The Heavenly 100 Games 23-27

 

Game 23 

Had a hiatus from playing for a year so returning with a warm up account. First serious game was against a chatty 14kyu from Thailand whose played regularly (daily) for a year. Looks like over 55% of games were against bots (recently which

Is probably a bigger percentage at the start). 

Fairly sedate game with a perfectly reasonable opening. White made an early invasion of my left side which allowed me to make

A huge moyo in the bottom. I then squeezed from the top to reduce the central space for a fairly simple win which, bar two invasions by my opponent - the first into a ladder which was doomed to fail but not recognised for 6-7 stones then a deeper invasion that was easily sidestepped. 

Game 24

Next up was a close fought fight against a 13kyu (soon to be 12kyu after beating me) from Canada who appeared to have been playing (on this account at least) since April this year. Standard immediate drop to 25k! Followed by a rapid rise up shows this probably was a new player and one who was improving fast. Best rating was 10kyu at the end of August.

This was an interesting game that I thought I had won  but my opponent was keen on restricting aggressively and though I built a huge moyo to the right of the board and captured about 14 stones in the bottom left I managed to lose probably on my failure to block one of the first restrictions on my upper left group.

What's worse was that during review I noticed to my horror that my very large (but minimal territory) upper left group was actually dead from move 116 to about 193 and neither of us noticed apart from the AI reviewer which was having a breakdown every single move.

If white occupied D14 that's one eye and where is the other? I could start trying to create one around G12 to K12 but without much chance of success if my opponents eye was reminded of it. As it was we returned to the position in end game and everything was nice and gentle and I gained the 2 eyes when I should have lost that entire group.

Game 25

Well if anything was proving the need for a warm up account it was this where my old weakness against unduly aggressive players resurfaced and I lost a lot of

Pieces by (tbh) bad defending against stupid attacks. It got even worse at the end when my opponent (someone playing since March this year who has had a steady increase over 170 game or so to the current rating) announced one of my groups with 2 eyes was dead and then (post game) showed several variations which involved me committing suicide by playing no correct defensive moves (perhaps correct considering my earlier play) and then totally dumb arsed self atari moves… Enjoyed the game though which was a good thing. I am coming to realise I need to be much more calm and controlled when playing. To use a driving analogy when younger I used to be very aggressive at traffic lights and attempting to beat the car next to me. A lot of the time I would due to reaction times when the lights changed (as opposed to speed of acceleration of car). But as I get older every now and then I could beat a car which is trying to beat me and know I could beat it but sometimes deliberately break to let the other car through first and this strangely gives a strong sense of control and is much calmer. One is win or lose and the result is not necessarily in my hands and in the other it is. In Go I need to see when my opponent is trying to force a local fight and judge whether it's worth it before the blood rises and I am competing at their game..

The game basically comprised of the following an early attack that I failed to defend against and lost about 10 stones. I then build up territory and gain the lead back only to let a second invasion live (that I should have killed and the AI shows how) which cost me the game.

Here is the group that my oppo thought he could kill at the end

Game 26

If there is one thing unfortunate losses does it is to tank your rating so bad you get in the realms of weaker players and my next game was against an 18kyu who had only played 5 games (mainly 13*13) with one win against a 22kyu and one against a 17kyu (which might have been a teaching game). Not the usual random stones everywhere beginner, though there were a few challenging placements of very weird stones.

Not a huge amount to discuss. My opponents early game was, according to the AI, not bad with equality in scores/potential outcomes until turn 29 then a few random stones and a mis-managed defence (oh I know how that feels) let me build a big advantage. The area I want to discuss though is my own mistake in defending an invasion. Board as follows

I was vaguely worrying that if I didn't pressure the two eight stones he could restrict liberties and maybe take those 5 stones but why? First up its 5 stones. The group to the North can gain 2 eyes easily enough (at A14 and A11,A12 if attempts are made to break it and the points gained reinforcing the center of the board IF he focused on attacking those 5 would have been about 14 points! Plus on reflection even if I did not defend there's isn't much he can do. If the two moved to A9 then they get taken instantly with A7. If they descend to A7 then block at A6 then take. The quickest attack seems to be a throw in to A6 ( or block at D8 then throw in). If I block at A5 then black can close a liberty at D8 and set up a snapback if I try and take the thrown stone at A7. So worse case I had a spare stone so I could play once away before returning to defend.

Game 27

I can say, "take my time and concentrate", then obviously do no such thing. My Tuesday game was against another (lots of these about) April this year player but one whose played over 360! Games since then. Hovered between 14 and 17 consistently. Aggressive and had a plan and that plan appeared to be 'Play tengen then attach when opponent takes every corner and extend out to a mighty central moyo!' Presumably several players panic and then make stupid invasions. I don't think I needed too though I did make a huge early defensive mistake that should have been punished

Around move 82 I launched an attack against the top left group that was a bit exposed (and would require the eating up a huge part of the inner moyo to protect. He wasn't able to and eventually resigned at my next enormous mistake which would have freed the tracked group. Though in fairness that would just have bought the win total from 87 down to about 30