Life In 19x19

Posted: **Sat Aug 18, 2012 4:24 pm**

Been replaying 2-3 games by Honinbo Dosaku each week as of late. This popped in my mind today:

Honinbo Dosaku didn't have weak groups. He had strong groups without eyes

It's amazing how he keeps playing and playing all over the board.

Posted: **Wed Jul 03, 2013 2:12 pm**

Playing again. Played 3 games so far... Not specially good. Also I don't know how to take the final comment from my opponent... It wasn't a great game, but I don't think it was that bad.

Posted: **Wed Jul 03, 2013 5:25 pm**

In the last game, you played much too timidly, all defensive moves, hardly ever challenging your opponent, and you fell way behind by the end. Maybe W thought you put up too little resistance.

However, the fight you started with 109-111 was interesting, more complicated than perhaps either you or your opponent realized, and you had some upset chances.

In the upper left corner, B is dead, but with quite a few liberties. (Can you count how many liberties?) If B ever gets to attack the W group on either side, it could be a close capturing race.

W126 is a careless overplay; after B127 W is dead.
B129 is also careless and unnecessary, letting W escape.
W158 is another careless play, ignoring the danger in the center.
B159 at J13 looks like a probable kill.
B161 at H14 looks like another probable kill.

Posted: **Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:21 pm**

Thanks for the pointers mitsun. Being too defensive has been my bane during all my playing time: whenever I played with 9 stones against some friends they had to push me attack. True story.

Actually killing races are one of my weak points, and even worse when there are eyes involved. Actually, my idea in the zone was to use the corner to kill top or right... But wasn't able to read it out at all after Ws response. Oh, and the "misskills" of that group! I was completely oblivios wrt J13. I just mentally skimmed over J14 and J12 and didn't even care about other moves. Even though I knew cutting that knight didn't look well... But didn't think it was so bad as that shortage of liberties.

Well, today I played again, so I put my previous bad play behind and made some brand new bad play. Of the cool kind, making my own groups die and the like. You know.

Posted: **Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:04 pm**

Why can't I concentrate in KGS games? Even though I won my last game (rival resigned because he could not concentrate, and told me he thought the game was still open, which I think is quite "hmm"), it was such a silly mess I'm ashamed anyway. I played far better games in real life last week in the tournament...

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:41 am**

I'm having some trouble with problem 94 in Lee ChangHo Jingjiang Weiqi Sihuo Vol 1. Black to play and kill... Maybe I'm being too obtuse with my variation, but I even played it over the board... Can't kill.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$ Black to play $$ | . . . . . . $$ | X X X . . . $$ | . O X . . . $$ | . O X . . . $$ | . . O X . . $$ | . X O X . . $$ | O O O . . . $$ | X O X X . . $$ | . O X . . . $$ +-------------[/go]

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:59 am**

Doesn't this work?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$ :b5: at :b1: $$ | . . . . . . $$ | X X X . . . $$ | . O X . . . $$ | 3 O X . . . $$ | 2 1 O X . . $$ | 4 X O X . . $$ | O O O . . . $$ | X O X X . . $$ | . O X . . . $$ +-------------[/go]

Now it's a false eye. I don't see how white can stop this.

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:24 am**

I had a minor typo in the diagram, but doesn't affect the result.

Your answer is the answer given in the book, but I don't see how black stops this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$ $$ | . . . . . | $$ | X X X . . | $$ | 3 O X . . | $$ | 2 O X . . | $$ | 4 1 O X . | $$ | . X O X . | $$ | O O O X . | $$ | X O X X . | $$ | . O X . . | $$ +-----------+[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$ $$ | . . . . . | $$ | X X X . . | $$ | 3 . X . . | $$ | . 6 X . . | $$ | . 1 O X . | $$ | 5 X O X . | $$ | O O O X . | $$ | X O X X . | $$ | . O X . . | $$ +-----------+[/go]

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:35 am**

You are gonna kick yourself for this one.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code: [go]$$ $$ | . . . . . | $$ | X X X . . | $$ | 3 . X . . | $$ | . 6 X . . | $$ | . 1 C X . | $$ | 5 X C X . | $$ | C C C X . | $$ | X C X X . | $$ | 7 C X . . | $$ +-----------+[/go]

It's okay, I've done that before too. And yes, that extra stone did matter (although I didn't notice it was missing, so we both messed up).

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:37 am**

Classic mistake by my part, I always miss shortages (for killing or for living)

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:45 am**

Okay, after settling whether that problem was right or wrong (heh) I have put a table again with LCH tesuji and tsumego vols 1 and 2. So far I have beaten my best % by a huge margin. I'm also counting as wrong a problem I didn't completely settle the status (I read it as "play here, there, here and no way to have 2 eyes," but the shape is almost seki, has a cut so I needed a small extra read or argument)

Code: Select all

| Orientation   |        0º      |      90º       |     180º      |     270º    |

| Book          | #wrong |    % | #wrong |    % | #wrong |    % | #wrong |    % |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tesuji  1 |        |      |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tsumego 1 |      5 | 4.07 |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tesuji  2 |        |      |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tsumego 2 |        |      |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|

Posted: **Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:03 am**

I'm playing worse and worse each day. Again 7k KGS

Posted: **Tue Aug 13, 2013 11:47 am**

This morning's loss (actually my last 3 games have been defeats, and I've only won once after coming back from the NGA summer camp :/) has been followed by a decent tsumego session. My previous run (normal orientation, 5 fails) had been spread among 3 sessions of 41 problems. This time I did the whole book in one sitting (took me around 35-45 minutes, give or take, I didn't check the time I started)

Code: Select all

| Orientation   |        0º      |      90º       |     180º      |     270º    |

| Book          | #wrong |    % | #wrong |    % | #wrong |    % | #wrong |    % |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tesuji  1 |        |      |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tsumego 1 |      5 | 4.07 |      1 | 0.81 |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tesuji  2 |        |      |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|
| YCH Tsumego 2 |        |      |        |      |        |      |        |      |
|---------------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------|

Posted: **Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:18 am**

Played a slower game today (25 min main time), since I was under the impression that my results lately were so bad because 10 min main time was too little after the NGA camp (main time was 40 minutes there.)

I barely won (2.5 points), my opponent missed a trick at the last moment. In this game the winner wasn't the one with the least mistakes but just who didn't make the last mistake.

I am not sure if my exchange of a group of 10 stones in the center was worth the small living group in the right side. Anyone to comment?

Posted: **Mon Aug 19, 2013 2:55 pm**

Comments on just a few big points:

Why not double-hane, or even cut at M2?

Bad aji-keshi, as M2 is a huge threat.

Intolerable to let B get the previous big move in sente.

Yes, finally a counter-attack. Nicely timed.

Cut at H10 and fight! B has no way to hurt your two stones.
:w132: Does not work. This was the last chance for Q5 connection.
:b143: Should be S5 to kill. W is ahead after living here.
:w152:-:w154: Should be losing moves, giving B the J4 cut.
:w162: Can actually be L9 to save 3 stones.
:w176: Loses sente for nothing.

Life In 19x19

My week in numbers (was "Tiny steps towards shodan")

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