Life In 19x19

Thanks for both those reviews!


Didn't have the chance to study this weekend, but I'm half way through Elementary series Life & Death.

Right on the border of 7/6k. Lost a game against a 8k by 4.5 pts today, then won a game against a 7k.

Here is the 8k game. I made a couple of comments via gokibitz. Definitely don't think I have board awareness.

I have a long list of tsumego books to get through. So, less time on the forum, more time solving problems.

Just a few comments from my side, as always - since I'm not much stronger than you - take them with appropriate suspicion...

- "good sente" vs. "bad sente" moves are often discussed in this forum. IMHO "bad sente" means that the opponent needs to reply thereby solidifying his position (and taking away aji). Here, I think replying at R7 is a "good sente" (maybe almost urgent sente) as it keeps a base for your lower stones. At the moment black gets R7 himself, your stones became baseless and had to live in another way, which costed time.
- This was "practically sente" because black responded, however it seems he actually didn't need to. It was also "bad sente" because after black playing S4 all remaining aji (maybe in connection with the O4 cut...?) has vanished.
- If you push through but then don't cut, you just help black solidifying his position. Instead you could have peeped at B13 (if black C13 then B14 connects).
- Normally black would respond at B15 here, and his group is fine.
- This defends territory, but you can also think of splitting (e.g. at G14). When black runs away with his H15 stone, you can play B14, where black should have responded. The black group would have to run and you would get profit.

Thanks schawipp for the review! (I do look at them here, just don't always reply...)

Just hit 6 kyu after winning 2 (close) games tonight (both I would have lost if I was 6k at the time, the irony is not lost on me). Working on 5k before Christmas, and maybe 3 kyu before March (1 yr mark since playing on KGS). Maybe. But first, stabilize as 6k.

I've started doing Cho's elementary on tsumego.tasuki.org. I've completed the first 100 already. Also, to the Carpenter's Square in Elementary series Life and Death. My study plan has turned mostly to tsumego. Helps that I enjoy it.

Anyways, here's the two games below. Again, comments are from gokibitz (where I have the same username, so it looks like I'm commenting in game, but...its not, there were no comments in the games).

Some thoughts on the second game

Just an update. I've begun Graded Go Problems for Beginners volume 4 and This is Haengma. The first part of This is Haengma covers the basics, stuff for DDK, but the mid-section is focusing on some interesting fundamentals, concepts I'm aware of, but I'm still not solid on. I think this is a book that can be read at 10k easily, but I'm also enjoying it as a SDK.

Don't know if I'll hit my goal of 5k by Christmas, but now that I can focus entirely on Go for a while, maybe its still possible. I hit a snag after 4 losses in a row, but won 2 games tonight which boosted my confidence a little. I need to remember to take my time to read. There's plenty of time on the clock. I also have to curb my frustration with (over?) aggressive opponents.

No 5k by Christmas, but that's okay. The past couple of weeks, I haven't had a chance to play many games or study. Hopefully, during the new year, I won't be quite as busy, and I can dedicate more time towards tsumego and games.

I'm not going to set any time goals for the near future, just dedicate time towards playing and studying. Strength will come.

And I'll be back to my daily tsumego. 30 minutes a day, minimum. Even if I don't play games.

And back to playing after 2 months off due to anxiety (and a host of other issues). 1 win and 5 losses...way too many reading mistakes and quick play. But hey, playing again.

Hey do not give up! You are a huge inspiration for me in fact. I want to solve/play as much problems and games as you! Maybe i can improve faster this way.. I study books too much.. This month i will finish Tesuji again and solve daily tsumegos, then we'll see where it goes.

edit: grammer

Thanks PlaySlow! I probably work on too much (easy) tsumego and not enough games...which I'm going to try to combat by changing it up a little bit.

In order to get over my anxiety (ladder anxiety...there's been a few videos about it), I'm challenging myself to 100 games of play. I'll record the win/loss ratio and review the games, but I'll stop worrying about whether I win or lose a given game. The goal is just to play 100 games, even if they're not to my best. Doesn't matter how many I win or lose, just play 100 games.

And I've been doing tsumego regularly. Re-reading 1001 L&D problems. I'm getting about 80% accuracy on the 5-move problems.

As such, I can already record 2 games down (both losses).

AlphaGo v Lee Sedol! So awesome watching those two games. Sad that Sedol is 2 games down, but the games are fantastic to watch. I'll miss game 3, but should be able to catch game 4.

Hit 5k last month. I've been doing problems continuously, stopped watching quite so many go videos, and have been playing more games. Finished 1001 L&D (2nd time), and about half way through Get Strong at Tesuji (also second time).

Played a game where I was behind the entire game, but through a couple of clever plays and mistakes by my opponent, was able to win the game. Thought it was interesting, and would love some pointers on the fuseki. Particularly how to not give my opponent so much that I need to catch up the entire game...

sparky314 wrote:Thought it was interesting, and would love some pointers on the fuseki. Particularly how to not give my opponent so much that I need to catch up the entire game...

is a strange choice, really. After the exchange of and , your supposedly stable group in the top right has been weakened. What is your compensation? is worse shape than G18, so you have a chance at some point to play J18 on the edge. That doesn't happen in the game. I think can be regarded as heavy: jump to H14 and look to play G11 next for a framework.

Still, there must be better options at - D18, E17, G17.

might make more sense at D6. When comes you suddenly don't have an easy position.

Thanks Charles! felt weird when I played it, but I'm unfamiliar with 3-4 enclosure reductions. I wasn't certain about G17, and then B jumps, W has to follow, but it looks better than what I played. I never even thought about D18 or E17...I'll have to consider those in the future, as well.

Hit 4 kyu today! Well, temporarily, but its a first! And I feel like I've been playing well enough for it.

Here's the game with some comments. One comment I missed...I think white should have poked at the B center group sooner, a few pokes could have strengthened white and reduced black significantly, in sente. Instead, white lives small.




Also, I've been tracking the books I've read. There's a common pattern...I enjoy problems. GSAT is a bit easy for me now (least the 1-3 star problems). Still struggled with about 10-20% of the 5 move problems from 1001 L&D, so I'll definitely be going through that again some point in the future.

Reading Progress
[*] for theory books
There are a couple of books that I've glanced at, but these include start-to-finish books.

7 kyu
In the Beginning * : Reread 1
1001 Life and Death
Get Strong at Tesuji
Graded Go Problems for Beginners v2 : Reread 2
Elementary: Life and Death

6 kyu
Opening Theory Made Easy *
Graded Go Problems for Beginners v2 : Reread 3
Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go *
Graded Go Problems for Beginners v3 : Reread 1
This is Haengma

5 kyu
1001 Life and Death Problems : Reread 1

4 kyu
Get Strong at Tesuji : Reread 1 (In Progress)
Reducing Territorial Frameworks * (In Progress)


Future books
Making Good Shape
Graded Go Problems for Beginners v4
Get Strong at End Game
501 Tesuji
Attack and Defense * (reread, it's been awhile since I last read it)

Hi Sparky,

Here are a few ideas.

maybe on the fourth line at d10? Then if white invades at c12 or c8, black can shut him in and aim at invading the bottom later with his newly acquired strength.
Extend at d12 instead?
Is this invasion good or necessary? White just made strength around f8 so black might be attacked, plus the bottom is still open since white doesn't have a stone around n4. Maybe playing at the top was bigger...
Pushing at m13, to remove w's second eye and attack this group, seems interesting. It means black will be able to attack using the walls he made. This should enable him to turn his moyo into territory naturally.