Life In 19x19

This game was against a Chinese 11k player, who holds Black herein. However, this person played at SDK level, it seems. (Maybe the Chinese ranks are less inflated than the North American and European ones.) I still make errors during play, so maybe he/she had an easy game. Not to mention that I was confused several times during play and I was forced to play slowly when I usually play at a quick pace. Much obliged in advance for your comments.

must block. No questions. The move is aji-keshi at best.

again must block.

again must block. BLack finally punishes with

I believe the double hane works. You could also consider hane at O4. The earlier joseki choice is not good by white, however, and black's response was terrible. After however, black has the advantage by far. Regarding the joseki choice, white is emphasizing the direction that black has influence in, so it isn't as big as emphasizing the direction white has influence in (the bottom).

too close. Just approach the corner.

This 3-space keima is not good from the corner in general. Normally, it's either too far or not far enough: It doesn't much protect the corner, but if you're not going to protect the corner, you should extend farther to not be overconcentrated.

this feels painful. White has already lost his territory... just tenuki if you won't fight back.

is very slow, but is terrible. It's a dead stone, so just let black take it on a small scale. Running with it means that white has a group with no purpose (not cutting black or anything) that is getting heavier and heavier.

The sequence on the top through or so is black taking advantage of the weaknesses white left behind earlier. It's not the most advantageous way but it works.

I know the game is going poorly at this point, but you can't just ignore this.

In sum, there are a few big and recurring problems, not all of which I pointed out specific moves for:

- Allowing your shape to be broken without compensation
- Placing value on worthless stones
- Following the opponent
- Not paying attention to weaknesses and strengths of groups
- Playing too early on the 2nd line

I don't think that black played above his level, but white never challenged any of black's frequently questionable moves, and made early strategic choices that left white in a poor global position.
(edited for formatting)

Hi tekesta,

I agree that Black looks strong for 11k. He had a good game with few tactical mistakes.
It would be useful to tell us at which points you were confused, so that we can give you more precise comments.

I won't make a full list, but there are two moment in the game that can lead to fast improvement:

You chose to defend the cut. But if Black cuts White can capture in a ladder. Did you see this?
Here you cut, even though your stone can be captured in a ladder. Did you see it before playing? Can you explain your thought process?

Also, something very important:

What are you trying to achieve? What is the stone you're saving useful for? (Compare with C11 or C12)

The upper left corner is a microcosm for the entire game. If you study what went wrong there and learn to play this sort of position better, your entire game will improve. Lessons to learn:

1) Keeping stones connected and working together is more important than making small territory. Your pressing move at D15 was a great idea, and works perfectly if B follows meekly with C15. But you have to be prepared for B to resist more strongly. When B pushes at D16, you absolutely must block at E16, to keep your stones working together. Of course B will then cut and a large fight will erupt. But B will be cut into two groups also, so the fight is playable. If you let B push through at E16, B keeps his stones connected and strong, while your D15 stone loses all meaning.

2) Do not play forcing moves which gain little or nothing. At your level, I presume you knew that B would answer the exchanges D17-C17 and E18-C18. (Actually B could do better by pushing through at E16, giving up one stone for outside thickness.) These forcing moves may appear to gain a point or two, but they are aji-keshi, removing other later possibilities, and there is no urgency to play them. At this stage of the game, if B pushes at E18 before you get to play there, you can respond at G17 and thank him. Just play the essential move (block E16) and leave the minor forcing moves unplayed.

3) Keeping stones connected and working together is more important than making small territory. J17 may look like a big extension, but blocking at E16 was still absolutely necessary. When B pushes through at E16, the W position above becomes thin and the D15 stone becomes worthless. Now every B stone on the board is valuable and working at full efficiency, while W has already lost one full stone and has another group which is making inefficient territory. It is not much of a stretch to say that the game is already decided.

4) Give up stones which have lost all value. Much later at move 41, B plays E15 (not really a very good move) and is rewarded by the knee-jerk reaction D14. What is the point in saving the most useless W stone on the board? The B move creates strength in many directions, while the W reply creates a two-stone group which is doing nothing. You should be happy B invested another move attacking your worthless stone, and just give it up. You could use your sente much more profitably to strengthen the upper group (G17) or to expand the left side before B gets there (around C11). A few moves later the exchange E14-D13 is more of the same -- better to give up two stones, still on a fairly small scale, than to invest many more moves to save them. You ended up making just a few points of side territory with this group, while B created significant center influence. If instead you played moves like G14 and C11, encouraging B to capture your two stones, you would more than make up for their loss.