I've been thinking of asking for a game review for a while, but most of my recent non-bot games have been handicap/uneven games or have involved huge blunders on one side or the other,

This was a close game, in which I made mistakes, but played at my average ability. Any advice would be appreciated. (But you don't have to tell me 149 was a stupid move.)

I tried the exercise on finding the last losing move as proposed by Bill in another thread. How about move 227?

B 149 or B 249?

I won't tell you that B 149 was a stupid move. You already know that. :

B 249 was the losing play. (Black later wins the final ko.)

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Black 248, actually....white passed early. Okay, I see now. E5 would have cost white a point. Oops. Thanks!

Hi inkwolf,

why not hane.

F11, shared vital point. C15 also big -- both sides missed it. W could've got C15 in sente, starting with C12 atari.

Too much.

B12.

shape problems -- this shape can be cut.

why not R10.

cut P8.

gote.

why.

105 F13.

133 M18, better shape, better yose.

143 P12.

228 I like how nobody cared about this double sente for about 70 moves...?

233 no hurry; no point there.

243 E5.

No overall strategy or direction of play comments, just some small notes on technique and yose. But these add up to a lot of points over the course of a long game!

is bad shape after the W atari. Playing R10 and Q11 would be better, using the peep at O8 to protect against a W cut at Q9. Or just hane at R6, which is the largest local move. If W then cuts at Q9, you can atari at P9 and peep at O8 to keep sente with minimal damage.

completes your connection, but otherwise is a small gote move, since the ko is unimportant. How about a really large dual-purpose connection plus territory move like B6?

is not needed, though it takes some reading. If you decided defense was needed, a move like B6 or even B7 would be more efficient.

:b101: does not work, but it is the weak point of the W shape, so nice try. When W incautiously tried to force with the atari at :w104: before defending, you had an opportunity to capture something.

:b121: is aji-keshi, and the next few moves are only a 3-4 point gote sequence. Capturing the N3 stone would be much larger. Can you figure out a way to do that cleanly?

Letting W get :132: in sente is painful, since a B move at K18 would also be sente. But if defending is necessary, M18 is better yose. The game sequence leaves a hane, probably sente for whoever gets there first. Holding back a bit to M18 would make the hane sente for B only, making it your privilege.

:b139: is huge double-sente. Congratulations for getting this one. Look for more of these opportunities. Try to push your opponent around a bit more.

:b173: loses points. Do you see why?
:b185: loses points. Do you see why?

:b221: should fight the ko with a real threat. The hane at K19 is both large yose and a sente ko threat. Or capture at J14.

Thanks for all the tips, guys!

I thought the cut at F13 was useless without connecting first or filling the G11 liberty, I had to play it out before I saw the snapback. I've been playing through all your helpful comments. It is clear that my reading skills need more work before anything else.



Yeah, I made white stronger and pushed them right into undercutting my middle group. Ouch. I kicked myself when I wanted to atari L2 and saw that I had shot myself in the foot there. (And kicking yourself with a shot foot is not comfy.)

I've also never really thought about double sente moves vs regular sente. Something new to consider.

Thank you once more for the lesson!

Hi Inkwolf,

Which snapback ? The meaning of 105 cut-atari at F13
is you have miai of E13 and G15.Good. Remember we're fighting for every single 0.5 on every move.
Usually, nothing is bigger than double sente: both sides want to play it first.

Black F13, white capture and atari at H12, black E12, white can't capture at G11 because of the snapback.



As I was learning, I picked up that you only bother with first-line closing moves in the very endgame, but I suppose that isn't entirely true.

Especially since I lost two games in a row by 0.5!

Right. As we improve, we're continuously refining our understanding;
we replace previous 'wrong' stuff with newer, 'less wrong' stuff.
(I heard it's also good to learn correct stuff. )

We play a 1st line move -- any move, really --
whenever it's the best move, period.
Doesn't matter which phase of the game you happen to be in.
You may want to update your 1st line moves filter.