And yet another beginner journal

[msgreg]

I may not be qualified to comment on specific moves, but I can answer your more general question "is there hope?"

YES! There is hope. It seems to me you simply lack 1) reading one move ahead, and 2) life and death.

I don't think you're making huge mistakes that are beyond your current level, you are simply "on the path to learning go" as all of us are.

The beginning go books will help especially with identifying basic ladders and nets, but I bet the best book for you is the Go Problems book you mentioned.

My take on the path to learning go is that there are always things you lack and that you work on. The beauty of learning this game, for me, is demonstrated through the fact (as far as I can tell!) that that is always the case. It's just that the things lacking change slowly over time as you learn and grow.

Have fun on your go journey!

P.S. your English is great!

[emeraldemon]

Really for your level there weren't any huge mistakes before 66. Some plays weren't great, but you never let white take control of the game. For example you didn't need to capture on move 20, those white stones couldn't escape, so you could play a connecting move like C6 to seal up the game. But white didn't really have any chance to take the win.

Then you played 66, and you lost. That's go: it only takes one misread to lose the game . 68 at A4 would capture the white stones on the left, but it wouldn't be enough to win at that point.

[Boidhre]

There was a great website that I got a lot of use out of when I was starting out: http://321go.org/?ln=uk (Multiple languages available too!)

Also the Interactive Way to Go might help: http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/

Doing that problem book you mentioned will do you a world of good strength wise. It'll help with all the basics like spotting ataris and such that are relevant to you. The Learn to Play Go series was another thing I got a lot out of, especially Vol. 2 which taught me about different ways stones could be connected to each other.

Most of all, remember to have fun!

[EdLee]

Just continue to play. And enjoy. Lots and lots of games.
(Later, post some games here for review. )

[jts]

Hi everyone.

Hi!

Any comments, suggestions, whatever, are welcome, if anyone is willing to offer them (don't feel obliged though, I've posted it more as an example than anything else). Thanks in advance.

As other commentators have said, this game is excellent for a beginner, and your only serious mistakes were the two you mentioned. (Even after your first mistake, you could have won on the board - I'm not sure why W is getting komi in a handicap game, that's a bit unusual.)

6: is called a "contact move". I'm sure you can see why! When your opponent plays a contact move, with one of his stones touching one of your stones, the result is normally a brawl. But it's a brawl where you have the advantage, so long as you stay one move ahead. If you play f6 or h6, W only has two liberties - your two stones are taking control. If you play f7 or h7, this is less threatening to W, but it strengthens your stones and prevents W from bullying the first stone on g7.

8: Good! Cutting is important. If your stones are separated but W's stones are connected, that's a headache for you.

10: What happens if you play h6 first? (Often playing atari, atari whenever you get a chance is a mistake - it just strengthens the opponent's stones without protecting your own weaknesses. But here, I think it has possibilities.)

18: Excellent.

20: This is a wasted move. Once you've played a move that makes it impossible for W to save some group of stones, those stones are yours. You've captured them, fair and square, and you should refuse to play any extra moves to take them off the board unless W plays some useless threat like h4. Until W threatens to rescue the stones, you need to move on to somewhere more urgent. For example, do you remember what we said about "contact moves"? Do you see any "contact moves" anywhere?

26: B4 is more urgent, in my opinion. You have the right idea - you want to keept your stones connected, and keep W from separating them and then capturing the weaker half. But cuts like Bb4, Wc2, where both B and W are cut into multiple groups, are usually less damaging than cuts like Bc2, Wb4, where white's stones slice apart b5 from c3 without being cut in return.

28: Be3, Wd4, Bf2 is probably better for you. This connects your corner (the lower left) while killing W (the lower right).

60: This is bad form. J3 is the most profitable move, D6 is the safest, but B9 doesn't help kill the left-side group (it's already dead) and it doesn't help you resolve the shortage of liberties that H7 and H5 will eventually run into.