Monday, January 23, 2012

To Tenuki or Not To Tenuki

I am playing a lot of games at the moment (for me that is) which results in interesting questions. Here is one question which came up when I played a 5-3 point as my first move. I was white. Black immediately invaded.

 


Hmmmm... Now what??? I wasn't sure whether to tenuki or not. I was tempted to do so, but I didn't like the idea of him coming out. I'd rather have him live small in the corner while I got the outside. Although my outside would face his hoshi, so maybe my move already was the wrong direction anyway.

I did reply locally, and I think I still stand by that decision but not with a very high confidence. What would you have done in this situation?
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Monday, January 16, 2012

Midnight Games

Note to self: midnight games can suffer from minor issues like missing a big atari. Oh well, I knew that midnight isn't my best playing time, but I hadn't played all day. That is a good excuse, no?

 


One of those 'If only I hadn't missed that atari I would have won!' games ^^

Maybe I should start sleeping at midnight :p
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MGA Go Tournament

After many months, I finally made it to a go tournament again. It was a good experience. I went 2-2.

 


My first game was against a 2d, I took black, no komi. I felt that all my playing on wbaduk helped me to see any weaknesses in his shape and take advantage. Won that game.
Next game against a 1k. This one didn't go as well, and I lost too much. Luckily it is really hard to win a won game, so I kept attacking and looking for weaknesses. Even although one of his groups ended up living, the bigger group passed away. Very regrettable. Another resignation.

It was nice to start the tournament with 2 wins, but things didn't go as smoothly in the next two games.

 


Third game against a 3d, so I got 2 handicap stones. It was a good game, I felt on top of things most of the time, but I failed to protect a weakness and one of my groups died a miserable death. Although it did go under in a fiery blaze of glory, it sure wasn't an easy game for him. I resigned when that group died.

Last game was even against 1d, and had a lot of interesting situations, but in the end I didn't have enough. Oh well.

Still, it was a good day and it was so nice to be playing serious games over the board.
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