Hello 19x19 I started playing Go almost ten years ago during that time I during that time I have had several instances of becoming frustrated as I never seemed to get beyond the 13-11kyu ranks. With the emergence of alpha go and the wave it brought on the go work I have been playing much more frequently and have managed to break the ddk barrier on kgs. I play on kgs and ogs though I am still ddk on ogs. This time around I would like to stick with it and get stronger I have been reading books watching reviews and streams and practicing life and death problems unfortunately I am the only one locally who plays go I was hoping that someone here would be able to take the time to go over a couple of my games to offer advice and critique my play. I will post more games as I play them. thank you

Are you black or white in this game?

sorry Im black in the game I normal play under the names ansgar, ansfar_kilt or lokixvIII

Ok so you lost a very large group on the right side this game. You didn't try to save them until after white 144, when the board looked like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . O X . . X O . O . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . O . O X X . X . O X O . O . O X X . |
$$ | . O O X . . . . . O X . . O X X X O . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . O . X X X . . . O . |
$$ | . . O O O . . . . . . . O . X . X X O |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . |
$$ | . X X . . . . . . . . . . O . X . O . |
$$ | . . . . X X . O . . . . . . O O O . . |
$$ | . X X X O . X X O , W . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . O X O O . O X . O X X X X X . . O . |
$$ | . O O X O . O . X O O O . O X . X . . |
$$ | . . O X O X . O O X O . . O X . . X . |
$$ | . . O X X X . X X X O . . O O X X O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . X O O X O O O O . |
$$ | . . . O X X . . . X . X X X X O . . . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . . . . X . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I think this is too late. It will be very hard to save that black group, and they are too big to sacrifice and still win. Here is the board at move 104, when you played at "a"

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . O X . . X O . O . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . O . O X X . X . O X O . O . O X X . |
$$ | . O O X . . . . . O X . . O X X X O . |
$$ | . . . X . . . X . O . X X X . . . O . |
$$ | . . O O O . . . . . . . O . X . X X O |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . |
$$ | . X X . . . . . . . . . . O . X . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O O . . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O O . O . . . . . X X X . . O . |
$$ | . . O X O . . . . . . . . O X . X . . |
$$ | . . O X O X . . . . . . . O X . . X . |
$$ | . . O X X X . . . . . . . . O X X O . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . O . O O . |
$$ | . . . O X X . . . X . . . X a O . . . |
$$ | . . . . O X . . . . . . . X O . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Leaving aside whether "a" is good or bad. You should already be very concerned about your stones on the right. (Also you have problems with the group on the left...)

One of the biggest skills to learn in go is how to recognize whether a group is strong or weak, whether it is safe or in danger. By playing along the bottom, you made territory, but sealed the death of your group on the right.

Hi lokixvIII,

W ignored your double approach and -- P5 is very big.

S14.

o15.

S16.

B18.

( Skipping forward. )

101 D17 connect.

Thank you guys for the feed back I will post more when I have a chance to sit down and play a bit. Your right I pressed w up to make points and ended up killing off my own group, after I saw this group was in danger I had a major misread thinking that I could cut off and kill the L8 group and it went down hill from there. thank you guys again.