Life In 19x19

I wonder what is wrong with my game, I am 14k in OGS,
I play against 7k in OGS, the whole game, it seems
equal, but in the end i lose a big area in middle,
Can anyone give me some feedback about the game,
or what is wrong with my game?

Cheers

Hi wingly,

Please take a moment to learn to embed SGF on the forum:

Hi wingly,

.. Just because you ended in sente does not necessarily mean you got a good result.
( Of course, ending in gote is worse. )
This local shape, if W cuts at R7,
you have a liberties problem --
because you happily reduced your own libs with - .

- And you immediately gave up sente, for no good reason!

Locally, this is a big move; also a big end-game move.
But, globally, since you forced W to be strong with your sequence,
now your is not urgent -- it's small and slow.

Did you get a sense you got a bad result here on the right ?
You let W so nicely split up your right side.

Take a step back and look at the whole board at --
You spent 10 moves on the right side;
W spent 10 moves on the bottom.
Which side looks bigger (or, more efficient ) ?At , you had an inefficient (flat) moyo on the right;
and by , you even let W slice it in two.

Trying to defend your corner, just to keep a few points --
this is a wrong idea.
Instead, notice W has two weak stones: , and at K17.
Think about splitting them up, and attack them simultaneously -- example: o16.
This is a more efficient way to use your stones.

okay thank you, I finished learning it

Hi wingly,

Vital point of this local shape. See Elephant's Eye .

Very bad. See Toothpaste and related pages on bad broken shapes.

Bad.

Unbearable. Locally you hane at B13.

Worse than pass: -1 point in gote (reducing your own territory by 1 point, in gote! )

G10 better, probably.

What's the correct move for B ? 166 Nonsense move. Locally, what's the correct move for W ? 196 Pass.

At 139 you basically give up the center, 151 is way too late to try anything. The question is can White catch you if you jump to J10? If it seems so, then play K10 instead and be willing to give up the six stones while erasing White's center and building so points of your own.

thank you learning a lot from the feedback

At 23 you played as below.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm23
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . O . . . . . B . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . O . . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Let's compare it to the move below. How should we go about choosing one or the other? Let's consider Oh Meien's advice to "play from the wider side". It is a simple mnemonic that everyone should be able to keep in mind. It doesn't always give us the best move but it does force us to consider the big picture.

In the game, Black protected an 8-line gap between the two marked stones above. While below, Black stakes a claim to the midpoint in a 10-line gap area between the marked Black and White stones. Clearly this was the bigger side.

Perhaps Black in the game thought that 23 had the added benefit of protecting Black's other stones in the area. However, a lone 3-4 stone like the one in the upper right is already settled. White can approach but can't really 'invade' the upper right corner. Meanwhile the stones in the lower right left [edit] are secure enough that no single White stone can threaten them. So 23 was not only not in the widest area but also not urgent.

In the game, White answered 23 by immediately invading at Q15 (only a 4-line gap BTW). But what if White had simply played on the left-side star-point instead (our 10-line area again). What would Black have done next?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . O . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 1 . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . . W , . . . . . O . . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

A few comments, in line with what Ed and Dave have said.