Life In 19x19

Thank you for your replies. I have to study the variations before I comment on them.

Just for information: This was at the beginning of the game, so there was just the low Chinese and two white 4-4 stones on the board.

I am posting my game of this evening. In many ways, this is one of my best recent games, but I made very bad mistakes that I shouldn't have. I neglected a group, but my opponent let me get two eyes anyway, neglected the next group and blundered, but my opponent let me get seki anyway, and then I let a group get disconnected during endgame.

I still like this game a lot because it had a bit of everything: Ordinary life and death, seki, ko, ignored joseki follow-ups and shoulder hits, and moyo reduction.



After some consideration, I think that I should have played move 201 at O3. Maybe it isn't my intuition that is the problem.

I would be grateful for any comments, both at the game and my comments on the game.

Hi Gotrask,

Because allows W a comfortable miai to extend either way, W can tenuki and take a big point ( e.g. C10 direction ).

You took it first, nice.

Very solid, but maybe a bit slow.
Approach (P4, etc. ) is a possibility.

Not small, but maybe approach bigger ( P4, etc. ).

Did you feel this is a bit overplay ?
You already reinforced with and blocked with --
W is not in a position to "counter attack" like this...

...Hmmm, this feels... B has the stronger position here than W.
Why are you backing up ?
I may consider the push-and-cut. ( J16 + K15 )

OK ( and big ) to reply to .

Maybe replying to bigger.
( , , light )

Right -- if you noticed the sequence not very useful,
just reply to .

Soft. W ignored your approach, so double approach W ( F3 or F4, etc.)

W got a joseki result here because was soft.

You can fix your weakness there in sente, say with G3-H4 exchange, at a local loss.

Your variation: big miss for B ; important to study: find the correct sequence for B.

Before you live, turn first at F4. Live at the last moment.

You missed this very big turn.

R6 is a possible starting point.

How about P11 ?

I think that 17 would be more interesting one space to the right. Now Black decides how to proceed against the shoulder hit.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . X . O 6 2 O . . X . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . 7 3 4 1 . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X . O . 5 8 0 . X . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Note that White cannot resist as below. Black can can cut on either side with 6.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 7 6 3 8 0 . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . X 5 O 2 O O . . X . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . 1 X 4 X . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X . O . . . . . X . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

In the game, the connection at 23 is too close to the strong stones on the right and accomplishes essentially nothing. Black has to connect on the other side as below. White 2 seems natural and something like the diagram is what we might expect.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . X 2 O O O O . . X . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , X O X . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X . O . 1 X . . X . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . 5 . 4 . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

As a contribution to the question what a beginner is, I will post some of my first games.

I read the tutorial on ogs, played two games against random bot and then I played this game (as Black, Wulfenia):



90 minutes later I won my first game (as Black, Wulfenia):

I played a (slow correspondence) game as Black against an opponent who started with a mirror phase. I really, really hate it because I think that it really changes the game (just like a couple of handicap stones or a sunjang baduk opening) and it takes away the normal opening and I felt that my time has been stolen by forcing me to play a game I did not want to play. What happened in the game is that we mapped out a moyo, I eventually took tengen and I lost by 7.5 points.

I would appreciate any advice, both on the game and on the general situation of mirror games.



While I am posting here, I want to add a typical won game of mine for reference. I think that it tells more clearly than some of my lost games why I lose games. This was a quick 10min + 5x30sec game.

Also, I introduced two children to go this Christmas. I just showed them on my tablet how you take stones off and told them that the goal was to put as many stones as possible while not being eaten. Since they played on my tablet, they simply could not do illegal moves and they did not play any ko. The younger one won and now likes the game.

It was easy to get them interested, I just played some games on ogs myself during the Christmas visit and only reluctantly agreed to show them the game.

Some comments on the mirror game:

The mirror game is very interesting! I can understand why you hate it, but it's actually a great lesson in respecting your opponent's moves, thinking about them and playing yours with a plan accordingly. Mirror as white means if you split the board in half, which is pretty much what happened here, then white wins thanks to the komi. So you can't just ignore your opponent's moves and merrily play your own. Tengen breaking the was mirror was quite possibly the losing move, though there was probably a better way before. What you need to try to do is make it so that either there is some tactical sequence in which he collapses if he continues to mirror (but are also good moves which you are happy to play if he stops mirroring at and time) usually involving some kind of atari or ladder meeting near tengen and you being a liberty ahead, or make it so that when you do play tengen it is worth more than komi because it closes a bunch of territory for you but not him. I'll try to find some ways to do this later, but see if you can on your own first. For ideas here's a rotational rather than reflected mirror game with comments I played some time ago where I managed to make the breaking of symmetry greater than komi's value.