I like playing a 4-4 & a 3-4 on the same side. This allows me the simple options of going for orthodox, mini-chinese, or micro-chinese fusekis, or approaching either of white's stones (assuming he plays in the empty corner). Of course, there's the chance he may approach with White4.

I prefer to approach the komoku, knowing B can double approach LL corner.

I've seen up to B5 in a number of recent pro games (though far less often than black going for low chinese), but I couldn't recall white playing anything other than backing off with a small knight (B7 in this case). W6 threw me a little bit and after weighing a number of options (pincering W6, backing off, 3-3 in the lower righthand corner), I decided that the double approach is the response that seems best given the board

Keep it simple.

To work with the UL corner stone.

I deliberated for longer than I expected because I wasn't entirely certain which side to block on. Playing out a few different scenarios, this seemed to work better for black.

The two moves that come immediately to my mind are this and the hane at B7. However, it seems like that move would allow things to get somewhat messier than I'd like.

Mood.

I think black 13 is a mistake - it's not very big at this stage. I would much rather play on lower right.

So after yelling at my computer long enough to make me feel better (but not so long as to compel my co-workers ask questions), I'm playing what I feel is the only reasonable response to W14. White has a number of very good follow-ups, but that's my fault at the end of the day. B13 & W14 actually illustrates one of the many problems I have with this game. On the one hand, I've had a lot of people (both online and in person) stress to me that I need to better protect my weak groups. At the same time, I've also been criticized for playing small while letting my opponent play bigger. After W12, the black group on the bottom left didn't look safe to me and so I played B13 to make certain it was. I expected white to extend from the wall facing his 4-4 stone at the top, at which point I was going to play W14 or attach under the white stone approaching the black 3-4 stone.

Until I thought blindgod played much better than 18k level.
The correct (pro) shape for could be something like B5? But that's very minor at these levels. is the first B move that's not so good.

I considered Q5, R5, S6, P2 & tenuki but didn't like any of them. To be completely honest, I don't like R6, but it seems the best of my options. I'm not certain if there's a way to protect my corner without giving a nice amount of influence to white. If there is, I don't see it.

First feeling. Continuations: