8: I wouldn't call j4 idiotic. That's far too harsh. It's equivalent to the 4-4 sequence where you kick the approach stone and then pincer without extending. You need to distinguish between moves that you are immediately unhappy with and regret playing, but still give you a fun, playable game, and moves that are shameful seriously derail the game. Every go player makes type I errors, and continues to play while taking them in stride.

11: See? Already , your "idiotic" move has made a friend. B11 should be at C5; since it's not, you can be happy with taking C5 yourself, and suddenly J4 looks good. The cut doesn't work. Unless it does, in which case you can laugh at me.

25: True.

28: Now you push him in the wrong direction, IMHO: into your base. The natural thing to do here is play around q7.

46: As an attempt to get endgame in sente by threatening to connect before running out, this is okay (although not to my taste). However, once you take gote you are screwed. This move seems to be gote.

50: Phew.

56: Not freaking out about losing the meaningless stone at m7: excellent! Forgetting that the group on the bottom is not exactly swimming in eyespace: less excellent.

108: Nice cut!

114: I'd go with L10. You just cut off some stones, remember? If they connect on the other side, that was kind of pointless.

128: It's very clever that you saw all these sequences whereby you can make eyes hand over fist, but you don't need to break the glass until B takes away your eye on the bottom.

134: Don't push if you're not going to cut.

156: At this stage in the game, think in terms of "reduce his territory at the boundary" rather than in terms of "disrupting his moyo".

169: It's a huge shame that B got this move, since at this point in the game Ws2 is also sente.

174: I believe it removes a ko, actually.

224: Not really a point... (technically a 0-point move with a 1/2 point followup).

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Status?
$$ --------------
$$ . . . . a . 2 . |
$$ . . . X O O 1 b |
$$ . . X . X O . O |
$$ . . . . X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

White looks alive to me after with miai for life at a and b. Then I'm useless for finding ko's in life and death problems.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Status?
$$ --------------
$$ . . . . . . 3 4 |
$$ . . . X O O 2 1 |
$$ . . X . X O . O |
$$ . . . . X X O . |
$$ . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

This is the ko I think you're talking about. I missed it first time because I didn't spot the false eye. *headdesk*

What I don't get is why White doesn't just ignore the ko and play:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Status?
$$ --------------
$$ . . . . . 4 3 6 |
$$ . . . X O O 2 1 |
$$ . . X . X O 8 O |
$$ . . . . X X O 7 |
$$ . . . . . . X 5 |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Other than being an excellent ko threat later on if white doesn't fix in gote for half a point. Either way it's gote for white taking or ignoring the ko unless they have a ko threat bigger than the corner to save for the crucial moment against Black. Or am I missing the whole point of this?

Ah.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Status?
$$ --------------
$$ . . . . . 4 3 6 |
$$ . . . X O O 2 1 |
$$ . . X . X O 7 O |
$$ . . . . X X O 5 |
$$ . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ --------------
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O O 2 . |
$$ . . X . X O 3 O |
$$ . . . . X X O 1 |
$$ . . . . . . X a |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

Is the ko because if white answers at a, white ends up with a dead shape.

This might be closer to the truth making it a two step ko for black to win.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ --------------
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . X O O 4 . |
$$ . . X . X O . O |
$$ . . . . X X O 1 |
$$ . . . . . . X 2 |
$$ . . . . . X . 3 |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

at

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ --------------
$$ . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ . . . X O O 2 . |
$$ . . X . X O . O |
$$ . . . . X X O 3 |
$$ . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]

I think.

Since:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$ --------------
$$ . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ . . . X O O 3 . |
$$ . . X . X O . O |
$$ . . . . X X O 2 |
$$ . . . . . . X . |
$$ . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . |[/go]