Life In 19x19

Hello everyone; I'm here to post another game asking for review and advice =D.

(1) I don't know if this is because of having a few more plays on me, or because this was the first time I played with white, but I really felt the struggle of having to sacrifice the opportunity to strengthen (or in some cases even defend) some stones in order to take sente. I spent a lot of time thinking where to play W6, if it was bigger to fortify territory like black was doing, or if it was better to start conflict (and where was the best place to do so). I was equally hesitant with W8: had I fortified my stone in P3, black could have secured the right side with a very good potential for expanding to the center, so I decided to keep generating conflict. Was it an important priority to stop black from easily settling the right side? were my plays an acceptable way of doing so?

(2) From W28 to W30 (and then again from W52 to W64) I am trying to take advantage of my thickness in the lower left. I think black moves from B53 to B63 where quite disadvantageous to him; am I missing something? could he had a reason for doing this? could I have taken better advantage of it?

(3) Considering the process in which I delimited this territory I described in the previous point: at which point did an invasion of my left side territory became impossible (or, at least, immensely difficult)? I remember being afraid of such an invasion during my framework-building and I was very hesitant about putting a stone around C12 to prevent this. Again, I prioritized not giving up sente (was this right, or did I get lucky?). Similarly, before B51, black has a good grip on the upper side territory: when did HIS territory there became hard/impossible to invade (again, if ever)? and how should I have done it? Perhaps before his B51, I could at least have a way out. But his groups touching mine along the N14-R18 diagonal seemed to have cutting point I could menace in order to make life inside; yet I couldn't figure out how to take advantage of that. Was my impression wrong?

(*) W106 - W116 => Woooops! I thought I had that black group at S11 but I was quite wrong. That could have gone much worse than it did.

As always, any opinions on these and other moves you may consider important (either because they were good or because they were bad) are appreciated!

Nordico wrote:Hello everyone; I'm here to post another game asking for review and advice =D.

(1) I don't know if this is because of having a few more plays on me, or because this was the first time I played with white, but I really felt the struggle of having to sacrifice the opportunity to strengthen (or in some cases even defend) some stones in order to take sente. I spent a lot of time thinking where to play W6, if it was bigger to fortify territory like black was doing, or if it was better to start conflict (and where was the best place to do so). I was equally hesitant with W8: had I fortified my stone in P3, black could have secured the right side with a very good potential for expanding to the center, so I decided to keep generating conflict. Was it an important priority to stop black from easily settling the right side? were my plays an acceptable way of doing so?

Both and are fine at your level. is a bit greedy, though.

(2) From W28 to W30 (and then again from W52 to W64) I am trying to take advantage of my thickness in the lower left. I think black moves from B53 to B63 where quite disadvantageous to him; am I missing something? could he had a reason for doing this? could I have taken better advantage of it?

and are fine. - were bad for Black.

(3) Considering the process in which I delimited this territory I described in the previous point: at which point did an invasion of my left side territory became impossible (or, at least, immensely difficult)?

Hard to say. Even afterwards, it is conceivable that Black has an effective invasion as a sacrifice.

But his groups touching mine along the N14-R18 diagonal seemed to have cutting point I could menace in order to make life inside; yet I couldn't figure out how to take advantage of that. Was my impression wrong?

That particular set of three cutting points is difficult for Black to handle. See variation at move 78.

(*) W106 - W116 => Woooops! I thought I had that black group at S11 but I was quite wrong. That could have gone much worse than it did.

See variations at move 108.

As always, any opinions on these and other moves you may consider important (either because they were good or because they were bad) are appreciated!

See variation at move 146.

Edit: White was ahead, anyway, but it would not have been unreasonable to test Black's mettle by playing the cut.