A beginner game... any critique at all would be welcome.

hirohiigo · #1

I'm totally horrible at this game (I'm a lot better at shogi), although after reading a chapter of the book "How Not to Play Go," I decided to try my hand at this game again. It went unexpectedly well, although I know I should have done much worse because of the mistakes I made.

I know the biggest mistake I made was losing my righthand corner; I totally neglected my group and accidentally got them killed. Are there any other major things I need to focus on based on this game?

EdLee · #2

Welcome to Go. If you have not already finished 100 games yet, try to do it as soon as possible.

Boidhre · #3

I'll preface this with I'm not much stronger than you so take what I say with a grain of salt!

There's a proverb: "Urgent before big" that might be useful to know. You play big moves when you should be playing an urgent move defending your corner like Ed showed. Playing big moves is good! It's just a timing issue, you owed a few moves in the corner defending before you get to play those big opening moves. Now how urgent a move is versus how big the alternative is as Ed would say very tricky. This doesn't mean that you always answer your opponent but you weigh up the damage of ignoring their move versus the gains of the move you could make instead, which is complicated and not something I really get get to be honest about it. But defending a corner is *huge* compared to a side extension, so it's an easy choice in this circumstance.

A beginner game... any critique at all would be welcome.

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