walleye wrote:These deliberations are very interesting of course. But I'm wondering if this is the best way to improve one's endgame.
In a game, most of the time it's not necessary to compute exact values of moves. It's usually enough to find the largest place and play there, taking sente and miai into account of course. Only relative size of various plays matters.
Take a look at this elementary problem. How quickly can you decide which place is bigger, top or bottom?
$$c Black to play
$$ --------------
$$ | . . . . . |
$$ | X X O O . |
$$ | . . X O . |
$$ | X X X O O |
$$ | . . . O . |
$$ --------------
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$c Black to play
$$ --------------
$$ | . . . . . |
$$ | X X O O . |
$$ | . . X O . |
$$ | X X X O O |
$$ | . . . O . |
$$ --------------[/go]
I don't really want to compute the size of plays there. What I want is something like an intuitive feel for the relative size of the two places. And a good way to develop this skill is to solve hundreds or even thousands of simple yose problems where there are only two or three unsettled boundaries left and you just have to pick the largest place.
ひと目のヨセ (
http://senseis.xmp.net/?YoseAtAGlance) by Cho Chikun attempts to do something like this, but it only has about a hundred problems. I need more.
For common endgame moves, you don't need to compute. You can just know the values in advance, which isn't hard.
The top move is 1 point because it's a gote hane+connect, the bottom is just shy of 1 because it's a corridor push. So black plays the top, solved on sight (there's also a tedomari issue, but...). I don't ever actually compute the value of a complicated move during a game, unless it's a big trade or something (and then only approximately).
For me, having a few values gives a useful anchor. The following scale is roughly what I have off the top of my head, and is really useful for me in games.
1/3:
Final endgame ko
1/2:
Gote push to destroy 1 point
1/2 to 1:
Push down corridor ending in dead end (closer to 1 if longer)
1:
Sente push or push that is "eventually" sente (the corridor leads to a sente move at the end)
Gote 1st line hane-connect
Capture 1 stone and make 1 territory
Destroy 2 points
Capture2-recapture1 (this one's useful to know)
3:
1st line hane-connect sente for one side
2nd line hane-connect with gote followups
Capturing 2nd line stone with gote followups
4-5:
1st line hane-connect that can't be directly blocked by one side
Playing/blocking "typical" gote monkey jump
~4-10:
Capturing 2nd line stone with varying senteness/severity of followups
2nd line hane connect with varying senteness/severity of followups
8
Playing/blocking "typical" sente monkey jump
~11-14+
Medium to large opening moves
~14
Opening move, taking empty corner
~N/2:
Make a move that turns N potential points into dame
~N:
Save N stones
Resolve a small capturing race with N stones involved (owned by either player)
Basically, I play a lot by feel too, but having this rough scale in mind makes it a lot easier to keep everything coherent, and helps compare things like capturing stones with first line and second line moves. It's nice to instantly know that your second line hane and connect is better than saving 4 stones from capture.
I guess I need to learn from the experts here how to evaluate the size of these plays quickly. Right now I have to read out 3 or 4 moves, then compare the two positions, before I can say "OK, so A is a 2 point gote" (or whatever).
) Endgame skill is based imo 40% on reading and 60% on experience. Higher ranked players should have more of both. My formula for my handicap games is: When we enter yose black should be ahead by rank difference*5 to make it a close game.
actually gains 1.125 points, too. 
However, it is a losing sente, as 
gains 1.5 points in reply, for a loss to White of 0.375 points. 
, 
sacrifices a stone to take away the eye and set up the ko, leaving this position.
).
is correct, but 
gets the last play. After 
the rest is miai.
. The rest is miai.