Life In 19x19

Hi,
i just started playing again since i stopped 2 years ago due to health reasons. This is the first game i consider worth asking a review for.
It would be great if someone looked into it.

The main objective was to make strong groups, use them to attack and figuring out how to make profit from that.
I had this list on my table:
- Where are those large points?
- Am i connected?
- How is my shape? (potential eyespace)
(Can i take sente?)

I would like to know where i'm thinking wrong and therefore included the comments of my own review.
And of course the things i missed completely.

But every comment on the game will be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Hi Hrab,

Welcome back.

Your move is not small, but I'd also consider Q15 ( or Q16 in your var ).
For your list, you may want to add "Any weak groups ?"
"Do I have any weak groups?", which may help you notice your stone.

You let take a big shared point.
You missed two questions here: "Any weak groups?" and "Big points?"

Q14 cross-cut is a local tesuji.
In both your vars here, you lost sight of which is the weak group, which stones are important and which stones aren't.
The two M18 stones are not the focus; your corner group is.
After your Q16 tiger's mouth, and blocks at P16,
you want to read if you can capture the R14 stone.

For me, I'd put "Any weak groups" as very high priority.
Two items on your list -- "connected?" and "shape?" --
are to me follow-up questions to "Any weakness ?"

Your comment here, "better attack the keima", is also strange:
it is Black who is under attack here ( because you let W take Q15 first );
Black is not in a position to attack; Black just wants to minimize the damage, and settle the corner stones.

In both vars, the N16 ladder is not right --
you have to take care of your corner group.

If you wedge at o17, who wins the capture race ?
Does the N18 group live or die ?

So far -- , , -- missed the question "Any weak groups?"

Very bad. Let's go through the list again, "Any weak groups?"
If you're not sure about the life-and-death of your corner if W peeps at S18,
then you need to read the corner situation.
( Re: "How's your shape?" )

If you're not sure of your corner's status,
you could've simply connected on with N18.
So on , you missed these questions:
"Any weak groups", "Am I connected?", and "How's my shape?"

( - ) This exchange makes bad shape for Black --
( Re: "How's my shape?" )
If you want to spend a move in the corner,
you'd rather play S18 directly and live 100%.

Your corner already alive, so this was bad.
If you still want to add a move here, S18.
( Re: "How's my shape ( eye shape ) ?" )
S18 makes the two eyes very clear.

Recap, up to -- the main questions missed:
"Any weakness ?" ( re: Life-and-death, cuts, etc. ) and
"How's my shape?" ( re: basic shapes )

var:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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

My moves go to 43 - or would if I could make the SGF tags work. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with my file?

I found some parentheses inside comments and replaced them with --s. Still the same problem.

EdLee wrote:Welcome back.

Thank you
And many thanks to you and Joaz Banbeck for looking into this game!
I still have some concentration problems and the off-board life intruded my go studies rather rudely the last days. So i didn't manage to work through all of your comments yet.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:Can anyone tell me what is wrong with my file?

I'm not sure, it looks like Eidogo mangled it somehow. I just copied the stuff from the sgf tags into a sgf file.


at q16, that's driven home now! i even dreamed of it.

One thing in general about the groups there i understand now is that i lost focus during the game and my own analysis. (up to ) That is a very fundamental thing.

1) Which stones are important for me (and/or my opponent)
(which stones are important for the live of a group)
2) What is (un)conditionally alive and what not

One part of the solution is the ability to read enough to judge the situation. (i practice tsumego every day; no clicking through; mostly L&D; most up to 2 min. - i really like those puzzles )
Is there another part or does it just boil down to reading in the end?

EdLee wrote:For me, I'd put "Any weak groups" as very high priority.
Two items on your list -- "connected?" and "shape?" --
are to me follow-up questions to "Any weakness ?"

I was trying to break down "any weak groups" into smaller parts, because i'm bad at judging their status. Afaik connection and shape (good connection, potential eyespace) are what makes a group strong. Or am i missing something here?

Continuation follows (still have to work through the q14 cross-cut, the 31 variations and Joaz's comments)