Baduk TV English: Becoming 5 Kyu: Lesson 8

Becoming 5 Kyu is a Baduk TV series that aims to teach the fundamental knowledge required to reach 5 kyu. This is lesson 8.

In Korea, 5 kyu can actually be quite strong, so even dan level players will find some useful knowledge here.

You need a subscription to Baduk TV to watch this video.

Login now, or click here to learn more.

Transcript of the video



Translated by Eugene Lee 5d for GoGameGuru.com

Edited by David Ormerod 5d

Hello everyone, welcome to 'Becoming 5 Kyu', I'm Shim Wooseop 7d.

I think Go is more like a marathon than a sprint.

A marathon runner doesn't always run with all his force.

Sometimes he runs at full speed, and sometimes he runs slowly to conserve the energy.

And when he approaches the finishing line, he does his best.

The overall process of a marathon is similar to a game of Go.

Just like a marathon runner aims to finish a race,

In a game of Go, it's important to do your best until the end, without anticipating the result too early.

And if you play steadily and calmly, you can record a good game.

Ok, I'm going to start today's lecture.

In the previous lecture (episode 7), we dealt with a new opening.

I hope you'll be able to learn and remember these opening patterns.

All the openings we've learned consist of basic joseki, so hopefully you can remember them easily.

When white pincers, black just jumps into 3-3 and plays joseki.

There are no other variation in this joseki.

In the previous lesson, I stressed that it's not good idea for white to approach from the bottom,

White had best approach from the right side instead.

And when black chooses his next move, consider the surroundings.

Now there's strong white influence in the bottom left, so black needs to play safely.

Try to find a simple and easy way to play.

When you face a local disadvantage, be patient. You can attack once you get strong.

If you remember only this, you'll usually be able to play a successful opening.

Now this is the widest place. So black needs to play here.

White just encloses with a knight's move because of the black stone in the bottom left.

And black plays another basic joseki.

As I said before, even though the top right corner is big

White should play at the bottom first.

Playing at the bottom is also big for black.

If black plays here first, black can approach closely and pressure white.

There's miai in the corner, in other words, even if white doesn't approach immediately,

Black can't occupy both sides of the corner at the same time.

So white doesn't need to rush to the corner urgently.

If black plays at the top, white can play on the other side.

However, normally black doesn't develop towards his own influence like that.

Some players always try to extend widely, but that's not as good as it looks.

Maybe 3-3 will be taken by their opponent and they'll face to lack of territory.

This enclosure with a knight's move is much better.

Now, white can't postpone playing at the top any longer.

If black plays one more move in the corner, black will have quite a big and solid territory.

Moreover, invading will become more difficult as black's influence grows.

White has to stop black from finishing the corner like this.

Today's lecture is about invading this formation.

Actually it's not easy to profit while invading, because black already has many stones here.

As I said, white has 3 options here; the attachment, the one space approach and the knight's approach.

In the previous lesson, we studied this one space invasion.

At this point, I said black had 2 options; the headbutt and the pincer.

Today, I'll show you some new moves.

Let's try to kill white's stone with a diagonal move.

And let's also find some counter-measures for white.

Right, when black plays like this, what can white do here?

Above all, white tries to come out to the side.

Black has to block, because he's decided to kill white.

White might be scared if black takes a stern attitude

And white could become flustered, rushing to live.

So many players play like this to live.

Of course, white can live with this move.

But black would become thick enough on the outside.

So white needs to find better moves.

You see the cutting point? Before living in the corner, white should cut first.

Black has to defend this stone.

Extending is one way to do that.

And playing atari is also possible.

Firstly, let's look at the extension.

Now these 2 black stones are weaker, because they've been cut by white.

So white doesn't need to play at 3-3, he can go as far as this.

You see, if black hanes on the inside white can capture.

Black has no choice but to block like this.

Attention! Black has to block here.

If black draws back, the loss becomes bigger.

White descends when black blocks.

Now, there's a ladder.

So black needs to reinforce here.

Actually there's still some aji in the corner but white can take sente anyway.

White will be happy to take a big point now.

Therefore, extending like this doesn't put much pressure on white.

Then, what's a better answer for black here?

When white cuts black ataris here, this is a good and strong move.

White has an unaccountable fear of it.

Anyway, white has to save this stone.

Black can choose between two ways of connecting, depending on the situation.

You should know that there's a big difference between both ways of connecting.

Suppose that black connects solidly first.

White's answer doesn't change, attaching is the only move.

But, black shouldn't play here this time, because black will be completely divided after white lives.

This inside hane is kind of a surprise, but it's the only move here.

If white ataris, black saves the corner stone.

When white captures, black does too. If black extends white can atari in the corner later.

This is a false eye.

And white can't make an eye in the corner either.

Black can keep attacking white's group.

This is the result black wants.

Black should aim to profit elsewhere, by attacking this white group.

Actually, there are some white stones on the right, so white's not in serious danger yet.

But if black had a strong position on the right too, this atari would be powerful.

Then, does white have an alternative way to play?

It all started from here.

When black hanes on the inside,

White doesn't have to atari.

White can counter hane like this instead.

Let's check whether it works here or not. Above all, the ladder must favor white.

I mean this ladder. It's out of the question if white can't defend this stone.

So white can hane if the ladder favors white.

Black needs to connect, because the ladder doesn't work for black.

Then black cuts here and white comes out.

If black ataris here, he'll waste his cutting stone.

So let's examine whether black can cut here, in the corner, or not.

White can't save the stone in the corner, so white ataris and blocks here instead.

If black hanes at the top, black can live easily.

White gets thickness and builds a good shape on the right side in compensation.

Black might not like this result though.

This hane is a really strong move for black here.

After white ataris and black connects,

If white plays here, black can capture the 3 corner stones after playing atari on the outside.

Or, black can push here and make miai of the center and the right side.

So, what can white do here? It looks like white's in trouble now.

But white can fight with the hane in the corner. This is a ko fight.

Black shouldn't try to capture the corner stones.

Before anything else, black should atari these stones twice like this.

And then block strongly.

White doesn't have time to hesitate. She has to start the ko fight immediately.

However, do you think there are any ko threats that are big enough during the opening?

Wherever white plays now, black will ignore it and eliminate the ko.

I said said earlier that these two connections lead to different results.

If black had made a diagonal connection, white could play a local ko threat here.

Even though white loses 4 stones on the right side, white can save the stones at the top.

But in our game black made solid connection, so white has no chance anymore.

So white needs to consider ko threats before choosing this variation.

What I want you to take from this is that black can resist strongly like this.

Understanding this variation will help you to develop your Go abilities.

Now let's move on to 'life and death'.

We're going to look at an applied life and death problem.

Today we'll keep studying this shape.

We've almost arrived at a conclusion for this 3-3 invasion.

After white invades at 3-3, we've examined the descent and the empty triangle.

And, in the last lesson, we saw black try to play more tightly to threaten white more in the corner.

As I said last time, blocking is the only move for white now.

And if black blocks right away, white can live with this empty triangle.

Cutting and making eye shape are miai.

Therefore, black has to hane and aim to attack white's stones at the bottom later.

At this point, white can't block at the bottom because black will kill the corner.

So white should play this knight's move.

Blocking here is quite big for black.

Wherever white plays to live, black will become thick.

Now white can hane on the bottom side.

And white is saying to black, "try to kill me."

First of all, black might consider this attachment.

But does it lead to a good result?

Black captures one stone and white's corner looks dead.

But look carefully at black's shape.

White plays here.

Even though black connects, white cuts right away.

White has 3 liberties and black has 2, so black will die.

Black tried to kill white, but now black's been killed by white.

There's no way to increase black's liberties.

Therefore, attaching here doesn't work.

So black needs to think of other moves. Blocking here was good,

But, as I said, when white hanes at the bottom attaching isn't a good move for black.

Let's consider this turn. It looks so solid.

Ok, the problem starts here.

White's move from earlier doesn't work anymore.

And white can't live by pulling back.

There's still a good move for white though.

Simply pinching here is sente.

Then white can capture like before, if black doesn't answer.

But black will reinforce like this, to reduce white's liberties.

After white descends, the shape becomes a very famous life and death problem.

White should descend, otherwise white will die without exception.

White can live by descending like this, but only in ko.

And black can even hit the head of white's 2 stones later.

So what else can white do here?

Before white plays to live, this hane is well timed.

If black blocks right away, white cuts.

Black might resist with a ko fight, but the losses will be very big if black loses the ko.

And playing here lets white connect easily. That's absurd.

In other words, black can only connect here.

And then, white plays here first.

Black has to connect.

Now white pinches here, and black has to connect again.

But, black should connect solidly so that white can't connect underneath.

Now you need to pay attention. This is a very famous life and death problem.

White should play a tiger's mouth instead of descending now.

White's already alive because of the hane on the first line.

Without this hane, white will die.

Let's examine how white defends against black's attacks.

White has to play really carefully when black throws in.

If white captures inadvertently, white will die.

Even though white tries to live now, it's too late.

White can make one eye, but not two.

Black can throw in, and white doesn't have a good response.

White just barely made a living shape earlier, but then made a big mistake.

Again, when black throws in here, there's one important move that you should remember.

It's this bend. White's alive now.

If black descends here, white just needs to ensure one eye here.

White already has another eye in the corner, so white's alive.

Even though black threatens white more with the diagonal move,

Eventually, white lives easily in the corner with the knight's move.

So we learned about one more practical life and death situation today. This brings us to the end of lesson 8.

Thank you!

Baduk TV English at GoGameGuru.com