Life In 19x19

Posted: **Wed Jun 12, 2013 4:12 pm**

Hey, I finally reached 3d on tygem and I thought I'd share one of my games of today.

I played it against a 2d with a 30 : 5 win/lose ratio (like me he's 3d by now), so I naturally assumed I'm playing a sandbagging professional 9d and will get destroyed.

He wasn't that strong, fortunately. He gained a huge lead but somehow managed to throw it away, not sure how that happened, actually. He just made awkward shapes and let me get chances by threatening kos instead of directly defending (since I was behind the kos were good for me, I believe).

Since I got so far behind there should be plenty of wrong moves from my side, especially in the fuseki/early midgame. Criticism of any kind is appreciated. Time was 10m with 3x30s Japanese byoyomi.

Here's the game:

edit: fixed a typo.
edit2: Changed thread title on admin demand.

Posted: **Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:17 am**

Hi! I've thrown in a few comments, maybe they help.

Posted: **Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:58 am**

20: you are exposing your 3-3 point. he gets 3-3 you get nothing shape.
protecting corner or C6 looks better. but you are already behind because of top joseki

34: not greedy. i think only move for white
36: that was greedy. you should have saved one stone on the bottom now.
thanks to black 45,47 you have a time to save that stone.
77: waste of move for black
86-87: not important at all. that exchange didnt help white but might help black.

Black can not kill white group with S18.
i can say that not because i read the variation but my feeling say that group is alive 100%.

i think you have reached the point where you need to imporve fuseki and global reading.

Posted: **Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:43 pm**

Thanks for the comments, guys!

magicwand wrote:86-87: not important at all. that exchange didnt help white but might help black.

Hm, I didn't even consider it, but I think you are right. Playing the atari for him will always be gote, and by pushing there I destroyed the possibility of playing from the inside (and given that he had an open skirt on the other side there may have been a very nice invasion later).

magicwand wrote:i think you have reached the point where you need to imporve fuseki and global reading.

I'll definitely look into that, since even against 2kyus on kgs I often find myself completely outplayed in the opening. (I make a lot of direction of play mistakes.)

@OtakuViking:
Your 3-3 variation looks very nice for white, but would black really jump to p5? Because I'd just follow up at c7 as black in that position.

Is there a severe corner invasion threatened or can white make extremely awesome influence if black tenukis? I guess just playing p5 as white makes nice outside influence already, hm.

Posted: **Wed Jul 24, 2013 2:55 am**

Tnx so much for posting games for noobs like myself.

Posted: **Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:23 am**

Some comments.

Posted: **Thu Jul 25, 2013 2:43 am**

leichtloeslich wrote:Hey, I finally reached 3d on tygem and I thought I'd share one of my games of today.

I'm too weak to give comments on the game but I just wanted to congratulate you on Tygem 3d!!!
Off to Tygem 4d ;-)

Cheers,
Otenki

Posted: **Tue Jul 30, 2013 5:41 pm**

Hey!
Congratulations on 3d

! I play IGS and I'm also about 3d. I don't know the strength conversion, but seeing this game I feel like IGS is higher than Tygem. My comments aren't meant to be mean at all, just strong and blunt at times to make a point!

Overall, on your game, I feel like you won because of lucky kos and black messing up and letting you break into his big territory and losing everything. It was a winning game for black.

The main principle that left you behind is that you made moves to solely secure territory. For example, the one that I found most disturbing was move 87 or w/e that you made that contact play. All you did was secure not much (like 5-10 points?) and help him connect and gain influence to make even more territory himself. that play by him was horrible, and you could have gained alot from punishing him for it. Also, in the beginning, the territory securing play following after the complete 3-3 sequence was not for me. you let him make a wall, which is definitely more worth it, and it is lucky that you were able to invade and he answered badly and let you escape with that sequence...

Overall, change your mind set from calculating "I'm behind, I must secure territory" to "What is the most effective move?"
In other words, don't be afraid to "Lose" territory, because you really won't. I guess what I'm trying to say is many of your moves are as if you are scared in the beginning to mid game, causing you to play these certain weak moves that you intend to secure territory but it is actually a loss in the long run.

Cherish the powers of walls and giant influences too. The correct way to use them is not to surround territory, but to have it daunt over your opponent. They are always worth it, unless you surround territory.

I leave you with this thought: When you secured territory in this game, you got, let's face it, at most 10 points out of each sequence, while Black makes a wall with potential 30 points. The alternatives to your moves? You could cause black to lose more of his, while gain more of yours, while taking control of the game. You will learn when you play handicap games as black, that white can somehow with all the handicap given to you still win and come out ahead (and not by silly tricks).

Good Luck

Posted: **Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:03 am**

Hey everyone (especially Bill Spight and BlueHazel), thx for the additional comments!

BlueHazel wrote:I don't know the strength conversion, but seeing this game I feel like IGS is higher than Tygem.

Definitely. I'd say from my experience that tygem 3d is around 1k-1d on IGS.

BlueHazel wrote:Overall, change your mind set from calculating "I'm behind, I must secure territory" to "What is the most effective move?"

Yep, I play too territorially at times. That's why I recently changed up my style to go for a lot of influence and just give away territory. It works out surprisingly well, especially since I like fighting :)

Life In 19x19

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