(;
KM[.5]
PW[amateur dan]
PB[amateur dan]
GC[Janice Kim 3P]
C[Janice Kim on Invisible Moves
Published in the September 12, 2015 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

Professional go players lead a charmed life.  For example, some time ago I was beaten up in a parking lot.  This in itself isn't the charmed part, but as I noted earlier, Go players can find a proverb in anything, so I just randomly went on YouTube and saw a music video that pretty much nailed the incident on the head, except in the music video, the assailant is invisible.  (This is the official video for the song "Stitches", by the way, if you're curious).

This got me thinking, since I'm always on about "invisible" moves when one's reading out a position, and wondering why it is we start with the move we do when we are attempting to read something out.  That got me thinking, well, it comes from the emotional content of whatever you've experienced, which when it's intense, colors the situation regardless of what the situation actually is.  Did I lose you yet?  So, reading the comments of the music video I looked at, I see that it looks to others like paranormal activity is occurring, or for Go players, we could ask "What were they thinking?!?"

Usually a lot, my friends, when it's Go players, usually a lot.  So I'm going to do my own bit for paranormal activity and give my take on what two amateur dan players are thinking from a random game I just took off the Internet. 

With apologies to the players for the hubris.  I've had an entire poker table laughing when I told someone what exact two cards he was holding, when I was annoyed that he suggested I was taking too long as I deliberated how to increase my odds of taking his entire stack, which I did anyway, so that should give you some idea of why I get beat up in parking lots to begin with. 

Back to move 1.  It's Black with no komi, so you generally don't see the acknowledged lower ranked player taking up a position as if to say:

1.  I have the advantage without komi, so, I'm going to kick you up and down this parking lot with that advantage.

2.  Or maybe, it's as if to say, I'm afraid you're going to make a fool of me, so I'm just going to establish right now, I'm not afraid of a fight.

3.  Or maybe, I'd like you to play the star point or the 3-4 where I've already approached, anticipating where your stone will be in short order as if it's invisibly there right now, because I have lined up several sequences in that case?

I'm going with a bit of all three, but mostly #3, reflecting the sum total of my life experience in parking lots, and playing Go.];
B[df]
C[Yes, volumes could be written about this.  I'll be brief, if not very convincing, to let you know I think this will lead to a 1.5 point loss for Black with play approaching the perfect axis.  My suggestion:  play in the upper right corner, on the starpoint, or maybe the 3-4 if you lean that way.  Go isn't chess just yet, we're not totally boxed in by the opening.];
W[pd]
C[White, to wit:  um, did you mean here?  This corner?];
B[ph]
C[Very well, wily one.  I shall approach you in this corner with yet more invisible yet-to-come play.];
W[dp]
C[White, to wit:  You mean this corner?];
B[nc]
C[No, this one.  Now, my plan will come into effect shortly.  We will be embroiled in a two-on-one fight where you will underestimate my strength because of my unusual, off-book moves, which aren't so unusual really, I'm just messing with the timing, which goes to show you that I am on to something when it comes to Go, and I am probably very, very frustrated at being ranked lower than you here.];
W[pf]
C[Ok, maybe I'd better step back and get some emotional distance from the players. 

You'd think, knight's move maybe, rather than (belligerently) coming right up to Black, thus making Black's moves look subtly menacing.  However, Go is the surrounding game.  When one is starting to get invisibly surrounded, I am going to have to agree with taking a high position, and not going for the low, possibly more elegant dodge underneath.  That's because the surrounding stones are, after all, still largely invisible, and one of them is at some distance, so hand-to-hand is still pretty reasonable in my view.]
(;
B[ng]
C[I'm surrounding you.];
W[nd]
C[Running out the middle is just running out the middle.  Lean to one side, even though it's going to make that side stronger.  If I'm coming out, I'm coming out with sente.];
B[md];W[me]
C[Coming straight up and actually letting Black surround is the classic overly-anxious play.  You can't duck and cover here, you're going to have to pro-actively get out of this yourself, with some sacrifice probably.

Pro-active, hah.  See what I did there?  Actually, I'm just noticing.]
(;
B[od]
C[If you do a tewari analysis, you'd probably find this kind of natural looking atari and the following capture up the middle, setting up the potential ko, is much ado about nothing.  See the variation.];
W[oe];B[ne];W[nf]
C[There isn't going to be any ko threat in the opening bigger than the ko, so Black really should have anticipated how this was going to go if White stood up to him.  That's the thing with aggression and possible overplays, they work only with weak responses, so you don't go on to the next level.];
B[nd];W[mf]
TR[ng]
C[So this is where somebody gets dismissed, and somebody gets enraged.  Let's do a tewari analysis to uncover alethia.  See the variation for the marked play (at move 7).

This is a nod to what I'm always telling my son.  Look it up, that's what surfing the Internet is all about.  I just learned this word last year myself, but it was really embarrassing because I was getting lectured in philosophy by a political scientist and I have a degree in philosophy.  The state of education in America is bad, how can NYU give me a degree in philosophy when I'd never even heard of alethia???

I should also mention that both the Master of Go (as in, Kawabata's Master of Go) and Tolstoy pretty much say, in virtually the same sentiment, that it's amateur hour to identify emotionally with the opponent, or the protagonist.  That's not the exercise here.  Both Kawabata and Tolstoy go on to suggest that it's all about oneself, and appreciating the position.  I'm going to take that a step further with my good buddy Heisenberg and say, it's all about appreciating oneself in the position.];
B[pc];W[qc];B[qd];W[pe];B[qb];W[rc]
C[Wait for it.  Knee-jerk sente approaching.]
(;
B[rb];W[rd]
(;
B[og]
TR[ng]
C[I'm going to have to call this a knee-jerk sente that is actively bad.  See the variation.

Your fondest wish in this case is that White would spend a move here (at P13) instead of Black, even though Black does get it for free in sente.  That's because Black does not have to answer if White plays here (at P13) later, turning Black's marked stone (which right now is kind of unhappy-looking which is probably why Black is adding a friend) into a clever forcing move of sorts.  Black can then treat the marked stone as expendable, while White gets an additional unnecessary friend at the cost of a turn in the local position.

Not many people would call this move actively bad.  I think it's pretty remote that this will be the losing play, but it's reflecting a losing emotional state.];
W[of];B[qg]
LB[qh:A][qi:B]
C[This is the same thing, with a little less flavor.

Without this move, Black's fondest dream is that White would play A, spending a move gaining very little and allowing Black to naturally strengthen his stones, and then block the right side with just the simple response at B, and then connect (or tenuki, but I'm always saying tenuki).

Black's move here is not sente to kill anything right away, so White probably wants to think a bit about how to approach the situation.  Just answering without thinking of a follow-up reflects a losing emotional state.];
W[ob];B[pb]
(;
W[rf]
LB[jb:H][kb:G][lb:I][mb:M][nb:K][jc:F][kc:C][lc:B][mc:J][oc:L][kd:D][ld:A][le:E]
C[So probably, what White really wanted to do was the sequence up to M that I attempted to show in the branching diagram, and ended up staying safe with this move at S14, waiting for the chance, sure, but probably losing it too if Black just plays D next.  Alternate move game, tough to remember sometimes.];
B[ni]
LB[kd:A][og:B][rf:C][me:D][ob:E]
C[Ok.  Overthinking it to the extreme.  This is what happens when you play moves like B, it gets you emotionally invested in saving everything even when it is doing nothing, and your original purpose, surround White, is blown out of the water and you're upset about that.

A play at A instead is starting to make me wonder where White went wrong, probably C (S14) is too mild.  This is how you can see, the results aren't necessarily the results from your own plays, so don't get married to them.  It's a difficult exercise to figure out where the mistakes are, slightly easier to find the good moves, and probably more effective a learning exercise to find the good moves.  D is a good move, and E had the potential to be awesome. 

You could just note, this move (O11) is not sente, or big, because White is alive.  This is the level of most life and death problems in actual games, that are insultingly labeled "15 kyu" in books.  That's why Cho Chi Hoon 9 dan goes over and over kyu problems from a book in his head, because that is what the situation really is on the Go board.  It helps when you have 20 seconds or less to know O11 isn't remotely a threat, defensive only, and it's likely to fool computers and people who don't instantly see that White can't be killed, even if invisibly surrounded.];
W[ld];B[lc];W[kd]
C[Not sure if White couldn't read it out in time, or is just waiting for Black to hoist himself on his own petard, which he has been doing okay at so far.  But I was on the edge of my seat, and pretty disappointed that Black ran out of time here, lulled as he may have been by White's own confusion.

There is no doubt in my mind, you can pick any random game you like to review, and find the universe in a nutshell, as long as someone is not spoiling it by providing all commentary and requiring silence.

I should mention that my computer program which I am a neophyte at that I was trying to use to record my comments directly on to the game record, estimates the score as something like +60 for Black.  There's the answer of how good the computer box is at Go.  Human beings may have great differences of opinion whether this is good or bad for Black, but I think you'll have to agree I have the best story by far why this is a clear 4 point victory for White on the board without komi.]
)
    (;
    W[ld];B[lc];W[kc]
    (;
    B[kd];W[le];B[jc];W[kb]
    (;
    B[jb];W[lb];B[mc];W[nb];B[oc];W[mb]
    C[White is probably hoping for something awesome like this.]
    )
        (;
        B[lb];W[jd];B[ke];W[jb];B[ic];W[id];B[kf];W[hc];B[rf]
        C[White may have been a little concerned about this.]
        )
    )
        (;
        B[kb];W[kd]
        LB[rf:A][qi:B][ni:C]
        C[So thinking about the other variations, Black probably can't cut after White gets a stone at A.  Did I mention this is a game with 20 seconds per move?  So maybe White isn't thinking about all this, or at least not completely.  But in 20 seconds of prudence, we can play A, even though Black's play wasn't entirely sente, it wasn't forestalling or getting anything, so perhaps White can call it a wash, with an extra bit of menace around B.  And we can always assume that going to kill something is an all-out strategy that may not be the most prudent. 

White did spend some of the byoyomi periods here, so maybe Black got lulled because it always seems like your opponent is spending three times longer than you are.  Black is starting to take his time, and overthinks to play C in the actual game, after White plays A.];
        B[jb]
        )
    )
)
    (;
    B[kd]
    LB[rf:A]
    C[Black taking some cash here, maybe with an eye to stealing two eyes later with a move at A, if it gets backed up somehow later, is my recommended strategy.]
    )
)
    (;
    B[ob]
    LB[rb:A]
    C[This is the same sente threat to capture the two stones, yes, without the defect?

It takes like ten years in a temple not to do the knee-jerk A.  Still, you can start thinking about what you are trying to accomplish here.  So White is out with style, but for the most part even the horrible can be recovered from if you follow the money.

You could go ahead and go knee-jerk, and say, look, White still doesn't have cash or komi, I can go for a quick, big score, and hope to close it down before White has a chance to bank.
Yes, I really think this way.  The secret is out.]
    )
    (;
    B[pp];W[pb];B[dn];W[fp];B[ob];W[oc];B[cp]
    C[Whenever you want to keep your disaster ambiguous, you can always tenuki, in situations that would make anyone incredulous that you would tenuki.

My teacher would have disavowed me many of my diagrams and comments ago.  It's not that he can't understand the terrible, it's that he would have started over, and would like me to do the same rather than drag everyone through this.]
    )
)
    (;
    B[ld]
    C[Black could have just extended along the fourth line here (thanks, White!).  White is probably not totally thrilled about leaning to one side because after all, running out, no matter how you do it, is generally running out on dame points, neutral ground, and Black would be cashing in on the top side here.]
    (;
    W[le]
    C[To prevent being surrounded, White is going to end up pushing Black again into making fourth line territory.];
    B[kd]
    C[I cannot keep spinning this out, you're on your own from here.  You can do it.]
    )
        (;
        W[oc]
        C[If White blocks here, ...];
        B[mf]
        C[... Black actually gets to surround with this clamp tesuji (good thing that wacky move is there, proving my theory that Anything's Possible if You're Making It Up).]
        )
    )
)
    (;
    B[nh];W[nf];B[md]
    C[Black could have done this.

Now, check out the following sequence, and tell me if you think Black is making any mistakes.];
    W[oc];B[od];W[me];B[ne];W[oe];B[nd];W[mf];B[pc];W[qc];B[ob];W[qd]
    LB[ng:A][nh:B][ne:C]
    C[I'm going to say this is slightly better for Black than the actual game, because B is better placed than at A.  But the move at C was kind of terrible, no one would play there in real life, would they?  White got kind of a strong shape and is definitely out, so Black didn't accomplish anything but just help White.

So that's how we can evaluate the actual game, as slightly worse than Black helping White to beat Black up for no reason.  You see how it is I have trouble teaching, you have to say this kind of obliquely, and then you seem kind of incomprehensible.]
    )
)

