Using Thickness

Episode 42 in the saga 'Things I should know, but still mess up'. It's amazing how hard it can be to actually use the knowledge I have in the right way. Today's episode is about thickness, how to use it , how not to use it. My last teaching game against minue was a perfect example of how not to use it.

This was the position:



W just played the marked stone. Pretty clearcut, B has lots of thickness and needs to use it. My kyu mind immediately came to the conclusion that I should use this thickness for fighting, and I'd better split the two W stones and get them into trouble. I sometimes get carried away by my natural aggression.



I totally and utterly missed the bigger picture of driving W towards my wall. The obvious direction of play. The only direction of play.



minue622 [7d?]: so here,
minue622 [7d?]: A is better, (to drive white toward wall)
minue622 [7d?]: also, A is (pincer + corner enclosure)
minue622 [7d?]: very efficient move

This is one of the possible continuations.



Black allows White to break the bottom area, so that she can build on the left.

The game continuation was a lot uglier:



Black got a few points of overconcentrated territory and was not happy. Let's see again what went wrong.



minue622 [7d?]: in this game,
minue622 [7d?]: main focus is B's left side,
minue622 [7d?]: not b's bottom right territory
minue622 [7d?]: this stone is strong?
minue622 [7d?]: i mean, these black wall is thick?
NannyOgg [-]: yes, it seems very obvious now
NannyOgg [-]: i was just thinking SPLIT him , and not thinking whole board
minue622 [7d?]: fundamental reason is that u have this wrong "fixed concept"
minue622 [7d?]: ==>
minue622 [7d?]: i spent alot of stones to make wall,
minue622 [7d?]: so, i have to defend this area as my territory always
minue622 [7d?]: correct way of thinking is --> I spent many stones to make influence. and i can use these wall Either to make my territory efficiently , but, depending on situation, I can use them in a different way, (to attack white ,driving it toward my wall)

Yes, all sounds perfectly reasonable, now I just have to make sure to use it correctly in my games. Taking this as today's main lesson to ponder.