DDK Travails 5

 

Next up we have a quick game against a Fox 10k, noticeable for me actually using the punishment variation of the 44 knight approach - pincer - invade to take over Whites corner. This gave me a lead that was hard to lose so the errors are more 'fail to kills', the first was one of (many) attempts I missed to kill whites top right

I missed the 1 move for another 3 moves incidentally causing AI consternation. There was another potential kill near the end but it was so convoluted I put it down to dan level play only...

Next game was a Triton reviewed game against an OGS 17 (who very recently dropped from 14 so not indicative of play level). Here I won due to a left behind cut that my opponent didn't know how to handle.

Here is the cut

Correct play here is to give up the stone and knight back like so and white either gets a gote point grab of about what.. Black down 6 (4 plus 1 capture?) 

Or 8 points in sente? (4 stones played on own territory, 3 white stones in, 2 white captures and 3 black captures so 8 points). Useful to know when there is surrounding strength.

The points I really want to drum into my thick skull are two that I am actually already aware of yet apparently utterly incapable of remembering.

Sooooo opening theory does not say enclose your own corner so that black can get a nice moyo tet apparently that's what I wanted. How does the following look?

No guarentees the play would have gone that way but it's much better than what I generated next.

Anyway due to said 'free on a plate' huge moyo I had given Black I was soon under pressure but failed to reinforce which was stupid.

Now I should have jumped to P11 much earlier - which is the source mistake, but when Black approached I played 38 and when Black blocked P11 which devolved into a fight - the key being my white group was not alive and should have been killed.. So next time jump when surrounded with only a 2 space extension.

The final thing to note was another way to handle shoulder hits defensively, which I quite like..

The advice was that when we are shoulder hit on the 3rd line - push one then knight down or knight up i.e

Or

Look how much happier and more secure White's position is and whichever way Black now goes for their own shape white can push (from the 4 stone on the top or for territory at the bottom and the other way round for the lower screenshot. Nice.

Next game was an OGS loss where we both built a lot of points it's just white built more. The three things I want to focus on are a simple kill I usually fail at, an open skirt I should have dealt with or recognised earlier and a missed huge kill falling under the 'don't need eyes to be strong'

So first is the easy kill is something I usually fail at

So simply enough just drop

That is tiny admittedly so to move to the more useful the skirt was here

On the right. I was looking at that as my territory but it's hard to slow white down here so that C turn is useful (though there is a monkey at the top as well so 2 moves to protect?)

Even with AI pushing and defending correctly

Meh...

The kill was interesting, I had invaded deep using some weaknesses to get a position with only a single eye. 

Now white gave me a chance here but it should be noted black is dead with correct play without that move i.e

Now I should have played the atari at C5 and AI says white should accept the loss

going a mere 36 points down...If white tries to save all the liberty shortage comes into it

And black still has 8 liberties free. So killing the eyes was key. I did not play that and tried to extend, he made an eye at C5 which meant the entire corner was alive.


Next up a fairly rushed game against a fellow 15k on OGS. I am trying to focus on reading more - not all the time, that's madness talking, but just a few more occasions/cut points and not protecting unless I can see the kill - hoping some of the pain trains me faster. Not sure I succeeded much bar two invasions, interesting things I did see include the following

Now I have had difficulties invading the 2 space high before and with the stone on C8 it looks like this is the way..

If White blocks the side and keeps the corner Black can reconnect 

If white decides the 4 is better blocking the connection

There's lot's of other variations but Black has potential in each..

The first invasion I escorted up a couple of moves just to protect the group on the left.

The second required more thought though. My oppo pushed a trapped stone once forward and then hane'd the opposite side - the group below only had 2 liberties so I had to take but this allowed him to attach the left group which now had 5..

The AI is far more aggressive here (as it can read better) At this move the AI still says play away

Whereas I was thinking 3 liberties left. As a protection I connected at P17 thinking if they then played M18 I could atari at O15 and if they ignore I was alive, and if they extended I could play O14 and would win any capture race. They resigned at this point. Not ideal but I saw the risks and countered so that was one plus.

Next game I was on my 'slow down play technique' which seems to be working, need to be more consistent with it...

Won the game but it was close and relied on a couple of jammy kills when I should have managed to kill a huge central group but wasn't paying attention so just killed the lower section then lost the upper (which connected up to a initially useless invasion)

The first point where I should have done a better job at living was here

The basic point being I am not connected properly yet due to the higher knight, the 1 space jump to A allows more potential eye space and a better connection to the upper stones (so no stress living) as it was I didn't to protect a connection at the top which would have let black crawl a few squares at best.

Anyway black made a few errors of its own and I recognised that my bottom group had no eye space (soon after) but 5 liberties, which was enough to kill the Black above. All going well until I let half the group escape..

3rd point is I missed this funky kill in the corner here...nice

If I play A and Black saves the left group I could have killed the invaders!

And if Black saves its top middle group and misplayed the corner is dead and at best it looks like 3 stones die

As a rare positive I did see a capture race kill here

It did rely on an opponent mistake so no great celebration but it was nice to have seen it...

Final game in these travails was versus a 14 who was quite aggressive. I missed an easy kill at one point

I was worried that white could push to the 153 square but I could then ladder it.... Not much else to report except that I managed to kill of 2 invasions (which is rare) by keeping good shape and blocking exits..I probably could have got away with less stones on the second but was being cautious..