27th Street

I felt fortunate to win most of the games in our session earlier this week, as 3 of them were very close and overall Vox was playing well. How long can I keep up winning ways giving him 2 stones?

Vox got off to a poor start last evening. I was able to attack a weak group at the top of the board which really destabilized his positions. The result was I killed 2 groups and he had to resign.

In the second game, though, Vox’s play was very solid. He claimed a great deal of territory on the right side of the board, which I failed to invade early on. Instead I took some territory on the bottom and reduced his corner partially. It was an easy 25.5 point win for Vox.

I won the rest of the games. In one, I killed a huge centre group which Vox should have been able to save. Overall, my reading was sharper than Vox’s last night. He made some errors and I was able to exploit them. If he’s going to beat me at 2 stones, he has to avoid these mistakes.

I played 7 online games of Go with Vox last evening, in which I continued to give him 2 stones handicap (I took 6.5 points komi). I had a successful session, winning 5 of 7 games, but that score is not indicative of the competitiveness of the games. Vox’s wins were both decisive. As well, I won 3 games by a total of only 6 points, while my other 2 wins were significant. In other words, 3 of the games were really up for grabs, decided by tiny margins. Certainly, being able to find that little edge in a very close game is a part of the game. Sometimes every point counts. Still, it’s fair to say that Vox played stronger last night than he has in recent sessions. I found it more difficult to destabilize his groups and to attack effectively. We had a couple very interesting ko battles, one that I won outright and the other one Vox won, but not before giving up some stones as compensation.

Here’s a look at game 5. This one was tough throughout and I squeaked out a half point victory.

I played 6 games of Go with Vox last evening, giving him 2 stones handicap. Although I’ve been doing very well in our play lately, I wasn’t sure I could win with that handicap in place. As it turned out, though, I dominated play, winning 5 of the 6 games we played.

Vox’s victory was in the second game. He grabbed good cash and destroyed my potential by running a weak group up into the centre and safety. He played this one very well and I was forced to resign.

I was able to kill several of Vox’s groups last night, and as a result I won most of the games by a significant margin. Here’s an example from game 4:

In this game, I was able to kill the bottom right corner, but more importantly, cut off and kill 15 stones on the left side. I was able to harass Vox’s group in the middle to gain strength then used the strength to attack his stones on the left. I threw in to force him to take a single eye, then denied him an escape route.

It’s difficult to distill down what went wrong for Vox. In general, my reading was stronger. I was able to find weaknesses in his shape and figure out how to exploit them. To win, I think he has to stop me from hemming his groups in. I would have more trouble against him if he played lighter and more flexibly, getting out to the middle and making shape out there. If I can’t surround his stones from the outside I can’t kill them. As well, I was able to achieve a lot of sente going into the middle game in many of these games, choosing the direction and putting Vox on the defensive. He has to stop me from doing that.