Still alive

Still alive and thriving, but not having much time to play go or blog. Happily did play a game today on Mother's Day. Mostly posting so the blog doesn't self destruct :p

ALMOST Daily Tsumego

Well, the daily tsumego settled into a 'few times a week' frequency. But it's better than No Tsumego, so I'll take it. I have been playing some games in the ASR League so I am not doing badly go-wise, I just wish there were more time in the day.

 

Will follow up on that trick move soon, today I have to bake banana bread and such because fruit flies are taking over the kitchen. Priorities , right?

Tsuke Nobi Trick Play

Today I encountered a trick play I hadn't seen before. It is in the tsuke nobi joseki off hoshi. You know, the one which is to be avoided by black unless black is a high dan. It makes white strong and has many complicated variations.

 

So the new move I noticed is 3, which is a trick play. Interesting.

 

What do you think is the correct response for black?

 

Getting Back in the Groove

So it's summer vacation (no 7am school bus, YAY!) and even although it will be harder to play with all the kids commitments, I should be able to get at least a decent amount of go problems studying in. I have to admit that go problems had been one of those balls I had dropped and I could feel it in my games. "What atari three moves from now?" "How do you mean dead?"

 

So I decided that I should do a bunch of go problems every day. No excuses. I started yesterday and have kept it up so far (yeah, I know, two days isn't very impressive but we are talking baby steps here)

I realize that reading non-go books had totally taken over my go problems study, so this vacation I'll read less books and do more study instead. I can dream, right?

Still Alive

Good day, friends! Yes, I am still alive, just have been way too busy with that life thing. I have been playing some go, but not much and I haven't been doing many studying either. Let's hope this summer will be better!

The good news is that I did go to a go work shop, so at least I got to play there. And I plan on doing go problems every day again because my reading is just... not perfect yet ^^

Anyway, hope I still have readers and will try posting content again.

Intermezzo: Lucky Ladder

Will post the other two Boston games soon, but wanted to share my lucky game of the day.
It started 'boring' although I don't see that one space high pincer much.

 

I am black. I expected him to jump from his hoshi stone, but he tenuki'ed.
Since he didn't play at A, I decided to play there and see what happened.

 

I expected his next move.

 

But then he surprised me again, and I made many mistakes answering his moves.

 

Anyway, the game went on, and eventually we came to this position. It is black turn, so I knew that I could live with one of my groups at least.

 

Those two stones were going to be my second eye.

 

He replied at A. I immediately recognized the present he gave me and realized I just got super lucky.

 

He resigned... Yes, I realize it was just luck, but I still enjoyed it ^^
Here is the game.

 

Four Handi but STILL Lost!

Sigh, four handicap stones and I STILL lost...
Here is the game with review by sendol.

Here is my first mistake. White played A, and I played a simple one point jump instead of being more aggressive.

 

This would have been a much better way to play. Not only do I make white painful, but I made a base for black.

 

Go is so easy in hindsight!!!

 

Boston Game 1

Here is game 1, reviewed by my teacher sendol.

First interesting move was when he atari-ed on the inside instead of on the outside during this joseki. I had seen it before, but it doesn't seem as common as the outside one. Luckily I remembered not to just connect, but to atari right back at him first.

 

At the end I made a mistake when I didn't play A first and then B, but instead played B directly and omitted A. Oh well, next time I'll remember!

 

MGA Tourney!

On Sunday I actually went to a real life go tourney again! Happiness is mine.

I won two and I lost two, so that is perfect, right?

 

Game 1: against 1d, he tried to kill, but stumbled over his own sword, and suddenly I was alive and his killing stones were dead.

Game 2: against a 5d, with 4 handi stones. I lost one corner (oops, will have to review that joseki!) but things didn't go too badly till I decided to take points instead of fixing a cut. Yeah, she cut and and I cried and I resigned.

Game 3: against a 1d, which didn't go as well as I wanted, but somehow tricked him into suiciding. I was lucky.

Game 4: against a 2d. I captured a nice chunk of his stones, but forgot that maybe I shouldn't let him cut off a bunch of my stones. Oops. Oh well.

July Madness

I might not have been posting, but I have been busy playing. I really want to get back to ASR alpha and on the last day of June I was still stuck in gamma and not even ready to promote.

But I played and managed to promote to beta.

(ASR has four layers, with alpha being the highest and delta the lowest)

 

Since July 1st was a Sunday I actually could play quite a lot so I got as many ASR games in as I could. It is my experience that it is easier to get games early and late in the month. I didn't want to get stuck in desperate late month games again, so happy that I got all the early games in.

I played way more games than usual, let's see whether I can keep it up during the rest of July. Even if they aren't ASR games, I think actual playing beats boring study :D

Messy Opening

Two games today, not perfect, but not bad either. It is at least a start to get back into playing.
The second game had an interesting, but messy opening.

 

I was white in this game. Move 1 to 4 were unremarkable, but black 5 was unexpected. If he wanted to split up the left, I would have expected a third line move.

 

I decided that taking away his base from the direction of my komoku was best answer. I played white 6. Again he surprised me and played black 7. Hmmmm, I wasn't sure how to reply to that one.
Looking back I am not sure whether I like my game move, and think I would have preferred to reply at E12.

 

But in the game I played C15 and got this result.

 

Black 15 was not particularly sente, so I played white 16 to attack his lone stone.

 

We went on for a while, never ever playing on the right side of the board, and this was the end result on the left.Very regrettable death...

It feels good to be playing again. 

Back!

Yes, I know I have said that before... But this time I mean it!

 

My house finally is not on the market anymore, my divorce is OVER!, and my handicap stones kids are growing up and fighting less and less every day. Well, kind of. Yes, I am an optimist.

 I am still playing in ASR, although after a few months in alpha, I let life push me down to gamma. Which is fine, because it's fun to fight my way back up again.

Stay tunes for exciting games and interesting board positions. 

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?

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

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.

The Evils of MultiTasking

Today I was playing a game and doing quite well. I played thick moves, I didn't make a lot of stupid mistakes (just a few :p) and I knew I had this game won. At the same time, I was chatting with two friends in another window. Did I mention my kids were interrupting me a few times too to ask me things, so yes, I was multitasking as usual. But that was ok, because my game was so easy by now...

I had a corner group, an L+1 group. I have studied that group only two thousand times, so I know without thinking that it can live with A or B. I also know without thinking that A is superior, so in my 'I have a won game and I don't have to try so hard and I know so much better than my opponent' grandiose thinking, I played B...

 

As we all know, B is inferior because there is a gote seki to be made for white now. The worst thing was that I didn't even realize I had made this mistake. In my universe the trumpets were sounding to announce my victory and I blissfully worked on killing my group...

 

We got to endgame, and I stubbornly kept thinking that group was just fine, even after white had played a throw-in at A.

 

I happily filled up all my liberties, till I got a rude awakening when white went for the kill. By ko, but thanks to my filling up of my own liberties, I could not crush this shape but had to play the ko... How stupid! I started to realize that maybe I should hold off on those trumpets for a bit after all. And that next time I should live the RIGHT way with that group.

 

Things actually weren't too bad, the game was won enough that even without that group I still had a big lead. So I spent time trying to find the best ko threats. So much time that my byo yomi clock ran out and white won by time.

I guess next time I will turn off my chat programs when I play :D