Life In 19x19

Today, I signed up at KGS under the name BigJakeV3 with the intention trying to play at least one game a day as time permitted.

I played this game against another newbie with the callsign of Kable.
So here's how the game went:


We had a 9K by the Name of ThePumpkin act as ref and to let us know when to end the game. He then tried to review the game a bit (which is why the chat looks odd).

I completely missed K14 at the end and I paid for it in points.

What do you all think?

Your best bet at this point is to just play lots of games and get experience. I'll point out a couple of things that occur in lots of games, and hopefully you will recognize them in your games and know how to handle them.

White to play.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . .
$$ | . . . , . .
$$ | X . . . . .
$$ | O X X X X X
$$ | O O O O O O[/go]

White to play.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . O X X . . .
$$ | . . . . O O X . .
$$ | . O . . O X . . .
$$ | . . . , O X . . .[/go]

Black to play.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . O X . . . .
$$ | . . . X O O . O .
$$ | . . . . X O O . .
$$ | . X X X X . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Also, watch out for moves like 119, 151, and 175 which do nothing. Always ask "What does my move do?"

On a positive note, I really liked , to cut white into two. That area turned out very well for you.

Hey, just wanted to add a few things. There were quite a few small mistakes, but the ones that I wanted to point out were these

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B 19x19 board
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | O O O O O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | O X X X O O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X W . . X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X X X O O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

First time making a diagram, so you'll have to bear with me. The main point here is that your shape on the left wasn't safe. If white plays the marked stone and you extended down to A13, white can play D14, and capture those three stones. If you defend those stones he can reduce the area you would be getting and take the one stone. Either way it's a good situation for white.

When white played move 150 at Q12, you would have needed to respond with P12 immediately. Had he played P12 rather than R7 in response to R15 by you (Both moves didn't really do anything), he could have killed your entire N12 group.

The second picture that Dusk Eagle posted actually happened at move 113 in your game. Not exactly that, but pretty much the same thing

Also, K14 would have been a bad move for you at the end, white would just play L14, and you would have just given him an extra point. He actually should have played at L14 instead, it would have been one point more than connecting solidly at K14.

Anyways, this was all that really stuck with me. You'll have to take what I say with a grain of salt though, I'm only an 11 kyu, and it's almost 3:30 in the morning! Good luck in your future games

Try to finish 100 games as quickly as you can.
9x9, 13x13, 19x19 are all OK -- but the smaller boards can save you a lot of time.