Getting back into go after 18 years
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 12:03 pm
I learned go from my dad when I was a teenager. I never participated any ranking system. My dad was amateur 3 dan in China and at the end of my high school my win rate against him was near 100% with black and ~70% with white. I haven't played a single game since college. Recently I met a friend who also plays go (first one in 18 years 
) and I'm trying to getting back into the game now.
I posted the game yesterday in KGS sub-forum because of some bad manner move at the end of game. This post here is mostly for me to review the game and learn my mistakes.
This was my second ranked game on KGS. The first one I won against a 6-7k robot and I was ranked '6k?' after that. I was auto-matched against my 4k opponent in this game and was given 2-stone handicap.
interesting move, only happens in handicap games I think;
again strange move, normally people challenges from corner;
my opponent likes to fight;
after
, 
is at a very bad position, but white needs to deal with the weakness around K5. 
, 
are very slow and make the whole group heavy, in exchange 
and 
defends both corners and still keeps white group afloat. At this point I realized my opponent was indeed weaker than me and I had a game plan centered around punishing the white group around K5.
in joseki black can S18 to defend the corner or R15 to give up the corner and build a wall around top-right corner. In either cases at O10 became a good move. So I played at R15 and 
to connect it back. After 
, white gained more locally because white got the corner and 
are on Q lines not R lines, but because at O10 loses efficiency and make P12 point less important. Black still has influences towards center (still aiming for K5 white group) and can now move to top-left. and are situational moves to trying to follow my game plan, they are bad exchanges in top-right area.
I expected this move from white, but 
was bad move, either J16 or L16 would be much better. After 
, 
and 
are in danger. 
, big mistake from white, need to cut off black at H18 now. Again and 
makes white heavy and loses initiative in the center.
relief from white mistakes, keep moving towards center.
to 
, connects white group to top-left, this is still a mistake, again white needs to jump into the center, after and the white top center group is not an easy kill, there's always to 
sequence to connect back to corner later. White is trying to cut off the two black stones near top-left, but those two stones are very light. All white did from this connection move was small yose.
key, this is what white should have done back when handling the bottom center groups. Now white don't even have a good point to attack black in top-left area. White should invade left now.
white had to invade left after 
, 
is still aiming for the bottom white group, this allows 
to connect but I was stubborn and wanted to stick to my game plan.
biggest mistake in this game, C10 then A15 and black would kill white (A18 sente), 
should still play A15. This is what you get by playing a game and watching youtube at the same time. White now kills black instead. This was almost a 40-point loss and I had to count territory first time in this game. I found black was still winning by ~20 points if black take H11 position. The fight in center will now decide the game (ironically it was also my game plan).
White again missed and let :b116: into the center first. After :w133:, there is now a black wall in the middle and white got 10-15 points worth of territory from the thick white wall on top. White loss is now almost inevitable.
:b134: was a mis-click, I meant to play K7. This would be a complicated fight in center but I don't know what would be the outcome of this fight, but black is very ahead and have few worries after settling the weakness in center.
The actual fight till :b140: resulted in white easily alive. I was disappointed at :b134: mis-click but black is now >35 points ahead.
:b142: another mistake, should play at D6, because of the weakness around G9. After :w147:, I needed to be careful with yose afterwards, it's only 20 point lead now.
:w153: big mistake from white, need to make G8 move to connect (white F8 sente). After :b160: white not only died bigger near bottom left but also built now black wall very close to bottom center white group. Black is now again 40+ points ahead, I've won no matter what but I'm not done yet with the white K5 group. The group is now almost alive, but if black has 1 sente to cut it off from right...
:b168: big yose and I was still looking for that sente. Unnecessary fight from :w169: gave black the sente needed. :b172: I would normally play at R8 and then Q8, white would lose more territory because of weakness around R14. The actual fight gave black the sente needed :b180: P7, but I probably should have played M3 before.
:b188: last serious mistake from black. :w189: is sente, but both black and white missed this. I realized this soon and connected back with :b208:. After that there weren't many big yose left.
White missed last chance at :w153:, I knew I won after that. The moves to kill white K5 group was just toying with my opponent.
This game was unfair to my opponent to start with. I won because I read my opponent very early in the game and stuck to my game plan the whole game, he likes to fight and he lost the game by doing unnecessary fights.
I made so many mistakes in the game, the 40-point mistake at would be game deciding against a stronger opponent. Need a lot more practice and focus on the game.
) and I'm trying to getting back into the game now. I posted the game yesterday in KGS sub-forum because of some bad manner move at the end of game. This post here is mostly for me to review the game and learn my mistakes.
This was my second ranked game on KGS. The first one I won against a 6-7k robot and I was ranked '6k?' after that. I was auto-matched against my 4k opponent in this game and was given 2-stone handicap.
interesting move, only happens in handicap games I think; again strange move, normally people challenges from corner; my opponent likes to fight;after
, is at a very bad position, but white needs to deal with the weakness around K5. , are very slow and make the whole group heavy, in exchange and defends both corners and still keeps white group afloat. At this point I realized my opponent was indeed weaker than me and I had a game plan centered around punishing the white group around K5. in joseki black can S18 to defend the corner or R15 to give up the corner and build a wall around top-right corner. In either cases at O10 became a good move. So I played at R15 and to connect it back. After , white gained more locally because white got the corner and are on Q lines not R lines, but because at O10 loses efficiency and make P12 point less important. Black still has influences towards center (still aiming for K5 white group) and can now move to top-left. and are situational moves to trying to follow my game plan, they are bad exchanges in top-right area. I expected this move from white, but was bad move, either J16 or L16 would be much better. After , and are in danger. , big mistake from white, need to cut off black at H18 now. Again and makes white heavy and loses initiative in the center. relief from white mistakes, keep moving towards center. to , connects white group to top-left, this is still a mistake, again white needs to jump into the center, after and the white top center group is not an easy kill, there's always to sequence to connect back to corner later. White is trying to cut off the two black stones near top-left, but those two stones are very light. All white did from this connection move was small yose. key, this is what white should have done back when handling the bottom center groups. Now white don't even have a good point to attack black in top-left area. White should invade left now. white had to invade left after , is still aiming for the bottom white group, this allows to connect but I was stubborn and wanted to stick to my game plan. biggest mistake in this game, C10 then A15 and black would kill white (A18 sente), should still play A15. This is what you get by playing a game and watching youtube at the same time. White now kills black instead. This was almost a 40-point loss and I had to count territory first time in this game. I found black was still winning by ~20 points if black take H11 position. The fight in center will now decide the game (ironically it was also my game plan).White again missed and let :b116: into the center first. After :w133:, there is now a black wall in the middle and white got 10-15 points worth of territory from the thick white wall on top. White loss is now almost inevitable.
:b134: was a mis-click, I meant to play K7. This would be a complicated fight in center but I don't know what would be the outcome of this fight, but black is very ahead and have few worries after settling the weakness in center.
The actual fight till :b140: resulted in white easily alive. I was disappointed at :b134: mis-click but black is now >35 points ahead.
:b142: another mistake, should play at D6, because of the weakness around G9. After :w147:, I needed to be careful with yose afterwards, it's only 20 point lead now.
:w153: big mistake from white, need to make G8 move to connect (white F8 sente). After :b160: white not only died bigger near bottom left but also built now black wall very close to bottom center white group. Black is now again 40+ points ahead, I've won no matter what but I'm not done yet with the white K5 group. The group is now almost alive, but if black has 1 sente to cut it off from right...
:b168: big yose and I was still looking for that sente. Unnecessary fight from :w169: gave black the sente needed. :b172: I would normally play at R8 and then Q8, white would lose more territory because of weakness around R14. The actual fight gave black the sente needed :b180: P7, but I probably should have played M3 before.
:b188: last serious mistake from black. :w189: is sente, but both black and white missed this. I realized this soon and connected back with :b208:. After that there weren't many big yose left.
White missed last chance at :w153:, I knew I won after that. The moves to kill white K5 group was just toying with my opponent.
This game was unfair to my opponent to start with. I won because I read my opponent very early in the game and stuck to my game plan the whole game, he likes to fight and he lost the game by doing unnecessary fights.
I made so many mistakes in the game, the 40-point mistake at
would be game deciding against a stronger opponent. Need a lot more practice and focus on the game.
is helping white to find next move. I agree that the black is also in big lead, but white's game plan is also clear at this point.