The Heavenly 100 - Games 36-40

 

Game36

 

Continued my 'lose with black' trend. Oppo hasn't played a huge amount but was 11kyu with best being 10 recently. The difference was he was much better at fighting than me

Which resulted in several locally useful positions collapsing (and 19 stones under in local fights) which meant that even though I stabilised the positions and did not die the advantage slowly slipped away. What is curious is that there was a steady dominance from white that gradually increased as localised mistakes occurred. 

Which might not sound very surprising but I often find the game fluctuates a lot early. Obviously I was just outclassed. One thing I was pleased with was I was a bit more focused on not auto clicking (though still did plenty) which was nothing compared to my opponents speed of play,.

 

Game37

Back to white and back to victory. Well an underserving victory against a US 13kyu who started his account April 2021 and I don't get his rating. It looks like he lost several games to higher kyu giving him a start rating of 8.8kyu? He then didn't play June 23 where he crashed back down to 19kyu

Before working upwards. I didn't feel a lot of threat in the game (maybe that's my issue) and as a positive ignored several low moves to increase moyo. My oppo seemed reliant on an upper wall that was facing an open area and my territory so I was fairly confident I could eat it up and the AI thinks I was fairly dominant thanks to a scarily huge upper moyo. He launched an invasion that I contained (should have killed) and that bought the score down from a 50+ win to a komi win

 

Here is the point I should have killed the invasion (probably other earlier ones as well)

 

 

 

Instead the following would have worked

 

Bad reading on my part as the A18 B18 stones were dead with a snapback if I played B19, and if he joined more would come

 

 

Then his other eye at G8 could be threatened  (double sacrificing at G18) to falsify that eye and the group was dead.

 

Game 38

 

To quote the great Calvin and Hobbes 'ack ick ick'. This was an amusing game. Relatively peaceful and not particularly aggressive and even though I was black versus a players whose account (again) appeared in April, though since that point they have managed no less than 5 thousand, yes 5 thousand

Ranked games their rank has never dropped below 12 (though it reached 8 a couple of times). I would say it looks like they are a 9 or 10 in reality. Saying that I don't investigate my

Opponents history until after that game so perhaps that would have been a sign of danger.

 

Anyway I thought I was winning through most of the game. My groups were safe and I took what I wanted and defended and blocked well. But still lost and by more than komi showing a distinct lack in reading ability.

 

The key switch was here when I was ahead

 

 

The AI wants me to invade into P18 which leads to a couple of sacrifices but essentially the eating up of the corner territory and the solidifying of the right hand central side.

 

Even so you could easily point the finger at my end game for lost opportunities. For example on the right side I sacrificed a knights move to S5 to seal that edge as so

 

 

But if I had been cleverer a diagonal move would probably have resulted in

 

 

If you look at points what was played lost 1 (capture) plus space given white between the 3 and 7 rows 2 points (or 1 if T7 is played by black) so 4 or 3 points. Black gained nothing beyond the sealing off the edge. The diagonal has other options but at its simplest gives black 1 point with no loss

And white gets 3 so white has a 2 advantage versus a 4 or 3. That's 2 to 1 points freely given to White which is tiny but it builds up. e.g look at the next example just a little bit higher.

 

Here I missed this attack on the upper right where I had a lot of strength but lack of competence in seeing

Or reading the potential

 

 

Ai gives the attack as

 

 

Let's compare to the actual end game

 

 

So from 13 to 16, last 3 columns up black has 1 point and white 3 points so a 2 point white advantage.

If the attack was launched black captures 2 and gains 3 points with white with noting so that is a 5 point swing right there..

 

Unfortunately end game will have to wait as I am keenest on learning to kill invasions and protecting my own formations so that is where focus is residing..

 

Game39

 

 

I was slammed here as white (which has been my lucky stone so far). My oppo was also a 13kyu whose best rank was 11kyu.

Whatever the grade I didn’t stand much of a chance from the start and was steadily eaten  up by some very efficient counter play. 2 very efficient 3 point early invasions. Very AI actually in style (I am not saying they were using AI but that their play mimicked early AI or at least was modern)

 

Now looking back my game suffered due to bad placements. i.e early on I invaded here

 

 

A splitting move that allows a base to be made either direction BUT that base would be surrounded by strong black groups that could settle by attacking and thus the profit from the split was miniscule. Better to reinforce one of my own

Corners (as the AI suggests). Just to show the resultant failure

 

 

So the bottom group can live but the right black group is almost territory and the black left is ok.

In the meantime black has launched the first of 2 successful 3-3 invasions on my un-reinforced corners....

 

Game40

 

Woa. After the nasty (easy) defeat by a 13kyu last game I next had a game with black against a 10kyu.

Tbh I did not fancy my chances much. My oppo started this account Autumn 2021 but plays more to my frequency with 210 or so games so far. After their first few games they managed to get placed at 6kyu but then dropped to 10 rapidly and since then had a meandering path through 10 to 8 and back seems to have occurred.

In the game the first 30 or so moves were fairly even I was

feeling as though White was already dominating.  I had an uncertain borders upper right group , the top right corner

And a relatively stable bottom centre group so I launched a 3-3 invasion bottom left. This lived with some very aggressive attempts to kill the groups. I wasn't particularly threatened though I did lose 5 -6 stones

 

 

White then proceeded to nicely destroy any potential my top left had. Here I was saved by the counter curse of the DDK as apparently my upper group almost died entirely a couple of times before I managed to accidentally save it. In the process white cut my lead from 35 to 25 and then around move 154 White launched another invasion that looked a tad over confident

 

 

As you can see the AI preferred being one further square away which would seem to follow Dwyrins advice of not going behind enemy lines. I did think for a bit whether I should block it's route in to my corner or try and seal. In the end I thought ,sod it, let's seal so played O11. Now my oppo drove the Dragon into the corner but, tbh, it was a fairly strong corner so I sealed it relatively easily. We got to the following

 

 

As can be seen, my corner is fairly safe and the Dragon is practically at the safety of the White center upper group. They then started to build their bottom right but failed to connect to that either for almost 20 moves until I split

 

 

Focused (as all us DDKs tend to be) on saving the new little middle group, which was already alive move 216 was a mistake

 

Allowing me to play the killer of L12 next (though the AI preferred L13 then L12) this then caused another attempt to break top right followed by a further invasion

 

 

Now 56.5 points behind, white resigned. That was my best win of this raft of games against a demonstrably stronger opponent so including the obvious amount of luck and mis-plays

On both sides meant I was pleased.