Looking for someone to show me advanced 9x9 strategies

14K feeling like I need help to get to next level. There must be an underlying strategy I am missing.

try this winning strategy
If you play black: first two move combination is F6 & F3 (or F6 & C6)
if you play white: avoid second move on center

actually there is no need strategy on 9x9. you can win hundreds game if you understand about “Making Shape Tesuji” and solve tsumego everyday (download from [redacted])

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You could try 19x19 for something new. A whole new world is waiting for you to discover :slight_smile:

Tsumego is also very good advice. You can practice them in the Puzzle section right here on OGS. I recommend Cho Chikun’s Encyclopedia of Life and Death in particular.

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Fundamentally, there’s not much strategic about a knife fight in a telephone booth. It’s all tactics … great reading, depth of experience with tesuji.

However this doesn’t mean that improving is not a worthwhile goal. It just means that it isn’t a “strategy” you are missing, it is practice and depth of experience.

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Can i recommend: 81 Little Lions - An introduction to the 9x9 board for advanced beginners

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Thanks- I forgot about this!

Nothing ever beats experience

Was trying to get relatively good at 9x9 before graduating to the big board, but now I see that a lot doesn’t apply.

Tsumego confuse me, so that is a big part of the problem. Counter-intuitive moves?

I once read a hint that I found very useful: Train on comparatively easy problems. Pick a difficulty so that you can solve the majority in 1-2 minutes. I think the reasoning behind it is that this you learn to recognise patterns this way. Working on too hard problems just makes you admire those strange moves without learning that much.

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I understand where you are coming from. 9x9 is generally considered a beginner’s board. People get into the game more easily.

At the point you are now, “trying to get good” and asking for “advanced strategies”, you are very much ready for the big board! Please do not keep this experience from yourself.

There are good reasons to play 9x9 still. For example, many don’t always have the time to play a full game. I play it because I enjoy the variety and because there is more focus on raw reading, which I should practice.

The way you phrase it sounds, to me, like a bad idea. You are holding yourself back. :wink:

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Good advise!

Maybe…So much space!

If the 19x19 board still scares you, I recommend 1 (or both) of two things:

  1. Try the 13x13 board, it’s still very tactical, but basic strategies begin to apply.

  2. Pick up a book (or watch a video) about the opening. This will often also be useful for 13x13 games, so I recommend you do this anyway.

@Clawhammer_Mike: almost 6000 games just on 9x9 board?
My advice is: join the site ladders 13x13 and 19x19. Starting from the bottom you’ll be able to play games that fit to your experience and rank while improving and going up (places and rank).
For me it’s been very useful.

The only problem is that correspondence games on 19x19 takes very very long time: weeks, even months. But you can also play live games when you’ll feel comfortable with it .

That sounds true, but I’m not sure that it is true actually :slight_smile: Sometimes good training beats experience. Also, new thinking can beat experience.

But this is actually aside from the point, which I possibly didn’t express well.

My point was about Strategy specifically, and how much it applies to 9x9.

The experience I was referring to as being more important thatn strategy for 9x9 was of the tsumego/tesuji kind. I was asserting that to win a knife fight in a phone booth, you need to focus on stabbing and killing skills. There is not much room for a strategy. A strategy for a fight might be something like “run around avoiding the opponent till he is tired”. Not possible in a phone booth. The same with Go strategies for 19x19: they just don’t generally apply in a small space.

Now that you are looking up to 19x19 suddenly you need strategies.

There are some good ones. I think that with these, you don’t need to be scare of the space, don’t need to compromise with 13x13.

The first strategy we are taught for 19x19 is “corners, side then centre”.

That will take you far to breaking up the large space into manageable pieces. Initially it is tempting to stake out claims across the board - that would be a centre-side-then corner strategy. It simply doesn’t work.

The next strategy we are taught is “fix your weak groups first”,

Another is “after those two play the biggest moves first”.

This last one takes more explaining and experience to learn what it means. It’s where Dwyrin’s “Back to Basics” series shines: helping understand and apply that strategy.

Welcome to the world of strategic go :slight_smile:

GaJ

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Don’t play too many territorial moves. Be flexible. Don’t be limited by your pre-set strategy. Adjust your strategy to the whole board situation. Read many moves ahead. Make sure you know the best moves for each sides, etc.

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Unnecessary necroing of a thread is unnecessary, can a mod please lock this thread.

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It’s sound advice, and allows other users to see this thread that may have missed it the first time. That may be how things are done in other forums, but we’re less concerned about necros here if they’re helpful and on topic.

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