General Go Discussion Thread

[durron597]

I don't want to hijack the luckay/neil thread, so im going to make a new thread for Go stuff that's for stuff that's a bit less indepth (like a kibitzed forum game)

To those who actually know what they're doing, how did I do against the computer here?

[Neil S]

7 to my eye is a bit strange. You seem hesitant to fight, as though you know gnugo will beat you in a fight but will strategically fail to take territory.

[fnord_too]

I have never played 9X9, but that looks reasonable. I wonder how it plays out if you go something like d2 on move 3. It has been a long time since I played go (keep meaning to start again). I would just jump right into 19X19.

[Neil S]

[ QUOTE ]
I have never played 9X9, but that looks reasonable. I wonder how it plays out if you go something like d2 on move 3. It has been a long time since I played go (keep meaning to start again). I would just jump right into 19X19.

[/ QUOTE ]I think it's very important to play on 9x9 at least for a little while for two reasons:

1. The games are quicker so you get in more practice

2. The games are confined so immediate life-and-death tactics are inescapable.

Now gnugo may not help so much for 2, since it doesn't really press like a human player can, though.

[mute]

Is it OK just to ignore 4 here? Also when durron ignores it, I would expect white to play either b4 or d4 not b3.

[kokiri]

Just looking at the image:

5 is pretty bold - it's usual to answer a contact move (such as 4 on 1), but not necessarily bad. In fact 6 by white is pretty soft - at 24 or 22 would put you under more pressure and I agree 7 looks odd - 22 (or perhaps 24) would be more natural.

I like the move 9 a lot as it really pins white back.

I would just play with 0.5 komi TBH, even if 5.5 is the recommended amount

[clowntable]

Would you recommend playing capture-game to learn?

[Neil S]

[ QUOTE ]
Would you recommend playing capture-game to learn?

[/ QUOTE ]No. Puts too much emphasis on capturing which isn't the emphasis at all really in the real game.

Capture game is good for little kids but that's about it.

[Stephen H]

Clown and I played a 9x9'r that I'd like to get posted - I don't have a screenshot now and I'm not sure if Clown does, but i'll try to get at least a move list up tomorrow.

Mostly I'd like someone to:
1) Score the game correctly
2) Determine if we should have ended the game several moves earlier and what effect playing on really had

after that, if anyone wants to know what i was thinking, I'd be happy to explain my moves for critique. I will say that I found myself repeatedly playing chicken - thinking "Do I have to respond to that RIGHT NOW or can I wait 1 more move...." I think there's a lot of that in Go.

[Neil S]

Stephen, absolutely. I've been agonizing like that all game with Luckay. When can you snatch the initiative back from your opponent? It's very, very, very important, heh.