DDK Travails 7

 

A new set of travails to run through. First a win against an opponent I have played a few times, he seems to be steadily improving though.

One lesson to learn from the game is to poke closer at an open skirt.

I am white and (eventually) poked at C. A is fine though due to

So that leaves an end game sente push or gote block also forces Black to play R2 or S2 to live.

So leading to (with some end game escape move)

So that invasion gained black 5 points and took 18 away from White (not bad)

Compared to the actual

Where Black gained 10 points and took away about 18. So that push through was 5 points.

Next I want to look at his large knight off of a 34 Joseki as he plays this a lot..

AI recommends

But it seems complicated and even a slight opposing off play will cause trouble. Will need to study more and give an answer.

There were several 'focusing on small central move when larger end game stuff was in play' but the final thing I do want to focus on was how to block out a zone.

In the game I hane'd and failed and my opponent broke in but from the looks of things the gap  was to wide and my opponent could always break in. It might have been marginally better to shoulder hit and protect the bottom as the center had little else to give

But being brutally honest even my hane ended up with much the same result..

Therefore the end game structures actually pulled the game back.

Next two games showed no sign of slowing down and thinking though one was on Fox so its more forgivable..

The first I lost but my opening was better. Missed an obvious kill until it no longer existed

Strangely that was it. That was the game that hane was there until move 136 and when Black came out I switched from 25 (for the kill) 5 without to 6 behind. The other learn point was that I keep missing easy end game moves (maybe that Get Better at Endgame should feature on my reading list soon).

So we have this missed move

leading to rescuing the stone

And only a 5 point margin at the end..


The fox game was a fighter as they usually are.. Started with my opening again being decent and taking a good lead but then losing it in another mistake fest with guess what, another dead opposing group I failed to kill.

Let me just look and work out how to kill on my own...and it was just a push ffs

Now there is more aji in the area so its not that simple for example

So ignoring the outside,  just to show the kill, White Defensive moves could be boxy 5

Poke the eye above or below

This one actually gives play away potential with A15 and A11 Miai to kill. Nice.

Anyway that kill failing put me 8 behind. I pulled it back but again missed an end game diagonal.

At least I am consistent..

This one I won because for some reason White didn't block this push

Now at first I thought it was a mistake (and gave me a 16 point win as I killed the corner ) and it might have been but there was weakness there. See

In the above example the Ai sacrificed an entire bottom left group to kill the top. Other alternatives include not reading to the nth degree and allowing white to connect (forcing due to taking a top eye) which STILL leads to Black being +3.6 points ahead

So there was weakness there, shame I didn't see it but that is, after all, the point of playing and reviewing.

Next up we have a league game against a known opponent where we tend to share honours. This game has was trying the 'go big or go home' aggression approach which made it a strange game Especially due to some wild corner attacks that did not get sente and put me with Black 21 points up..

But mistakes the first I want to learn of was when White launched a deep attach trying to threaten the join to my E4 group (at F5). I played cautious and wrapped around a stone top ladder ut but should likely have extended. Keeps the group strong, the single stone is likely  still dead and it means my left group has a way out.

Next I connected as I was getting nervous by white surrounding  - again I shouldn't take the atarid stone leading to this more comfortable position

White then attacked this group and I defended. In my case the AI knew it was alive due to White ignoring it's left but let's put that down to horrifically bad judgement. This was eventually proved when I managed to link this group to my top left group (life I though) so used the group to attack the left, successfully saw and killed the bottom left (bulky 5) then just clamped and killed the top left as well.. My oppo resigned with me 148 ahead. 

So what went well was my new 'hankerchief' technique. I basically put a hankerchief over the mouse and it's a reminder to think and I do not remove it until I have asked a question.. Now not ideal there were less questions being asked but I was thinking more and reacting less and in some sacrifices and attacks was more successful than usual. Next time I want to ask the specific question , 'what is my opponent trying to do with that move' 

I next had Black against a player from the US who was  seemingly intent on making a center side position whilst giving me the edge. It was a little unsettling.. I threw stones almost as wildly as usual and certainly was not asking what my opponent intended. Though my heart rate was calmer which is a huge plus. 

The following position I need to recognise and correct

As in the following defensive panic I could have used to play the move above.

That white stone is going nowhere and if White plays N7 and ataris and I capture and if he extends toN6 I connect and the stones are heavily netted.. Waste of a move.


Lost out on a weak corner as well. Correct move was the tigers..

I should have pushed for a Ko but he had slightly more threats. No matter win by 16 but would have been 41+ if I hadn't spent my time playing some gote end game. Not bad. Improvements needed.

My next was a handicap game, here I was able to apply some surrounding pressure but missed some useful shapes

Here

If I play 8 the big white group is so nearly dead (surrounding stones living which isn't a given with me) .

Later still white was driving into territory and I got nervous about the liberties on my right group here

This would have been a useful time to spend some time doing the scary art of 'reading' but my brain did 'too complex get life easy' and yes it got life but allowed white another 10 or so points. It was the 2 liberties that was worrying me but why? I white connects on the right getting4 liberties then Black just drops

I think in retrospect I was to focused and didn't even see the extra top liberty. Blurgh

Upping my review structure for my next games along with my 'hankerchief of doom' technique - which is getting more useful.. What I want to do review wise is keep to my '3 mistakes to try to avoid doing again' but also to analyse corner Joseki in more detail I have many...books but it's quite hard to study out of context and sometimes I think (I know) I get into autopilot mode.

So next game was against a 14kyu where we made no 20k mistakes and only 3 at 13 so both apparently played sensibly..

The opening I want to start with was a low knight approach to a corner. I took what is possibly the most common professional Joseki line as so

So any better alternatives? We have the what I now call the Asami defence (as I like to call it though it's less a defence than a way to beat your opponent over their head. Several variations but Asami's preferred is (I actually prefer a more solid connection at the end but I do suck at the game so there is that)

The solid connection is playing R14 at 11 but I suppose the opponent pushing or monkeying will soak up side points but they really dont want to be doing that in the opening. It's strength is the initial O17 approach stone is right next to huge White strength and Black needs to move away or get it out. The long knight to K16 is attackable and a 2 space base is not good.

Next the default pincer - if the default 'jump into the corner Joseki' is played

Again Black has side access but white is stronger at the top and given a top left corner enclosure is fairly happy (and even if that is broken up then that is still two happy groups)

In terms of points we have

Chosen - 14 points ish for White 11 for Black, both alive both side and center access Semi-sente (can play away but next move here will be sente then)
Asami - 12 points Black, side access only, White 6 points but much more attacking potential, Gote
Pincer - 13 points for Black, 14 pointsish for White - both side and center access. This one is closer to White's other corner stone with Sente.

The pincer can move into the Jump out (and DDK insanity) but I will need to study Kajiwawa's detailed notes for that and I will likely leave until encountered as I will learn more)

We also could have the following (from Joseki *I* know...)

Standard kick defence - but both sides have weaknesses and I dont like the fact White is forced (almost) to defend the top left (also White in this game). There is also tenuki but it gives Black the chance to heavily attack the top right stone and I am not comfortable, yet, with that kind of fighting..

So taking some of the played variations and some assumptions on follow on and the board may have looked something like

Do I possess the fighting skills to take white forward with this? I think I prefer Black...

Onto actual mistakes, the one I reaaalllyy want to focus on is the following  Black succeeded in pushing my down on the left with me misplaying here (not misplaying as such but actually being too defensive)

Now I was worried about Black dropping to B12 and thus getting the kill on my two D stones but no! the ladder fails due to the K6 stone

 Buuuuut white has 2 stones below so can do the following and if White pushed the ladder out White is 24 points behind.

Sweet laddery goodness Batman...and White is 37.5 points up. 😮 Must focus more on ladders..

Later on I made a connecting move that didn't connect so what was the point.. Anyway a very close win mainly helped by me starting end game first so getting the sente moves in.. I think these travails will start posting with less games included from now on as I am attempting to analyse more..