I recently played as white in a quick match normal game on OGS after taking a very long break from playing go. My opponent was supposedly 12k while I was [?] in rank, but I was last told by a go club member a long time ago that I might be around 6k though I often just think I’m between 9k and 5k. Anyway, I would love to know how I could have played that game better. For example, perhaps I should have invaded (C3, C5 or bottom side?) or there were better moves for attacking my opponent’s stones or defending their invasions? I feel like if they’d played move to secure their top group instead, I wouldn’t have been able to kill it, and I would have been very behind.

Also, am I still somewhere around 9k-5k or have I become better or worse? I’m a bit hesitant to play another game before having this one reviewed first…

https://online-go.com/game/39900395

Hard to say you did something really wrong since you won easily.

looks objectionable, as if you didn't read the ladder before playing . Probably at O3 would work. You would have two weak groups, but so would Black, so the fight would be fair.

looks like trying too much to kill. Just surrounding and letting Black live in gote with 2 points would have been a success. After you did almost kill some stones but finished in gote, still left weaknesses, and Black gained endgame in the corner.

looks wrong since White is already alive, and this move doesn't kill Black. For instance at F18 lives easily.

I don't think that if you didn't kill Black you would be "very behind". White has invasion points at C3, C5 or D4 so the outcome of the game would have depended on the success of the invasion.

Concerning your rank, 5-9k looks realistic but it's hard to judge after 1 game. Don't be afraid to play, your rank will adjust after a few games.

White plays pretty good Go, with good fuseki fundamentals, a focus on surrounding and killing through placement.
Improvement may lie in good shape and figuring out what/why to attack.

The kill at is not so big, since Black got a big corner and it is not so clean either: what happens if Black executes a R8-Q7 combo? Is he captured at all? at Q7 would have been better shape.

A high influence move like would surely be more valuable in the corner (C5) but it's consistent with the style.

Attacking with looks like a classic move but Black's shape is already hard to attack and he should have no problem living while taking points away from corner and side.

I thought was not so bad actually. It's White's vital point.

was an atrocious move, a sign of Black still being a beginner

is VERY clean, not to say slow. It looks like a declaration of victory. With C5 still available, that's a fair assessment.

With the 3rd kill it was indeed game over IF Q8-R7 doesn't work (and if it does then C5 is still there for the taking)

Thank you jlt and Knotwilg for your comments!

Yeah, after , I finally realized the black group on the right side was hard if not impossible to kill cleanly without letting it escape to the centre. After , I got jealous of black’s bottom side ‘territory’ and left whatever weakness there was that black didn’t seem to have acted on yet there, and I started playing elsewhere as well.

I kind of expected black to respond directly and immediately after and , and I wonder if I ‘punished’ black correctly though I suppose not really given what black had/could’ve gained or versus what I had gained.

To improve, I guess besides learning “good shape and figuring out what/why to attack” as Knotwilg mentioned, I should probably try to maintain sente rather than trying too hard to kill as jlt hinted at and learn to invade.

Also, in that game, I spent much more time per move than my opponent, so I guess only more games and learning common patterns will help me on that front haha.

I think that Q7 is intended here.

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