Haha. I wasn't, lol. Still, I think my last game deserves some critique...how could I have gotten the extra 4 points needed to win outright?

What is very helpful to you right now, at your level, is direct experience.

Try to finish as many games as you can afford to,
as quickly as possible. 100 is a good number.

Play, play, play.

You need to experience hundreds and thousands of different shapes and
situations. After this initial experience, then reviews are more efficient
and useful.

See post 8.

Hi TSLexi,

It's really common to take corners first (I mean all the corners... with the first 4 moves of the game... black and white get two corners each)

The reason is that when you play in a corner, it's like having two wall of
the house allready built for you, while plying on a border has only one,
and playing in the center as nothing "pre-built"

In go, do you know what "two eyes" means ? A shape that has two eyes is said to be
living, because your opponent would need to play two move in a row to kill which is not
possible.

In the corner, 6 stones are needed to do the smallest living shape.
In the border you need 8 stones.
In the center you will need 10 stones.

So for a same purpose (making a living shape) we may say that the corners is the place where
you will be the more efficient (ie where you need the less stone to achive your goal)





[edit] this is not an example of how a game should look like, this is just a diagramm with all the smallest living shapes...[/edit]

_________________
Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . 3 . . . . 2 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

How many liberties does your have now?

3

Hi, if you can afford it, get some introductionary Go books, watch some games by stronger players - 15k?. Also, stop playing all those small diagonal moves - they're really bad. Trying to make territory with all those little diagonal moves is horribly inefficient. As for your last game, move 3, play corners first. "Shin fuseki" aside it's better to go for the corners first. Move 9, I'd have played in the corner, white 10 at the 3-3 point is a legitimate invasion of a stone on the 4-4 point, there's a fairly easy joseki sequence that you should learn and which doesn't start with black 11.

_________________
I am John. John-I-Am.

Correct. How about now?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . X . . . . O B . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

1.

Correct. So how do you think you should have played differently in these first few moves?