Day 14 - 2 games (39), 21 kyu

I finally bit the bullet and moved on to 19x19 games. It wasn't quite as overwhelming as I thought it'd be, but they do take significantly longer. My first game was a bit of a drag, because my opponent played bizarre and seemingly random moves, yet we played out the entire thing. It happens. The second one turned out to be more interesting.

When I find out who I'm playing and see that they're a few ranks higher than I my reaction tends to be "oh crap". In this game I drew a 19 kyu - 3 ranks higher than myself. It being my first proper 19x19 games I wasn't feeling to confident. The game started off in an unusual way, with white not taking his second corner:

I'm not entirely sure why I played this hane; I didn't want to fight and luckily I didn't get one. Instead we kept extending downward, with me "getting" a lot of territory on the right side. being that far away from the edge though, I wouldn't say it was mine yet:

Eventually white decided to cut and try to make something happen:

I felt like I had a lot of room to work with, so I simply tried to contain white and prevent him from making eyes that way. At this point I started getting nervous, because my large group only had two liberties and I thought for a while about which atari to play. Eventually I decided on the P12 one:

After this I was able to kill white, but having all his stones there (and several of mine with very few liberties) did make me a little uneasy. Finally, I decided to take the left corner. Now, I wasn't too happy about slowly crawling my group across the board, because I know it's an inefficient way to play, but I never felt safe enough to take the corner at earlier points in the game.

White's move #6 above was a mistake, because it let me break out towards the centre. As was #9, since I didn't have to answer it at all. I started working my way up the left side, then tried to set up this cut I had noticed a while earlier:

I'm unsure about this hane, it could have turned out quite messy:

In the end it didn't, and I managed to connect my cutting group to my left side group. In all honesty I think white made that too easy, and it probably shouldn't have worked. White tried to live in the upper left corner, and I was fine with that thinking that maybe I could kill his upper right group, or at least take most of the territory at the top.

At this point white initially played N19, and I stared at it for a while thinking he was dead, then I saw that he requested an undo, which I accepted. He then, to my surprise, played O16 instead. After the game I saw that white was actually dead either way. In the last phase of the game I tried to reduce white's territory by crawling into the middle. Sadly, white was able to play F6 before I could make a move there. Otherwise I could have made something happen, maybe even kill white's lower left group. My last move at L3 was just to try and see if my opponent would screw up and maybe let me kill the bottom right group, but he didn't.

All in all, a fun game. I didn't make any stupid, game ending blunders for once!

Day 13 - 2 games (37), 22 kyu

Here's a simple tsumego for those of you reading. White to live:

Yeah, I failed this one in the match, I'm sorry. The correct move did occur to me, but I misread the other options.

I did do better in my second game. While there's no doubt in my mind I could've played better, I never had that moment where I submit the move and then go "oh no". As a result, I don't have all that much to say about it. My opponent did a strange opening, and I tried to take three corners. He attached to my stone in the top right, and at this point I wasn't sure which hane to play (extending didn't make sense to me). I decided on this one, because then he couldn't cross cut me to start a fight:

 Black thought otherwise and cut not once, but three times:

In my experience so far the beginner rankings don't seem to mean anything, as some players with the same rank as I will do mistakes I consider to be quite obvious, while others trounce me. At least he didn't resign prematurely. Black attacked my bottom right corner, then played this hane:

I immediately thought "that's not the correct move!", since I was expecting black to extend. What was less obvious to me was how to punish it, but I figured that G5, where I think black should have played, must be it even though it wasn't clear to me how that would play out. This is a flimsy justification for a move, I know, but it was my intuition. I noticed later that this could've led to a ladder looking thing when black tries to contain white, but with white still having two liberties, so that is bad for black.

Instead of breaking out though, I decided to play the atari at G10 while I had the chance. This let black contain my group, because he sort of ignored the atari, then I played a double atari with move #42 so I think it worked out in my favour. I didn't notice this cut until quite late in the game:

Had I played it sooner I would have been more potent.

Today I think I'm going to try playing a 19x19 game.

Day 12 - 1 game (35), 23 kyu

Sadly I didn't have time for more than one game yesterday, so this will probably be a brief entry. My opponent didn't a strange, middle of the road opening that didn't accomplish much, so I invaded:

Black responded with 4-4, and I wasn't sure whether to crawl left or up. Obviously I have the stone at L10, but the black stone at K7 is more in the way than the two stones on the lower side of the board. I picked going up anyway though, and after a few moves came to this point:

This looks similar to the 3-3 invasion joseki a commenter pointed me to, except for the black stone at K3 being at K7 instead, and the fact that black played a hane with #1. I remember thinking in the game that this situation was bad for me, and that I needed to connect, but there's actually nothing white can do at this point except to give up the stone at #2. If black plays A then white can't play B, because then black plays C which is atari again. I should probably have played B instead of #2. If this was the joseki though, then I'm not sure. Would I cut at L7?

I actually didn't notice how important C was until black played it, but because he didn't have the stone at K3 I could still make the group live in the bottom right corner. Then there were two moves that I'm not sure about. The first is

My idea was to play away and secure the top side, which I did, but I feel like I didn't get much influence towards the centre. Similarly with this move, I wonder if it wasn't greedy enough:

Here I wanted the corner, for obvious reasons, but here the problem is the same, that black's centre is very big. The game, for all intents and purposes, ended here (black tried to invade but failed):

Now, while it turns out that I had more territory (before komi), I wasn't sure who was going to win before OGS popped up the score. Black's territory looks big to the eye, even now, however I never tried to count it. Maybe I wasn't being too safe after all?

The lesson from this game was to watch out for the stupid shape in the first picture, I'll vow to not do it again. Until the next time.

Day 11 - 1 game (34), 23 kyu

While spectating a game last night I noticed some things about ladders that hadn't occurred to me. Take this situation for example:

 

The marked white stone is what white would play if black cut at D9, and intuitively you might think that playing it earlier defends the cut even more, but it's actually the opposite:

A more elementary observation was that this ladder doesn't work:

 

Good to know!

I also played a game last night. I was white, and played a 3-4 opening. To my surprise, black decided to attack my corner before even claiming a second one for himself. Like my previous opponent he played this awkward shape where his stones aren't supporting each other:

In the fight that followed I came out ahead quite comfortably, and decided to play towards the left corner and extend my territory:

I have the feeling that playing here was too cowardly, and that I could've gone for the top right corner instead where there was more potential gain. I kept playing up along the left side of the board, and and this point black resigned:

In my estimation the game wasn't over yet, if black connects at F6 then he could reduce my territory in the lower left by a significant amount, and at this point I didn't have any influence on the other side of the board.

Day 10 - 2 games (33), 23 kyu

My losing streak continued in my first game of last night. I tried to be more safe and play the 3-3 opening. In the post game discussion, which my opponent was nice enough to stick around for, he told me that it's a bit too defensive, and he might be right. In this game however it had nothing to do with why I lost. That came down to this situation:

Do you know how to kill white's group on the right side?

I didn't. What I played was M5, a stone which was eventually killed and became the eye I wanted to prevent. Funnily enough, I thought that I had killed my opponent up until the very last moment of the game, in which OGS kindly informed me that the move to win the game was illegal! I didn't recognise that even though the two groups of my opponent were not in direct contact, they did both have two liberties. In my head I thought of them as two groups with one liberty each.

Immediately after the game I saw that a move I had contemplated playing would have killed white:

I am finding my self in these life and death situations seemingly every other game, and I can't read them properly, which tells me that I should start doing tsumego.

In the second game I finally scored a win. From my perspective I didn't make any mistakes, but I also don't think I was put in any tricky situations. Instead I won because my opponent made two blunders, namely playing this kind of diagonal shape, which is very weak (especially near the edge of the board):

This is the same shape I made in my first 13x13 game, and I too was punished for it. I'd like to win a game where neither I nor my opponent makes such glaring mistakes. My suspicion is that what I consider to be a "glaring mistake" will change as I get better, and most won games will in fact feel like this. Winning, after all, simply comes down to making fewer mistakes than your opponent.

My takeaway from today:
-Start doing tsumego!

(I will, soon)

Day 9 - 3 games (31), 23 kyu

Fair warning: the games I played last night were quite painful, the mistakes I made might make you wince. In the first one I opened with the 4-4 points, my opponent unsuccessfully attacked me in the top right with a tsuke, which I've learned is not a good first move for an attack. I fought him off and attacked his 4-4 point in the lower left with a shoulder hit. I chose to extend towards my side of the board and I believe I came out on top. Playing #16 at C4 instead of D3 may have been the better option though:

The game developed quite peacefully, and we got a big wall running down the center, as is quite typical. While I didn't attempt to count the score during the game, a quick glance at the board made me think I had slightly more territory, before komi. Black hence had to make a go of it inside my territory. Aside from one or two blunders, I felt like I was doing an okay job fighting him off. Then black played this:

If you're reading this, chances are you see what to do in 10 seconds or less. I, however, had to stop and think for some time. Eventually I saw that it was a capturing race that I could win. Everything was going fine, I captured black's middle group. Then I decided to demonstrate to my opponent how one can lose the game in one move:

The only thing I can learn from this is to slow down my play, but in byo-yomi it's easy to get reckless. The situation above of course stems from the fact that all my groups were not connected. However, it's not entirely evident where I would've had the opportunity to do so. Perhaps H7 at move #80.

In the second game I once again tried invading the 4-4 point. It went alright, however my opponent managed to gain more influence in the centre and I ended up a little boxed in:

In the picture above I am losing, so now it was my turn to make something happen. My idea here was that he will capture my stone at D3, instead of responding to the ladder breaker I just played:

This worked, I cut at J3 and then I made another massive blunder:

In my head, I had already seen this sequence playing out and I thought I was one move ahead further than I was. I meant to cut at H2 one move later. To be honest, I didn't even see the atari on the right group. The lesson is the same as before, I need to stop and think more, which is funny considering I typically find myself using more time than my opponents. Not playing at 1 am would also be a good idea.

While I lost the third game too, it wasn't because of one single, painful blunder. It started off similar to the previous game, though in this one black had played a 4-5 opening in the lower left; something I thought would make it easier to invade. I honestly can't tell you why I played #9 at E2, when C5 is the better move. Eventually I realised that I had to concede the lower left, and began making moves elsewhere. The thought to resign did enter my mind, but it's rude to resign so early and it's good to learn how to make the best of a bad situation, so I kept playing.

At move #26 I decided that my best chance to get back into the game was to start a fight, and with more nearby stones than my opponent I thought I would have the upper hand. Therefore I played K9:

 Things developed well from here:

I did make a mistake and let the triangle shape in the top left get captured. Still, white had three groups that I felt I should be able to capture. I started trying to seal off territory on the bottom side. Then, at move #70 white played L7, trying to save his group on the right edge of the board. If I had played L7 first I don't believe there's any way he could have lived. At move #73 I missed a critical atari, but luckily my opponent didn't see it either. Had he captured that group the game would certainly have been over there and then.

White managed to surround three of my stones, but I knew that wasn't enough for two eyes, and by playing M10 and M9 I knew I had stopped him from getting another eye there:

At this point in the game I thought that I needed to live in the lower right and then with the captured stones I might live. Then I completely blew it by playing K4, white responded K3 and I did this:

My concentration must have been completely gone at this point, because my intent was to force white to capture my three stones on the right, and for some reason I thought he didn't and that they were in atari, which they clearly weren't. K4 would have let him make an eye anyway. Something like this is what I was trying to make happen:

Hopefully my mistakes in these were painful enough that I won't repeat them too often.

Today's lesson:
-Slow down my play in life and death situations.

Day 8 - 6 games (28), 23 kyu

Fortunately last night was a more positive experience than the night before, and I got a whole six games in, staying up too late in the process. Among those games was my first handicap game against a very nice 9 kyu player. Heeding the advice to play defensive and take advantage of the handicap stones, I ended up winning. I know handicaps are accepted in Go, but I don't believe the potency of the handicap scales linearly with the number of stones. On the 13x13 boards my six stone handicap is approaching was it unreasonable.

I can't write about all the games, so I'll focus on the two that I lost. The first loss came against someone I believe was a smurf. He was a 25 kyu with zero games played, but he's now sitting pretty at nine straight wins, including one against a 17/18 kyu. I was white, and after we each took our two corners he played a shoulder hit (katatsuki), and I responded by extending:

 

Black then played K11, and recalling the proverb hane at the head of two stones I did just that. I didn't really stop my opponent from taking territory on the upper side, at the time I was content to contain him, but perhaps I should have attached at K11 instead of L10 and pushed him away from my second stone. In any case, I think my first real mistake was this stone:

 

When I played it my thought process was that it prevents black from cutting at J10; playing H11 instead would have made a ladder, but C3 is a ladder breaker! However, when black inevitably plays C11 I am in atari, and am forced to connect. This puts me one move "behind" and I think it gives my opponent sente (my understanding of this term is still not perfect). I tried to make up for it by doing a one point jump, and then black hane'd at M10:

At the time I didn't think this was such a bad situation, but in hindsight it's where things turned bad.  I meant to play K9, but I misclicked at L9 while trying to read out the ladder, which again had a ladder breaker. I've looked over this position several times, but I cannot find a play that ends well for white. Extending instead of playing the hane at #20 would have been better, but even then I'm giving up a ton of territory and my main group might not even live, because I don't have any supporting stones in the center, or access to the edges of the board. Clearly I lost the game at an even earlier point, and like I said move #5 at H10 could be it. Extending instead could have let to this:

Here the ladder is good for white and the stone at M11 contains black's top group. However, my gut instinct is that black comes out on top in this exchange too! White still hasn't even started making territory anywhere. It's interesting how things go bad so quickly. Maybe the hane at L11 was the biggest misstep. I also noticed now that my opponent played the 3-3 opening, which secures the corners much better. Perhaps this is the better way to go on the 13x13 board.

The other game I lost mostly came down to small stupid mistakes that put me behind, however the mistake that finally made me resign might be worth pointing out:

Defending the atari takes away one liberty from a group that can be cut! I didn't see that until it was too late. Near the edges it's easier to run out of liberties and I should be more mindful of that.

Thanks to rarandomra who reviewed one of my games, and also videotape500 who was gracious enough to let me undo a move when I misclicked.

Takeaways:

-Maybe don't play the 4-4 opening on the 13x13 board, I don't know how to defend the shoulder hit.

-Be more mindful of liberties around cutting points near the edge of the board.

I'm wondering if I should move on to the 19x19 board, because while the 13x13 board is less fighting oriented than the 9x9 board, I still feel like the center plays a larger role than what feels right.