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Re: Life vs. Death. Death usually wins.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:22 pm
by ethanb
HermanHiddema wrote:
topazg wrote:
HermanHiddema wrote:I'm somewhat notorious for my skill at making life in situations where it is seemingly impossible. Several of my go friends will refer to really dead groups with "Even Herman couldn't make that one live" (and sometimes, they're wrong ;) )


Wasn't there a Japanese pro with a really famous reputation for doing this?


Yep, Cho Chikun was well known for this skill, I believe. See also: Shinogi.


Cho Chikun is good at living in tight places, but when you mention shinogi, the first name that comes to mind (and probably the one topazg meant) is Sakata Eio.

Re: Life vs. Death. Death usually wins.

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 6:20 am
by Marcus
Hmmm ... Shinogi ... interesting. I seem to lean towards this type of strategy in a number of my games. Didn't know there was a term for it.

Re: Life vs. Death. Death usually wins.

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 7:15 am
by MagicMagor
Probably i'm better at living, but frankly i have so little confidence in my reading, that i wouldn't say i'm good at living. (But then, i wouldn't say i'm good at anything in go ;-) )

Most of the times i know that my groups are alive, or more precise, know how to make life if it is attacked. Sometimes when i overlook these things (happens too often) and my opponent takes a vital point of my groups i can somehow find a slight weakness in his surrounding stones to make a second eye.

Also i'm a fan of a more peacefull game, both players taking swings at the big points of the game, without a huge dragon-fight, so this might explain this a bit.
When i have to kill it's usually a result of me playing a moyo-game (or more precise, my opponent forcing me into a moyo-game, somehow i can't seem to prevent this), and my opponent invading the moyo "too deep". And then i try to kill the invasion.
But i have a bad experience of these fights going wrong for me, because i misread things at a crucial moment allowing him to escape or live in gote - resulting in me having not enough points to win the game or even continue. After such things i loose confidence and my fighting spirit drops, i often resign after such a failure even if i could continue the game.

Overall this leads to me having a constant fear of misreading things when i have to kill a group to win. Which may be another reason i don't enjoy killing groups as much as other people.

Easiest solution would be doing more problems, but i can't force myself to read when doing tsumego or not regulary enough for it to benefit. I seem to need the pressure of a real game to fully read a given position.