In a game today giving 4H to a KGS 7k I killed a great deal of stones and then got lazy. I decided to do an ultra-deep, totally unreasonable invasion... basically just for the hell of it. If I had just reduced and worked to claim the center, I would have most likely won significantly anyways. Instead I go deep and end up with a large, quite dead group that is threatening to lose me the game.
So I abandon and work the other parts of the board. My opponent makes an endgame move that reduces him to two liberties. on an adjoining group and then plays tenuki with a fairly substantial endgame threat. Fairly substantial, but not nearly as big as the group. I use that opportunity to give myself an eye on my "dead" group, which has now sprung back to life. My opponent makes a series of forcing moves, ending with a 1 point gote endgame move that I don't have to answer, so I get back to his original threat and end up with both pieces, leading to me winning the game.
There have been several instances recently where trying to play "large scale" to either kill or live has gotten me in trouble. Sometimes I manage to pull myself out of hot water, sometimes I don't, but frequently I've found in my reviews that I don't need to invade or don't need to kill on such a broad scale in order to win.
In my game with the 1.9 dan at the tournament I won not because of any large scale kills, but by eating away at his edges and cutting off a few stones here and there.
Something to work on.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Fear, Luck, and Magic
One thing that is hard to conceptualize after a certain point is how the beginner sees the board. They seem to view groups living and dying as a matter of luck: that the opponent might sweep out of nowhere at any moment and sweep the stones from the board. I've commented before that "a ko started by a sufficiently stronger player is indistinguishable from magic."
Even as they get stronger, there are forms of magic that are just difficult to see even when they are happening, much less predict before hand. When I invade a three space knight's move, I check the ladders to make sure they work and, if they don't make sure that the result is still okay for me (or, alternatively, make sure that they do work with forcing moves). I know players who are so new, however, that they don't recognize that they are in a ladder until its already four steps into it. Others who only notice that its a ko for life when the group dies.
For a player at that level, whether that invasion works has a lot to do with luck. They fill a tiger's mouth with no apparent threat, or add extra stones to a shape--sometimes even killing what was previously a living shape--because of an unread, unrealized, and unrealizable fear. At one point I commented to player that the only way I could have cut there was if he played tenuki for six moves.
Eventually those problems may go away (or at least become less dramatic) but are instead replaced by underplays or hallucinations about whether a group is in danger.
This type of play has three consequences, the first two are obvious, the third is more subtle.
First, it gives up sente. This may be worth nothing, or it may be worth over a handicap stone in value.
Second, it is worth -1 point. I won a six stone handicap game the other day by half of a point. It takes just one -1 point gote move--even if there is nothing of value left on the board--to result in a loss under these circumstances.
Finally it keeps the player from seeing where a punishment can happen. If you lose by overplaying, the consequences of that overplay are quickly realized. A good teacher can then point out what happened and why it was an overplay. Underplays and filling your own territory like this will lead to loss after loss "for no specific reason." It keeps you from seeing if there actually was something that could happen there. If you do see such a sequence, then by all means protect but it should be as a consequence of specific reading and not of fear.
This is why review is so important, and one of the nice features of online games. In an online game I can go back over all of my decisions like that and see if I was hallucinating, but I have to review in some depth or with a stronger player to determine that. I may plays that are too small all of the time, and I work to ferret them out in the review and figure out where I should have played.
Even as they get stronger, there are forms of magic that are just difficult to see even when they are happening, much less predict before hand. When I invade a three space knight's move, I check the ladders to make sure they work and, if they don't make sure that the result is still okay for me (or, alternatively, make sure that they do work with forcing moves). I know players who are so new, however, that they don't recognize that they are in a ladder until its already four steps into it. Others who only notice that its a ko for life when the group dies.
For a player at that level, whether that invasion works has a lot to do with luck. They fill a tiger's mouth with no apparent threat, or add extra stones to a shape--sometimes even killing what was previously a living shape--because of an unread, unrealized, and unrealizable fear. At one point I commented to player that the only way I could have cut there was if he played tenuki for six moves.
Eventually those problems may go away (or at least become less dramatic) but are instead replaced by underplays or hallucinations about whether a group is in danger.
This type of play has three consequences, the first two are obvious, the third is more subtle.
First, it gives up sente. This may be worth nothing, or it may be worth over a handicap stone in value.
Second, it is worth -1 point. I won a six stone handicap game the other day by half of a point. It takes just one -1 point gote move--even if there is nothing of value left on the board--to result in a loss under these circumstances.
Finally it keeps the player from seeing where a punishment can happen. If you lose by overplaying, the consequences of that overplay are quickly realized. A good teacher can then point out what happened and why it was an overplay. Underplays and filling your own territory like this will lead to loss after loss "for no specific reason." It keeps you from seeing if there actually was something that could happen there. If you do see such a sequence, then by all means protect but it should be as a consequence of specific reading and not of fear.
This is why review is so important, and one of the nice features of online games. In an online game I can go back over all of my decisions like that and see if I was hallucinating, but I have to review in some depth or with a stronger player to determine that. I may plays that are too small all of the time, and I work to ferret them out in the review and figure out where I should have played.
Monday, February 18, 2008
17 February at Fiery Rain
Played five games (six, if you count a game against the club's founder in the morning).
My morning game was online, giving 3 stones to madamecp. I was ahead by a significant amount and then she played a 1/3rd of a point ko. I ignored the fact that it put a massive number of my stones into atari, and played elsewhere to fill another 1/3rd of a point ko across the board (whoops).
Right after that it went "erm" and "resign." ^_^
So later when we played at club she tried to make a forcing move she thought I would reply to before connecting her group. I read out that she couldn't live even with the followup to the forcing move, and so I went ahead and cut if off. She said "I thought you would reply to that!" so I joked "I didn't respond this morning when I had a 25 stone group in atari, why would you think I would reply to that!"
Played another game against wolvie at 6H, I won by 0.5. So my next game is kadoban against her to go to 7 x_x We were joking that I would end up throwing the game ^^;;
Played a 1k at 1H, taking W. He plays san-ren-sei against my dual 3-3s, and never seems quite sure how to handle the low, territory-seeking style of the 3-3s. We were both a little pressed for time, and I ended up winning by resignation.
Played an AGA 2.6 dan at 2H, kadoban game to go to 3. I ended up killing things in this game (for a change) and so managed to eek out a win, but it was a tough game. Keeping him dead is difficult, and his L&D skills are beyond mine. Hopefully this is the start of me actually overcoming that 2 stone handicap, since so far I've been horribly unsuccessful at keeping connected in the face of his ability to invade.
Played an AGA 3k or so even, taking white. It was a fast game, and I ended up winning.
So I had a good day for my play, I'm attributing it to still coming down off of the high from the tournament.
My morning game was online, giving 3 stones to madamecp. I was ahead by a significant amount and then she played a 1/3rd of a point ko. I ignored the fact that it put a massive number of my stones into atari, and played elsewhere to fill another 1/3rd of a point ko across the board (whoops).
Right after that it went "erm" and "resign." ^_^
So later when we played at club she tried to make a forcing move she thought I would reply to before connecting her group. I read out that she couldn't live even with the followup to the forcing move, and so I went ahead and cut if off. She said "I thought you would reply to that!" so I joked "I didn't respond this morning when I had a 25 stone group in atari, why would you think I would reply to that!"
Played another game against wolvie at 6H, I won by 0.5. So my next game is kadoban against her to go to 7 x_x We were joking that I would end up throwing the game ^^;;
Played a 1k at 1H, taking W. He plays san-ren-sei against my dual 3-3s, and never seems quite sure how to handle the low, territory-seeking style of the 3-3s. We were both a little pressed for time, and I ended up winning by resignation.
Played an AGA 2.6 dan at 2H, kadoban game to go to 3. I ended up killing things in this game (for a change) and so managed to eek out a win, but it was a tough game. Keeping him dead is difficult, and his L&D skills are beyond mine. Hopefully this is the start of me actually overcoming that 2 stone handicap, since so far I've been horribly unsuccessful at keeping connected in the face of his ability to invade.
Played an AGA 3k or so even, taking white. It was a fast game, and I ended up winning.
So I had a good day for my play, I'm attributing it to still coming down off of the high from the tournament.
Rocky Mountain Winter Tournament 2008
The tournament took place last weekend and I had a blast.
Four rounds, all even games (unless you are below around 15k, all games are even).
First Game
First I played someone who is a weak 3k on KGS and entered as a 1.0 dan--no previous tournament experience. He took the center and I took the edges/corners. In the middle game I had invaded one of sides, created a ko for life, and then ignored a fairly large threat so that it would live. I think I turned out slightly better from the threat, but only slightly.
I was beginning to work my way into the center, and hooked two stones into a ladder to give me access. The ladder was broken, then I fired a peep across the board threatening to split two of his groups which worked as a ladder breaker. He ignored it to secure the ladder, and I split his group into two separate groups. I then managed to kill both groups (one of them cleanly, the other because he played tenuki).
Second Game
I do not know who this was. He had no previous tournament experience, was very intense, and had entered as a 1.5 dan. He was there with some friends. His play was... weird. He played the "Go Seigen" style three star points on a diagonal, and then proceeded to duke it out with me for territory. Color me confused. There was a large group of his that would collapse to three liberties, and I had a tesuji to give me three liberties against it, but couldn't see a way to get 4 or to get those 3 with sente, so I left the position alone.
He was extremely confident in the position, since while I read it out he seemed to get bored. He played very very quickly, and I got the impression that he probably plays faster games online and wasn't used to dealing with the 45 minutes (longer than most Korean professional tournament games) of thinking time afforded us in the tournament.
Then we hit endgame. I basically won by luck. He played endgame with the large group and then didn't secure it, so I could now collapse it to two liberties vs. my three. When I began to collapse it, he didn't sacrifice any stones. Then I pulled my tesuji and captured his large group, and basically swung the game in my favor. If he had abandoned a few stones at any point during that sequence, I would have probably lost. Instead, he just passively let me collapse it to 2 liberties and then pull my tesuji to give me 3. Whoops.
Game Three
Game three was against the tournament organizer, an AGA 3.2 dan. This is the only game I took black in, and I lost by about a stone or two worth of points. I felt like I played well, and managed to keep the game fairly close. His comment was that I should work on not responding to moves--basically endgame/macroendgame--and that was the main portion of the difference in our strengths.
The game itself was a lot of fun for me. I managed to take the center without giving up too much on the sides.
Game Four
For this game I played a Korean 1.8 dan with a low sigma (uncertainty). He was so far 3-0 in the tournament. I made an early mistake and lost a side, but managed to take the center in exchange. He worked his way into my center, and for a while it really looked like I was going to lose the game--then I managed to start cutting off the edges of his invasions. There were a few cases where his invasions were connected by knight's moves, which I could cut through, or in one case where I could split his stones with a hane into a one space jump. His western side was enormous, and I really thought I had lost at the end of the game, but it turns out I was actually ahead.
Overall I had a lot of fun--it probably helped that I had nothing on the line--and fought some very strong opponents. It was great to play so many people around my strength in person, rather than just online. The intensity is different and I think it was good for my play.
Four rounds, all even games (unless you are below around 15k, all games are even).
First Game
First I played someone who is a weak 3k on KGS and entered as a 1.0 dan--no previous tournament experience. He took the center and I took the edges/corners. In the middle game I had invaded one of sides, created a ko for life, and then ignored a fairly large threat so that it would live. I think I turned out slightly better from the threat, but only slightly.
I was beginning to work my way into the center, and hooked two stones into a ladder to give me access. The ladder was broken, then I fired a peep across the board threatening to split two of his groups which worked as a ladder breaker. He ignored it to secure the ladder, and I split his group into two separate groups. I then managed to kill both groups (one of them cleanly, the other because he played tenuki).
Second Game
I do not know who this was. He had no previous tournament experience, was very intense, and had entered as a 1.5 dan. He was there with some friends. His play was... weird. He played the "Go Seigen" style three star points on a diagonal, and then proceeded to duke it out with me for territory. Color me confused. There was a large group of his that would collapse to three liberties, and I had a tesuji to give me three liberties against it, but couldn't see a way to get 4 or to get those 3 with sente, so I left the position alone.
He was extremely confident in the position, since while I read it out he seemed to get bored. He played very very quickly, and I got the impression that he probably plays faster games online and wasn't used to dealing with the 45 minutes (longer than most Korean professional tournament games) of thinking time afforded us in the tournament.
Then we hit endgame. I basically won by luck. He played endgame with the large group and then didn't secure it, so I could now collapse it to two liberties vs. my three. When I began to collapse it, he didn't sacrifice any stones. Then I pulled my tesuji and captured his large group, and basically swung the game in my favor. If he had abandoned a few stones at any point during that sequence, I would have probably lost. Instead, he just passively let me collapse it to 2 liberties and then pull my tesuji to give me 3. Whoops.
Game Three
Game three was against the tournament organizer, an AGA 3.2 dan. This is the only game I took black in, and I lost by about a stone or two worth of points. I felt like I played well, and managed to keep the game fairly close. His comment was that I should work on not responding to moves--basically endgame/macroendgame--and that was the main portion of the difference in our strengths.
The game itself was a lot of fun for me. I managed to take the center without giving up too much on the sides.
Game Four
For this game I played a Korean 1.8 dan with a low sigma (uncertainty). He was so far 3-0 in the tournament. I made an early mistake and lost a side, but managed to take the center in exchange. He worked his way into my center, and for a while it really looked like I was going to lose the game--then I managed to start cutting off the edges of his invasions. There were a few cases where his invasions were connected by knight's moves, which I could cut through, or in one case where I could split his stones with a hane into a one space jump. His western side was enormous, and I really thought I had lost at the end of the game, but it turns out I was actually ahead.
Overall I had a lot of fun--it probably helped that I had nothing on the line--and fought some very strong opponents. It was great to play so many people around my strength in person, rather than just online. The intensity is different and I think it was good for my play.
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