Life In 19x19

Also, my time management in the Open...

The U.S. Open is 90 minutes main time + 5 periods of 30 seconds byoyomi. It's...luxurious. I spend my extra time walking around and getting water and such, usually when I have a difficult situation that I need some space from. I did get some advice from Xuefin (Shirley) Lin 1p some time ago. She said with 90 minutes main time, spend 30 on the opening. So I do. At the 30 minute mark I check to see if we are near move 50.

After that, I probably defer from her advice because I dislike byoyomi...

In a 240 move game, if you have 60 minutes main time, that's 60 * 60 / 120 (your moves) = 30 seconds per move. This is assuming you want to finish in main time and don't consider byoyomi to be part of what you are given rather than an emergency allotment. (Cho Chikun and the like my think otherwise, but I'm not Cho Chikun.)

Now I know I can't really take 30 seconds per move. For example, I took 12 minutes on move 77 in game 2:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B For 12 minutes, this better at least be sente...
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . |
$$ | . . . O . O O . . . . . . O . X . . . |
$$ | . O O , O X X X . , . . X O . X . . . |
$$ | . . X X X O . . . . O . . O . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . X . . . . . O . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . X . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . O |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . O . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . . . . X . O . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . O . O X . O O O X |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . X X . O . X O X X . |
$$ | . . O , X . . . . O X O O X . X O X . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . X X O . O . . X 1 . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

So because of this stuff, I pretty much blitz through most moves, even in the open. I don't know if that's optimal.

game1 with Yilun Yang 7p's comments as I remember them:

game3: I have included some pro commentary from Liao Guiyong 9p.

game4: with comments from Stephanie (Mingming) Yin 1p

For Game4, I thought your opening was pretty good. I really like Stephanie's comment for .

In the opening, white made a decent and pretty efficient formation on the right side. If you cap and attack his group, you get power in the center, and it keeps the right side from getting big.

Where the SGF file ends, it looks like white has some potential in the right/center. Outside of this, white's only sizable territory is in the bottom left, and you have 3 big corners... I think if you can attack with cap and reduce the right (for example, maybe R8 will work in the future), game will be in your favor.

Kirby wrote:For Game4, I thought your opening was pretty good. I really like Stephanie's comment for .

In the opening, white made a decent and pretty efficient formation on the right side. If you cap and attack his group, you get power in the center, and it keeps the right side from getting big.

Where the SGF file ends, it looks like white has some potential in the right/center. Outside of this, white's only sizable territory is in the bottom left, and you have 3 big corners... I think if you can attack with cap and reduce the right (for example, maybe R8 will work in the future), game will be in your favor.

Let me second the idea of capping the White group. Such a cap is called topping the tree. It is bigger than it looks. Black can attack the White group and build up strength in the center. Then he can reduce the right side or invade the top side, or both. Black will have a winnable game.

Game5:

Thanks for joining, Bill. I hope you like this one. I tried something a bit different, but it became normal soon.

Your game 5 is interesting. Not sure what stronger players will think, but here are a few quick thoughts:

Move 2: This is aggressive, but it seems you made out fine. You played a joseki and got to be the first to play in a second corner, which is unusual as white.

Move 22: Seems passive. Black's corner is not yet definitely his, yet this move allows b to followup, making his corner more solid. For move 22, I would either approach lower left stone, or if feeling bold, play around F14/15 to link your stones on a large scale. Then you could presumably use this power in other parts of the board.

Move 28: This invasion seemed early, and you ended up hurting some of what you had.

Move 46: I would once space jump instead of going in corner. This is the only way your lower right stones will come to life. Once B got 59, your lower right stones really became unimportant.

This is game5 with some comments from Guo Juan 5p. I came to many of the same conclusions, but there were some key things I missed.

Bill Spight wrote: Let me second the idea of capping the White group. Such a cap is called topping the tree. It is bigger than it looks.

It is the first feeling, but I think I chickened out. This is case where more thinking led to an inferior move. Also, my whole strategy starting at was to erase white's potential through attacking (because I couldn't see a way to do it directly). So skipping that cap also represented a change in a viable plan.

Game6:

I think makes more sense when white didn't play E2 (e.g. when white played G3 instead). That's because E7 aims for black to be able to play E2 - it's more efficient than if black stone were at E6.

But in this case, since black will not play E2, I think the regular E6 is fine for moving out (since the reason it's not usually played in the other case is the over-concentrated shape after black E2).

F3 is also a move you probably want to play soon - it's probably bigger than B2.

Anyway, congratulations on your win! A result of 2-4 is much closer to even than a result of 1-5!

I enjoyed following your experiences and your games.

Also, after , I want to continue attacking with F4. But I can see your apprehension about being cut. So maybe you can first play C8 crosscut, aiming to fix the cut in sente. Then you can play F4 with that sente. Since white ignored you, I want to punish him.

Kirby wrote:Also, after , I want to continue attacking with F4. But I can see your apprehension about being cut. So maybe you can first play C8 crosscut, aiming to fix the cut in sente. Then you can play F4 with that sente. Since white ignored you, I want to punish him.

I felt similarly. Calvin seems good at getting an attack going, but maybe doesn't understand just how effective his prior moves have been and switches gears. Same at move 91 in top right of board later on. I would have kept up the pressure.

game6, with short comments from Guo Juan 5p: