Here I have two recent games in the ASR league. Both opponents declined to review the game, so while I've reviewed them myself I haven't heard any other perspectives. I post them below with a minimum of self-pity and defensiveness!

In this game I was crushed by an enterprising 9 kyu. I kept losing group after group with no compensation.



This game I won, but only because my opponent was really, really bad at life and death. Everything else was a disaster.



Comments on either or both greatly appreciated!

edit: I was very confused when I wrote this. I mixed up the players.


This 9 kyu is quite strong. Your double kakari in the UR corner didn't work quite well because s/he was ahead there already.
I prefer at E15 because it works well with your UR. Then he punished very skillful your overplay at So at it was game over.

jts,

JTS: you are 6 kyu.. now you know the basic and it is time for you to study joseki.
i am sure you felt that you have been played on UR corner.
answer is given by Ed. thank you.

when you think you lost point on the variation and do not know where you went wrong..ask or try to find joseki.
that will make you stronger and one step closer to dan.

IMO, you opponent knew that variation and he is dan level player sandbagging.

_________________
"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Thanks for the comments, everyone.


Yeah, he's undefeated in Gamma I, last I checked. We'll see how he does against the 4d.


So I actually have glanced atstudied this variation before, but I don't play it because I don't understand what it's good for. (Yes, I know this means I shouldn't have played Q14.) Any thoughts?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . 0 . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X 6 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 5 8 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 X O 7 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

you think above variation is good for white??
in my opinion it is better for black because of sente and thickness.
i think that is why professionals try to avoid above variation as white.

_________________
"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Well, I don't know. It just doesn't look that good to me. I guess I should play it a bunch and then I'll find out for myself. I just don't know what to do with the position. What would be your strategic ideas as black on a board that looked like this?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . X . . . . O . . 0 . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . X 6 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 5 8 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 X O 7 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

(By the way, I checked, and he has beaten the 4d by resignation. Very enterprising.)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

FWIW, can be joseki here, but there's an important difference

I commented a lot of nonsense on your first game.
So let me try the second.

16-17 exchange is better for B.
After W20 W will become <edit> heavy <\edit> after Bc9,Wd8,Bc3.
B37 at b1 would turn W36 into a bad move because B would be alive
After w166 if b plays D18 comfortably living in the corner or at the top are miai. B helped you a lot by misplaying that corner.
After b189 you really finished him off.

Thanks for the comments, cyclops.

I was sort of mad at myself for W16, but letting him get a stable position on the left and potentially invade both corners seemed hard. But perhaps I should have been happy with F16. What would you suggest instead?

You're completely right about W36, should have been at b6.

W166 was a complete overplay. I had decided by this point that L&D wasn't his strong point, and thought I needed it to make up lost ground. I still think that was the right decision... if B hadn't made a mistake on M17, it would have been a nail-bitingly close game.

Maybe attach and extend or what about the cap at E14? It is at the border of two moyo's; it aims at the big gaps at the right side.

Indeed a tactical overplay. Chapeau!! At 138 b is far ahead. You escaped further disaster at the bottom and won the game!! b139 should have been at N1 of course. The bottom is exciting after that move.

The bottom was a huge disaster! Not only b139 (as well as earlier points where B could have been more compromising), but around b155, B throws away several opportunities to crush me. I was really hoping some people would have ideas, either strategic or tactical, about how to not be in the position I'm in at b139 at all.

What was the deal with trying to save P10?

_________________
Tactics yes, Tact no...

I assume you mean either p8 or o10... for p8, there was no "deal". I just wanted to invade, and the invasion was a huge failure, and even the ko that I thought I had was denied because the r12 group was wholly useless.

For o10, at first I just wanted to cut and reduce liberties on M7 to make M7's life difficult, and possibly set up a connect-and-die, and then I saw a way that made miai of getting W the liberties he needs to capture m7, and connecting to g10 (which I thought B couldn't allow, although it turned out that should have been fine for him).

(If you're referring to the first game... well, it was a lot of points. In that case if I had sat down and read for three or four minutes, I should have realized that it was surrounded, though.)

I was referring to the first game, it's just, you get very little out of it even if the P10 stones do escape. It's almost impossible for the P10 stones to escape and his group to still be weak.

Better is to just strengthen the outside elsewhere, and hope to aim at that later...

When you're behind, you have to sneak up on the kills..

_________________
Tactics yes, Tact no...

Well, I can't hope to be much help to you as you are much stronger but maybe someone else will react to my attempt.
Second game: To me it seems that after you realized you made a suboptimal move you raise the stakes by making even worse overplays. This way he can avoid to take the big risks that you take.
20 tries to repair for 16. C3 would have be a good preparation for that invasion. It attacks and defends. Q18 is the same idea.
58 tries to repair for 20. It creates a third weak group.
At 86 you are desperate so you stop counting liberties. Counting would have made you play 96@P12 to save the 5 stones. No big deal but still.
At 114 you have a nice move at M5. Probably not enough to gain the lead but enough to continue the game. After you missed it you were at his mercy.