Hello,
Im playing GO for 2.5 months now and kinda stuck a bit right now.
Im seeking for some teaching games or reviews in order get some hints, from someone who knows better in order to improve my game. I tend to lose a lot during midgame typically.
Analyzing games with AI alone seems not to help my smooth brain enough.
In order to not just leech, I also want to offer my help to lower ranked players in the best way based on my abilities.
Im currently 8kyu (peak) and therefore look for significantely higher/lower ranked people.
I’d be happy to leave a few comments/review games if I have the time, and left a few comments, basic concepts for making life/shape in opponent areas, ideas and variations in one of your recent lost games in which you commented that you weren’t sure how to respond in the midgame.
The same for teaching games (I don’t always have the time for real-time games, but playing and commenting the game by correspondence typically works for me.) ^^
Review of your games by a stronger player is another very efficient way.
Thats true. Having something in ‘real time’ is, so I thought, perhaps more effective, but since fuseki actually added some comments on one of my recent games and Im very happy with the input they gave, I will add this option to my topic.
At any level thia is usually due mostly by a lack of experience. By far the middle game is its most difficult part.
Thank you for your offer and the actual review of one of my recent games!
I was very angry at this game because I exactly knew there are two spots I can (successfully) invade but I failed.
I will try to burn this stuff in my head! ^^
I think invading and living is often difficult for players of many levels, especially if you don’t have as much experience, and I struggled with it myself too when I was a kyu level player (and still find aspects of it hard) so don’t be too hard on yourself. ^^
The key is often to build light, flexible shapes which give you forcing moves or multiple other options to follow-up with, and have the potential to make eyeshape.
It’s not always easy to learn – sometimes seeing the types of shapes/ideas pros or higher level players make when making life can help a lot, or just knowing some of the key general ideas about making sabaki (making light, flexible play in opponent areas).
It was very easy for me to make heavy shapes when running when I was first playing in my first months too, and sometimes the ways to make life flexibly aren’t as evident if you haven’t seen the shapes before.
I heard from a 1-2d player who was very good at that type of running/making life in moyos (probably a couple or more stones above his level in terms of flexible, light play), that he felt having seen the shapes through studying a lot of pro games (for example Sakata Eio, etc.) probably helped him internalise them a lot.
I found seeing them in pro or higher dan level games helpful too. ^^
Maybe if you can find a player to play some kill-all Go with you that’d help, too.
I’ve usually played the variant that looks like this, with White trying to make life in 139 moves or less (you can increase or decrease the number of moves to adjust the difficulty) and Black trying to kill, taking turns switching colours with another player.
I had maybe 5 of them with a 6k player some time ago who was trying to understand sabaki better, and he said it was a very helpful exercise, I think maybe getting to see the concept of how I made life as White gives some ideas.
It can be fun to play with anyone, though, in this or other configurations, and it’s usually quicker than a full 19x19 game if you want to train your shape-making ability/making life in opponent areas.
I’ve also tried with a variant more like this, which seems to train living in the centre/running differently (the ponnuki variant allows some training in making life on the side, like in the game you were running/making a group on).
It taught me a lot to be able to play these with a dan player of similar strength. ^^
I’d be happy to try some games in real-time if I’m free.
In case anyone is interested in revieving one or more games of mine.
I have picked out some games where I personally would say that I didnt do too many hard mistakes or throws that are more or less selfexplanatory (for my level) but still lost many points.
Game 1:
One could say I lost in the opening, and its certainly not wrong, but the point grapth is still typicall for me.
I lost much in the early middle game.
Game 2:
The other way around. I won in the opening or shortly after that, but lost so much in the middle game.
Game 3:
The opening was even, I managed to gain a bit in the early middle game but werent able to bring it back home.
Kill-all Go is fun. There’s also a variant where you start with an empty board and take turns either placing a black stone on the board, or deciding to play black (either or, not both. Your option is to place a black stone or decide to play Black, you cannot decide to play White). Once someone decides to play black, the other player takes the White stones and plays the first move, attempting to live
Want to try sometime? it actually supports handicap stones like so:
agree on a number of handicap stones
start the game as above, taking turns either adding a Black stone to the board, or declaring that you will play Black
if Uwate (handicap giver) is the one to declare that they will play Black, play the game as normal with Shitate (handicap taker) playing the first stone (as White)
but if Shitate is the one to declare that they will play Black, they first place the agreed upon number of handicap stones down as Black stones, and then Uwate plays the first White stone
This works because there will come a tipping point about half the agreed upon number of handicap stones before when the game would be objectively even, where Uwate will want to declare Black in order to avoid dealing with more Black stones than the handicap was supposed to be worth, and Shitate likewise will want to declare Black in order to avoid dealing with more Black stones than the handicap was supposed to be worth. Since both are incentivized to declare Black at this tipping point, the system works
For example, for 4 handicap stones, there will come a point when about 2 more black stones would make an even game, and the player whose turn it is should declare Black, or else their opponent will declare Black with a larger advantage than the handicap was supposed to be worth
