The Heavenly 100 - Games 52-59

 

Game 52

This was a fun game as the result was caused by me actually reading a situation and playing appropriately! Not something to celebrate perhaps but this has been a rare situation especially strategically.

My opponent seemed experienced at least, another 13k  but one who appeared to start play in lockdown (2021) and in the following 2 years has managed a steady 2.6 k games.The first few months of play saw the heady heights of 8 kyu reached (I'd love to be good enough to get to 8kyu) but since that first year has peaked at 9kyu and in the last year 10k.

Anyway the game started stressfully enough as he was an aggressive player digging in wherever he could. I did get the better of one local fight here which cheered me slightly and is another first of me using local thickness to overawe. It also saw the game potential switch from a 10 point white lead to an 8 point black one (incidentally it was white playing at S14 that allowed the kill)

Anyway the above position led to the game win. I had just played a knight at the bottom left empty corner and was promptly 3-3 invaded so I proceeded to squish the invasion small and started considering how easy it would be to kill here

And then this cut arrived.

Well. I was still focusing on killing the corner (if possible) but I had a brief check at the possible ladder then did another look as there was a lot of white up there but also those two black stones sticking out and I ran through the moves (twice) and felt it was mine. I therefore started it (and even told my opponent that if I had mis-read I would just resign as my position would be a mess) anyway he also laddered believing the ladder worked for him.

Thankfully I was right and captured about 20 stones. This left a huge line of ponukis facing both sides of the board and though my opponent did some half hearted attempts to fight back when I used that thickness to captures 6 down below and seal of above he resigned instead.

Game 53

After another loss from a '?' seeding player that has just been discounted, if I am so outclassed I cant learn anything it doesn’t deserve the record. Anyway the actual 53 was against a fellow 13kyu. A just prior to lockdown player (2018?) who had hovered around 8kyu throughout the lockdown period with lots of games but had played a lot less since which caused his record to steadily drop.

I actually though I had this one lost early as my oppo was aggressive (which I tend to do badly against) so I was curious as to what AI thought was the turnaround point and my god once the game was uploaded the huge array of mistake flags on both sides showed we must have missed something huge and perhaps, just perhaps, me finally seeing it was the game difference. Here (for a laugh) is the Ais error heat map and the prospective winner 

Oh good.

First I seem to have missed an easy low kill which was when white took an uptick

Neither of us recognising the weakness of those 5 white stones until move 110? Was the reason for the AI's first huge raft of 'mistake!' flags. Though if I had killed it Whites lead would have dropped to 4 points, as it was them saving it pushed it up to 18 :( 

The next raft was dependent on neither player (double kyu, what did you expect?) recognising the weakness of my black central group whilst we both sealed the outside. Perhaps because the stones were spread out so might appear to have more chances than they actually did?

Looking at it at this point there is one potential eye in the middle and possibly one on the right? Both attackable by White..

Around move 162 my opponent pressured the above group from the outside (maybe looking at increasing territory in the center). I would like to say at this point I recognised the weakness but actually I just played to eat into that territory and as an accidental

By product shifted from 55 points behind to 'only' 13.5 behind with one move

It's fascinating to look at actually as white sealed the edges and I countered the seals and it was only by move 187

That I , again accidentally, saved the group and swung the score to potentially 8.9 points..

Then end game pushed that total up by 5…whole…points!

After the previous game I had been positive about some signs of improvement. Now I less sure of green shoots and

More of the existence of weeds. One useful thing is that is  even if you think you are behind keep going as you never know

(well you can know, learn to accurately count or guestimate but that’s apparently not something I am capable of at the moment..

Laters…

Game 54

Another Black game vs an 11kyu who looks like they started in lockdown (2020) but only played in two intense jumps in the intervening years until this year where game play has rocketed. Most of the time 10 though has pushed to 9 briefly a couple of months ago. This game was an exercise in trusting to the spaces I was building and that

They were larger than my opponents. The big points killers were his own (failed) invasion of my ginormous bottom moyo and my much smaller invasion of a smaller moyo that was unexpectedly successful. 

I want to look at the two invasions, though I was also pleased by a probably inefficient two stone sacrifice to seal in my moyo.

The first stone was here, AI was not impressed with the follow up though all that was doing was sealing the edge to prevent shenanigans. At this point I was already about 14 points ahead

I was pleased that AI felt I did not even have to deal with the invasion as it never got close to life, which shows some improvement

In safely poking at invasions to reduce eyes I hope.

By the end I was now 30 points ahead , though white ate into that whilst solidifying their own territory in the next few moves.

Around 170 I launched my own tiny invasion which should have died except for a mis-read here

This allowed me to capture T8 and turn S9 into a second eye so suddenly I was 43 points ahead. I shouldn't be too cheerful about that

Second invasion though as it should have been killed so is less a cause for celebration than me killing the first which was definitely

A sign of improvement.

Game 55 

Due a loss one came rolling round to a player from Chile. Looks like they have been  playing a couple of years with about 348 games under

Their belt and steady improvement. From the OGS Ai map it looks like they took an early lead but around move 50 I mucked up bad and my chances

Of winning dropped like a rock. I am guessing this is where I misread an attack against the corner of a territory and lost 6 stones on the edge.

But that wasn't it I was already 40 points behind at the point. I was so far the AI didn’t even care about those stones

Bleugh. The actual point of the heavy loss was when I failed to kill an upper invasion but this wasn't a 'easy kill' invasion

So the problem lies deeper in not playing looser in the beginning.

Game 56

I have been reading Hikaru No Go again (because it's great and you should read/watch it as well) and I came across what I thought was a truism for my own play. The 'hero' Hikaru is losing a lot of games as an Insei and Sai comes up with an insight that Hikaru is losing because he has played so much with Sai that he is flinching from blows he is expecting to receive from the much stronger

Master. He needs to lose his fear as otherwise his Go would never expand. I think I have much the same issue though its's less 'fear from the blows of a master' than knowing I am a bit shit at the game….

So for this game I resolved to follow methods to force future better play even though it may cause a loss/losses. There are two I was considering with one being 'attack everything' mainly because my fighting sucks so if I initiate I may get better even if I lose more now. But rather than that I went for a flow of play improvement and went for 'tenuki 20 times at the start of game UNLESS my opponent attaches or shoulder hits a stone'

And just see where it takes me for about 10 games.

My next opponent was a 12 kyu who I thought I recognised and did. I have now played (him?) 4 times. Lost 2 won 2 but it looks like they reset their account 4 days ago

And then played 120 games in the intervening period!!

Anyway as black I decided to open star point then 3-4 facing and enclose but otherwise react.. I really wanted to play loose and it worked well as my oppo seemed somewhat flumoxed that I was not trying to dominate his approachjes. The only one which I did build of was a contact move against my approach to his bottom left star point. Things were going surprisingly well (25 points up by move 40 though much of that can disappear fast) when he spent a huge amount of stones securing his little upper invasion 

And then repeated that on the left with two other little groups allowing me to fairly safely wall in.

Surprisingly comfortable. 

Though it looks like he could have attacked my upper left with more skill level

As it was a few moves later he pushed to C16 and I shunted to C17 which removed the weakness.

Game 57

This was against a 15 kyu (…) who started3 months back with 626 games in the intervening and a steady improvement. I was still on my 'always tenuki unless attacked' but found myself (at least in the start) attacked a lot and not attacked that badly so I defended more than tenukid and when I was able to start tenuking it might have been too late. It was a fun game for all that though both of us focused on a dead invasion group on his part and on mine on not letting 2 large dumplings get squished. I succeeded but in doing so allowed my oppo to take a large area of territory in the center. 

The heat map for chance of winning was horrific basically said I had it won for 70% of the game and just buggered up.

Here was the place it started to go wrong

And it started to go wrong because I started to focus on killing the black raiders in the center as opposed to using them to seal the lower area securely in. 

Now the key switches were not protecting the small territory at the top, and not seeing a relatively easy kill at the bottom

The top was lost here when I protected a single stone as opposed to bambooing

Lessons learnt are that even when I am capable of winning tactical battles this doesn’t mean I should attempt to take them on. I'm not in a 'fight everywhere' structure as I still have 3 games of the 'always tenuki' Practice. I think the pleasure of being at an advantage in localised fighting took my mind away from the forest and onto the trees. Still losing has the advantage of dropping the chances of getting mashed in the next game.

Game 58

Oh well my prediction  sucked, almost tilted after the game as they played the sort of game I hate , with constant fighting but at a level far beyond their 13 kyu. Less said the better perhaps. Anyway my opponent was started 3 months ago with about 300 games played now and fairly steadily between 12 and 11 so not his first visit to the rodeo perhaps.

I actually took an early lead but the fighting was putting me off so instead of expanding into a nice open area I dived into a zone constrained by black corner stones and 

Then mis read a situation to kill and attack and (eventually) lost a group myself. Here is what should have happened

Amusingly I considered the '1' move but my reading isnt good enough so didn’t play it.

For my next fight cock up I got too close (meh) and failed to shut in another invasion on the left whilst strengthen my own corner (following what I should 

Have do, I played into the joint to force a join up )

Next of many misreads in localised fighting was top right

Would have killed but I thought it was dead so didn’t play. ;(

And I seem to show tendencies to want to contact when fighting as opposed to keeping away and strengthing and this, along with the immediate previous reading mistake cost the game when the top could have been this

But sadly turned into this

Game 59

At the risk of tilting badly I went for another game and , of course, it was a higher 11 kyu. The game was over fast though as I rapidly sealed a corner with the frequent tenuiking letting my oppo seize the odd stone and corner. I also launched a nice approach into a 3-3 that turned into the 'does black want to take the corner variation' of the 3-3 - which he did  allowing me to get a surprisingly large base at the bottom in recompense.

My opponents account was a new starter this year with 193 games and steady progress throughout.

Now about move 53 the AI thought I was about 15 ahead with a very solid corner and big bottom expansion that could eat into white when I sealed my corner here

I did not expect the next move to be an attempt to capture L9 in a ladder. I looked at it and thought it was close but should be hit my lower group before he got to his. And so the ladder began…

And it turns out I was right (well that’s 2 out of 3 read correctly which is still a bit pants)

He quit at this point due to the many many vulnerabilities and my huge thickness in the middle..