Life In 19x19

Boidhre wrote:

Your score is 215 from 300

You know a lot about using influence, but you don't like to play all-or-nothing games or games where you must kill your opponent's group inside of your moyo.
We might recommend that you use other influence-oriented fusekis, such as the Chinese family of fusekis (Low, High, Mini), takamoku-based openings, or tengen.
All of these openings are more flexible than san-ren-sei and it's usually possible to switch from influence to territory if the position requires it.

Meh. My understanding of influence is primitive at best. I must go look up the takamoku based openings though, have never heard of them before.

That I score this highly in the test given I've neither played nor studied nor played against the san-ren-sei makes me suspicious that I'm being sold something.

yeah, i got 5 more points than you on the test and you wiped me off the board a few days back.. but i look into this influence thing around the web..

speedchase wrote:

gowan wrote:FWIW I answered randomly, without even looking at the positions, and got 200 out of 300! So I guess that says something about what this "test" means.

No it doesn't 0- 300 isn't skill its how well you could use sanrensei. if we took that test randomly 100 times i would expect the average to be close to 150, not 60.

I think the test must give "partial credit" rather than credit only for the best answer. If it were full credit or nothing on each question and each question is worth the same number of points then answering randomly, with four choices per problem, would be expected to result in 25% of questions answered correctly for a score of 75 out of 300.

By the way, I also did the test deliberately choosing the worst answer I could, which in most cases was a move that went for territory or which spoiled my own moyo, and I got 60.

shapenaji wrote:I got 260 out of 300... mostly I just kept asking myself "What kind of crazy move would takemiya play here..."

well, before I saw that site, I heard of Takemiya, and his "crazy" moves. i thought hell, i probably make crazy moves so let me look into this guy. i actually downloaded his games so I can take a look at them once I have a better understanding.

I have a friend who plays san ren sei almost exclusively, and over the past few weeks, I've been trying to copy him. In general, you avoid the 3rd line like the plague, and give up fair amounts of territory in exchange for even more influence when your opponent successfully invades. But then comes the fun. Coming into middle game, you are seriously behind, but your opponent has left weaknesses, and from then on, win or lose, the rest of the game is played on your terms. 250/300

daal wrote:I have a friend who plays san ren sei almost exclusively, and over the past few weeks, I've been trying to copy him. In general, you avoid the 3rd line like the plague, and give up fair amounts of territory in exchange for even more influence when your opponent successfully invades. But then comes the fun. Coming into middle game, you are seriously behind, but your opponent has left weaknesses, and from then on, win or lose, the rest of the game is played on your terms. 250/300

that quote of yours in your sig sums up what I just read..

Bonobo wrote:

Your score is 225 from 300

San-ren-sei is a perfect choice for you!
We cannot promise that you will win all of your games when you use it, but we are sure that every game you play where san-ren-sei appears will be very exciting and enjoyable for you!

For me as a mere KGS 9k with question mark this seems surprising.

i dunno, maybe you get more points for a whacked out move, like shapenaji alluded to...

Xaos wrote:i dunno, maybe you get more points for a whacked out move, like shapenaji alluded to...

When shapenaji calls Takemiya's moves "crazy," I think he means it in an endearing way. There is nothing particularly "whacked out" about Takemiya's style, it's just that he tends to favor influence over territory. The point of the test is that if you too like to play influential moves, the san ren sei will presumably be a good opening for you. That's the point I was trying to make before: the san ren sei, in my experience, is an opening that rewards consequential influence-oriented play, and while that might cause you to loose ground early on, you have good chances to make up for it later. My score of 250 probably resulted from stubbornly choosing the most influence oriented moves available.

daal wrote:

Xaos wrote:i dunno, maybe you get more points for a whacked out move, like shapenaji alluded to...

When shapenaji calls Takemiya's moves "crazy," I think he means it in an endearing way. There is nothing particularly "whacked out" about Takemiya's style, it's just that he tends to favor influence over territory. The point of the test is that if you too like to play influential moves, the san ren sei will presumably be a good opening for you. That's the point I was trying to make before: the san ren sei, in my experience, is an opening that rewards consequential influence-oriented play, and while that might cause you to loose ground early on, you have good chances to make up for it later. My score of 250 probably resulted from stubbornly choosing the most influence oriented moves available.

my apologies, I meant no disrespect. I am the first to admit I am very irreverent at times, it was not my intention to disrespect Takemiya. In the short time I have been researching Go, I have read nothing but nice things about him, and how accessible he is, compared to other pros.

Yeah, I think takemiya's moves are crazy, but I like crazy, and he's got magic crazy.