My only comment, after skimming the game quickly, is that you played much better than a 13k level. Your own comments indicate that you have the right mindset to improve, too. Keep up the good work!

You won this game but there will be other games where your opponent makes an outrageous attempt to live inside solid central territory like yours and if they succeed, will take everything: the corner & sides AND your carefully crafted centre.

After 108, you basically play a "shape game" where you don't have to worry about your surrounding stones, which are rock solid, and can concentrate exclusively on White's eyeshape.

At 158, Black is fully alive and he shouldn't have been.

Replay the game and kill Black between these moves. Keep him to 1 eye. Even 0 eyes should be feasible in this position.

Exercise: http://senseis.xmp.net/?ShapeGame

It has been a long time since I posted here due to time constraints but I am back!

Since last time, I've been to a Go week end where I had the opportunity to lose to a lot of stronger players. It is quite taxing to only play handicap games since even when you're winning you are expecting a trick that will make you lose. But in the end it showed me some moves I never played so it's good. Also I definitely reached my 100 defeats so I can move on to my next goal.

I have started cho chikun L&D and I am around 250 but so far I don't notice any improvement in my games.

EdLee, thanks for the comments as always. AS for the cutting and connecting, I'm still trying to cut everything and hopefully in the future I'll see when it is important and when it is not

dfan, thank you but given the number of 9 stones handicap games I lost to player around 8kuys I am not sure

Knotwilg, this is clearly a problem in my games, I hope Cho Chikun L&D will help me with that.

Here is a game I played today against a 15k in IGS.



Once again, I let him capture a group and live. I think the lesson to take home is to simplify the board whenever I had what I wanted so he cannot make a comeback. However I think I used his weak group appropriately. I chased him to gain territory on the upper side and win. So really I think his mistake was to be too careless with his central group.

As always, comments are welcomed

It has been such a long time since I posted in my journal!

I have been pretty busy the whole month so I dedicated much less time to go. However since I was exposed to new concept just before I think it gave me the opportunity to assimilate the knowledge and I kept improving. It is incredible how a simple concept can increase your strength. The only thing I changed in my game was asking myself 2 questions:
1) do I have a weak group that need protection?
2) does my opponent have a weak group that I can attack?
If yes, I defend/attack and if not I just play a big point.

I completely misjudged my ability to do tsumego on my way to work and it has been a month since I solved one. Despite this, I am doing pretty well for now but it will probably soon be a limiting factor in my progression so I'll just fix myself an objective of 10 tsumego each day and see how it goes.

Recently I also entered my first tournament as a 15kyu and did pretty well with 4 win and 1 loss. I got crushed by a 14kyu but the good news is that he noted each move and will send me the kifu so I'll be able to review this game. For any beginner wondering if they should enter a tournament, I absolutely recommend it. It's a great opportunity to improve and to really think about each move during a game. And after that you can always have advice on your game and make friends with other go player in the area.


To finish this entry, here is a game I played today against a 13k on IGS. Time setting was 10min for 15 stones I think.



I think I was lucky to win, I often chose the wrong direction and let him have a huge territory on the sides. Recently all my games looked like this. I build a huge moyo and let him have the corners and often win. As always, comments are welcomed.

Oh also I started playing on tygem and fox and I really think this is helping me improve. Each server has a style of play so you have the occasion to make sure you are improving and not just finding a style that is particularly suited to a server.

Time to update my journal as I just achieved 13k on IGS.
I had a hard time winning recently but I guess it is good, it will give me plenty of things to think about. Speaking of things to think about, here is my last game. It was against a 13k+ with no komi and I lost by 0.5. I am really puzzled by this game because for the entire game I thought I was winning and I don't really feel like I made big mistakes like I usually do. Any comments to help me understand my loss will be greatly appreciated.



As for tsumego, books are not really practical so I try doing 10 problems at goproblems.com each day but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

Went back to 14k+ recently because of a losing streak. Have little time to play I decided not to review my games each time and this lead to bad play. So the next few post will be reviews of my lost games.

*Fixed the sgf tag. Apparently there was 'mode=view&' added to the url and it didn't like it.

Here are some comments on the first game:

Some on the second:

And the third one:

Thanks a lot for the review Skydyr.
I'll take the rest of the week to finish my other 3 reviews and try to digest your comments. I greatly appreciate your comments, it shows how skewed is my evaluation of a position currently.

Also, I have a question about reviews. I've seen your last game (which looked really weird to me!) in your study journal and I notice that you put much less comments and variations. I suppose part of it is because being higher level than I am, you have fewer basic things to note during your game. But apart from that, is it just a personal preference to keep the review this way or is there a merit to concentrating more on the main line?

Well, if I'm reviewing my own game, and I won pretty convincingly, I usually don't have a lot of mistakes that I can find at my level. Many things I might comment on in a weaker players game I avoid in my own, or don't feel them worth commenting on. I mean, I make comments in my own games for myself primarily, so generally I'd try and target them at my own level. I also didn't really spend a long time going through it, so there wasn't a lot to say. Had I spent more than 5-10 minutes, I would have had more, I imagine.

Obviously, the main line was what was actually played, so commenting a lot on other lines is not that helpful, other than to say play this way or that way. If there's a question about a situation, you want to look at it until it's resolved to your satisfaction, but there's no point in going into a 30 or 40 move variation to see if X would work, when you've only ever read, say, 5 moves deep in a game. Indeed, sometimes that variation will work, but you'll get the wrong lesson from it because in most cases it won't. It's also harder to say that the variation contains only correct moves the deeper you get, and if it doesn't what's the point?

In your note on move 4 in the third game you wrote that josekipedia recommends the 2-space jump over the 1-space jump. This is not true for the pincer against the approach to the 4-4 point. Did you put the wrong position into josekipedia perhaps, confusing it with the pincer against the approach to the 3-4 stone? The 2-space jump is one of the major lines there.

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Hi ez4u,
Good catch, it seems that I entered the wrong position. With the correct position entered, josekipedia mention that the 2 space jump leaves a weakness (but is still playable).

Basically be skeptical of what you see in josekipedia. In my database I have 5,700 examples of the 2-space high pincer with the 4-4 stone. The number of cases where the pincered player uses the 2-space jump? Five! Of those five only two are professional games. That compares to 995 examples of the 1-space jump. Of course YMMV!

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

It's been a long time, time to update my study journal!

ez4u, I know I should be critical of what I see but I still like the explanation in josekipedia. Probably that looking at a game database and study the variation would be more beneficial but at my level I appreciate a simple explanation and I don't really have the time. But you're right, I should at least ask myself the reason behind each move on josekipedia to check that it make sense to me.


Now for the review part!

I am still at 13k and cannot break through it but I am pleased with my last games. Here is the latest with my review. I lost by 7.5 with komi of -5.5 against a 12k.



I think the reasons I lost is:

I still need improvement in my shapes. I am pleased that no group of mine died but I was inefficient in making them live

I let white develop the bottom side by choosing the wrong direction at move 87

Starting February 13, I'll try to post at least a commented game per week.

some comments:


Letting white cut off the top group is a key point that needed to be avoided.

In the game the exchange of 98 for 99 (1 and 2 below) creates an interesting position at the top. In fact Black has just made a mistake and White can kill the upper side group. The question is how? In the game White continued with 100 and Black replied with 101 at 3 and 4 as shown below. It may seem like White can kill with 5 (or at least make ko) but this is not the case. White is not strong enough here to pull that off.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

Black can exploit the weakness of White's group at the top to live here. After below Black is threatening to kill White's group with the atari at N19. White has to play there so Black has time to capture at K18 and live.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

Going back to the situation after 99, how then should White kill Black? There are actually two ways. The simplest way is 3 below. This reduces Black's largest possible space at the top to a bulky five. At the same time it makes it impossible for Black to cut off White's top group and then connect at "a" in sente. The other possibility is the throw-in at "a". Now "b" and "c" are miai, Black needs both to live.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . b a X . O . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O X X c . X O O . O O X . . |
$$ | . X O O . . O X . X X X O O X X . . . |
$$ | . X X O . O . O X 3 O O O X O , X . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . O . 1 . X X X X . . . . |
$$ | . X X O . . . . . X 2 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O O . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O O . . . . , . . X X . , X . . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . . . . . O X . . X . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . . . O . X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . O . . . . . . . O O O . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . O X X O . . . |
$$ | . . . O . O . . . . O O X . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Wow, thank you for the reply ez4u! I would never find that alone, this is a cool serie of move.
So in the end, I was lucky in this game but I need to improve my reading.

Lately I've been winning quite a lot on fox weiqi so I guess I started to understand something new. Althought often my opponent decide to approach my corner on move 2 so it creates weird games.

For the review of the week, here is a IGS game I lost recently against a 10k. I think I know why I lost:

I played so many useless moves

I missread twice and did not realise the danger of certain moves (49 & 189)

So, here is the game. Comment welcome

It has been such a long time since my last post in this journal!
During this time I continued to play games but was to busy to review them. Guess what? it doesn't do much good to your game to play without thinking. So I'll try to review consistently from now on.
Here is my last game I played on KGS. I will try to spend a bit more time improving during summer so I want to find my weakest spot. If anyone sees it clearly I would be glad to hear it.

Hi Laerthd,

Welcome back.

No problem, certainly not at these levels.Your big and important mistakes come later, not here.

This block is tricky; requires some reading and planning.
The solid connect Q15 is simple.

P18 is huge. ^(*)

Right idea, but bad shape. P18. ^(*)

L17 or K17 to attack is also big.
( One meaning of at P18. )

R8 starts to make a base and eyeshape for yourself,
threatens to link up with R4, and deprives W of a base.

The idea of is the outside (e.g. P7 extend, or P6 hane),
not to fall behind on the inside. This contradicts .

The game move is natural and better. See next. ^(*)

What if W cuts R3 ? ^(*)



_____________
^(*) More important than .