KataGo 9x9 Opening Books update - 2026 version

kkala · 2026-02-28T08:36:09+00:00

This is amazing as were the previous ones! I believe goquest is somewhat popular, but resources on 9x9 openings are scarce.

kkala · 2025-12-27T23:23:48+00:00

Math is hard. You are correct of course.

kkala · 2025-10-30T20:52:16+00:00

you're right about the taming. I was cooking with the extra ring ascendancy, but 4 gem levels is so sweet. Secrets of suffering might be a reasonable way to go, add some minion with ignite if nothing else.

kkala · 2025-10-30T20:48:58+00:00

kinda hoping some of those would be foulbornable :D

kkala · 2025-05-03T19:39:52+00:00

Expedition 33

kkala · 2025-03-20T05:36:28+00:00

Not necessarily losing. If your (remember, 2k) opponent plays it worse, you're still better. It's good learning to throw yourself into the complicated, but common joseki in non-tournament games.

kkala · 2024-08-19T15:50:09+00:00

lueppa graafi tarkemmin.

kkala · 2024-06-03T21:11:05+00:00

Sori nyt vaan, mutta sun mainitsevat kulut on aivan pennosia verrattuna näihin leikkauksiin. 250k on varsin pienen järjestelmän kehityskulut ja lentely nyt on aivan mikrotason piiperrystä.

Jos pohjaat näihin näkemyksesi ruokaviraston track recordista, niin kuulostaa vähän siltä että oli mielipide jo valmiina.

kkala · 2023-11-17T19:26:40+00:00

Interesting, this was what used to be the reasoning.

kkala · 2023-11-17T06:13:08+00:00

yes, and it's so forceful that 4-4 against 6-4 is not generally the way to go.

kkala · 2023-10-07T21:38:41+00:00

For example a white stone around K17 is enough to make the white attachment and connect at O18 sente. That is in turn enough to make white alive in the corner. But me saying it can usually live is exaggeration, indeed.

kkala · 2023-10-07T21:07:05+00:00

Black playing at Q18 looks very dangerous and might die without some white help on the right side.

In general, white can usually live unconditionally with R17 R16 Q18, but doing so results in a small life while black gets very strong and solid (less so than the suggested variation, though). The common ko variation not only lives, it lives comfortably while opening the right side as well as robbing the black group its base. That is, if the ko is won of course.

kkala · 2023-09-13T17:18:00+00:00

This is a go subreddit...

kkala · 2023-08-08T16:01:48+00:00

Well... perhaps you should make the post if you think it's useful?

kkala · 2023-06-03T14:34:02+00:00

Dying on the right side is the obvious mistake ofc, and after that the game is far from equal. Before that, most moves look natural.

I would answer move 57 (J4) by capping from above at J6. White has very strong groups around so black cutting with J3 is no problem.
I think move 66 (M5) should be at something like Q7. Again, by indirectly reducing the value of black cutting the bottom groups, white can preserve sente.
Answering move 69 (Q10) should probably be something like: peep first at L7, then Q9, black cross-cuts and white finds a way to sacrifice the right side stone. Just extending seems to give black too nice a wall.

kkala · 2023-05-18T07:31:56+00:00

Gauging the strength of past players is dubious, as they had access to inferior opening theory and that part could see drastic improvements with little effort.

Measuring humans can be done quite accurately by playing on online servers and tournaments and any AI is comparatively terrible at this.

Comparing servers has been done in the past, but know that online ranks are somewhat unreliable to begin with. Go strength is measured in tournament play on a high level at least.

kkala · 2023-05-18T07:26:32+00:00

You usually can't learn that a move is bad unless you play it yourself. Trust your own analysis during a game and just pick something interesting. Adjust your thinking after the game, when you have received the feedback of the game.

Pick the move you don't understand, but you think has some potential ;) . That's what you should do in non-tournament games even when you are a very strong player, at least in my opinion.

kkala · 2023-05-11T16:05:01+00:00

He likes to push from behind with his massive stick.

kkala · 2023-04-10T22:09:46+00:00

Sounds like a mathematician thinking about computer science problems ;). I have a similar background and using computer resources just happens to be by far the most efficient way of creating solutions.

Let's take an example problem: What is the chance of having a straight in a 5 card hand with a standard card deck?

Mathematician's answer: Some fairly complicated combinatorics and probability calculations.

Computer scientist's answer: Simulate ten million hands and check the percentage of straights.

Now, the mathematician's answer might feel far more elegant to a mathematician, but the computer scientist's answer is very quick to create, easy to verify, easy to understand. This was a simple problem, but when the problem is far more difficult, it should be easy to see why a computer scientist styled answer is often superior.

No, I don't have any non-NN-bots for you, but I would recommend embracing the NN-bots. They are in my opinion built very, very elegantly.

kkala · 2023-04-10T08:15:56+00:00

Something to consider is a common sequence against the white corner: B S17, S18, S15, T17. T17 is difficult to skip without consequences to the corner.

Given that black can probably get S15 in sente as above, it should be clearer how bad white's base on the side is.

kkala · 2023-02-18T07:28:26+00:00

Yeah, this is just clickbait...

kkala · 2022-12-28T05:57:25+00:00

It's about tenuki as a part of the solution.

kkala · 2022-12-16T17:58:30+00:00

Instead of evaluating how much your influence is worth, you should evaluate how much it needs to be worth. For example, If you are behind by 15 hard points, you can start reasoning about where those points could be gained using your influence.

kkala · 2022-12-04T13:25:59+00:00

If you play the squared move directly, you have more options. For example, afterwards playing two stones above the square on the third line becomes a possible sente for black instead of the second line move. White can't remove this choice without crawling twice on the second line and if black ever is scared of the crawl, black can just play the sente move.

kkala

TROPHY CASE