Beginner game

[boardgamefor2players]

Hello! I have been playing many blitz games lately to get a lot of experience. I got this peice of advice from the Swedish champion actually. I am ranked as 13 kyu on KGS but I was 12 kyu once. My goal is 9 kyu. It shouldn't be so extremely hard to reach. Here is a blitz game I just played. Have you got some advice on strategy, specific things I should study, etc... to improve my skills and rank?

Since it was a blitz game, I would probably have played in another way if I could concentrate longer. However, if I get advice on strategy, I might learn "rules" to follow which will help me get better.

Thank you so much for your advice!

I play as black in this game.

BTW: Obvious mistake at 75.

[EdLee]

Welcome!

• better at C2: directly capture .
• big local mistake: still C2, capture ;
  Otherwise, W can descend to C2 himself and capture your 2 stones.
• still better at C2 ! Capture directly !
  Eventually, when W ataris at D1, you still will play C2 — do it now !!
  Locally, the correct reply to is extend to D6 ( or E6 ).
• makes no sense: can you find the correct local move ?
• What's the correct move for ?

if I get advice on strategy,

You first need to learn to see ataris.
See all the above notes and homework.
If you don't see basic ataris, no strategy will work.

[schawipp]

Just a few random thoughts...:

At you don't need to protect the cut at S16. If white plays there, you can still capture it with S15 due to your extra liberty on T19. Thus, is one lost tempo (or a 'pass'). To get an idea about the value of a lost tempo, imagine you would be allowed to move twice after .

The cut on P16 looks better playable for white, since you can't capture P16 in a ladder.

However, given that the Q17 group of white has a dead shape, I would play on O18 (and answer white O19 with N18 etc.). Even if white cuts on P16 you simply continue with O19 and the white Q17 group dies first.

What was your idea with :b123:? Instead, H11 looks interesting. If white tries to block on J11 you can give two ataris on J10 and J12 which gives a nice reduction.

Move :b137: : Only move should be to connect on N12. White has a similar problem with blocking at L12 as mentioned before.

[phillip1882]

general thoughts:
opening: don't make quite so many attacking points, unless your giving handi, where you have little choice. in particular r9 (move 19) should probably be at d3 or r6. also attaching to floating stones is generally bad. when white plays d9 you can calmly play c7 to build up a base for your weak stone.
mid game: you both play a moyo style, building up big walls that the other player has to work to invade. nothing wrong with this, but its a style that encourages fighting. i recommend double checking cuts before building up too much of a wall.
end game: just double check that your moves are endgame sente, and take as many of them as you can.

[peti29]

My advice is not to play blitz games too much.
People differ in this regard I suppose but blitz games don't tend to improve me. To the contrary: they teach me bad habits.
If you don't want to "waste" too much time on a single game, play 30 sec / move, or Canadian 6/25. Anything under 20 sec / per move makes me feel dizzy. Again, this is highly subjective as I often see high dan games with 10 sec / move, but for one thing I wouldn't aim to learn from blitz games.

But, once you're in a blitz game I recommend overplays and unashamed invasions as you're less likely to get punished for them