This is a game I just played and I was black and I lost by 9,5 points.
When I played move 60 I had the feeling that white played very aggressiv, you can probably see that at some moves I had no idea how I should respond.
I also used up almost all of my time at move 60.

It would be great if someone can tell me where I messed up.
Was the opening bad? Should I have attacked more?

4: Great, white has played a bad move and this punishes it well. The E17 stone has its value greatly reduced.

6: Good idea, but it doesn't seem quite the best. C16 is bad shape, but white's moves are so bad that maybe it's okay (you still have miai of the two sides). My immediate thought, though, is to play B16 - which is often a good shape to avoid the empty triangle. This would put a little more pressure on white than your own move did. Your choice is a little slack.

8: Great, white hasn't gained anything.

14: Your first outright bad move, I think. It is good to try and find a shape point here, but this doesn't seem to be one. White C13 seems like the best response, but white's actual choice is just as good after the stone is captured in a ladder. I don't know what is best, but whatever you choose, your actual move seems like bad aji keshi.

18: Good area, but the C10 stones are quite strong. Perhaps F3 (or C5, maybe) is better, to challenge white to invade that small space. Your actual move connects everyhting together, but it doesn't protect the corner, and the C10 stones don't get any stronger for it.

23: White's plan to invade the corner is not a bad one, though the F7 stones are a bit floaty. Now black will end up overconcentrated, which is a good reason to protect the corner more earlier.

34: Seems bad, F3 is probably better. The reason is, E1 is 1 point endgame move, but maybe B2 will kill the corner later if you leave that aji there. E1 is bad aji keshi.

36: A little loose. F3 is normal. This way, white can still cut at E3 if he has support.

40: Why? White could not already cut, and the F4 stone is 1 point to capture so you don't wnat to spend many moves on it. Something like L3 seems better, to use your massive strength to attack white instead.

42: White has saved a useless stone, black gets the good point.

54: When white makes this shape, playing Q1 is often good to see what white wants. The ko is probably good for black, if that is white's choice.

62: Often a bad shape, becasue white R17 has a lot of aji (although it's locally dead, it is quite easy for white to make it work using nearby stones). If you want to protect the corner, R15 is the normal shape.

66: Maybe S10 is good here. You have miai to connect on both sides, and you can attack white's stone as it runs out - which also hurts the P4 group. Your way seems a bit slack.

70: If you can't play P11 here, the previous moves were bad - it is very sad to let white push through your shape like this. This is a good reason to play differently at move 66.


Over the next few moves, this sequence changes the game to be good for white. Hopefully adjusting these earlier moves will stop that happening next time.

Wow thanks amnal!
Hopefully I will be able to apply these ideas in my next few games.

I actually know no joseki, would it help me imrove to study some?

It might well do so, certainly if you find you enjoy studying them. Don't feel you have to, though - the best way to improve at your level is to play lots of games and do tsumego. I personally strongly recommend doing whatever you enjoy most (and for me, that involved some joseki study), because that's whats fun so the improvement happens without you even having to think about it .

I used to look at corner sequences from my games at eidogo.com . This let me get a vague idea about all sorts of sequences without ever thinking very hard - just by seeing how my games differed from (or didn't differ from) joseki. I think it's a great resource for doing this sort of thing. Don't take it as gospel (it really really isn't, though it's mostly accurate), and always be willing to ask questions about sequences, but other than that there is much to learn.

When I was about your level, I asked my teacher what was wrong with my playing. He said, "you like gote too much."

The marked stones in this position at move 42 were all played in gote. So they must be valuable, right? And yet, what are they doing now? Take a long look those red circles and wonder for a bit if maybe that's where 3 of your 4 handicap stones went.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Moves 42 to 42
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X O . O . . O . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X X . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . B O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X B O . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X . X X . O . 1 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Okay, now look at the following position. I have removed the three wasted stones. Please, indulge yourself. You may now imagine adding 3 black stones to the board before you play . Or you can move if you like. How would that feel? Pretty good, I bet.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B 3 stones gone
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X O . O . . O . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X X X . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . X . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . O . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . O X . X X . O . 1 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I remember reading a GTL review by Reid Augustin, AGA 5d in which he said something like "you must cultivate the feeling that it hurts to take territory in gote." So when you have to take a gote move, try to make it valuable, and even then at least wince a little bit while doing it...

Edit: one note on the timings. Although you were averaging about 10 seconds per move on this game, I think that's a pretty good pace given the 10 minute basic time limit. On these gote moves in question you were still in main time. Next time, you could pause a little and consider whether you really need to play them that way. It's better to be slow on the clock than slow on the board.

Thanks, you are right these 3 stones do almost nothing.
I feel stupid for not realizing this during the game

Don't feel bad. These things sneak up on players of every level, it's just a matter of degrees. Often they can only be seen after the game. The problem is that we think of the game serially, and everything seems to be a good idea at the time. We play a move and hope it will be useful later, but that depends on what moves occur in the future by both players. One function of review is to find inconsistencies with the aid of 20/20 hindsight and a less biased outlook.

Also, it's one thing to be on the sidelines kibbitzing. It's entirely different to be the person sitting in front of the board with the clock running. I think we've all had the exoerience out of watching a game in person or online and thinking, "I can beat this guy." The then when you try to play him, how much stronger he has suddently gotten!