Full of passionate intensity... S2W's Study journal

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:44 pm

Hello and welcome to my study journal!

I'm hoping to use this thread to ~~shamelessly profit from the collective wisdom of unpaid help,~~ ~~glory in my undeserved victories,~~ ~~publicly wallow in my private humiliation,~~ share a few of my games.

But first a little about me - I've been playing go seriously for a little more than a year though I was aware of the game much earlier. I'm most often on IGS and DGS - I also play on wbaduk and very infrequently on ogs. Please feel free to friend me on any of them (I like playing friendly/teaching(if you can call my advice teaching) matches on dgs and I rant about my losses on my igs journal). My rank is all over the place: 9k Igs, 7k dgs, 16k wbaduk - the last one I save for ~~after a beer or two~~ when I'm tired.

My dream is to get to 1 dan before I'm 40 - which could be interesting as I'm 37 now, but it's fun to have a goal. Hopefully sharing a few games will help me to ~~crush all that come before me,~~ ~~improve a little~~ ... (no let's stick with the first one

).

Anyway I hope you enjoy my games or at least get a laugh out of some of them.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:13 pm

Kicking it off with a win.

In general I felt pretty good about this game against another 9k on igs (the name has been changed to protect the innocent). I have been trying to play more of a solid/patient game - aiming for points rather than trying to kill everything. Here I think I managed to do it - or at least do it a little better than my usual style of play (so much so that I was inspired to start this journal to see if I was on the right track). Of course now that I've shown it here I'm sure that I'll learn something different

. In any case all thoughts and comments are appreciated.

One thing I do need to improve is my ability to count - despite feeling pretty good about the game my rough estimate put me at ~4 points ahead near the end, but I finished up winning by around 16.

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:36 pm

Charles Matthews · Post by **Charles Matthews** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 12:25 pm

S2W wrote:In any case all thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Up to

I quite like the way Black is playing. Here Black really must try to separate White on the outside, for a strategic win.

mitsun · Post by **mitsun** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 4:28 pm

This was a fine game for you, with very nice play in the opening. The first move I might quibble with is :b33:

, which looks like a slight over-play. Getting the first play on the left side is a fine idea, but how far should you extend?

Many times in Go you want to make a move which makes it hard for your opponent to find a good response, or which gives you a slightly better result if your opponent makes the obvious reponse. Extending to C12 or D12 is too cold, giving your opponent a simple and good option to respond at C11 or D11. Extending to C10 or D10 is too hot, making it obvious to your opponent that an invasion is called for, and that invasion leads to an uncertain result. Extending to C11 or D11 is just right, making it hard for your opponent to choose between extending (accepting a slightly inferior result) or invading (accepting a more difficult fight).

:b67:

was a very nice dan-level move, extending your position while limiting your opponent. Somewhere around here would be a perfect time to estimate the score, to see if this is enough to win. Based on your score estimate, you can push harder if needed or play more conservatively if that is still good enough to win.

:b153: was almost the only blunder in the game. What would happen if W cut at C18 and started a ko? B risks losing a lot, while W risks almost nothing. The entire corner could conceivably die (W ignores a ko threat, B makes good on the ko threat, W then gets another move in the corner). This would be a sad result after outplaying your opponent most of the game. Falling back to C18 costs two points, compared to the actual game result, and is necessary to avoid the ko danger.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:11 pm

Thanks for the great comments - and so fast - amazing!

Looking round the site a bit more I've noticed that people tend to embed comment when posting sgf - I'll try to remember to do that for future posts. Also this game was unrepresentative - I'll look for something to deflate my ego with next time (shouldn't be too hard...)

Ed:
Move 23: I was a little worried about the double-hane with the pincer stone - but I guess the idea would be to just trap it if I got a ponuki.

Move 33: I was wondering about the two space jump - I definitely need to think more about moves where I can profit from an unequal trade and keep sente.

Charles:
I agree. Thinking back to the game the move was motivated by a desire to try to keep my group alive - I have a little PTSD from seeing too many good corners die.

Mitsun:
I like the idea of "Goldilocks" moves to work out what to play on the side - I'll be trying it out in the future!

And that ko - ouch - thanks for pointing it out.

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 1:24 am

S2W wrote:Move 23: I was a little worried about the double-hane with the pincer stone

The double hane is normal. Good to study the variations and get used to them.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 10:28 pm

Undeserved victory/ Drunken master

Two wins today - neither really worthy of review - the first was a two stone handicap that was an absolute train wreck for me from start to finish ... until my opponent resigned in the endgame. I'm guessing it was a wifi tesuji because he was having connection problems through the game. The second was a slightly tipsy blitz match on wbaduk which might be worth a quick look if I can work out how to get the gibo/kifu off my ipod. Mostly my play was my usual deer in the headlights blitz style - but I did manage to pull off a nice little invasion to carry the match by 4 points.

I can't boast too much - my rank on wbaduk is horribly depressed compared toy rank on other servers (17-16 kyu). In part this is because I don't treat it as seriously, but also I'm terrible at blitz games. Any advice on whether this is something to be concerned about, and if so how to get better at blitz?

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:02 pm

S2W wrote:how to get better at blitz?

Blitz, 90 minutes, or 8 hours: work on the basics (fundamentals).

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:47 pm

Handicap double header

Two back to back igs handicap games. In the first, a two stone handicap against a 7kyu, I blow a reasonably good opening by mucking up a fight in the upper right - poor direction of play and poor reading. In game 2, a three stone handicap I fair better - making good use of my thickness to drive down into his moyo.

Game 1:

Game 2

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 2:53 pm

Hi S2W,

In game 1 with Xxxxa, if on :b6:

you kicked at E3 as in your variation, and W replied with the normal extend F4 in your variation,
then you are happy about this exchange: W is very inefficient. Distinguish between helping W make good shape,
versus forcing W into an inefficient shape -- the :b6:

E3 -

F4 exchange is good for B, bad for W.
( :w5:

was probably strange. ) After that, in your variation, :b8:

at E6 feels a little slow. Tenuki instead.

:b10:

did you consider K3/K4 area to attack W's only weak group ?

:b18:

big but not urgent (F17 and E14 directions are miai -- you cannot get both anyway): did you look at Q9/R9 area ?
That's W's only remaining big area, there is no miai for that -- compare with the difference of F17-E14 miai.

:b20:

this shape is not great: locally, C15 kosumi is better shape. Also, did you notice W has a weakness at Q9 ?

:b26:

your comment was correct: this feels strange.

:b32:

yes, reply locally. Did you consider the E7 hane (head of enemy stones) ?
Your :b32:

is a big point, of course, but did you notice the 2 weaknesses at H17 and M17 (miai, again, for W) ?

:b34:

unbearable.

:b42:

did you consider E7 atari ?

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:31 pm

A few comments on game 1.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:36 pm

Ed, Bill thanks again for the fast responses. Bill - I'm going over your review now and will post replies below.

EdLee wrote:In game 1 with Xxxxa, if on you kicked at E3 as in your variation, and W replied with the normal extend F4 in your variation,
then you are happy about this exchange: W is very inefficient. Distinguish between helping W make good shape,
versus forcing W into an inefficient shape -- the E3 - F4 exchange is good for B, bad for W.
( was probably strange. ) After that, in your variation, at E6 feels a little slow. Tenuki instead.

This is something I need to work on - intellectually I've heard the arguments for making your opponent over-concentrated, but in the heat of the game I find the allure of a future monkey jump is hard to pass up.

EdLee wrote: did you consider K3/K4 area to attack W's only weak group ?

big but not urgent (F17 and E14 directions are miai -- you cannot get both anyway): did you look at Q9/R9 area ?
That's W's only remaining big area, there is no miai for that -- compare with the difference of F17-E14 miai.

I guess I'm always a little wary of taking the fight to white to early in a handicap game. My strategy is to play defensively because I found I tend to loose handicap games because I've let a big group get killed (case in point) or it's been isolated and had to run across half the board to safety. In the early part of this game I felt pretty good about my position on the top and lhs - and I had a living group inside whites moyo - so I was thinking I would save an invasion/reduction of white for later - or just profit from an extra move if white went to fix. That said I didn't even think of k4 and r9 was more what I was thinking about in terms of an invasion if it came to it.

EdLee wrote: this shape is not great: locally, C15 kosumi is better shape. Also, did you notice W has a weakness at Q9 ?

Good to know that the kosumi is the better option - I'd wondered about it at the time but I was fuzzy on which was the correct choice.

EdLee wrote: yes, reply locally. Did you consider the E7 hane (head of enemy stones) ?
Your is a big point, of course, but did you notice the 2 weaknesses at H17 and M17 (miai, again, for W) ?

For e7 see below (fear of loosing corner). I realized the actual point I played was weak, but I was hoping to invite an invasion and profit while running it out (not dying horribly would have been a much better response than the one I came up with though). Would playing at L16 been a better move locally?

EdLee wrote: did you consider E7 atari ?

I was looking at it for a while, but I chickened out because I wasn't sure how alive my corner was. In the end I thought my opponent would either have to fix (and give me sente) or I'd hit it once the corner was 100%.

S2W · Post by **S2W** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 9:28 pm

Bill thanks again for the review - I got a lot out of all of it (and I'm slapping myself even more over the corner).

I wanted to ask you about one point in particular. More than all the others your variation to move 10 made me aware of a big hole in my go knowledge.

Namely: When should you use a double approach?

I realized I don't really understand it's purpose other than as a response to a tenuchi. In the context of this game though is there something that makes it better than playing R6 directly? Or should I think of it as being a correction to a mistake made by playing move 10 the way I did?

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:20 pm

S2W wrote:When should you use a double approach?

Hi S2W,

A very common trap: I myself also fell into it the first few years.

Life In 19x19

Full of passionate intensity... S2W's Study journal

Full of passionate intensity... S2W's Study journal

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