You are leaving a lot of positions thin and unfinished, with bad aji waiting to bite you later. Especially when you have a won game, consider adding a thick safe move to finish off a position. Also, there is a capturing tesuji you should learn, which came up three times in this game!

at L4 would complete the capture of 6 B stones and create a strong outside wall with no bad aji. This would be a clearly won game. Instead you play a speculative move which provokes a fight.

at L5 would greatly strengthen your position below and threaten to kill the surrounded B side group. In contrast, if B gets to play L5, the balance of power completely changes. (As an aside, N7 was bad, forcing B to push through and break the W position. See if you can find a tesuji to capture the two B stones.)

is quite thin and also unnecessary. W had a tesuji to capture the 5 outsice cutting stones. at Q10 would have been a nice tesuji to punish the W overplay, capturing some outside stones and hence killing the W inside stones.

compensates largely for the big loss on the right side. W needs to settle his weak group here to consolidate the win. Giving up the 5 stones to the left on a small scale looks like a good solution. L9 is a fine idea, but a bit thin -- holding back to L8 would be much better. This move makes an immediate eye, and allows W to resist K6 with K7. Still, W got a fine result through .

at G7 is a little off the mark, as B demonstrated. Connecting at N5 would be fine, leaving 10 B stones cutoff and nearly dead. Just give up 5 stones if B invests another move to attack them. Locally J6 is the shape move, preempting any attack on this group and thereby threatening the B stones to the left. After B gets this move, instead of playing K6 (losing liberties), W should play G5 to keep the B stones to the left under attack. Or more simply block at J7 to give them up on a small scale. This still leaves W with an easy win.

:w102: is a thank-you move, forcing B to play strengthening moves he would like to play anyway. It is difficult for W to make territory with this move -- there is no moyo in sight.

:w130: is again very thin, as B again demonstrated. (:b147: should just capture at A6 to connect, leaving W dead). If you need to defend here, C4 is totally safe. And again there was a tesuji to capture the three outside B cutting stones.

:w190: seeks complications for no good reason. Surely G15 leads to a completely won game with no complications. :w206: should still be G15, planning to give up 2 stones if B cuts. Or switch to Q17, more or less asking B to resign.

Hi Christopher,

A few questions.

The board after :

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . O . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ {AR C12 D15}
$$ {AR D15 C12}
$$ {AR E17 J17}
$$ {AR J17 E17}
$$ {AR L17 P17}
$$ {AR P17 L17}
$$ {AR Q15 R10}
$$ {AR R10 Q15}
$$ {AR Q5 R8}
$$ {AR R8 Q5}
$$ {AR P4 M3}
$$ {AR M3 P4}
$$ {AR E3 K3}
$$ {AR K3 E3}
$$ {AR C7 C10}
$$ {AR C10 C7}[/go]

What's the size of each of the above eight gaps ?
( For slant gaps, just approximate. )

Gap size is not the only factor when we choose a move.
For , did you consider the gap sizes ?

How many gaps are wider than the one you picked for ?Why didn't you pick one of the wider gaps ?