Stay Connected

I broke the 5-game losing streak and won 3 games; I consider them all to be good games in quality for me. I feel I won all three of these by having fewer groups on the board than my opponents- that is, my groups were more connected, and theirs were cut apart. When a group is cut off, it must make life by itself- it must make two eyes. Moves spent defending a group and making life are moves that are not attacking or gaining territory or influence, and so the player falls behind.

This is the final position of probably the best game out of the 3; my opponent (white) resigned here. Notice that white has 6 groups here- 7 if black can play next near the center of the board cutting the white groups apart. The proverb goes, "the fifth group might live but the sixth will die," and here the white group on the lower side died, prompting the resignation. However, I think it may have been a little early for white to resign- I think it may be worthwhile for white to start a fight in the upper left corner. What do you think?

This is the position after move 27 of my latest game- I am white. Notice that my opponent has a lot more territory, but my stones are much better connected, and I have much greater central influence. My previous move had been f9, building my center and aiming at a sharp attack on the bottom left. Black ignored it to enter and disrupt my rapidly growing central framework (which is a very reasonable play- you do not want the center to become absolutely huge, as one more move would have made it). Therefore, I followed up on my previous move, and used my central strength to invade at d6. In the resulting battle, I took the bottom left corner, and black was left with a relatively weak group in the center left and a low group on the bottom.

This is the position at the end of the fight started by white d6. Notice that I have gained a lot of territory in the corner without playing for territory- it has come as a result of the earlier influence and power. The loose whole board connection that white had earlier is gone- but all the white groups are individually strong, and there are only 3 white groups, compared to 4 black groups, one of which can be called a weak group.

This is the final position, where black resigned- I have 3 groups, while black has 5 groups, one of which has died. Of course, having fewer groups does not guarantee victory, but it is a fairly good heuristic.