Hi everyone,

Here's one of my latest game, I'd appreciate some comments on basic principles if you don't mind spending a few minutes on my game.

Thanks in advance for your help,



Martin

Hi Martin, Were you B ?

Assuming yes:

Connecting is too heavy. Can you find a better local move ? Strange. Why do you back up ? Can you find a better local move ? Good.
Heavy. Can you find a better local move for W ? You took 1 point off yourself, in gote. As an exercise, figure out what happens if you don't fix the cut, and W cuts at R4. What if W atari-cuts at R16, then drops to S16 ? Did you read out this capture race before you played ?
If this is the best local move, then was a mistake.
This local result is already a complete disaster for B. Instead of this move, how could W have killed your corner ? W is happy to push out at R13. See toothpaste.

If we go back to the upper right corner, what's the only local move for B ? W gets this first. See toothpaste.

Very slow, very small. You have many bigger moves elsewhere.

Strange. Like is strange. Why do you back up ? Can you find a better local move ? Wrong shape. Similar problem as . Wrong shape (bad wedge); bad habit.
Again, see toothpaste.

101 Same bad habit as ; bad wedge.

Up to here, 99% of your problems are basic shape problems (contact fight problems). This gives you an idea what to focus on.

( Not mentioned: when you ignored with , locally, you also made a bad shape for yourself. Compare the local resulting shapes at and . Once again, see toothpaste. )

EdLee made many good points above, but there is one thing I'd want to add:

There are a couple points, at and , when the situation really calls for a pincer, but black doesn't play one.

At , a pincer works well to build something with the black group at the upper left, while letting white extend along the top negates the influence of black's group for a dubious gain on the right. Notice how white was eager to get the two space extension instead of sliding first, since black could pincer after the slide.

As for the second, at : black has a group on the bottom left that could come under attack if white approaches it closely, because black chose to jump instead of make a base (not necessarily bad in itself). When white approaches the bottom right, a looser pincer would both support this group AND pressure white's stone.

Don't worry about not knowing the joseki for the various pincers if you don't. Chances are your opponent doesn't know them well either, so as long as you stay flexible and read a bit you should be able to muddle through with something reasonable.

Hi guys,

thank you for the help, I will look into it!

I keep practicing tsumegos but I guess I'll have to be patient before I see the benefits!

Thanks again,

Martin

Hi Martin,

Tsumego is very good, of course; but in this case, there's very little overlap with the problems in post 2.

Hi guys,

Would you give some advices on this game, I really felt I couldn't get any space vs this player...

Some thoughts:


As one other thing to consider... how many groups did white have at the end? How about black?

Hi guys,

I’d appreciate if you could give me a few hints on this game.

I tried to “play big” but ended up losing by a large gap. I suppose at some points I haven’t played the most important moves.

Thank you in advance for your help!

The result in the lower left seems o be a complete fiasco for black to me. My Joseki knowledge is too imited to tell you whether is actually a possible move(edit:josekipedia has it, eidogo doesnt), but definitely after the white answer in the corner, you should definietly try to connect your two stones while sealing white in the corner. This is the entire point of playing from both sides, if you are not getting the corner(which w took with ). You give w the opportunity to split your stones, after which you have to look for both of them. Though he doesnt do that immediately(on all the following moves, you could stil try to establish some sort of connection there, but you dont), the result he gets upto is pretty much a dream for him, he swallows your left side stone on a large scale, plus has managed to make your right side group highly overconcentrated and inefficient(:b23: and are helping him to finish your stone off entirely, while not really accomplishing much on the outside).

Hi Martin,

Did you consider F6 or any other moves ?

R15.

Q6.

Did you read P2 ?

Bad habit, bad shape, gote.

You see the difference if was at R15 instead ?

Why did you tenuki ? There's no reason to ignore --
you should try your best to pressure --
see if you can kill it, or force W to make a ko for life, or force W to live in vote.
( You said you were practicing tsumego ?! )

Hi guys,

Thank you for your help, I will think on it!

Right now I'm in a losing streak... I developped the bad habit of not reading enough which puts me in bad situations.

I suppose it's a shared issue: I play instantly without considering the whole board...

Hi Martin, Good luck.

Hello fellows,

Here's another game I played, I felt I was close and would need your help to point out my main mistakes.

I have spotted a few which were bad for me:
1st mistake which led me to lose the first 3 stones

L5 instead of M4?

:b121: till :b124: didn't use the influence built

:b144: lost my group




Best,

Martin

I really dont think that you have found the crucial points to name as mistakes.

What I think is:

Why not block at r16? Despite this, you are in a good position after white played a very strange sequence in the top right.

What is that move supposed to achieve? It loses sente for no good reason.
EDIT: when writing this I didnt realize that w's group doesnt have 2 eyes yet(t17 seems to make a ko shape locally, but it can also still jump out, so you could surround it to force it to live and then go somewhere else). This makes the comment "loses sente" a little strange(as he did answer though I think he should rather jump out), but it remains true your move achieves nothing.

Doesnt seem too bad right here, but usual basic instinct in response to an attach would be hane(d8 or b8) or extend(d7)

? If you are worried about the life of this group, then you could simply push towards the outside. Do you have to be worried?

Still pushing out at o2 would be possible, he simply added a few prisoners. Also, s1 and o2 still seems kind of maii for live so tenuki would still be an option imho.

Losing sente for no reason, his two stones are already captured

Respond! Responing to attachments should be basic instinct(still hane or extend, see above, otherwise he can hane).

Have you read playing at d1 instead?

Block would indeed be better. I dont think at all it is a bigger deal then the other things here though.

This plays out a broken ladder,bad idea!. Also he could kill some aji by answering at s10, when you no longer have r11/s10 ataris.

l4(what should have been played 40 moves ago) is still better

105 Simply connect at k5!! his two stones look pretty lonely after that

107 small

121-124 doesnt seem bad to me, maybe stop at 123.

144 is not a black move, and certainly losing your group happenend much later.

e.g. as late as 157 you can still play h14 making miai of j15(connecting by capturing two stones) and g14connecting and capturing one part of his stones, the others beeing at least deeply in trouble.

I didnt look any further than that.

Hi Schachus,

Thank you for the extensive advices.

I'm trying to get away from "reading laziness" which still makes me play unnecessary moves making me lose Sente.

Thanks again,

Martin

Hi guys,

Here's a new game for which I would appreciate to have your comments.

(Re: post 20, below.)

Hi Martin,

First kick at R5, then jump to O4.

O4. You need to fix your shape. Re: .

O4. You missed this vital point 3 times in a row.

By now, you're already very confused about the situation.
Let's go back.

W jumps into your sphere. Locally, B has an advantage.
B can pressure W; it is W (not B) who should be under pressure and defending.
If you kick W on at R5, W extends to Q5 -- now W is 'heavier' (a bigger burden than the single stone ) --
then you jump to O4: continue to pressure W.

Already confused. Fix your shape at O4.
W cannot link up to -- you continue to split W, attack W.

W gives you a chance to finally play O4...

...but your thinking here is "just to stay in the corner".
This thinking and this exchange - are both not good.
For one thing, you still have a weakness at R3.

W hits the vital point.

R4. Study the continuation.

R1.

S8.

Wrong shape. K17.

Connect -- then C11 is not atari.

Slow. is thin -- did you consider to cut him off and fight ?

Q17. Your R16 is kind of similar to --
you didn't think about to cut off W and fight.
Even if you want R16, you still block at Q17 first --
then, when W hanes at Q18, then you have a choice.

P16.

Good.

R9. A recurring problem: you don't think about the strengths and weaknesses of your enemy groups. Same problem with : you didn't cut off . Same problem with : you didn't think to cut off .
Here, you didn't think to cut off W with the hane at R9.
W can just connect back (e.g. R8).

Same problem. Why didn't you think about killing W -- starting with R9 hane ?

... Confused. All you have done is force W to link up everything nicely, AND you ended in GOTE.

Think about sente and gote.

Strange. Locally, these are better: G15, or E17, or K18.

Why. Do you see that even with , you are still not alive.
So does not help you live -- W can play J19.

101 Confused. W made a mistake ( missing J19 ).
You can live immediately with J19. Why not ?!

Somehow the SGF-full method doesn't work on iOS 7.x (at least not for Safari and another browser):