In further evidence that i'm a moron, I posted the following introduction into the coments section:

Well, like lesenv I recently found myself ranked much higher than I expected. I figured I was more about a 13 or 14, so I walked in thinking I didn't have much to lose. However, the game turned out quite interesting.
My impressions:
-black seemed to be making a lot of small moves and blindly reacting to moves of mine (white)
- white's reading is not so good.

The way I usually play is to avoid fights and go for moyo. I often focus on influence and the center mainly because people at my strength usually don't, and there are sometimes some easy pickings.

So, any thoughts about this game? I already know that I lost the game by not slowing down and using the time left to analyze the end game. If I had made the move at the bottom left, I would have won. I'm more curious about what I could have done before that to prevent it going down to that. Thanks in advance...

12: Disgracefully unimaginative. Think bigger, jump to Q18! It isn't like black can cut that shape, and it eats more of the corner.

18: Pushes to the centre, but now if black plays C2 he eats most of the corner! If you play C2 yourself, you get loads of territory.

20: C2 is still super-great. Your move looks like it's in a big area, but black can just play C2 to make his group strong, and then K3 looks like a fairly lonely stone.

22: Makes a base, but asks black to play F4 which is a powerful separation move. How about playing F4 yourself? If black tries to separate you, you can probably cut.

26: Another big area, but the C2 area is more important than ever. Black can even aim to play C4 now, because you made him strong! This is a symptom of making a weak group on the bottom unnecessarily, rather than just making your own corner strong and attacking later instead.

30: Q17 is better. Convince yourself of it.

32: Looks like a big empty space, but your move feels a little aimless. Perhaps it is more interesting to protect a specific weakness such as the C4 area. Something like P5 may also be good, to try to settle your groups.

38: Rubbish! The monkey jump can be a good way to remove eyeshape, but it rarely has value when the situation is so unsettled. For instance, black can just play K17 and you can't stop both the L18 and L16 cuts. Even if white didn't have this weakness, black can easily jump out so he isn't really affected by the minor lack of eyespace on the side. Save the monkey jump for later, just connect to the peep.

46: Crying after spilt milk. You are trying to remove eyes on one side, but have forgotten that black is stomping through your stones on the other. Protect your weak group at K17!

Edit:



1) For maximum improvement, try to get out of this mindset. Put frankly, most of your moves are rubbish and you aren't qualified to judge them by style. Nor are most people, but that's no excuse . Do your best not to ever think 'I won't play X, it isn't my style' or similar, and just try to find the best move. Even if you think there are multiple good moves, try different plans.

2) A moyo game in the normal sense generally naturally leads to a fighting game. By nature, a full moyo is undeserved territory, because it has holes in. If the opponent doesn't exploit the holes, he probably can't win by making territory normally, so he has to try. But then, in turn, you get to attack his reductions, or your own moyo won't be enough. Whilst you may not find this to be true, that's probably mostly because your opponents haven't get grasped the necessity, and you can't avoid fighting even by pretending to have a moyo style. It's also another way to look at point 1; that you're judging things for the wrong reasons, and should maintain a healthy understanding of your own lack of understanding.

At 220 you forced him to live. Instead you should have ended the game.
edit: I feel pity for Brodie. Uberdude is quite harsh on him.

I'm afraid I disagrees with amnal's description of 12 as "Disgracefully unimaginative". I would expect most 10ks, or even 14ks, to know the shape of the q18 slide. So to come up with this bad move instead shows quite an imagination!

P.S. A nice imaginative move is r18 instead; it's a trick, but one which reverts to joseki when answered correctly.

Thank you all for the replies. Uberdude, I will confess ignorance to both the q18 slide and the r18 trick play (or joseki). any illumination is welcome.

And amnal, your point is well taken, but misguided. When I said I usually go for moyo, I didnt mean it like "this is the only strategy i have and i think its right." Ive actually been losing a fair amount of games because of that strategy and have been trying to balance influence more with territory. But is still a habit I have to make those sorts of moves. I am well aware that aiming for too much of the board leaves everything weak and ripe for plunder.

Also, a thought about your wording. I would say that "disgraceful" and "rubbish" do not belong in this review. If I were a 1 dan, yes, I'm sure they would fit. But instead, I am a 10k or so, playing at a kyu higher than I think I belong, and my "rubbish" moves were very nearly enough to beat a 9k player, which would have been the first time I ever beat an SDK. Surely you're intelligent enough to realize the relativism must be employed when talking a player at a different strength...

@brodie. This is a simple joseki with the slide (and one of the first joseki I encountered)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c Simple joseki
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 4 . . . |
$$ . . 6 . . 2 . . 5 . . |
$$ . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . 3 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

@cyclops. Me, harsh? I thought amnal was harsher...

Aah yes, I am aware of that joseki, although i didnt know it was called the slide, nor do i know why i played where i did. I haven't studied joseki since i went through a go binge a few years ago, looks like it might be time to look at a few more...

Also, i was curious about cyclops' statement as well, i much preferred the way you ridiculed me .