I recently played this game senta507 vs. xDest where I (white) “invaded” with G7. After playing some games and looking at AI reviews, I figured that given the board position at move 5 that I had to play somewhere in the top right. I usually don’t do this because I never have a “plan” for what happens next. In this game it turned out ok, and I was only 0.7 points off what the AI review says was the best move, but from my perspective I was shooting in the dark hoping for something to happen.
How can I play a move like move 6 with more confidence? How can I know when it’s safe to invade vs not enough space / too late? I struggle to visualize how I could even live in such a scenario without relying on opponent mistakes
Your intuition to jump out is good. Remember it’s not just about trying to kill your opponent, you want to try to take territory, and you’d ideally like your groups to live (although you sometimes have to make sacrifices. So, I’d recommend not just focusing on “how do I attack black” but “how can I protect my group, and give it life” and “how do I stake out the most territory”.
If you look at your top right group after about move 13, you can imagine black might want to creep up around the edges, this reduces the space for you to make eyes, and it reduces what could be territory, and it expands/safeguards the space for black in the top left. Instead of focusing on the top, you expanded at the bottom, even though you already had a lot of space down there.
I’d also point out the comment you made in the chat is quite rude. You should never laugh or mock your opponent because you believe they have made a mistake or lost some stones.
EDIT: in regards to knowing when it’s a good idea to jump out, ask yourself if you think there is enough space to make eyes, or if you think it gives you a good chance of killing your opponent. Part of this is intuition you will develop through games. It’s partly trial and error.
This is a good point, I really need to consider how in danger my stones are before I decide to push out elsewhere. Especially in this case where the whole point was to make a group to reduce points for black.
I’ll try to invade more to help get a sense of when there’s enough space to live or not
As for my comment during the match, it was in regards to a move they made ( which put all of their stones into atari. They took the move back but I thought it would be fun to share the self-atari jump scare moment with them
You can’t give that huge corner. Simple as that. So you came in, logical. After it’s more about experience and practicing. If you didn’t “invade” you could just start another game.
Trying to cut is then maybe too much (overplay). I’m no expert especially on 9x9 but one thing recommended in under pressure position is to try to live as quickly as possible so that you won’t generate too much influence to your opponent by struggling for life. In fact you can look at the AI suggestion instead (H5 instead of F5)