My first blowout loss on IGS!

[tekesta]

Below is my second lost game from IGS.

This game is much different from the others. In fact, I'd say my opponent is at least 5k. He took 2 handis and won by - wait for it - 196.5 pts. Below is the game record.



I'll say the guy had, what were to me, awesome tesuji skills, but then again I haven't much experience playing white against a handi player and I made more than a few mistakes. I'm starting to wonder if it would've been better to have several skeleton groups across the board, like an amashi strategy.

[shoryuu]

Your main problems are:

Stones are too heavy (eg, C5,C7 C9 stones too closely spaced making sad sad territory)

Territory envy making you attack prematurely(Move 30 has no surrounding stones to support it and resulted in heavy sad shape with A12 connection)

Overly passive play (You seem to forget this is handicap match and you have to make up for it)

Most importantly, you lack life and death knowledge. (Resulting in you not knowing when u still need to run because you lack 2 eyes and when not to play hanes (esp double hanes like move 59) because you lack 2 eyes and are weak.

[Dusk Eagle]

The times in the SGF may be wrong, in which case I retract this next paragraph.

You really need to slow down. You got to move using up only 1 minute of your time? That means you averaged 3 seconds per move. In particular, after , both you and black have a difficult position ahead of you. Yet within 4 seconds you've already played 4 stones and completely given up one of your essential groups. I don't know how you can improve if you don't take the time to think.

Anyway, I hope that didn't sound too harsh. Here's my review, in which I try to focus on the basic instincts you can focus on to improve.

I'm starting to wonder if it would've been better to have several skeleton groups across the board, like an amashi strategy.

No.

[tekesta]

Thank you for your kind reviews.

Like I said, I haven't much experience playing white against a handi player - and it showed

Amashi probably would've been a disaster, especially against a stronger player with better L&D reading skills and handi stones. "ttoj92a" is probably much stronger than the stated rank, around 5k. In the past I've played white in handicap games against other DDKs on KGS and I was able to win by 20-25 pts. Of course these are few and far between.

Yeah, I could've punished Black's mistakes, but would I have had the knowledge and experience to recognize them when they occurred?

I have a tendency to play fast. This is indicative of how little experience I have in playing games. With time this should disappear.

I've spent too much time playing as Black.

[Bill Spight]

Yeah, I could've punished Black's mistakes, but would I have had the knowledge and experience to recognize them when they occurred?

You play as a DDK. Don't plead ignorance. Of course, you're ignorant.

You will get better, though.

BTW, to second Dusk Eagle's advice about playing hane at the head of your opponent's stones, the first place to do that was , which would have been better at D-14. Then Black's two stones on B-14 and C-14 look silly.

[Bill Spight]

A few more comments.



Edit: Actually, after White still has chances. Added variations. No guarantee of correctness, OC.