This will be a place for me to post some games I have played and reviewed myself. Comments from stronger players will always be welcome.

I am 1 kyu on KGS / 2 dan on wBaduk.

I'm not really stronger, hopefully my ideas are still welcome : D I just focussed on the first 30 moves.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Thanks for the comments - I've been following your journal for awhile and enjoy your posts. We should play sometime if we can work around the time difference.

A game I lost and I don't really know why (although technically I won on time.)

Same grain of salt as always : D



We could definitely play sometime, in which timezone are you?

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

I'm in China. GMT +8.

Okay, I'm GMT +2. Six hours is manageable, when you can play in the afternoon / evening : D

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

A few comments on latest game:

After B cuts at move 25, you *really* want to atari from the direction of N11. This move should jump out at you and be tempting enough to motivate you to read out some sequences to see if it actually works. It looks like you can successfully squeeze B, giving up one stone for superior thickness.

After B extends at move 27, you cannot get an acceptable result by cutting at R12 and capturing one stone. Again you *really* want to play Q14 and fight it out. This fight looks quite possible for W.

W 34 is better at R14 than Q13. This is a bit counter-intuitive, but check it out. Both moves threaten P13 capture, so B must defend, but after that R14 has better follow-up moves, including the option to jump into the B corner or simply take sente. I am not a fan of tewari analysis in general, but suppose W played R14 and B decided to answer at P13. Would capturing at Q13 then be the biggest move on the board?

What is the purpose of W42? It looks like a reflexive answer to the previous B move, but what does it accomplish or aim to accomplish? Now is a good time to strike at K4 or K3, before B has a chance to enclose this area. Or you could play a large move on the left side to expand your own territory, if you think you can win a territorial contest. Or you could play the sort of probe you dislike having played against you -- invade at O17 and see what damage you can do here. I think there is easily enough aji for you to get something in this corner. Starting at Q17 is another option.

W44 is good and B45 does look like an overplay. I would first consider J5, to get out cleanly, rather than trying to live small at the bottom.

W94 should probably be J16, attacking the B stone by pushing it toward a stronger W position. Even if the B stone manages to escape, W should at least become strong enough to profit by taking the large M13 cut. And there is still a lot of aji in the upper right corner. An alternative would be a leaning attack at M16, trying to build enough strength to actually capture the H17 stone.

W play in the upper right corner was much too soft. The corner has become very thin, and now is your chance to do something big. W148 is not bad, although it could easily be N17 or O17 or Q17. W 150 could go all the way to P17. W 154 could be P16 threatening to capture the large group above. B was actually in big trouble here.

W 164 was sente, and after B ignored it the cut should have been fatal. W 178 at L18 would give B no chance.

Glad I started this thread.

Always nice to lose a game in 30 moves.

I think in the beginning you played accordingly to Black's plan for influence and then you tried all game to counter this influence. Maybe just splitting Black at the top would make the game more comfortable for White?

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

This game was difficult, particularly because I think the mental errors I made reveal something very problematic about my mindset. I need to conquer timidity!

at C12 ? Otherwise B can just live with B12, so what's the point of the peep?

I haven't forgotten about this journal, and I've been working on my game quite a bit recently. I've begun taking professional lessons online, about 80% of the time I am playing handicap games against my pro teacher and reviewing those, and the other 20% of the time we are reviewing other games I've played. After about 14 hours of lessons, I definitely feel I am improving but the fruits are not manifested in rank yet. I think it's only a matter of time - I am close to bringing the handicap down to 5 stones after some positive results on six stones. Also been trying to squeeze about 30 minutes of tsumego problems into every day - my teacher has asked me to focus on tesuji problems as a priority.

Here is a game I played against a wBaduk 2 dan yesterday. I had every chance to win and was leading up until an endgame blunder. Would love to here what others have to say about it.

Experiencing some frustration recently as I can feel myself getting stronger but losing a lot of games due to time pressure.

Keep at it. All your work will come to fruition, probably sooner rather than later!

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders