Unusedname and I played on OGS and I lost by resignation.


I was disappointed with my play near the end, as I went from an even game or a slight lead with a mostly captured group in the center and threw it away with a few moves where I wasn't paying close attention. After the squeeze at 130, had I just connected everything I think I would have been doing fairly well.

Damn, you guys are both way above me on OGS. XD I started to write a review but drago crashed halfway through and I lost it all.

Thanks for posting though. It's a fun game so I might finish the review later anyway.

There was a mistake in the bottom right, it was the wrong atari, this is the refutation I've seen:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . O 3 . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X O 5 . |
$$ . . . . . O X 2 . |
$$ . . . . . . 4 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ------------------+[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ . . . . . . O . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . 7 . X . . |
$$ . . . . . O 3 . . |
$$ . . . . 1 X O 5 . |
$$ . . . . . O 6 2 . |
$$ . . . . . . 4 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ------------------+[/go]

Also, I'm not sure that approach is a good tenuki there from the left. It's an easy approach for white to ignore.

I agree that black should probably play on the left at move 5, but regarding the bottom right, I'm inclined to think that it's more a matter of choice of direction than an outright mistake to pick one side or the other. In both diagrams, black ends up thick in gote on the outside, but with a different direction, no? Black is higher in your variation, but I thought that white's central stone was low and so white's potential was reducible. I'm curious to hear a third opinion on this, though.

The key is White normally pincers here because they want the bottom not a position on the right side. In the variation I showed Black gets the bottom not the right and is thicker than if White had played one of non-pincer joseki to take the right with. You don't pincer this approach if you want in this case the right. You can get a bigger corner and leave Black thinner using a non-pincer joseki. Also, White's position in the corner in the variation I showed looks horrible to me.

This is my understanding anyway.

Good point. I guess the followup question is whether white picked the right direction or not.

My weak sdk view is yes, the pincer was correct here. I may of course be completely wrong.

Thanks again for the game. You were definitely pressuring me and I never really felt comfortable all the way until the blunder.
I felt like me living with that small group on top was a big mistake.

The only mistake I think you made was capturing the ladder. But i don't really know enough about the opening to say whether or not you made any mistakes there.

My favorite part of the game is we played 3 losing moves in a row starting at Black 125

I look forward to our next match. :]

In response to unusedname's comments:

Move 56: It may have been too early to try and move the white stone. I agree that it's not a spectacular outcome for white. White gets maybe 3-4 points and black has a lot of outside strength even with the potential for a cut.

Move 72: Maybe invade the corner first? If black can get sente, though, the side group could be in some trouble. I thought that when black took the ladder, white would approach the corner or otherwise extend from that stone immediately.

Regarding 125, it's nice to know that I've advanced to the point where me and my opponent limit ourselves to just 3 losing moves in a row before we move on.

Yeah when you caught the ladder I felt like I could fix the aji on the left since I had room for a base whichever way you approached.

But I think the position would be a lot more comfortable for me if I approached the corner. And it would have been harder for you to use the thickness I just gave you.

Game 2 is done, and I lost by resignation again. I'm down 0-2 now. SGF with some comments of my own follows, but I would appreciate commentary.

8: I am inclined to think the LR and UR are almost miai. My worry about c5 is that the e4 approach might end up working too well for him.
10: Can you abandon both approach stones?
23: Well, the high move generally needs to be finished off in gote, and if W plays tenuki this is the spot to come in. If it's bad, I think f17 would be the most pointed reply from W. Otherwise B should be happy sliding under the white stones.
54: Why make a shoulder hit if you don't like r9 as a follow-up?
62: Can you just connect? That should be sente, at least. Tenuki to the left also looks big - I don't have a full picture of what result you're hoping for on the right.
80: Endgame, right? S16 and O15 seem miai for the second eye. If you want the group to be stronger than that, jump out into the center, play j14, something like that. Btw I just noticed neither W nor B has played g18 yet: that cut undermines both bases!
86: Cut the keima at the waist; that fight should work out better for you than this one. At the very least, if you need to sacrifice K4, you can do it more aggressively (since J/K4 will be cutting stones, and H5/4 will be low on liberties.

My thinking was that he chose to take a second kosumi instead of the lower left, so the lower left was largest. If he approached, I could safely tenuki to take the right side, and if he didn't I could play similarly to how I did.

This seems like a bad idea offhand, but white would be developing fairly quickly, if loosely. Do you like it?

In retrospect, I should have perhaps played the keima, but I wanted to take advantage of black's weak shape on the left side.

I have no idea. When I looked over the game, I was wondering what I was thinking when I played as I did.

I wanted to reduce the right while simultaneously stabilizing (or at least not hurting too much) the top right group.

Isn't white in trouble after black S19? I also wanted to take some compensation in the corner for what I threw away on the side. Regarding G18, I had read that black could connect on the left side using C14 somehow, though I was mistaken. When I looked at it again later, I played it.

Hmm...

Hey Skydyr thanks for the game.
A few thoughts of mine.



I think Was an overplay because your n17 stones aren't that strong.

Game 3 is done, in which I get distracted, throw away an invasion/reduction, and proceed to spend the rest of the game playing catch-up until I misread a ladder. I'm down 0-3 so we're moving to 2 stones after this.



I found this game rather frustrating because I kept reading out sequences and missing a shortage of liberties here or there, which I would realize about a move after I had committed to the sequence. In retrospect, I think should be one line higher. After that the game kind of goes off the rails.

I don't really feel confident commenting this game so I hope someone stronger comes along. So these are just some ideas.

I think some of your moves were played out of order. For example doesn't need to connect yet.

Also through our 3 games I always felt like there were some sente moves that you just decide not to take but while reviewing I can't see them.

Game 4 is done. I won taking two stones, putting me at 1-3. I've commented on the game a bit, but will think about it more later.

I don't know. I think I made myself too busy this game.

Letting you capture Q11 really hurt my ability to harass your group later in the game.

Also not having any idea how to enter the UR was really frustrating.

I'm thinking for 96 now, perhaps E10 is better?

Regarding entering the upper right, when are you referring to?

Yeah I think E10 would have been more solid

There was no need to disconnect my two stones. Even if I connect them they have no chance to live there and still have to run.

Oh my mistake I didn't mean to enter the Upper Right, I meant UL

and anytime after I didn't know the right timing.