoralizing it's not a good idea.

And go is a long game. So maybe 80% effort on most moves is about right.

Fedya · Post by **Fedya** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:28 pm

As I think I've said several times, I have two related thoughts going through my head when I try to figure out where I play:

1) Where would stronger players suggest I should play?
2) Would stronger players say I should know better than to play a certain move?

I've been going through some of my games with Leela, and it's interesting how often Leela wants me to tenuki. The problem is, when I do tenuki, Leela usually wants me not to.

Life In 19x19

Go is hard when you keep falling behind early on

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