After a several month hiatus I have returned to go. After move 86 I knew I was done and thought about resigning, but I've been trying reading through William Cobb's Reflections on the Game of Go and wanted to embrace the idea of losing and turning it into a learning experience. However, much to my surprise (and slight disappointment) I came back to win the game after my opponent resigned (KGS's Score Estimator put me up by about 77 points). My opponent made some mistakes that led to his loss, but I'm more interested in where I could improve to avoid getting into the hole I found myself in at move 86.

I made a few observations below. Any response or advice on my play will be greatly appreciated. Also, let me know if I seem to be asking questions that are a little off track below.

15. Up to this point I seem to be doing alright.

17. Is playing at D2 better?

19. This looks like a mistake -- better to give up my F3-stone and strengthen the corner?

37. 3-3 invasion a better reply than 37? I seem to give him a lot of territory for free.

47. I know this was unnecessary.

77. Is life possible in the corner?

86. This is the point where I thought about resigning but changed my mind.

87. I think I should've looked to make a base for my C12 group.

99. I assumed I was dead here and decided to try to punch through wherever possible.

140. This kills my three stones and he gets a ton of territory -- how could I have avoided this?

153. I believe this makes seki if he doesn't reply where he did at 154.

176. This seems like something he shouldn't have replied to. And probably my play at 177 was unnecessary, too.

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I came to go through Kawabata and was introduced to a whole new world.

Moves 7, 11, 13: huh? What are you trying to do?
Move 17: no, D2 isn't better. It's small and your F3 stone is weak. Basically your only options are to strengthen your F3 stone (e.g. G4) or use its aji to take the corner, I'd say.
Move 19: I really don't like this. A move ago, you ignored F3 and decided the corner was more worthwhile; now F3 is even weaker and harder to save usefully. Give up on it and take a big corner. (Move 20 was also a mistake in my opinion. C4 seems better.) If you don't like this, play G4 at move 17.
Moves 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43: what are you trying to do? You don't always have to squeeze into every tiny space possible - E17, E16 and K16 look huge and don't invite an immediate bad fight. 3-3 invasion at 37 looks bad to me - it gives white a strong wall pointing at your two weak stones on the left.
Moves 60 through 67: notice you have three weak groups on the board, and white is attacking them all at the same time. By this point, if your opponent doesn't make a huge mistake or two, something will die and you've lost. You need to make sure it doesn't get to this stage!

Move 7 is possibly not bad, it is rather like this shoulder hit in the mini chinese. But with the mini chinese it is building a big moyo, whereas with a shimari it is building a small moyo so is probably not such a good idea to give up such a lot of territory/strength on the side. In the game when white pushes up black can think about blocking on the 3rd line and if white hanes at the head of 2 black stubbornly cuts. But the way the game went white got a strong group and black didn't get such a solid position on either side.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Pro move
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Another pro move that might look like a silly move to an amateur unfamiliar with it is this attachment. It has a similar idea to the shoulder hit of strengthening white but trying to build a large secure territory/framework off the mini-chinese early on.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Another pro move
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

And then for giggles how about this one?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Troll move
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , 8 9 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

The biggest problem in your game, IMHO, is that you don't appreciate the strength of your own moves.

Numerous times in this game, you would play move N, and it was a good move. Then you would play N+1 or N+2 someplace else, even though move N required a companion. It looked as if you did not understand the purpose of your own move, and thus could not continue that purpose with the next move.

Let's look at move 7 as an example. You played the shoulder hit at Q9, pushing him north and east, and getting influence to the south. It is not the best move - a pro would probably play at R8, pushing him northward - but nonetheless it has some purpose, some meaning.
When he replies with Q10, you must continue with P9. It may not be a pro-level plan, but at least you are backing up the purpose of move 7 with another stone that continues that purpose.

If you don't recognize the virtues of your own move, you won't be able to find moves like P9.

You did this many times: move 9 ignored move 7. Move 37 ignored moves 33 and 35. Move 19 ignored move 15.


I suspect that the root cause is that you are playing moves by imitation. I advise trying to understand the purpose of the move that you are imitating.

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