The following correspondence game was one of the most intense games I've played. Probably because my opponent was a friend of mine, whom I used to play quite frequently, but haven't done so in a couple of months. He started playing with me about a year and a half ago, so a nice competitive rivalry has taken place. Even though I believe he has long surpassed my level, I felt quite happy of making the game a game worth enjoying. In fact, I never had so much fun while losing so badly at the same time! Notice that the game took only 4 days, although almost all moves took place on one night. I was so focused and expectant for his next move that it was like playing a live game. Unfortunately my little daughter was quite upset with me that night for not paying her a deserved attention.
The game was unrated because my friend is not a frequent DGS player, so his ranking is unreal. He is actually 5kyu in KGS.
Below is the game. I haven't made an exhaustive analysis. Remember you can follow the variations by clicking on the letters that appear on the board.
The following correspondence game was played at DGS a few weeks ago. It's funny because I thought I was taking the lead comfortably, ignoring the fact that a huge group of mine was dead. By the time I realized I immediately resigned. How did it get killed? Overconfidence. I ignored many threats thinking it was still alive, until I blew it with an incorrect move. Well well, too bad because my prospects for the game were quite good I believe.
See the game below, notice the white left group by move 164.
In the following 3 stone handicap game I was playing white, and had a clear lead (about 100 points) when starting the endgame ("starting the end", sounds weird huh). Everything was going fine and easy, so I started playing fast and light headed. Suddenly, I saw a whole group of white stones disappear! What happened!? I asked myself. My beautiful stones, vanished into thin air! I bet that playing on a computer has a much higher risk of heart attack, compared to a real board... Vanishing stones are a real health threat, really.
Why did this happen? How could this happen? Can it be possible that you can lose a game like that. Fortunately it is, and for me this is one of the beauties of Go, and what makes it really interesting. A group is not dead till it's dead. Groups are never captured unless necessary, and while the game progresses, pressure gets higher and higher. Not to mention if a Ko takes place. Buying oneself tranquility may have too high a cost.
Besides lack of attention, I made the mistake because instead of doing things the easy way, I preferred a "smarter but riskier" way, maybe appropriate for another circumstance. I hope this gives me a lesson.
In the following game, a few funny (sad) things happened. First, I had managed to disconnect a big group with no room for eyes, and kept on playing happily without noticing I was in the middle of a capture race, while thinking I was reducing my opponents remaining territory, I was removing my own liberties! By the time I realized it was late, my huge group was dead and the chances of winning were reaching zero. To make matters worse, I made a silly mistake putting my own group in atari, but my opponent didn't notice so I immediately went and fixed it, but allowed him to enter my territory and perform a huge reduction.
I was led by my anger and answered almost without thinking (and thus made a mistake of course) letting him get even more territory.
Afterwards I thought that if he hadn't noticed my previous mistake, I should have fixed it later, in the chance that maybe he didn't see it. After all the loss was almost the same. This mistake made me lose the game.
By the end, an interesting battle took place, after an invasion. I managed to kill the invading stones but I have the feeling that I complicated it too much.
Checkout the game, I'm playing black.
Oh, and by the way, now I'm using WGo.js for the SGF player as it's much nicer than maxiGos, isn't it?
If you want to see a variation, click on the letters that appear in uppercase.
The following two games were played almost simultaneously against the same player on DGS. Both games turned out very territorial, no big fights were involved. In the first one, by the endgame I was ahead by about 10 points, but I left a defect that was well exploited by my opponent, who turned the tables and won the game.
The same thing happened on the other game but the other way around! (well not exactly, by the endgame I was also ahead but by only 2 points). At least we both got our share, haha.
This 2 stone handicap game was played about a month ago on IGS. I was ranked 16k+ playing black against a 14k+.
I felt quite confident the whole game, and I was pretty much ahead until the endgame, when my excessive confidence, pride, and greediness, took over me. From move 276 onwards, I kept making silly endgame moves without taking into account that my groups where loosing liberties. I almost laughed at my opponents pretensions of killing my group, ignoring his threat to the limit until I couldn't handle it. Don't be a hot shot, less if your opponent is stronger.
I was ahead but put everything at risk because I didn't want to give away a single point. You only need half a point to win at Go, anything above that is superfluous. I'm not saying that you should give away the points you don't need, what I'm saying is that you shouldn't put groups at risk to gain unnecessary points. Just play calm and conservative, let your opponent take the risks. This is where greed knocks at the door.
I was being a hot shot against a stronger player, and he certainly game me a lesson. I felt so bad for losing this game,
it hurt so much, that I promised myself not to be so fool again. Fortunately, loosing hard like this can bring great benefits, and I'm pretty sure it did, as it
heavily influenced my future games.
I played this even game a few months ago on IGS, against another BC ranked player. What's interesting about it is that it illustrates how a bad move can have such terrible consequences.
I was playing white, and was behind in territory by move 180, but I had managed to almost kill an important center group, and I say almost because a bad move not only helped black rescue his endangered group, but also kill mine. I lost by resignation, check it out from move 183 onwards.
