The Heavenly 100 Games 4-7

 

Game Four

This was the first of my 'try tactical attacks at all time' approach and it sucked! What basically happened was that I forced a huge and messy running melee in the bottom right mid right that I consistently lost and only managed to claw back points at the end when I switched from 'tactics' and back to strategy. Who would have known. I had a tiny Dragon around the Q 7-11 that rapidly got into difficulties and allowed white to build up a nicelyt dominant position. I then had to desperately pad out my left side which wasn’t enough (though around 163 it looks like I could have killed his entire bottom left! But didn’t notice) Then amazingly enough I did enough in end game to reduce the lead to 6.3 from 18 which may not seem much but small victories!

What could have been, this could have been taken but I was too unskilled to see it.

Game Five

My plan of playing tactically sucked. Instead I rolled back to trying to improve recognition of making my groups secure and attacking when I can, as opposed to last games attacking like a loon. To practice this I had a 12kyu opponent with 990 ranked games under his belt (since 2020). Outlasting me certainly. Ratings wise bar the usual dip post starting he has been a steady 12-11 with a couple of peeks at 10.  I was white. Things started reasonably enough with my oppo having the knowledge to build up 2 corners and extensions> He took out one of mine so I 3 3 one of his - all so reasonable. Meanwhile He had some nice points building top and bottom so I started extending out my right side - now I think at around move 66 he started getting nervous at my right side side and started to try to wall it off. This did not worry me as walling of would make it safe and I still had my left group and a smaller bottom leftish group who could eat up space in the center. Then he invaded on move 79. Now its certainly invadable but does have some risk but when both players are ddks cock ups can be made and unexpected life (or death) can occur). Anyway he did a good job and managed to just live (or to get a path outside). Looking at the AI review he had a chance to wipe my entire bottom right corner so sucks to be me. Anyway by move 133 my bottom apparently was still dead and he had built a lead of around 57 points.Ouch. Anyway around 134 I finally got to apply one of my learnt attacks. It worked but shouldn’t. (the position wasn’t ideal). He had 6 stones wrapped with 3 liberties and surrounded and had placed a single stone on a one space jump out to escape. I played the Slapping Tesuji at 134. Now the correct response (as my F7 stone was one space too far off) was to bamboo at F8 and then there isnt much I can do to stop escape plus it puts my E stones at risk. As it was he played 135 at E9 which allowed me to cap him in and just as my E stones were going t o be taken I got all 8 of them. Now things were still in Blacks favour as he still had a 14 point lead plus plenty of central strength. There followed a continuous run of mistakes on both our parts apparently as I filled up the center and he solidified the top and bottom. More my mistakes as by 163 I was 26 points behind. Hohum.

I then lucked out for the second time in the game. When filling out the center I was keeping a close eye on the right invasion which wasn’t actually safe yet and on move 182 I got to try a trap.

Call my devious but this is my first ever attempt to smoke and mirrors an opponent into concentrating on a local fight and thus not seeing a more key move. Its been done loads of times to me sadly enough though.

182 was at K8 atari-ing a single stone at K7. Obviously looking very locally my opponent saved the stone with H7. I then equally obviously, in that tiny area secured my single stone at L7 by playing K8 and thus leaving K6 potentially take able. Again looking very specifically at those stones my opponent blocked me from saving the second on move 185 by playing L6. As you can see from the shot below this was a 79.6 point swing from black because I was'nt interested in linking to that stone I was trying to safely play M8 and cut of the invasion which I managed to do. He might have just saved the invaders (probably if a sdk or dan could have) but opportunities and space had dropped slightly and a throw in (another Tesuji! Woot) at T19 led to the resign.

I wonder is all DDK games basically come down to he who mucks up the least. It is feeling like it. So using tactical actions worked this game but protecting my groups less so as I spent 70% of the game with a huge bottom right group at risk of death and my top left was equally weak. Loads to learn still and this was one I should have lost as well.

Game Six

Game against a lower Kyu newish player (playing 19 ranked since January?) currently on a slow slide down the ranks. Likes faster games which is unusual. So this is a 10 minute speed game. It started peacefully and my oppo was obviously well up on start moves as they did a good job (at our level) at gaining corners and threatening (without being stupid) and capping stones. By move 88ish she had a strong top right corner an okay bottom right and possible bottom central space whereas I has a small area central right and smaller bottom left with a potentially huge area top left. The AI was going berserk about both reinforcing and attacking but one of those stupid mistakes helped me now. I was deviously filling liberties while my oppo launched an aggressive attack against my bottom group. Move 96 I ataried a group of 4 and they missed it throwing in for the kill instead. I actually gave them a chance to save (deliberately) by reinforcing against the throw in but they declined again reinforcing that (which admittedly gave them an aggressive thrust at the bottom) so I took the 4. Black blocked and then I did something  I often do which was a wasted reinforcement - it didn’t matter if that capture stone was lost I had plenty elsewhere so I must learn not to react so quickly here.

At move 146 running merrily on auto pilot I moved to the edge at the bottom wall not realising how easy it would be to kill the lot. Luckily DDK etc.

From then on it was mainly a matter of ensuring I didn’t lose the lead I could see I had so watching out for cut points that could allow invasions. My end game usually sucks and I was outplayed here missing things like obvious monkey jumps but still coasted to a win.

When reviewing I have started noticing how many more huge (ish) groups on both players sides that are open to death (or at least pressure) but both players seem unable to realise this and attack. Hopefully something worth improving on..

Game Seven

When you are about 10 kyu every now again OGS throws you one of these games with an unrated player. These are always generally stress free. Either the player is an experienced one starting a new account who will mash you. But it doesn't matter as in 5 more games he will be 1 kyu and the points loss will be minimal. Or its someone who has never played before and loves attaching to everything. Or finally just a newish player who is beatable. This was one of the third in that he knew how to play but made errors which showed he hadn't played a lot (a lot of cutting on the 2nd line for no good reason). So for what is worth you can check the game. There are very few highlights though the AI did show some interesting attacks when diving into the corner that I would otherwise have missed.

Here's one. I 3-3d and my opponent double haned which apparently opened them up like Christmas..

They should have extended the single stone instead at P3. This would allow an atari at P4 and the if Q5 is played the two black stones and any friends are dead. I have done a little study on the 3-3 and defences and it looks useful to study it some more..