Review request 15k versus 15k

Teaching Reviews requests
1

I’m not sure why I lost this game. Could someone give me some pointers?

Thanks!

2

Done: https://online-go.com/review/36058

White was a rock star in the opening, mostly. But you could put what happened after in a go version of a self-help book: “How to Lose a Won Game.”

To manage a lead, play safe and solid moves. When you carry on as if the game were even, you should realize that you are giving the enemy chances to catch up (which happened in the game). Check it out!

3

Mark, thank you very much!

So I don’t know when I am ahead and that makes me take too many risks. Counting throughout the game seems like a horrible, relentless exercise in mental arithmetic. Is there a way to do this without taking the fun out of playing? Also, how can you do such a thing in a game with 20 min + 5 x 45 sec?

You talked about base making versus building. Can you say some more about that? I get base-making, I think, but what exactly do you mean by building?

4

A simple way of estimating the score is to match the black and white territories against one another: "This white territory is as big as this black one, these 2 white territories combined are about as big as this large black one, …"
It only takes a few seconds (you can do it on your opponent’s time so you don’t use up your clock), and while it’s not ultra-precise, it gives a good idea of who’s leading and by how much.

(This method was recommended in a book, but I can’t remember which one… Anyone knows?)

1 Like
5

  1. train it. There are some technics, e.g. counting two points as one and dead stones also as one, which makes it faster.

  2. I think he means developing and building influence. If you build your wall towards the center and lose your base you have to make eyes elsewhere, which is generally harder.

@VincentCB, I think it might be attack and defense, but i’m not sure either.

6

There’s an easy way and a hard way to count. The easy way is to just ask yourself which color you’d rather play. (And how many points would it take to convince you to take the other?) The harder way involves actually counting the spaces. You can use @VincentCB’s comparative method, multiplication, 2’s, etc. (See here for more). I like to imagine a natural endgame and count those points too. But instead of counting over and over (yuck), the key is to keep a running count and update it with new developments.

For the building stuff, I meant framework-building. It’s really the question of when to go for a framework and when to play for territory. Third-line extensions (eg. “base-making” moves) are kind of the default way. But you play high moves when you have potential to develop an area or when the low move looks dumb. In the game, you played a high fifth-line move as if you were building one side of a framework, but black already had a stone on the other side, so white’s potential was already reduced. This is why I would not really think about playing it in my own games.