Samstag, 26. November 2011

Game Review Part I: Laying the Groundwork for Defeat

It is time for the first review of one of my games. It was played on Dragon Go. I was 14 kyu, my opponent 11 kyu. The game was set on a 4 stones handicap and a komi of 1.5. It lasted 278 moves. I lost with 9.5 moku.

Here is the final board:


I'm not very satisfied with the way I played that game. I am not only clearly the weaker player - I also made some really unnecessary mistakes and dull moves of the kind I like to think I do not do anymore. In other words: The game offers a lot to learn for me ;)

Today I will cover the first 61 moves. You will witness me being invaded, cut apart and falling behind bit by bit. I consider it a success that I was able to just be behind 9.5 moku at the end.

I will also ask for a game review on 'Life in 19x19'. In case anyone wants to follow or comment, here is the link.

EDIT 28.11.2011: The discussion on 19x19 showed me that I've made a lot of mistakes in my review. I added some comments to point out my mistakes.

The full sgf is available here.



To the review:

Diagram 1 (1-20)

Move 4: I experiment with that kind of pincer a lot at the moment. In this case I'm not convinced that It was a good idea. 

Move 6: I actually liked the move when I played it. It looks as if it secures the corner and attacks 3. As 3 is already pincered, I expected my opponent to run towards the center. The invasion at 7 came as a complete surprise. If you scroll up to the final board, you see that white managed to make the invading stone live. The reason for this is that I failed in killing it. The fight starts with move 164 - and won't be part of today's post. Had I won, I would have won the game! I guess I will cover it excessively ;)

Move 16: I now think that 16 is spectacularly bad! I think I should have expanded somewhere along the upper side - after all, I had walls to the left as well as to the right. Additionally, after 20,  16 seems to be badly placed.

Move 17-19: Other than it was played against me, I like how my opponent forces me to connect with 17,18 and then invades my sphere of influence with 19. 17 and 19 clearly have some kind of connection. 17 to me also seems to be a nice example for playing kikashi. White can easily ignore 17 from now on (even if I attacked it) - at the same time it threatens to become important later on.

EDIT 28.11.2011: The reviews on 19x19 all say that 17 is a horrible move that allows me to fix my weakness. It seems that I do not understand kikashi yet ;)

Move 20: This move is one of the worst I've played in the whole game. It is gote, it does not really make territory, it is over concentrated in connection with 16 and, maybe worst, it does nothing to protect my sphere of influence my opponent has just invaded. I have no idea why I played it.


Diagram 2 (21-40)


Move 21-25: White strengthens his invading group by building a base. 

Move 26: Still no reason for me to secure at least a little tiny bit of profit from my enormous black wall - not as long as I can make secure territory on a completely unrelated part of the board. Argh! Playing around A looks way bigger to me now - it gains a bit of territory why pressuring the white group. In short: I like quiet, but large moves like 26, but think it was badly timed here. It should have been the end of a sente sequence.

EDIT 28.11.2011: "A" seems to be a terrible small idea as it does not really count as an attack.

Move 27-35: White 27 was another invasion I handled rather badly. I thought there was a reason I did not place 30 on B, but can not find it now. To be honest, I was just afraid that the possible cut at 30 would play out differently, because I'm not used to the white stone above being where it is. That's a weak reason to play 30, is it not? Argh, again!

EDIT 28.11.2011: As it turns out, 30 is just fine. And exactly for the reason I played it. The stone in my back threatens to make the cut more troublesome. 

Move 36-40: 36 was a bad idea as well. If I had continued to push white towards the center with black C, white would have build additional strength to invade at D. So I did not push, but played 38 ...presumably to stop  white 35 from expanding... or something. 38 is so abyssal BAD that I don't want to talk about it ;). After 39 and 40 the fight in corner ceases again. 

Move 41-52: The whole seuqence is just beautifully played by white. I, on the other hand, was kind of disoriented and off track. My groups were cut apart and besides building a bamboo joint for at least residual stability, I couldn't come up with a counter plan. Black 46 is another move I do not want to talk about ;)

Figure 1
Figure 1 shows the beginning of that catastrophe again. This is stuff I need to see earlier. It isn't that hard.











Diagram 3 (41-61)

Move 53-61: White 53 demonstrates again how badly placed black 16 is. If it was placed at A, it would not only make better use of the black wall at its back, but would also prevent white from gaining strength as easy as it does here. The following moves do not really look succesfull for me neither - but at least I accomplished something: 54 and 60 loosely connect all of the black stones at the bottom while still applying some pressure on the escaping group. After white 61 it might appear as if white has escaped for good, but the group wasn't as strong as it looked. The attack on the group will be the subject of the next post about that game, Chasing the Dragon.

EDIT 28.11.2011: Black 56 should have been at 58!

Let's have a final look at the situation! First, let's look at the more or less secure territory already made:

Figure 2
 I just marked down a rough estimate of where secure territory was build. It is obvious on the first glance that white is already ahead. He had managed to prevent me from securing territory in a lot of places. When counting, white seems to be ahead about 15-20 points (I have no idea how to estimate the black group in the upper left corner). And I had 4 stones to begin with. That doesn't look good!

Let's have a look at stability and weak groups. 

Figure 3
Luckily for me I have sente and white has still a couple of weak stones and groups left on the board. As I felt that I'm behind, I decided to go for the big game, the group white can not afford to loose: The group on the left. I set my mind to not trying to kill too hard, but to profit from the attack. The resulting fight goes on until move 129 and will be covered here soon.

Conclusion up to move 61: My stupid moves (especially 16, 20, 30, 36, 38) had cost me a lot. I've successfully laid the groundwork for my defeat. The presence of weak white groups on the board still gave me hope to maybe come back into the game.

EDIT 28.11.2011: My reviewers weren't that harsh when evaluating my position. It seems as if my attack that followed 61 did not came close to even the game out (as I believed), but just wasn't successful in securing me as many points as it should have. ... Go IS difficult ;)

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