Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . X . . . . .
$$ . . . X . a b . .
$$ . . . X . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . .[/go]

When you have three stones in a row, as black has above, the shape move is 'a', sometimes 'b' if there is an uncrowded board. For the opponent to take 'a' is really bad for you.

42: Why? It doesn't threaten the life of white's group, it doesn't protect yours. If W pokes out along the first line and begs you to solidify your influence, greedily say "yes please!" Indeed, on such an empty board you should be happy to let W crawl all the way across the board on the first line if he wants to. Second line influence is (cue Tony) grrrreat! -- Much better to guard your cutting point by putting that one white stone in a ladder.

(Third line influence is pretty darn good, too. Hane down to the second line ( , and then again on ) when your opponent has a strong shape and you don't is kinda greedy: instead of securely gobbling up the third line, you create weaknesses your opponent can profit from. I suspect that both , and were caused by having too little respect for the value of the second line, and / by having too little respect for the third line.)

50: This is no good. First, since he didn't push through and cut on this last move, now is your chance to connect solidly, as Joaz suggested for . But secondly, you're voluntarily giving yourself the "hane at the head of two stones" shape. The ends of a line of stones are the best places for it to continue developing. When you hane at the head of two stones, you've cut off nearly half of their potential for development. Backing yourself into this position on purpose is madness - well, you should at least have a very special goal in mind when you do it.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ The marked stones are the "heads" that have been "hane'd"
$$ . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . . O .
$$ . . . O . . O . O B .
$$ . . O B . O B . O X .
$$ . . O X . . X . O X .
$$ . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ . . . . O O . . . . .
$$ . . . O B B O . . . .
$$ . . . . . . . . . . .[/go]

56: Hmm, interesting. This sort of move - leaving a gap between your stones, but more or less entirely surrounding the opponent - could be very strong if you were stronger in this area. (The idea is you are both very weak locally, but your stones can run to their strong friends and then he dies miserably.) However, here I think you are too weak: and besides, if you connect solidly with D10, W has no way to get more room for his stones without forcing you to attack E7.

60: Good. However, I'm not sure you had to atari the cutting stone, making it stronger, first.
64: B9 is huge. Can you read out any way for W to escape after you play B9?
72: This is a good idea (making an eye false) but a little premature. If W runs out to F11 and then makes eyes in the center, you look a little silly, don't you, having that useless stone in there? W can't make eyes at B12 *and* A11; you can prevent at least one, right? So your goal needs to be to prevent him from making another eye, and then he's dead without you having to actually play C12.

82: Again with disrespecting the second line! When you hane down to the first line, you're either committing yourself to take gote to defend the cut, or you're going to allow him to capture that stone and escape.

84: If you had played B8 instead of A8, you could now play G13, and W would just be dead. G13 is still a far more effective way to live than A14, though.

91: Very important to extend to O17. Otherwise W can atari your stone and suddenly he has broken into the side. You should be willing to take as much third-line influence as W is willing to give you, unless there's something more urgent.