jlt wrote:
Position #78, Black to play. From the same correspondence game against gennan. At move 144 (position below) Katago says White was leading by 1.5. In the end White won by 16.5, increasing his advantage step by step between moves 144 and 286.
During this game, I was aware of what would have been black's optimal endgame in both of those situations, so I knew that black lost points there. I was also aware that white lost points around F9, but only after the fact. A recent
comment of mine elsewhere was about situations like these.
Many players up to about my level (3d EGF) are not sufficiently aware how many points can still be gained or lost in the endgame and they just go through the motions of the endgame to "play the game out", sort of assuming that the score is more or less frozen in the endgame, as long as you don't make obvious mistakes. I used to be one of those people and it frustrated me to lose many games to "point-collector" type of players who would catch up to my (perceived) lead during in the endgame to "steal my win".
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
This also means that in live games nowadays I spend less time on the opening to save time for the later stages of the middle game and for the endgame.
That's also following advice that InSeong gave me when I was still a member of his online school.
Some other games from that OGS fast correspondence handicap tournament, where my opponent allowed me to catch up in the endgame:
https://online-go.com/game/51513875,
https://online-go.com/game/51513876