So. I got trounced again. I strongly suspect that this player was more experienced than they claimed to be - or maybe I was having a bad day, but here’s the game anyway. I thought it might be fun to play Guess The Rank. I thought I played reasonably well for 17k, But assuming that black was telling the truth, it would seem I was mistaken and I was nearer to 30k for that game
I’m not above having a laugh at my own expense, but seriously, For those of you with the skill to judge, I’d be curious to know what your guesses would be as to the relative rankings of the players in this game.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t pick a weaker player looking for an easy victory. I find it beneficial to play lower ranked players than me because it helps me to see things from the stronger players view, so when I am getting destroyed I don’t take it so personally, and I think the benefits of playing someone stronger makes it an even trade. Likewise with this game - My opponent got some amusement, and I’ll learn a lot from reviewing the game - another even trade I think
It’s funny, my best guess would be that its an experimental account of a stronger player. His approaches are sometimes weird non-standard, lots of attachments but his fighting and reading are clearly much stronger.
You were reading aswell if not better than your opponent at times. One thing though I can see that you become fixed on area of the board and sometimes play unnecessary moves.
When you were capturing stones in the top right corner you played many unnecessary moves. You would have captured the stones regardless. Your opponent could not escape easily. You wasted time capturing and he got the left side.
Just as when you are trying to escape frome being captured you would think if there is any point running or am I going to be captured. When you are winning a capturing race ask yourself. Do I have to play another move here or will I capture regardless of what the OP does.
I know it is scary because you feel as though you are risking guaranteed territory but you have to to it. You will sometimes be strong. But making mistakes is the only way you will get stronger.
Anyway, sorry I know you didn’t ask for a review. But looking at the game you seem to play quite strongly yet still lost so I couldn’t help sharing my 2 cents.
Thank you It’s true I didn’t ask for a review, but thanks for taking the time to do it anyway. Every bit helps, and you’re right about getting fixated - A major flaw - harder to fix it than see it though
One thing I noticed during the game is that around move 75, I remarked that they were playing well and it seemed that that’s when they really went to town. I could be imagining it, but in retrospect it seems that they weren’t really trying up until then.
I don’t think anyone would believe it was only the second game. One thing that’s really helped my go is that you should be real careful about attaching. White 10 gives black the advatage locally, while if you’d played something like P8, P12, or S10 you are making your stones stronger and putting pressure on black to figure out how to live.
Thanks - I’ll try to keep that in mind in the future. To be honest I don’t really know when attaching is appropriate - only not to attach to a weak stone - another area for study I guess…
