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.