Life In 19x19

Hey guys,

this is the forth game of the tournament I attended this weekend. I hold the black stones against Lisa (3d), who is probably one of the strongest female go players here in germany.

I think the fuseki went well for me but she outread me on the right side after my invasion. Knowing that I'm behind I made I very crucual reading error (I hallucinated a Ko) in the end and resigned the game. I'd be glad to get some reviews / comments.

All at all I played 2,5 - 2,5 at this tournament (my first jigo ever ^_^). This was the first time I started as a Shodan so I'm quiet comfortable with the result.

Is 51 a normal move? Everything seemed to go downhill for you after that. Before that it seemed pretty even to me.

Of course you're probably a bit stronger than me and white definitely is, so this may not be much help

I think that G15 is a pretty important point that Black should have played directly after H16.

I do not like S15 and the following moves; I would recommend just S16 instead. The problem is that White gets much thicker in the game, and you could get first hand experience what that means during the invasion on the right.

H3 is the wrong direction, since the black group on the lower side is stable enough (having extensions in both directions). Black should instead jump to E6; this and the similar point in the upper right (which you forced White to take) were approximately miai.

Yep I should have played q8 instead of the keima (move 51) but I wasnt able to read it out corecctly and thought I'd die there (which is not true I think now) ~


Hmmm I was very proud of H3, it looks flat but on the other hand this looks like a very good point for white so is it really that "wrong"?

How about R12 instead of P9? White's kosumi is usually quite strong for attacking but easy to dodge if you play a bit lighter.

you might disagree...but...
31 is the start of your downfall.
your territory is so wide..it is too easy to invade.
your cap is an overplay but you didnt have much choice because there isnt any way to attack that stone.
such cap will not work on 3D. i think i rather tenuki than the cap.

I partly disagree with Magicwand (surprise!). I get the impression (again) that Magicwand counts any invadable moyo as 0 points (which would be wrong).

Just from the shape on the left side, is the most natural move conceivable. The problem is that Black settled the shape on the right side so much that the "equivalent" invasion on the right has gotten more difficult, and also that he got only after White and thus without further threat into the corner. Therefore, it might be advisable to try a more territorial approach in this situation; perhaps one could settle with B5.

Just as a side note: if - - had been played in reverse order, H3 would be quite strange, as Black would rather extend his moyo than the stable, low group on the bottom.

Anyway, the result of the white invasion on the left was not too bad for Black, as White effectively only crawled on the second line. Black might be a bit behind, but the game is far from over. However, the invasion on the right went really bad. I think that Black should have started from Q9, keeping the flexibility to settle for some central influence to threaten a nice central moyo together with the stones on the left. H3 at least means that Black can also invade the lower right corner.

i had a feeling someone will disagree
another point..26 is first move that i really didnt like.
solidifying the corner is big but you also solidify white and it's gote.
i am sure you have better move than 26.

i am curious how other stronger player assess my point on move 31.
i am sure i would for one not play that move if i was black.

Black 113: you push on a link, but then you don't cut. So you gain nothing from the exchange, lose a liberty, and force white to connect solidly what was virtually connected before. You lose the possibility of a peep, which might have been useful a few moves down the road. Unless you had some other purpose I didn't see?

Also with Harlequin that S15 feels like the wrong move.

Most of the rest was over my head

Well I knew that I was behind and needed to nullify whites upper side to have a chance. I pushed at 113 to create a cut and use it with my next moves... well as you have seen in the end I did a crucial reading mistake, but I don't know if I could have done any better to reduce white.

I was able to ask FJ (german 6d) about the invasion on the right side, here are his thoughts:

First he suggested to simply dont play the invasion right know but to ensure territory on the top with Black 1 and forces white to destory the aji with the 2-3 exchange.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c No invasion at all?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X O . X . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , X O . O 1 . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X 2 . . . . . . . . . X X . |
$$ | . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . O O O . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O X . X . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . X . . X . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

When Black really wants to do something on the right side he can try to make sabaki with the attachment here, but Black needs to read some stuff here, we didnt discussed this any further:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Sabaki
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X O . X . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , X O . O . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O X . X . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . X . . X . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

He said I handled the invasion wrong, sometimes the most stupid and obvious move is the right one. With the empty triangle black looks alive, if white desperately attacks Black, he will abandon the invasion stones and take the other three stones instead:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c The actual invasion
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X O . X . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . X , X O . O . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . . . . . . X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . |
$$ | . O O X . X . . . , . . . . . O 5 . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 1 . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . |
$$ | . O X . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . X . . X . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Numsgil, if you read his comment that he thought there was a ko and looked at the sequence after, you'd see that the push was played at the latest possible time. Later on when the fight started white might not have chosen to block directly. Of course, since the ko didn't exist that was all for naught, but given the reading this pushing was necessary.

I don't think we can really criticise the moves of players more than 6 stones stronger with such definiteness anyways, and this is something I noticed from your Malkovich against Topazg as well.

Aphelion wrote:I don't think we can really criticise the moves of players more than 6 stones stronger with such definiteness anyways, and this is something I noticed from your Malkovich against Topazg as well.

Obviously take everything I say with a grain of salt. My main point when I say things like this is that there's a basic principle that seems to be violated (ie: something in one of my books), and does the player have strong reasoning for doing so (eg: some reading for why it works)? I could preface everything with "I'm a newb so this move here doesn't seem to make sense since..." but that gets old pretty quick, and I consider it implied given my strength.

Hmmm is there a tool available to convert a game at a certain move into forum-compatible diagram form?

Yes, if you look in the stickied thread on how to make diagrams I made a post with the link not long ago. http://senseis.xmp.net/tools/sgf2diagram.php

The first move I question is B move 19 at O17. After the upper left corner joseki, the upper side does not have much room left for expansion, so playing in this area looks relatively small. There are larger places to play along the wide open right side, for example an approach move at R6. Or B could immediately play E6 to expand the left side moyo.

MagicWand, there are quite a few professional games in which B plays E6 very early in this opening, even before approaching the lower right corner. I think it was still worth a full move when B played it later in this game.