on a bit of a downward slope recently

8: This seems misplaced, neither fish nor fowl. There are gaps on both sides. Most pros, IIRC, play K4

10: Leaves weaknesses behind at F17. In 5 moves, white has played two that are theoretically dubious. You should be kicking his rear in this game.

11: You encourage him to patch the F17 weakness. But white N17 still looks bad for you later on. If you want to play H15, it seems consistent to back it up with tengen next.

15: He has weaknesses on the lower side. This encourages him to patch them.

In two moves he has given you an advantage, and in two of your own you give it back.

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interesting thoughts, but i am not convinced... i can believe that the pincer is more popular, but i intentionally chose to play in a simpler way in the fuseki. i'm aiming for a clear game based on influence here (something i have been experimenting with for the past few months). i think 10 and 11 are both normal moves. move 15 might be completely wrong, but it is difficult to choose another place to enter in. the top left is firm, and approaching closer to the bottom left star point would have ruined the 3-3 aji. i played in a way to attempt to neutralize potential white development on the bottom while breaking up the left side. i spent most of a week on that move, but i couldn't think of any better ideas (alternatives and rationale would be interesting to see)

no one?

I'm only a couple of stones stronger than you, so take this with a grain of salt

8 leaves some aji, but hardly any in real terms. K4 is certainly more normal, though, and it's nice to have L3 to aim at.

10 and 11 seem normal to me.

I don't agree that it's natural to follow up with tengen. Q14 seems normal. Tengen would be an ubermoyo strategy, but black's moyo side has some annoying holes in. Q14 is more restrained. FWIW, Q14 is the move that appears in my database at this point.


15: This move is the first one that doesn't seem natural. Your reason for playing here seems to center around not stopping C3 working, but it isn't obvious to me that this is a good reason. If you played C6, it isn't obvious that white could play to prevent C3 without giving black time to run in good shape. But playing this, you run whilst attacking a light stone (D10), and white still has time to fix his weakness. I'm not saying your move is wrong, but I think you're too worried about keeping C3 alive.

Instead of invading, maybe you could play on the outside of his shape instead? I don't know if maybe H5/H4 or siilar would be a good strategy, but it seems reasonable to seek to push white low whilst making thickness to make a large centre moyo.

21: By this point, it isn't obvious that your invasion has been successful. Your stones are pushing white into the centre, and have no real eyespace. It would be nicer to be ahead of white in the pushing battle.

44: And by this point, your pushing has made white uite strong in the centre. I don't think you can attack this group very well, especially since white has the G13 area to aim at. You're probably doing fine in real terms, but I don't really like the result of C8.

46: A curious move, but I'm not strong enough to say white didn't have a good plan in mind. I thought E3 would be good enough, then white can push down in the K6 area to settle his groups whilst having territory.

White makes what seem to be bad moves to attempt to connect (eventually black can potentially live in the bottom left corner).

I looked at the rest of the game, and thought some moves were dubious, but I'm not strong enough to say that they actually are. It seemed to proceed as might be expected...white uses his strength to kick at your territory.

I think your choice of invasion was non-obvious, and that you didn't really know what you were trying to achieve with it. It didn't obviously fit with the moyo direction of play that you had chosen earlier.

thank you for the thoughts! move 15 is still a difficult point. the middle game here is not easy to pull apart, but i thought white was rather slack, and if i had only played P2 instead of N2, i think i might have won. but i agree that the way i started the middle game was very questionable. i'll have to think twice the next time the fuseki goes this way

White's new-found moyo strategy at 14 is a bad idea, IMO. His 3rd line stone to the south is inconsistent with it, and black already has the high ground. I think you could play N6 - if it's moyo vs. moyo your development should be more secure.

Or possibly probe by capping at J5 - if he defends his "territory" then you can steal C3 out from under him.

Bear in mind that according to OGS I'm at least 1 stone weaker than you.

A few comments on the opening:

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At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

thanks for the ideas on the opening i agree i played in an 'unenterprising' way with my stolid extension on the top, it is in fact a deliberate feature of my game right now ! but the ideas for all the other moves, especially the cap & invasion that both you and ethanb suggested, are very interesting. i was not sure if running at move 17 or attaching underneath the stone would be better when i was playing. considering that no matter what white gets a helping hand in opposing my high formation, settling rapidly using one of the variations suggested would have been wiser. i hope to someday develop such a broad perception of the opening for myself!