Hello,

Here is a link to a game that I have played recently. I was Black in the game. I would like to ask what were my obvious mistakes and how I should have played instead.

Thank you

I won't do a full review as you're better than me but I'll ask a few questions.

I don't really understand . Your kikashi stones don't need to be saved and you have reduced white; what about J11?

Letting white get looks disastrous to me. I would say is to blame. I think you should either pincer around L4 or simply take the big point at F7.

Edit : Also consider at K16 for sabaki.

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La victoire est un hasard, la défaite une nécessité.

I think Jhyn is right.

At it is pretty clear that Black's moves at the top have served no purpose. Whit has made a big territory and still has outward influence. Black has to take care of his central stones and simultaneously must protect the upper right corner against the thick White wall. All Black's moves leading up to this result must be evaluated again.

For example, - Is it really necessary to rush into his sphere of influence? Simply answering with another jump would indeed lead to a large moyo forming, but White is not without defects. The space is wide enough to live and Black has a cut at the left side.

Most of the big issues have been mentioned. However, going back all the way to 15, you should simply capture one stone. White cleverly connects at 16 then sacrifices three stones in exchange for a solid wall that made invading the top quite difficult.

I agree with Jhyn on 33 at K16. But if you are going to jump instead, jump out (K12) not sideways. White 32 was submissive. You have gotten all that you are likely to get in terms of reduction, so leave quickly.

The single worst play in the game was 47 IMHO. You must push through and cut at 48. It threatens 47 so White has to protect. You then capture the E14 stone, connecting your center stones to the corner. It is gote and you have given up a lot of points at the top, but there are still chances. I think you should have resigned and played another game after 48. As Knotwilg wrote, your stones at the top have no meaning.

I thought the ko on the right side was nicely done, taking advantage of White's unusual hanging connection at 118. However, White's lead was too big and he had the very clever combo of 128 and 134 waiting.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

I'm struggling to understand how a dan player could play 47, sercan can you explain your thoughts? Possible explanations I can think of:
- just a total brainfart, but even brainfarts have underlying reasons
- you know it is sente for e15 cut but hope your opponent won't notice and will tenuki.
- you think/hope it creates miai with some move in k18 or l17 area and your opponent will play there allowing you to play e15.
- but if above is true (which it isn't) why not play around there next.
- you knew it was dead and thought this was one of those situations you add liberties to dead stones to get more forcing moves in the squeeze.
- thought you were playing a ko threat (enemy even then it's a bad threat, but could make more future threats).
- missclick from perhaps putting the mouse where you expect white to play after you play e15

Jhyn, Knotwilg, ez4u, Uberdude, thank you all for all valuable comments. I guess I panicked and had hard time to reduce the moyo. I agree with all the comments.

@Knotwilg "Is it really necessary to rush into his sphere of influence?" Maybe was not the good way of invading yet the more I wait for invading, the more it gets harder, i think. So, I guess ez4u's comment saying that " going back all the way to 15, you should simply capture one stone" is where I started messing up.

@Uberdude Thanks for this good question. I guess I was in the denial phase of grief. Cutting at E15 would have given White the chance to connect her 2 groups by capturing H16 stone. That would have cleared all the aji for top side. So, my choice was more sentimental than the items in your list. On the other hand, all of those items are true to some extent.

A nice way of putting it

P.S. About those peeps and reducing white, I agree it could be too early. But in situations where I use those peeps (often with a 2 space high pincer which following the peeps makes a 2 space jump to centre) I will try to get the p17 o18 exchange first as it's not possible after and it helps the corner (which is weakened by white's connections) quite a bit.

N14 was a very bad obvious mistake ... it was unnecessary and had the reverse effect of making white's wall stronger

The whole 30 plus move sequence on the middle-top area was a disaster , and got your group killed ... pretty much lost the game there. I would simply have played K13 to take away white's influence a little.

J6 is not a good move, the next 30 moves or so were not good, you got killed badly ... should have saved your middle black group which was under threat, surely you could have made it survive by adding stones to it ..

After this exchange where you got your 3 large black groups killed, you pretty much lost the game ... Rest of the game was just playing out the inevitable ... nothing much to review ..

Move 15 makes more points than just capturing but makes White much stronger, just capturing is better. You would have had a much easier time invading if you had just captured. Don't make your opponent stronger for no reason. Like E18, N14, N16 and K12.