Life In 19x19

Bki wrote:I mean, I make the dubious strategical decision to stake the game on whether or not I can kill a large group in the centre, but then surround it in a way that leave too much weaknesses, and come a point where my options are limited.

Actually if you has played one to the left, your attack might have been sustainable.

Charles Matthews wrote:

Bki wrote:I mean, I make the dubious strategical decision to stake the game on whether or not I can kill a large group in the centre, but then surround it in a way that leave too much weaknesses, and come a point where my options are limited.

Actually if you has played one to the left, your attack might have been sustainable.

First reaction : This? What a strange move. Yes, if black connect, then G9 surround him. But that's too much to ask for the opponent to play like this.

Then I play a few variations, and, miracle, it turns out that D10 is extremely well positioned if Black try to resist with G9. I'm not quite sure whether it would be sufficient (the cut at H7 is still painful and complicated), but it's clearly a better move than in the game.

L&D : Given how well it went yesterday, I decided to change a little my problem routine : rather than doing 50 problems at once in a hour or so, I will do them in smaller chunk during the day. When doing too much at once, I find myself rushing them after a certain point.

Game : Finally a game where I feel like I deserved somewhat the victory. I mean, yes my opponent did make many mistakes, but I was in control of the game, and it was not a case of him making a blunder after the outcome had already been decided.

That said, I doubt he (or she?) was at his best, because it's a slaughter : by the end of the game, Black has two small groups alive on the lower side, and one in the top right corner snaking a bit into the centre. Everything else is mine.



Edit : as an unrelated trivia, game eight of the Yuzo-Shusaku sanjubango is beautiful, in an awe-inspiring way.

Bki wrote:Finally a game where I feel like I deserved somewhat the victory.

You have quite a good eye for fighting. On the other hand there are plays that can easily be improved. For example here at you can play at M4 before any defending, to see what Black will do. (If Black resists it become more interesting to make eyes in the corner.)

I finally lost a game.

I think I had a promising position at the start, but overextended while attacking. Nothing died, so the game went to the endgame and I lost by 2.5 points. I thought I was slightly ahead, and didn't bother to count precisely, and indeed I was leading on the board, but I forgot about komi .

I would be interested on comment on my endgame, because that could easily have made the difference.

Aside from that, when my opponent went to the 3-3 (:w20:), I went with the double hane as the regular variation felt over-concentrated, but giving my opponent a ponnuki on the open side may not have been a good exchange. I wonder what other think about that.

Also, . I expected F3. The advantage of what he played is clear : it's better in depriving B of his base. But what about the drawbacks? (Not saying that one is right and the other is wrong, obviously).



I think I feel more comfortable playing as white.

I finished (yesterday) the Black to Live portion of the 3 move problems of 1001 L&D problems. Will start on the black to kill today.

Played a 2 stone handicap game today (as black). The game was close, even without my opponent making a fatal overplay, and later on missed a defensive play (though that last one only widened my win). I didn't handle the top left corner as well as I could have. Also, I lost a big endgame because I cut him the wrong way (Admittedly, I played the way that connected firmly my groups, but it also didn't remove one of his liberty).

Comments on my endgame, both in this game and the previous one, would be very appreciated. This one part of my game I'm not really satisfied with, but at the same time I've got no idea whether or not it is actually good.

I am at 700 problem done in 1001 L&D problems. Less than a week before I finish it.

I played a game yesterday, but was tired and it was depressing so I didn't found the time and courage to review it. This was a two stone games (though I feel my opponent was stronger than 3k, which may be possible since he had a ? rating) and after the first few moves, I panicked a little because I let White develop too well on the board, then the game got complicated and many things died.

Today's game went quite a bit better. Well, I made one potential big mistake (black 104) which accomplished nothing but gave him the potential to kill my corner (or at least engage in a complicated capturing race) and let his agonizing group live. But he kindly let me live and hurt his top badly.

Hi Bki,

may be a bad habit ? (Block with directly.)

locally your UR corner suffers.

may be a bad habit. (Take.)

entirely differnt situation with .

may be a bad habit.

why is this sente ? (Re: )

EdLee wrote:Hi Bki,

may be a bad habit ? (Block with directly.)

Hum... maybe? Actually, I first considered blocking directly in the game, but I thought "He will block at E17. Meanwhile, if I play before, I can later aim for the cut."

Now that I think about it, though, if white block at E17, then I keep sente.

Though, having the F18 capture available is good for my corner group life. Without it the descent at B14 is threaten to kill the corner with B15, which may allow him to do something on the side depending on how things go.

I think I'm aware the push isn't usually good, but in this position was this bad, and if so, why? (apart from taking gote)

Hi Bki,

2 possible reasons:
- the exchange E16-F17 is good for W, bad for you.
- you remove the option of F17 later.
(There may be more reasons.)

I'm not sure if gote is a big issue here:
if you block directly at E18, it's still gote globally.

Though, having the F18 capture available is good for my corner group life. Without it the descent at B14 is threaten to kill the corner with B15,

I don't think so (about the life of your corner), but I could be wrong.
Your corner has room. If W B14, just tiger's mouth B17.
Since you tenuki'd with , it's reasonable
you pay for it with the corner.

EdLee wrote: locally your UR corner suffers.

I was aware of that, but at the time it felt like the less bad option. Would atari at M14 a better option? My group is still uncomfortably weak after that, so...

may be a bad habit. (Take.)

You're right.

entirely differnt situation with .

I know. But I wasn't totally satisfied with my options here either.

may be a bad habit.

Hum... You may be right. If it got me liberty at least, it may have been worth it. The only benefit was that it made a false eye for white.

EdLee wrote:Hi Bki,

2 possible reasons:
- the exchange E16-F17 is good for W, bad for you.
- you remove the option of F17 later.

I guess you meant E17-F17?

Wouldn't White answer D18 by E17 himself? (though, again, sente).

Aside from that, I may have overestimated the danger of the B14 descent. Or at least, B15 doesn't seem to be good enough to kill unconditionally. B17 might do the trick though...

The push of 10 is bad because it makes white stronger but doesn't make black stronger. You lose options like this one: http://josekipedia.com/#path:pepcndqeqf ... odnencmcnb. Note that as well as taking more territory and eyespace black's outside wall has some cutting point weaknesses in it. Also if white does push up at e17 immediately (a bad move as too slow for a gote) then black shouldn't tenuki quite yet but push in at d16 first to make white's wall have a weakness and strengthen his corner shape; it's a double sente).

Ugh... Exams. I thought they only started tomorrow (But at least I didn't realize that after they took place)...

In addition to the sudden jump in difficulty of 1001 L&D problems when reaching the 5 moves problems (compared to the 3-moves which are not that much harder than the 1-move), I didn't do the 50 exercises I set for myself yesterday. I will try to do at least a couple of page today.

I may or may not play a game later today.

So today I will post a couple of correspondences games I finished recently... Of all three long games I played on OGS, all three ended up in my win after a large kill (Well, in the second I think he resigned prematurely. There might have been possibilities for him to survive)... I would have thought it would be harder to do so in long game. Maybe I'm making more use of the long thinking time than my opponents?

Bki wrote:Ugh... Exams. I thought they only started tomorrow (But at least I didn't realize that after they took place)...

In addition to the sudden jump in difficulty of 1001 L&D problems when reaching the 5 moves problems (compared to the 3-moves which are not that much harder than the 1-move), I didn't do the 50 exercises I set for myself yesterday. I will try to do at least a couple of page today.

I may or may not play a game later today.

So today I will post a couple of correspondences games I finished recently... Of all three long games I played on OGS, all three ended up in my win after a large kill (Well, in the second I think he resigned prematurely. There might have been possibilities for him to survive)... I would have thought it would be harder to do so in long game. Maybe I'm making more use of the long thinking time than my opponents?

Different people play correspondence games differently. For me, for example, they're often a sort of slow blitz, where I will rarely spend more than 20 seconds on a move. For other people, they spend minutes or hours analyzing moves throughout the game.

As for these games, there's not that much to say about them that comes to mind. Your opponents seem afraid of fighting to some degree. In the second, for example, black often connects things in a very slow manner rather than fight back in areas of black's influence. The only thing that occurred to me in a quick look at the first game is that it may be better to play a move on the top side one move before black did, instead of playing the block in the center. White can turn the top into something close to territory with one move, and white was ahead of black in the center and didn't really need to worry about a push or a nonexistent hane.

Well, I just did better than winning a lost game. My opponent resigned a game he was winning. I staked the game on the centre, his invasion was not done in the most sensible of way, and so I managed to kill it. But he actually was able to reduce my territory and get quite a bit of profit, to the point that when I counted it was very close despite considering the group dead, and I only made further mistake afterwards!