A beginner's journal of little interest

[oren]

Why did you resign?

[Boidhre]

Why did you resign?

I had him a lot further ahead than he actually was after I blocked the ko threat. Another blunder.

I think he's 6 points ahead when I played it out there.

[oren]

I think he's 6 points ahead when I played it out there.

At 6 points, just play it out to the end. You may find something to pull it back. It's way too early in a kyu game to resign.

[Boidhre]

I think he's 6 points ahead when I played it out there.

At 6 points, just play it out to the end. You may find something to pull it back. It's way too early in a kyu game to resign.

You're right, I'm being too negative.

[Boidhre]

Another day, another resignation. I feel this one was more justifiable, I had him around 15 points ahead after I played it out with me having serious weakness on the left and no big moves left as far as I could see or traps/tricks. There were two big blunders by me that leapt out at me, the first was not spotting a threatened atari allowing for a connection underneath to a dead group, the second was an empty triangle in the top left that allowed a threatened capture which forced me to give up around 10 points of territory. I'm unhappy with the blunders but I learnt something from both of them.

In reading, I was loaned "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" and "The Second Book of Go" by one of the guys in the club, so I have them to read.

[karaklis]

A few ideas:

6: While saving a corner is certainly a big move, there are bigger moves at this stage. Examples: r14, o17, q10, r6, o3, k4, c6

16: too narrow. r9 is the proper move here.

24: p16 makes p14 overconcentrated. You can play p17. If w cuts, you can capture the cutting stone in a ladder.

38: Again overconcentrated. White still has weak groups at the left and the right side that you can attack.

40: Yes, the idea is good, maybe a bit too loose. I would probably attack at d10.

42: Just continue to attack. e10.

50: You have enough support stones so that you can play hane on d7. "Hane on the head of two stones" is a good shape.

102: Small. Play b13, this is double sente.

106: You don't have to follow your opponent all the time. b13, o7 and s3 are far bigger moves.

118: b15. This can stop the opponent's invasion best. After b c15 w should have played a15 instead of a14.

156: Too passive. Reduce your opponent, e.g. m11.

[Boidhre]

Thank you karaklis. Food for thought there.

[EdLee]

[Boidhre]

Thanks EdLee.

[Boidhre]

So something more philosophical than just a game. For the past few weeks I've had a poor mental attitude, I played games expecting to lose. I had no sense of confidence or anything else going into them and I think it's been pretty obvious in my play. I had felt confident for the first week I was playing then I lost all confidence in my ability to win against other players of my rank. For some reason yesterday I suddenly felt confident again despite a string of recent losses (well, I don't feel bad about these, according to a table on Sensei's Library I should be a 26k on DGS!). This has gotten me thinking of the importance of confidence in the game. If you're not confident (and you're like me), you'll start playing very passively and let yourself be pushed around, play one more stone in each area "just to be sure" instead of taking sente. You'll start doing tsumego during time you could be playing and so on. Honestly, I suffer from depression and have been coming out of a three month bout for the past 4 weeks so my mood's been all over the place. But my sleep's stabilised over the past week and now my mood is stabilising which is lovely. So all good. But it's really driven home some points about the place of mental attitude in games like this and how one is almost better off not playing if one is going into each game expecting to lose because it'll become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Anyway, yeah in go related stuff: Playing a good bit and really enjoying it, reading a few books (I like to be dipping in and out of several different books at once) and considering getting a commented pro game collection off SmartGo Books for pleasure reading. Also, DGS has really cemented the importance of sente for me. Playing in gote for a few hours is uncomfortable!

[Boidhre]

I'm very annoyed with myself for this game, I missed a 1 point move at the end resulting in the loss (unforgivable) and made a major blunder midgame. Still my opponent is 11k KGS. I got a bit mauled in the endgame and my middlegame was weak I think. Do I need to play more safely when ahead? Or was the sequence of moves that led to the blunder something someone playing a month wouldn't be expected to spot? All criticism and comments appreciated.

[mitsun]

I'm very annoyed with myself for this game, I missed a 1 point move at the end resulting in the loss ...

Near the end of the game, compare B move 206 to W move 209. How much was each move worth? Move 206 was worth one point gote for whoever played there first. A B move at 209 would have been worth either two points in sente (if W answered by blocking) or even more in gote (if B got the next follow-up move). Quite a difference. You should be able to do this sort of counting at your level.

At the very end of the game, move 220 was not necessary. Try to figure out the continuations, if B lets W have another move here. This is a good reading problem, but somewhat above your level. To avoid this difficulty, B could have played move 214 at B4 (ladder) or move 216 at B3 (capture with no liberty problems).

The sequence 90-100 was a blunder by B. But at each step in this sequence, if B saw the danger, he could have avoided the worst outcome. For example, even after W99, can you figure out a B response which would still kill the three W stones at R14?

In the middle game, you had a big decision to make at move 58 -- try to live with this stone, or give it up on a small scale. This would be a perfect time to pause for a few minutes and estimate the score. If you can win by playing simple reduction moves, that is the safest strategy. In this game that appears to be the case. B has some nice reduction moves (F14 or F13 or G13 or G12 or G11 or H11), which increase B territory while reducing W territory. After the 58-59 exchange, if B still ends up dying inside, W will have gained at least 20 points, compared to B sacrificing just one stone.

[EdLee]

Boidhre ,

[Bill Spight]

You actually won this game, except that you both miscounted. White has to fill a point as a protective move in the top left corner. Fill the dame before passing.

Somewhat redundant comments start at B206.

[Boidhre]

Thank you all for your comments. My rank grossly overestimates my endgame technique at the moment!

For example, even after W99, can you figure out a B response which would still kill the three W stones at R14?

I think I see it now, S11 I think with S10 after the forced capture.