DDK Travails 9

 

I am trying a new way of reviewing my games currently. I basically set 16 things I want to try to do or to attempt to do - some of them will be a 'do this every game' sort of thing and some will be trying to try out a technique or Joseki. In a lot of cases not doing the thing wont involve bad consequences but in some cases the 'not doing a thing' will need some indication of why.

So to start I tried and failed to get an OGS game so decided to hop over to Fox to have someone attack me furiously instead..

Game 1 

On my list of things I succeeded at five of the sixteen so this might be my benchline moving forwards.. Having White there wasn't a lot to cover tbh as Black attacked everything and I managed to build up a large moyo (that for once they failed to invade though it looks like you can use a fake invasion to break in.

The first thing I wanted to discuss was an invasion life point I hadn't thought of. I had jumped into the 33 here.

Now my oppo obviously panicked and for some reason killed the single stone allowing my to knight to P18 - he then pushed to Q17 I blocked he clamped on S17 and I blocked under at S18 threatening the atari, He then atarid and I connected and now he connected at S16 allowing me to extend to O18 - now this should have killed me (and I had no business surviving in that small area with so much Black strength around anyway). As it stood he then Blocked at N18 allowing me to live by extending to T18 

So, couple of points.When I launched the invasion I was 16 ahead - IF Black had played T18 (or killed me earlier) I am only 11 points ahead.

The point I want to remember is that the safety move here was actually to 1 space jump

The key being if Black does not block at 2 and moves into O18 then you instant atari for an eye and life so Black needs the block... Useful to know.

As an aside the correct way to respond to the initial invasion is as follows

Q18 is also possible but less favoured..



The other mistake was a safety play (yuk) that was not needed. Here is what should have happened

Basically push to 1 to threaten to kill the 3, Black must respond so push again to threaten forcing moves and possibly the death of the group if Black ignores

i.e

So Black should respond to the two Sente pushes. White can then take up a beautiful shape point around N13 or N14 and is both out can push into the top or middle. Black pushing to Q11 threatens an eye but so what? White has a guaranteed right side eye and plenty of space and forcing moves for another. AI even suggest pushing once more, if Black insta cuts at P12 it even ignores the net as White is so strong and just pushes up into Black territory. Oh to be able to see attacks like this in game..

Game 2

As is becoming common I take a strong lead in opening and the  throw it away. Here the killer move was an excess of caution after a 33 invasion left open at the skirt. I took a safety move that was not needed 

Not quite sure how those stones would live and extending gives me more of the corner and end game opportunities. 

Note for example the clamp if Black does not respond

Now as an experiment I played through the AI choices post this point and it looks as though my bottom is secure unless Black gives up his right at which point it isn't bug essentially it is almost fixed at this point. Nice. Opening was dual 44 by both of us. Fairly quick game.

Game 3

This was against someone I lost to fairly handily a few months back and whose best rank seems to have been around peaks of 8kyu. Aggressive! On my bingo card I had 6 of my 18 so not so bad buuttt there were a few unexpected Joseki choices I was not sure how to handle at both corners.

So firstly we have a knight off of a pincered stone..

Now I essentially blocked in and made a wall (but my direction of play was bad and did not top center stone in time). I am not sure what the correct response is but possibly to threaten to cut (but not cut?) - just run that through AI and it is the correct move though tbh the AI end was quite similar in the end.

The second was an attach against a large knight

Again non standard cause most books cover this for large knights on a 34 though having run through some variations this sacrifices to get some stones out in the center so it's almost a sabaki play.

Onto things to change, or things I was pleased with. At one point there was an attempt to capture 4 stones and I read out the defence correctly (now whether I should have sacrificed them to make more points in the center is a different matter.

So with 4 liberties he can not kill. Now he played through the sente moves to force me to kill but not the best variation I think end position there was 

So practically alive already and the group can connect to the 11 row..

Whereas if he'd countered at 

So maybe not much more difference but the game way gives Black 2  4 points whereas the bottom gives black no eyes and it needs to connect to the top with 1 points for the capture which will get filled whereas White gets a capture and a higher position.

The next point I knew I was making a mistake started here

You can see AI's recommendation but that is far to aggressive. I should more likely have protected the connection

Though checking again there is a defensive variation on the AI 

Now I was 10 points behind (so without Komi 3.5 points behind so it was a CLOSE game) but still won and the reason there is that if you are a fighty player then you can miss stuff and my opponent missed a blinder but for once I saw the kill.

Nothing can be done really - Black is connected all round and that is 18 points. 

K pushing this one out early - I have decided to have a travail post for specific openings. The one's I want to look at (or practice) are currently

San Ren Sei (I have defending moyo weaknesses so this gives practice)
Asami Opening (my consistent Black so far though I have not handled it well)
Dual 34 (very territorial)

White Openings
44, 34
Dual 34

I might expand that out in future to Chinese or Vietnamese but will focus on these for the moment.