The Heavenly Hundred Games 1-3

 

Years ago I toyed with playing the online MORPEG eve online. The graphics were great and the world open ended and I furiously saved up until I could afford an interceptor. In the end I stopped because to 'play' properly I had to be online 2-3 hours a night and a lot of that time was 'sit round and wait for something to happen' or 'sit round and wait for a raid to build up'. I can see the attraction for those with lots of spare time but as a father of two I could not give the game the attention it needed. 

Now I bring this up because at the time I was playing I really wanted to do pvp ship to ship fighting and , you know, actually be good at it. I wasn't. But I did love a series of blog posts by someone who was who set himself the target of improving his combat skills. What he did was to set himself the target of going out whenever he could and attacking and fighting any (hopefully single) opponent he could find. If he lost and his ship was destroyed so be it (and he made sure he had the resources to replace his ship each time with an identical). He set an aim of 100 ship combats and then blogged about what happened and the lessons learnt from each. Apart from being a well written blog it showed an actual improvement and the '100 combats and if I lose that’s factored in' meant he wasn’t tied into the entire 'meh this ship cost me a gazillion do I really want to lose it' mindset that players can get into. Anyway to cut a long story short I have decided to borrow that approach and to play 100 games of go just to see where I end up. Hopefully improved but with my play you never know. I shall then post up the 'after action reports' and analyse each game as to why and how or where mistakes were made.

Game One

 1st game in the 100! Not too long to wait until my opponent arrived who turned out to be a 12kyu who had been playing quite intensely over the last month but had a large gap before his last play so was probably a good match for me with my bugger all play for years. I tried to play more cautiously than I normally do and I was feeling behind when I tested then attacked a weakness. Early in the game my opponent had pincered the left central star point stone but the resultant left a weakness which I attacked. Oppo didn’t read out the defence and made a mistake which allowed me to separate his left territory into two groups killing one for sure. After some abortive attempts to escape resigned on realising this.

If you run through the review the key attack started with me pushing into D10 on move 104, not something I normally do as I am auto restricting myself to 2 liberties but I thought if he atari'd me on E10 I could move up to D11 and help secure the upper left corner and if the other way I could move to E10 and help in the center (that was the intention at least). The AI had it as an ok move for my level (with K8 being best followed by S3). Anyway my opponents following move at 105 was a mistake - not huge admittedly AI says 6.4 point loss (and why it was a 6.4 point loss can be seen in the demo image next but one below) and he went for the upper atari at 105. Now I wasted a move here and connected at E10 (which should have given Black time to fix his shape) he did try to fix his shape but instead of the better C9 went for C11 firming up the edge of his space. This left D9 isolated though so on move 108 I launched my attack with D8. 

As can be seen the move he played was to protect the D9 stone with C9 but he should have played either B8 or C8. I was thus allowed to encroach further into his territory with C8 and here comes the big blunder - if he defended at B8 I could drive into his territory but could be blocked and the left group is still alive  but loses around 6-7 points.

Instead he played on move 111 C7.. Apparently a huge 29 point loss. I could then merrily descend to the edge and the two black groups were disconnected. I switched to block the upper group from escaping with D13 at move 114 and I think this was the point my oppo realised the group was in trouble - the Ai just left it for dead and went elsewhere but he made attempts to save the group firstly at the upper left edge (115 9.4 points loss), to create an eye with 118 at A11 (6.9 loss) I threw in to stop it. He took and I then wasted a move cutting liberties with 120 (10.6 loss! mainly because the group was already dead  and there was no space for a second eye there). He then tried (to 132) to run to the right but was blocked though solidifying territory in the center. At 133 he then resigned.

 

With the upper left group dead the lower left group was also in difficulties IF I had first move to attack it.

Game Two

2nd game was with a higher ranked opponent. Apart from the standard minor errors I made a couple of middling errors mid game that cost me it . Firstly I strengthened the top instead of taking a side around move 64 (even then should probably have gone earlier for the sides 'follow the proverbs..; and secondly mis read a 3-3 invasion that cost me 12 points Considering I lost by 6 this was a decider then came a magnificent 3 blunders in a row. I couldn’t see how to cleanly block a monkey jump so lost a chance to save 3 stones in the middle my oppo then on 153 carried on that attack (apparently a 43 loss) giving me a second chance to save the central stones. The AI says I made 4 blunders versus Blacks 3. It is fascinating watching some of the permutations on the AI though.

One of the blunders was here and all regarded P10 as the key move

Now if you follow the AI it took the entire right hand side!!! running through an example this is one potential way and what a game changer that would have been..

Even a more defensive approach to keep the three white stones would have assisted big time

As it stood in game the 3 white stones between the 6 and 5 were lost (6 points black) with 14 points for that area in total whereas up above you can see it would 'only' have gotten 5-7 points..

So after a nice attack last game I failed to see the same this game and it cost. 

Things to do differently.. keep to the proverbs and not panic as to what the other side is doing. Also I have been running through some books and utterly neglected to focus on the local fighting tactics the book taught. 

Game Three

3rd game was versus a French 11 Kyu who seems to have started playing frequently from October last year ratings wise dropping slightly peaking then dropping, peaking then dropping. I seem to have got them in one of those downward jogs we all get.

Anyway this was the first peaceful start with both us laying claim to the corners and sides we wanted without much of the 'ha I attack you' that seems common at DDK level. Made a pleasant change. I won this in the end by a mere 1.5 points mostly gained end game but the highlight was defending an extension block without getting too stressed about it, which  might not sound like much but is a rare plus for me. Positives were that I was happier to sacrifice single stones to make strength close by (which helped I think) . Negative were that I'm still not reading much and playing far too fast (still) with my very wobbly instincts..

The key for the AI was the extension I was happy to defend with the AI being (unsurprisingly) very keen to protect an unsafe position. I failed to do so until eventually my opponent invaded. Now here is the place the AI wanted me to play

and here is how that section looked at board end with my successful defence

It shouldn't have worked and in almost a mirror of my previous game I 'should' have lost the entire right side of the board.

Here is the initial enemy invasion with the killer 2nd move (at 1 which the oppo did not make)

as you can see its killed the entire section. As it was my opponent didn't extend down but instead extended up and that allowed me to weasle my way out of the trap.

So I didn't deserve this win really. Nice fun game though...

I will stop at three and post again when I hit another group.