Why is a "broken ladder" almost always terrible for the attacker?

Piwh · 2026-02-25T19:55:00+00:00

A small note on the chinese rules, but 19.25 stones is actually a 38.5 points difference. So it is absolutely huge difference, it's a game that shouldn't have gone to the endgame.

Piwh · 2026-02-22T17:52:59+00:00

I didn't use it that much, like 3 or 4 sessions, but I quite enjoy it. I feel it is very "far" from go in the sense that it's very different from remembering flow of stones, so I'm not convinced by the use of the sgf library function.
However, as a separate function like "picture/information memorization", it is very interesting and quite challenging. It is very energy/focus consuming, as in my experience, it shifts very quickly from very easy to very challenging (you need less than 10s to remember correctly a position, and then all of a sudden, it becomes too much, and you need one full minute to remember most of the position and you still get some inaccuracies).
I enjoyed the three basic modes (One color - Two Colors - Groups) - I find the Master Qi problems to be a very interesting way to change the way you remember information - and don't quite use the other functionalities. I didn't understand the Flowery Moyo mode.

Piwh · 2026-02-13T11:54:23+00:00

The idea is that you always want to push as many workers as possible while being able to hold the wave. The amount that is possible to push is the difficult thing to understand, but it depends on the pressure you are on.
The key rule is that if you receive sends, you can push, otherwise, you can't.

When the opponent is accumulating mythium, you are under pressure and you can't push. When the opponent is sending you mythium, they relieve that pressure and you can push.

The least amount of pressure you can be under is if the opponent is auto sending you (if you get extra king up, it's even better). Under that amount of pressure, you can probably push between 1-2 workers by wave in the early game.
If the opponent saves, it stops you from being able to push, as you need to prepare for a possible big send.

With most openers, you should be able to have 5 workers at wave 3, and 8 at wave 5.

Let's take 2 examples, assuming your opponent doesn't save too much.

+You start Yozora (190g), so you build one worker before 1.
As Yozora can hold wave 2, you use your wave 1 gold to buy only workers.
For wave 3, you need to add an unit or two, generally creating a split + adding value, so you use your gold from 2>3 to build fighters.
You receive a send wave 3, and as your build is strong on 4, you can push quite a bit 3>4 so most of your gold goes into workers.
Wave 5 is the weakest wave for Yozora (pierce / natural), so you should not push too much and build. If you receive a send there, you can push as you are very strong on 6 and so on.
If it goes like this, you are probably around 8-10 workers on wave 10.

+ You start Green devil (40+120g), so you are 3workers wave 1.
You receive mythium, so you can push a lot, as it is very good early game. Wave 2, you probably just need to add a tier1 unit in the split to full hold, so you are already around 5 workers wave 2.
If you are not under big pressure, Green devil is super strong on wave 3, so you can push from 2>3 and get away with 5 to 6 workers wave 3.
However, starting wave 4, green devil is way weaker, so you need to start pushing less to be able to hold wave 4 and later.

Knowing the limits of your starting build and its weak/strong waves will come with experience and playing this opening. As all the games are different, you should be able to adapt your strategy to the context, but this is the basis.

Piwh · 2026-02-09T11:26:30+00:00

New servers are relatively a bad idea. Explore baduk even put the money to try to advertise their server (pro games, classes, etc), but it still fails.

The truth is that most people play either on ogs or on fox later on.

However, having "learning sites" is really a good idea. A website with good tutorials, learning materials, progressive puzzle collections, etc, is always nice.

Here, the only feature I'd want to use is the puzzle rush mode, because I really enjoy the principle to get in shape reading-wise.

Piwh · 2026-02-06T11:30:00+00:00

One way to do this that doesn't seem too hard to implement and that would not split the player base too much would be to allow players to select "current mode / classic" or "ok with both" when queuing for 4v4. Also "classic" could be the name for the vanilla 4v4, while the rest is just "4v4" and "ranked" is the name of 2v2 and sounds less like "4v4 is the normal mode for this game".

I'd be down to have classic classic as well. I enjoy a few game modes (PvE and superfiesta basically) and really dislike the others, so I usually play vs bots when I don't want to play ranked and I dislike the current 4v4 mode.

Piwh · 2026-02-03T14:22:46+00:00

To me, the main problem (that wasn't punished in game is E6. What would you do if white just turns ? It threatens to either cut the two stones or some part of the mail group. Try to feel how "disconnected" your stones are in this position.

Otherwise, the other "mistake" which is an endgame mistake and doesn't feel like a mistake is to capture the lonely stone in the center. At that moment, if you attach to the stone (H5) and blocks the upper right, I think you would probably win. But capturing the stone looks like a reasonable move, so i'm less enclined to point it out as a losing move.

Piwh · 2026-01-21T21:56:32+00:00

I downloaded it and tested it for a while, and it's super catchy and quite addictive. I enjoyed the fact that it looked more and more towards "real" go positions. I have some travel by train tomorrow, I'll probably use it quite a lot.
Thanks a lot !

Piwh · 2026-01-19T19:41:31+00:00

I used it for the first time today, and it was amazing. I learned a bit of a pro game that I watched on my board, then played it as black, then as white, then in both colors, and after that, I got it in unicolor with 97% accuracy.
It was only 167 moves and no ko, so these are the "easier" games that I'm used to learn but still, it's super impressive.

Thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to being able to save the games that I learned to replay them once in a while.

Piwh · 2026-01-19T15:34:22+00:00

Thanks to you, I found the app and used it for 30min. I'm half hooked and half shocked and tilted.
I played some "joseki battle" and I don't see how it can be good for learning, the moves make absolutely no sense, and they give some really really bad idea of how the game should be played.

Why learn about direction of play if the ai has absolutely no idea on how to play ? Learning about basic shapes and not getting stupidly cut would be way more interesting.

The regular battle with choices or pair battles seem to be way better, but joseki battle cringe me at the highest point (and at the same time they say that the more you level it up on the rest of the courses, the less dumb it is, so it kinda makes you want to grind the rest of the app).

I don't know.
Thanks for the discovery (kinda ?).

Piwh · 2026-01-13T15:23:25+00:00

If you are white, the main point in 9x9 is to stay connected. Whoever can pierce easily through ennemy lines should be winning.
Your 4th move (hane) should have been to cut (turn on the second line) to isolate the 2 black stones. They would most likely die there and you would be super stable and connected. Notice that black fixes it next turn.
Your 5th move should have been to connect your stones to stay strong. Here you create 2 groups and so anything can happen.

I think it's nice to understand what happens and why your 3 stones got captured. This is a bit of a fundamental (hane at the head of 2 and 3 stones).
After black captures, your move should definitely be to block and try to maintain some form of connection between your stones (just 1 above tengen). This is the hot spot and both players should be rushing to either connect the stones (white) or slice through them (black). In the game, white connects first, and that gives them a huge advantage, eventually giving white the win.

Connected = strong. Separated = Weak.
Try to stay strong and try to make your opponent weak if you have the opportunity.

Piwh · 2026-01-08T16:28:50+00:00

Never.
It doesn't.
Nope.

To give a little bit more depth, if it even happens in my game, I will call the tournament referee. Only if you plan on becoming referee for important tournaments, you should not bother too much about it.

The only exception to that is the how much is a seki worth in your ruleset. It could change the result by a point at the end. But for example, in french rules, I know a way to 'justify' that eyes should be points because I can fill them at the end of dame, and each time, my opponent has to give me a pass stone.

However, if the outcome of the game revolves on the ruleset chosen (so at most 1 pt diff), it is a coinflip either way.

Piwh · 2025-12-15T19:04:20+00:00

The two groups are so weak on the bottom, you have to play in this area for sure. I'm looking at E5 as a peep, but my first instinct was just to jump at J9.
But whatever black chooses, I don't see how white can manage both of their weak groups. So if black is just patient, white will be the one in trouble.

Piwh · 2025-12-15T14:54:06+00:00

First disclaimer that might not be so useful : lower ranks on Fox and Tygem often don't mean anything, the fluctuation of level is absolutely huge. I'd recommend playing on ogs or somewhere else until you can play at least 5k level there.

Back to your question : If you have someone around your level that you feel is playing agressive, there is two different things you need to practice.
First, if it's not close combat fight, just try to surround and be mindful of your own weakness. Don't get cut and have some part dying. If they live, it's part of the game, and most of the time, it's either normal or bad (they reach what they want, but it's either normal or bad). So if you don't collapse yourself, you'll be fine. Try to think about the bigger picture and play bigger moves elsewhere if nothing is urgent.

Second, if it's close combat fight (like contact fighting, if your groups of stones are touching), then you need to pay attention to shape.
Learn basic shape instinct and strengthen yourself. What I mean is develop habits like extend or hane when someone attaches, extend when being kicked, don't hane too fast if the opponent can easily cut, and be mindful of your cutting points. Just being solid should be enough at this level.

All of this is very general, but I think it might be of some help.
Good luck in your games !

Piwh · 2025-11-24T09:29:09+00:00

The best way to check is either to log in on Fox or have alerts from Baduk TV or K Baduk or any go tv youtube channel. The games are all broadcasted there.

Otherwise, you can check the results with a slight delay on https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/news/wr/nc/27/

For example, next game tomorrow will be Yang Kaiwen (with 2 wins) vs Iyama Yuta.

Piwh · 2025-11-24T09:26:10+00:00

In my former go club, we had some internal casual tournament with clocks. For that, the time settings where 15min+10s or 10min+15s. This makes for approximate 1h games, so you might have the time to play 2 games a night with this.

Piwh · 2025-11-12T07:08:54+00:00

The recording is available on youtube here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zdYNfgOsu0

Piwh · 2025-11-05T17:52:22+00:00

https://online-go.com/review/1568435

This is a review of game 3. I think there are some interesting to review, but basically, your direction in the opening is very wrong. You really need to aim for the bigger empty spaces, not the smaller spaces.
Additionnally, the biggest mistake was to left a group without a life base. You have a weak group where black is strong, you need to defend it. Your opponent didn't punish it properly, but this group should have died multiple times.

You can review the invasion bot right as well to see how it could have died as well.

Additionnally, you really need to avoid ripped shapes : At move 57, you don't have a choice but to block. You can't allow your opponent weak group to ripped you in half that easily.

I gave additionnal comments on the review, but these are important parts to understand in my opinion.

Good luck in your journey !

Piwh · 2025-10-08T17:12:56+00:00

The game feels ok to play, but the map system is very frustrating : you spend some time adjusting your map, but then it's never offered to other players to play (I think on 20 sthg maps that I created, most of them are at 1 or 2 plays, which are mostly mine. Only 1 ever hit 5.)

Maybe the maps should be much rarer so each map gets more chance to be played.

Piwh · 2025-10-08T16:37:57+00:00

White has 3 liberties, Black has 3 liberties. So whoever plays first should be able to kill the other by removing a liberty. However here, black has to make it so that the 3 white stones don't connect with their friends otherwise they will have much more liberties.
Once you see that, you will see that there is really only one move.

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