My OGS friend 'dem' and I played this game over the last couple of months. I started the game at 9k and ended it at 7k, he started at 10k and for some reason is now 11k.

I've read through it once and added my own feelings about it (and would like feedback on my feedback) - the middle game makes me cringe, but it's a motivation to stop playing that way I suppose (and reviewing other recent games I can see a tendency emerging to make random anti-suji in the hope that some path emerges, for sure).

I should absolutely have lost this game multiple times over, but my friend very kindly let me back in.

We are hoping to get reviews from different sources, so I've brought it to L19. Feedback for both players would be much appreciated!

Lessons for Joel so far:

Stop making multiple weak groups (and stop flailing in general)
Play consistency and have a plan from move to move
Look at the whole board and re-check group status

_________________
Confucius in the Analects says "even playing go is better than eating chips in front of tv all day." -- kivi

Some thoughts:

Here's a lengthy commentary. The losing move in my opinion is B151

Enjoy

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm48 A better move?
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . . X . . O X X O . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . X . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O O . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O B B . . . . O . X . . . O . . . |
$$ | X . X O O O . . . , . . . . X , O . . |
$$ | . X X O X . . . . O . X . . X O . . . |
$$ | . . X X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

There is another idea for which I picked up from Takagawa that nobody has mentioned yet, a very important idea that made a big difference in my play as an SDK. While my first impulse for was to reduce the large Black moyo, given the weakness of the stones, there is a simple move that I now think may be better, a move that is obviously a good move once you think of it. See below.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Hmm... so much food for thought! Thank you all very much - as well as the shape and reading observations (which are always invaluable), in different ways, you have shone some light on concepts I vaguely knew of but didn't understand at all. I still don't understand them, but at least I have some things to play with now in the context of things I actually did!

* Probes in the corner (thanks skydyr)
* Capturing on a large scale (thanks Bill)
* Peaceful directions going into the middle game (thanks Knotwilg, and also for the very detailed fighting discussion)

Also interesting to see the places where my feelings (even after the game) were right, and where they were utterly wrong. The fight on the left could have gone even worse for me, and invasion/reduction on the right even better for dem.

Thank you again. Go is amazing.

_________________
Confucius in the Analects says "even playing go is better than eating chips in front of tv all day." -- kivi