My first "real" game in months was against this guy, and I misread a ladder (sorry Kageyama), but fortunately he wanted a rematch! This time I was black. Especially since I haven't played for so long, i'm pretty happy with my play for once. Sure you can find a million and one mistakes, but for my abilities, I feel like I've done well.
Mostly because I remained calm and chill, and I didn't play chicken-go. It felt like a very "adult" game for me. I didn't overprotect areas where I would usually place an extra stone 'just to make sure'.
Examples of moves I was "proud" of, because i read that it worked or didn't work or didn't act out of fear. (doesn't mean they're the best move on the board or downright mistakes, but i was proud nonetheless that I didn't cower in fear) :
-43: ladder doesn't work, so bring it on! (51 on the other hand may be slow... it's safe though. And i have no idea what 52 is from white)
-75: because i read that he can't push and cut. Yes, i'm simply proud of reading out that he can't do that. gotta start somewhere
-79: because he's just a stick and i'm making shape
at 89 i should've cut. i played too quickly there. stupid move. because stupid = not thinking.
at 101 i think i go wrong. (it rhymes so it must be true)
at 103; this cannot be (still rhymes)
at 105, it's not alive (...)
okay this part of the game i'm not proud of. this was fairly horrible
so let's skip it for now!-135: i'm proud again. white takes with 136 and I get all his stones on the upper left! yumm!
-247: yes! in the past i would've always given up 2 stones to be safe. But i wouldn't this time! I read out everything until move 251 and I figured i'd be all right, because I had the most liberties. What followed was an exercise in reading i hardly ever have in games. I was constantly thinking: i should've given up those two stones, but i didn't and i'm not gonna lose any stones because i can read! (the AI found a move that would've done it, but my opponent isn't a 9dan computer program, so it turned out okay!)
-283: here we go. i had read it out earlier that this does not work. Maybe just connecting is better, but I managed okay and didn't give him any free stuff
and at 294 an entire sequence at the top left begins.
To be honest, i probably made some bigger mistakes there. But i kept reading (even if misreading, better to read wrong than not at all!) and kept figuring out i was fine! up until 307 when i realized I would end in gote, destroying his 3 eye shape. so it'd be ko. And i didn't have many ko threats. So he lived. i was sad by this, but it wasn't the end of the world. I'm still happy that i didn't play too cautiously so now I can learn from this. Had i protected, he wouldn't have tried this so no chance to learn!
Need some insights
If anyone wants to give me some pointers/insights, i'm particularly asking about:
- the top left corner. should I have protected it with another move before he came in? or did i just handle it wrong and allowed him to live where that shouldn't have been possible?
- the top right corner: same question. This one turned out fine for me, but should i have sacrificed the two stones and was I greedy?
- At what times was my direction of play good and at what times highly questionable?
- Better alternatives for 101?
Thanks for any help
should play Q3 before threatening to connect, otherwise white may play there.
the bottom side is not so big, I think jumping to E16 is better.
the corner is big
the corner is still big
black could actually capture the 4 white stones without this atari ===EDIT it was an exaggeration to say they could be killed outright but blocking from the center is really good
blocking in the corner is big and pushing through at G6 affects the power balance of the game, the game move is not so big.
good tenuki
great! Don't let white connect and you will be stronger in that area than white.
this seems to keep the white group unsettled and protect the corner