Suspicious opponents


Yesterday I played the third game of the Ibero-American Tournament in KGS. My opponent was of unknown strenght, as his rank is hidden and his profile graphic ranges from 2d to 3k.

Before the game he had reviewed my previous games in order to find some weaknesses which he could exploit. Though this is not exactly illegal, punishing this mistakes doesn't prove to have a better understanding of the game if you have just learnt them in your preparation for that concrete game. But if we add this to his suspiciously unexpected disconnection in the middle of a L&D situation... well...

Move 45: the hane at R5 isn't good for black. See the game in order to find out how to punish black for it.

Move 53: white leaves the server. He got disconnected for a couple of minutes. Suspiciously, it is exactly in the middle of this silly life-and-death problem where black can't do anything but die.

Move 65: not exactly this move, but after the lost of the corner, I'm forced to turn the game into a moyo based one if I want to retain some remote possibilities of winning.

Move 79: The intention of this stones is to split white into two and let white decide which side to save. Unfourtunatelly, I end up in bad shape and this allows white to exploit that weakness later on with move 102.

Move 93: Who reads better?

Move 115: a nice sample of dual purpose move. It attempts to capture the white group from N7 while constructing a barrier for my moyo. In the end, white finds a gap with move 128 and my moyo is severely reduced.

Move 162: Black's bottom group can be killed and white plays tenuki.

Move 175: Black attempts to create a threat for a snapback and, just after realising that it doesn't work because white can capture at H8, white fails to see it and defends.

Move 249: Black removes one point from white's territory after he has passed.

All in all, the strenght of my opponent still remains unkown. How would the game have been if he hadn't reviewed mine? What would have happened if he hadn't left the server? Would he have lost on time? Would I have won? Would he have killed the bottom group?






This entry was posted by Alejo on Monday, April 7. 2008 at 06:16. and is filed under In the Game. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own blog.

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    Reviewing your opponent games is typical if you want play very serious in tournament. I do it before every game i play with player which I know.

    About the quiting I don't think he do it on *purpose*. My advice is to study shapes in corner because in middlegame you play much better. If you would have stronger shape in opening i think you will won this game easy.

    Some tips in fuseki you can find at http://eidogo.com/#2sVAbUf7
    #1 Nexik (Homepage) on 2008-04-07 07:41 (Reply)
    Well, I haven't payed anything, nor are the games rated, so it's not a matter of life or death if I win or lose. I try to take all the games seriously, but I want to win by my own merits, not just studying how to exploit my rival's weakness 15 minutes before the game.

    About quiting... I sincerely don't know, but I guess he is not guilty (by default) till proven otherwise on another game.

    Fuseki is one of my weakest parts in the game, but I don't find any good way to improve it...
    #1.1 Alejo on 2008-04-07 08:25 (Reply)
    yes fuseki is hard because you need to have some knowledge and need to learn about direction of play. For me the biggest problem was that i played too local, when I started playing in global my games were much better.

    To achieve global thinking I get rid of counting points in fuseki I only look in shapes which i know from pro games. If there will me new shape i study it a lot to know it's weakness.

    Because I'm ama i don't need to find great tesuji just play ordinary moves :-)
    #1.1.1 Nexik (Homepage) on 2008-04-07 08:36 (Reply)
    (Comment removed)
    #1.1.2 Rubén Tojeiro Cordal on 2008-05-25 18:13
    I tend to study my opponent's games if I know I'll have trouble playing with him, especially if he is at my level.

    If you manage to exploit your opponent's mistakes then its good for you, because it shows that your opponent has not improved much on his mistakes and you are able to spot them.

    It isn't exactly illegal or unethical, just like preparation work.

    Other than this, studying fuseki should not be an issue until you are of higher level. Right now, play what you feel like playing and the best way to improve is by replaying pro games. You don't have to understand the moves but more or less the sente and the gote.
    #2 lil`spawn (Homepage) on 2008-04-07 21:19 (Reply)
    Hello Diego,

    I didn't know about his rank and, though I asked him after the game, he didn't answer me.

    Sincerely, I don't mind much if people study my games in order to defeat me, but doing so 10 minutes before the game while I'm waiting at KGS doesn't seem the best moment to do so. If this was serious tournament, with prices, I would study my enemies too.

    In the end, I learned that I shouldn't hane there, so it was a profitable game for me too.
    #2.1 Alejo on 2008-04-10 03:09 (Reply)
    pranayama is, I think Jorge Santkovsky, I'm not sure but he is the president of the AAGO, he's about 2kyu :-) so nothing suspicious about his rank (he has also another account, mudra, wich has solid rank). He's also a very kind guy I doubt he disconnected un purpouse.

    It's very common to study your opponent before the games in tournaments ;-)... When I went to Ecuador I even reviewed some of aguilar's and vladimiro's common openings, even if I was sure I would loose.
    Mostly I study my opponents openings, I dont worry much about their weakness I just try to understand how they play.


    Even profesionals study their opponents game :-)... If you've read The Honinbo 1971 book you'll notice that Ishida Yoshio had prepared special strategies against his opponents.
    #3 Diego Guerrero on 2008-04-09 20:04 (Reply)

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