Even though I won, I'd be very interested in comments on the first serious game I've played for a while (sans wine, sensible time controls etc). In particular, the fight at the top early on, and the handling of my loose group at the bottom later were the sorts of things that could have gone any which way, and I'm certain a stronger player would have been pushing me around at lot worse.

(And yes, I'm aware I missed a peep in the middle of the game that killed a chunk of my stones)

A few comments, mainly based on feel.



I expect that the failure to play M-03 was costly. Securing the stones on the bottom side would have prepared to make a White framework and also to go into Black's framework.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Black blocks at Q18 with 61. If White plays 62 at E17 and Black cuts, it seems to me like Black will win the semeai in the upper right by giving up the tail of the group. So White needs to play 62 at N18 with both sides making life (It does not seem like Black could win a ko there). That would be tremendously different than what happened in the game with White taking the upper right corner. Did you read it out differently?

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

Thanks very much to both of you for the comments

@Bill:

-- yes, I wondered about the bottom left and let Black play up here. Maybe just a different game? I really don't know, this was one of those "which do I do?" moments
-- Ah yes, that makes a lot of sense, I must admit, I was sort of hoping to create the top left situation when I approached from the side I did, but I suspect the fight was unreasonable, and I suspect that if Black responds simply on top then it's not even a good exchange compared to your idea
-- Yes, ok, I might have jumped the gun here. Certainly, it was messy, and could have ended up badly. Probably better to play in the bottom left. I didn't really want to exchange your third option in sgf, just because I didn't want to kill the aji. Maybe securing my upper right group is playable with the threat of the move I played? By I was definitely feeling like I'd gone in too soon.
-- Thank you, this is very insightful. I'd been agonising about M3 for a while, it just felt like it let Black build this big framework, and if Black got Q2 as well, I felt like I was falling behind in the midgame. As you say, with M3, I have potential of my own. I think I'd have been more inclined towards it if E3 was already on the board.
-- Thank you again, very useful, this was another move I was agonising over. It felt possibly too soon to go towards O3, I'd just felt like I'd have been losing points if Black got M3 (which may have been the problem with not playing it myself at move 68.
-- Thank you for this one too -- another agonised move. I'd actually decided that I was low enough on eye space I had to dangle some bait, and let it get sacrificed in exchange for some kind of thicker shape. My thoughts were either I get another move and my shape is nice and the reduction is good, or he cuts it off, and I settle the group albeit at some territory cost - is this basically my bad habits coming through?

@Dave:

I've enclosed my (optimistic?) reading if Black went for the kill. I frankly was greatly struggling with the reading depth over the board. I had assumed at some point Black would return to mutual life, but without giving me the very nice top right corner.



EDIT: Yes, some of my exchanges would have made great local ko threats -- I thought a ko immediately looked unfavourable for me on liberties though, so I was sort of trying to avoid it. Having said that, at the end of my line, I'm still on one eye, and Black can live in one move. I'm unconvinced I'm getting counterplay on his central group - even if he forces me to live by strengthening it, he seems to have come out of the exchange rather nicely. This fight was one of the two big reasons I wanted to post it here. So hard for me to get to grips with the complications clearly