Life In 19x19

This is a game I played on IGS, it was my 20th game and so I finally got a fixed rating. It was a tough game, as I feel I handicapped myself considerably during the opening. It turned into a fighting game in which I chased a large black group and failed to kill it. I managed to get enough compensation, and some small moves by my opponent let me gain the lead during the endgame. However, I'm having some serious trouble with the endgame phase of my games recently. My latest games have shown some serious blind spots for aji left in endgame positions, and I ended up losing another won game because of it.

So, my questions for this review are the following:
- What is a better way to play during the opening? (Especially w 10)
- Could I have killed the large black group?
- If you have experienced the same problem with missing aji during the endgame, how did you deal with it? (I'm guessing it will have to be a combination of doing more tsumego, playing more calmly and reading every position with every stone I put down during the endgame. But should you have any specific advice, that would be appreciated.)



Thank you in advance for looking at this game.

10: It seems ok to me. It attacks a stone, it works well on a large scale with D16 and K16, and it prepares invasion/reduction in the lower right.
Keep in mind that you are commiting yourself to fighting on a large scale. ( For comparison, you could play C6, which in more territorial. )

At kyu level, it is not so important that you play the absolutely best move, but rather that you play a good move AND you know what it means.

12: I tend to agree with your choice. But we both could be wrong.

16: This is big, but slow and gote. It seems locally good, but on a large scale it ignores the high white stones up top. I would have played D6 out of respect for those stones.

18: This is not a good move. It ignores the meaning of the previous moves. Very locally it looks ok, for it probably kills a stone. But seen on a slightly larger scale - the corner -it conflicts with C2. If C2 is what you want to do, then to be consistent you must follow it up with D2.
On yet a larger scale, G5 is inconsistent with the idea of J4. It cashes in too soon. Again, D6 seems thematic when looking at the whole board.

You are not making really bad moves, but inconsistent ones - moves that ignore the meaning of their predecessors.


37: "Hushfield: I have some connection issues, should I drop from the game, i'll try to reconnect as soon as possible"
Good pun!

Thank you for the pointers. It seems I'm still a little too greedy and impatient during the opening.