Andy Pierce
KGS 4k. Going backwards. Playing while distracted, throwing a lot of blitz games, major middlegame self-destruction. I would like to learn life and death on the side of the board rather than the corners. Anyone got any suggestions for how to do that? Killing invasions, that kind of thing. I also tend to make a lot of thickness and then fail to use it.
update: trying to play with patience. When the opponent makes a weakness just keep on playing. games are lost when two or more weaknesses collide, so sooner or later it'll turn out favorably.
Hard to play any games with the two boys at home going crazy, but trying to get back in the saddle now.
Favourite go quote: "If Black wants to eat a chicken, he must first make the chicken big."[1]
other web presence:
http://www.paralog.com/wiki/?AndyPierce
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andypierce
currently emphasizing: reading, tesuji, shape
I have come to realize that a 1 minute + 10 minutes per 25 additional moves on IGS is just a crazy-fast game. I don't get to do nearly the reading I'd like to do. I need to master the pro skill of reading moves once only instead of reading the same variations over and over again. Unfortunately non-go demands on my time make slower games not doable.
First rule of clock management: It is more effective to spend your time planning and reading, than it is to spend it trying to figure out how to extract yourself from the mess you made.
Studying:
- All About Joseki. Amazing. This book corrects all kinds of stuff I'm doing wrong. Perfect for a 4k.
- Fujisawa Tesuji Dictionary volumes I, II and now III. I think volume II (defense) is easier to digest. Shuko does a nice job with these books. Be sure to read Davies's Tesuji before tackling these ones. Even though Shuko explictly gives you the goal of the problem (seal white in) and tells you exactly what kind of move is the tesuji (hane, solid extension, placement etc.) I still get the correct solution less than 1/4 of the time. I sense my awareness of these shapes and issues getting better however, so I'm convinced my game is being helped.
- The Endgame Very interesting and useful. This book confirms that I need a lot of work in this area. I don't know how I ever won any games before reading this.
I have put these aside for now to let them digest a bit, but will go back to them later:
- Keshi and Uchikomi: A Study of Reduction and Invasion in Go by Iwamoto Kaoru. This book is a little too advanced for me.
- [1]Punishing and Correcting Joseki Mistakes by Mingjiu Jiang and Adam Miller
Done for now but still looking at:
- One Thousand and One Life-and-Death Problems
- The Direction of Play by Kajiwara. At times Kajiwara verges upon the hyperbolic, but there is still lots of good material here. Best quote: "an unnecessary move is in fact a bad move."
- Intermediate Level Power Builder Volume 1 by Wang Runan
- Attack and Defense by Ishida Akira and James Davies
- Lots of gems in this one. Highly recommended. Read it many times.
I am trying to apply miai strategy in my games. I am also trying very hard to use inducing moves (choshi) but am pretty bad at it so far. I am getting good at playing without fear and not falling in love with your stones so that I can make an exchange when advantageous. I have trouble forcing myself to look at the whole board all the time, and my endgame is terrible.
tactical example of miai strategy (from Shuko's Dictionary of Basic Tesuji, Volume II:
White to develop into the center and keep options open for an eventual attack on black either on the top or the right.
Wrong. Black's shape on the top is too nice. Side note: is interesting. This seems to be a play to induce black into letting white make good shape in sente at
.
Tapir: The inducing move should not end badly placed. Tewari would show
to be a rather bad exchange for white, no?
Andy: Dunno. They're Shuko's moves. That's my guess for why he indicates here, otherwise I don't know what the point of
is.
Uberdude: Tapir, be wary of tewari, it is easy to construct fallacious arguments with it. Yes if 5 and 8 are removed from the board then white playing 5 and black playing 8 looks a better exchange for black to me. But if we remove 5,6,7,8 and white plays 7 (which is a good move), then black playing 6 is rather poor. 5 is on a nice shape point which slows black down and gives him some cause for concern on eyeshape. If white now jumps to a and black pincers then white b makes black's group not alive. If black answers a at b then it is rather slow and white can be happy.
Best: makes miai of the points
. Whichever black takes, white gets the other. Since either of the miai
points give white good shape when combined with
, the jump to
, which looks strange in isolation, inevitably turns out well. White easily develops into the center with good shape and timing, without strengthening black on either side.
Recently, just for grins, I have started playing much faster games, either 1/3 or 1/5, whereas before I exclusively played 1 min + 10 min per 25 stones. If you budget your time appropriately 1/5 is doable.
Do Not Create Two Weak Groups Corollary: You only get to make one reduction.
some pages I like: 10x10CornerGame1 Painful