Life In 19x19

This was a game I won very close to the end, when I was thinking I was defeated, so I'm kind of proud of it. I know this is usually the wrong type to post, but the result was close, and there were lots of places where I felt lost.
I left some comments in the game. Would appreciate some feedback.

Your approach at E4 is wrong. White will get immediate territory while you will have some trouble making a stable group with this stone. You should play C5 or D5 or G4 or G3. Another option would be to just play on another hoshi point. Try this and you will get a secure group quicker and more effective while reducing white's corner and with that you can do turn to do other things without worrying too much about your stones there. There is one exception to what I wrote, that is if E4 is a pure probe or aji move, i.e. a move that does not intend to build or reduce but to prepare later actions.

Sanrensei : get the neighboring hoshi, expand fast, to build a grand moyo that w has to invade. Then harass him, building territory at the same time. That is Takagawa's advice in "The power at the starpoint, the sanrensei opening" that I am just rereading. It confirms Pippen's advice.
B51 should be high and B85 I would play at L9: attacking, moyobuilding and helping the lower center group. My mistake would have been to resign much earlier as black. After 54 for example. W helped you a lot at 74, 82 and 84.

A couple thoughts:

Playing 19 at D5 avoids the unnecessary cutting point. Black has totally sealed white off in the corner and can be happy, no complications for white on the outside.

Though your approach was a little strange, through 37 you transposed to an avalanche shape - making the extra hane is a bit too much when white has already made himself solid. You need to make your shape solid too, just extend at F14 or defend the cut at D14.

At 49, I would want to remove that ladder aji as soon as possible. Is also removes the chance for white to connect out with A15-B16-B17-F15-A16

A few comments. Stopping at an arbitrary point when I have to go.

7: White can just reply at D4 and take a large corner. If you move out, white can easily aim at F2 and undercut your side. If you move down, white hanes and you have bad shape.

The main problem is that you made a bad shape. Playing a normal move like D5 would be better, but white can aim at a good result because he is strong locally. This leads to the easiest way being to play something like K4; in a contest of moyos, black is ahead from the start.

8: Yeah, well, it isn't awesome. I'd go so far as to say it's rubbish. You can just play D4 now, sealing white into the corner and making this 4th line stone on the side fairly meaningless.

9: Also good. Does K4 really look so powerful now?

15: Making a lot of cutting points here. White already has bad shape, you can just keep calm and do something like D5 to seal white in without creating weaknesses of your own.

23: All through this sequence, white could probably put F3 in to see what happens, but every time he doesn't is an opportunity for you to do it yourself. Does it really matter if white, for instance, escapes on the first line? Is fixing your weaknesses enough compensation? I think, at some point, yes.

33: Again, rubbish. Just because this is normally bad shape doesn't make it good shape when white has an extension.

39: So many cutting points, as white is able to explain to you. You have to extend, really. This is one of the reasons the shape is bad.

53: If O7 breaks the ladder, you may just have to say 'so be it'. You do get a big corner and thickness for your troubles if white doesn't play another move there. Trying to play 'who gets the last ladder breaker' is normally a bit rubbish.

Edit: One last one: move 79 should be at F14 (then A15, C15, B15, G14, C15), to get lots of forcing moves on the outside. Instead, white gets to play F18 first, and can respond to F14 with G18. It's a small thing, but keeping an eye out for the best way to let white capture is often important in fights. Here, it leaves you with a potential extra cutting point later.

e4 is horrible, but luckily for you the opponent responded in a way that seemed to make it OK. In this situation I'd suggest playing another of the star points to increase your moyo. White has played all of their stones on the 3rd line so far, so if you just keep growing the moyo (the point of the 3 stars opening after all) you should be in a better position.

Thank you all for your comments!

Mef wrote:Though your approach was a little strange, through 37 you transposed to an avalanche shape - making the extra hane is a bit too much when white has already made himself solid. You need to make your shape solid too, just extend at F14 or defend the cut at D14.

F14? That looks a bit weird for an extension. Do you mean F16?

Phelan wrote:Thank you all for your comments!

Mef wrote:Though your approach was a little strange, through 37 you transposed to an avalanche shape - making the extra hane is a bit too much when white has already made himself solid. You need to make your shape solid too, just extend at F14 or defend the cut at D14.

F14? That looks a bit weird for an extension. Do you mean F16?

Haha, yes I mean F16, F14 would be quite strange. I must've got my wired crossed between thinking about D14 and F16 (=

Well, there is a lot of advice above. So I will concentrate on only one move, (C6). I think it is interesting because the play epitomizes what we do not want to do in a tight situation.

Let's face it, this kind of thing happens to us all the time. We are cruising to a great result when suddenly our opponent rocks us back on our heels with an unexpected (because we're winning so we don't really check, right?) cut that exposes weaknesses all over the place. What do we do? We have to buckle down and make the best of it. This means carefully considering what the situation is and what resources we have. This does not seem to be what happened in the 19 seconds that Black pondered before playing C6.

We are cut twice by and below. The play at C6 basically retreats from both. There is no way that White should get away with that. Consider:
* Locally in the corner, White has some very nasty looking aji if Black plays "a" (ko at best?).
* On the bottom side, the White stone at K4 will be isolated between two Black positions if Black captures with "b". On the other hand, if White saves the ladder stone, the K4 stone will become too tight an extension, so either way Black should not fear the result on the bottom.
* On the left side the White stone at C10 squeezes the Black stones severely if they are cut off. On the other hand, if the Black position is not cut, the C10 stone may end up too close to a strong Black wall and be an inviting object of attack. At the same time, if the Black stones are cut off but live, it is likely sente against the lower left corner due to the bad aji there. So here too how worried should Black be?

In the game meant that White had broken the ladder on without any damage to . I think if I had been White I would have only pushed up once at below and then turned at , trying to settle the bottom left without going back to capture at G2. Pushing again as in the game eliminates the aji of pulling out with "b" or playing atari with "c". Black would have been uncomfortable if White had avoided erasing this. I think that below is probably the most reasonable play in this position. What is White going to do now? If White pulls out the cutting stone with , activates the threats in the corner. Meanwhile on the outside White has difficulty in continuing. There is no good way to strengthen/develop the cutting stones without strengthening Black at the same time. Likewise, performs much better than C6 if White pulls out the ladder stone with below. Unlike the game the cutting stone is captured after and White has no further forcing plays here. So White cuts at . However, Black has the ability to squeeze White with if the game later warrants. If White tries turning in this situation, there is no aji above so Black can easily play the triple hane with , intending to squeeze or perhaps turn against the K4 stone.

Thanks Dave!
At the time, I think I was afraid of at in your first diagram, but now that I look at it, I see nothing to worry about. 19 seconds was probably too little to think about it.