Life In 19x19

Game 5

Another igs match and a loss - on the plus side I liked how I fought and ran out my groups. I paid careful attention to life and death and nothing major died - plus I found some good attacks. On the minus side my inability to deal with the 34 low pincer left me tied in knots.

S2W wrote:Game 5
On the minus side my inability to deal with the 34 low pincer left me tied in knots.

Try the O5 variation to keep out of trouble.

S4 is the shape point.

The proverb says one line further.

Not only do you have an issue with the dogleg: the case for E3 is better than for E4. But the case for F3 is even better here.

Thanks Charles - I'll try the o5 joseki (..after the next game... - in fact you probably want to skip the review and just cut and paste ...)

I realize I've gotten used to playing and expecting certain joseki in part out of force of habit and in part due to positive reinforcement from my opponent's bad play - the 34 high approach is probably the best example of this - I play it expecting my opponent to attach. It's also true of jumping in the corner (though I still like those concrete points better than jumping out).

First off my appologies to Charles and everyone else reviewing my games - I promise I do study up on them quite intently and have been making an effort to incorporate them in my play. This game though ... I studied up hard, prepared myself mentally, sat down to play and repeated the last game. Well close to it anyway - the mistakes and play are close enough that I'm not expecting any reviews. I'm mostly keen to keep it in the journal for reference.

A couple of extra points about the game:
1. I did change a diaper in the middle of it and convince a cheeky 4 year old to go back to bed (unfortunately that was all after I repeated my mistakes from the previous game).

2. I still can't count - I was convinced I had lost the game fairly badly but ended up ahead by a respectable amount. I think in part this was due to being well behind in the middle game.


Game 6



In other news I also played in the real world today - an 8 stone handicap against an AGA Dan. I lost but only by 9 points (admittedly he was playing someone else at the time).

S2W wrote:
Game 6

The logic of go says you play L3 and then jump out, with an OK result.

White has "developed on both sides", which is considered a plus. But not with great shapes. And is small, should extend rightwards.

White is overconcentrated on the left, Black has been playing more freely: this result is not bad.

Play F15, and White (who is a crude fellow) can't afford to cut.

Goes at K14, even K13.

Game seems better, overall.

Thanks Charles - the game felt so similar I really wasn't expecting a review - thanks again.

White has "developed on both sides", which is considered a plus. But not with great shapes. And is small, should extend rightwards.

I guess this is why I don't like playing against the pincer: If I don't find a way to exploit whites bad shape then I'm left with a tiny corner or possibly a weak group. So the trick is to learn how to harass white when the joseki is over (and keep sente coming out of the joseki). Time for some study.

In other news I found another one of my games on the site - how great is that! http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 22#p171222

I continue to believe that 34 diagonally across from a 44 is a mistake - even if I havent been able to make it work with the low pincer - my feeling is that it leads to a similar position to playing 34 on the same side as the 44 but facing the wrong way - which lets b get a big triangular framework right off the bat. Anyway I obviously need to do dome work on my response to the pincer regardless so here's some ideas that I worked out with the help of smartgo kifu.

Not a game 1

EdLee wrote: tenuki.

Ed,

You say tenuki, I say tenuchi ...
a. b. c. Hehe - I only just saw that thanks for pointing it out.

... Fill it up.

Sigh - I shouldn't have played tonight - I was tired, the kids were restless - bad juju all around. But if waiting for the perfect conditions were my criteria for playing I would never play. I was within one game of 8k - now I am within 3.

First game was a bit of a massacre - the baby tesuji at the end didn't help but really it was a direction of play mistake on my behalf (and poor play in the corner) that did me in (and boy once I started loosing did I really start loosing). The second game was better - but I was fighting at the end to make up the points - so I must have made some slow moves early on. Endgame was not great either. Need to review to see if it is worth sharing (I might just be tired and my mistakes obvious).

Edit:

Well the second game wasn't as bad, and quite close in the end 8.5 points with .5 Komi, so I thought I should include it after all.

Game 7

Two more games and two more losses. In the second I had to stop playing for a few minutes near the end and my ipod dropped out just after counting so I think I came off as pretty rude - apologies to JohnSm19. Both were two stone handicaps with me as white. I made some simple reading mistakes and didn't move my stones around enough.

The slide continued with another loss against yet another 2 stone handicap. I wasn't doing too badly until I missed a ko from a first line hane - silly mistake.

I almost continued the loosing streak with the next match (which I would have lost but for the Komi) - so much for feeling "comfortable".

I found a few obvious mistakes in review but I'm sure there are more. It seemed that my opponent was making quite a few slow moves so I felt that I should have done better.

Game 8

White's is a joseki mistake. Later on, (after W16) you can consider invading at R12 or the like to split white, and the upper part will not be able to make two eyes locally.

is aji-keshi, as it makes that invasion more difficult by strengthening white.

to :b21 is playable, but you can also consider F5 for :b21 or :b19 locally. In addition, a checking extension to J17 or so is quite big, as white wants to expand in this direction from the corner shimari. If white invades the bottom side, the idea behind the bottom-side formation is that you can build a moyo on the bottom right when white invades and you still have enough aji to live in the corner and prevent white from making a huge gain.

this seems like it strengthens white, as the one stone is small. O4 looks like a vital point, helping seal white and also being a good point for eyeshape.

You should be able to continue attacking for a bit. M5 pops into my head without too much thinking as a candidate. I doubt white will sacrifice his group to take the big point on the top side.

White gave you the big point in sente, AND white didn't extend all the way to H17. Take your sente to continue attacking the bottom right.

After this sequence, white is settled, and black can't gain much more from pestering this group. Was K15 worth it? Keep in mind that attacking moves are sente.

doing something on the left is a good idea, but white could pincer and fight here to expand the top left naturally. D14 is one classic reduction idea. G15 may also work out decently. Q13 is another move that might be nice. It's hard for white to resist too hard, so black could build his moyo in sente.

This is small at this stage of the game, and doesn't actually help black. White could just tenuki, I think. It also opens up the ko aji at F1 when white responds, which is a clear loss for black.

Wouldn't it have been nice to get to this area first and in sente?

If you push as you did, it's imperative that you follow through and cut. If you weren't planning on cutting, pushing in the first place just helps white.

Looks reasonable. Black may be able to go one point further, to F15. I think he will have miai to connect to the left or the top.

At 113, I agree that the center knight's move is much bigger. You could also consider taking S7 or S8. S17 is also quite big.

At 165, maybe block the other way. I don't think white can capture the stone.

At 169, if you block at A8 and white cuts, you can push with B9, white C9, B10.

I endorse the comment on
White has invaded very deeply. Attack wholesale, no peacemeal.
Grab the shape point and drive white Howards your strong Stones.

Ideas? (Other than o4)

Thanks for all the comments skydyr! In particular:

skydyr wrote: :B55: This is small at this stage of the game, and doesn't actually help black. White could just tenuki, I think. It also opens up the ko aji at F1 when white responds, which is a clear loss for black.

Thanks for pointing this out. First line kos are something simple that I need to work on - I've really not been looking out for them until after they are played (and even then ... ). I think its one of those obvious things that for whatever reason I haven't been paying enough attention to in my games.

skydyr wrote: White's is a joseki mistake. Later on, (after W16) you can consider invading at R12 or the like to split white, and the upper part will not be able to make two eyes locally.

This is another thing that I need to get better at. My natural inclination is to go for a reduction over an invasion. In part this a conservative response - I noticed I was loosing more than half of my ddk games due to failed invasions or even living invasions that cost too much to survive. Switching to looking for reductions fixed this and was often more effective against my ddk opponents (who were expecting the outrageous attack). As I rank up however I realize I need to get better at invading - especially with my efforts to be more territorial. (I got some invading practice in the next game I'm going to post ... practice being the operative word).

Knotwilg wrote:I endorse the comment on
White has invaded very deeply. Attack wholesale, no peacemeal.
Grab the shape point and drive white Howards your strong Stones.

Ideas? (Other than o4)

Knotwilg,

I'm thinking Black N3, White O3, Black O5 might be an option