Don't give weak enemy stones leverage to reinforce themselves: 11, 17
You clearly know how to attack with a capping play: 37, 67, 99

You go for killing, rather than safely surrounding. This is a risky strategy but 1) it's fun when it works and 2) it is more ambitious in terms of reading ability, so I don't discourage it. There's always time to become more patient later. In this game, White's top stones lived, without too much damage. His right side died and that was almost game over. When the top stones die too, it was the end. You will see that such an aggressive strategy will sometimes backfire and learn where to find the balance yourself.

A move like 143 shows sharpness in life & death: reducing eye liberties before mutual liberties, that goes a long way!

Well done.

A couple of quick comments, to supplement Knotwilg's.

The iron pillar at K-17 attacks both sides without strengthening either.

Too close to your own strength.

Your opponent has expended 24 stones in the top half of the board to make 3 points of territory plus one weak group. You can't exactly rest on your laurels, however. To play so atrociously thus far he must have other strengths to his game. At this point there are a number of good plays, including Knotwilg's suggestion. A simple wedge on the bottom side at K-03 is one idea, but I kind of like the extension to D-10 on the left side, attacking White's weak group on a large scale. Can White make life in the top left quadrant? From the play so far I wouldn't bet on it.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Thank you both so much for your comments. This is very very encouraging!!!

Here is another won game. I don't have time to play too much so I try to take time for one game a day. I wish I was presenting a loss as I tend to learn a lot more from them, but I feel like I really didn't play well in this game. It was a lot more quite than the other game, so I invite you to point out any bad plays I made

Thank you so much in advance!

Hello all!

Here is a game I won on time but I felt behind the entire time... It feels like I'm really struggling in the opening and I don't know how to improve there. I overconcentrate and then it's suicide mission to come back into the game by trying to invade my opponent's territory. I would really appreciate any comment on this game and advise to improve in the opening phase please.

Thank you a lot in advance!

I think that maybe you get over-concentrated because you are too concerned about your own stones. In that regard your worst play was perhaps , connecting your ponnuki stones. Black botched the attack, however. was also bad, for a similar reason. was bad shape, and failed to keep the Black group separated.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

The other game: well played, above the opponent's level

+ direction of play: 25 and leading up to it, 29, 71
+ taking big points: 63, 111
+ good sente taking and endgame: 129, 145
- misjudging strength of groups: 31, 45
- cutting live groups (a special case of the above): 99 and following

From this I would say: every time you make a positional judgment and decide to play elsewhere, it's well timed. You have a good sense of direction and a keen eye for big points. Sometimes you get carried away and play a purposeless sequence.

So it might be a case of exploiting your strengths even more: evaluate the board more often because you seem to be making good decisions then.

Thank you both for your great comments! I learn so much through them, it's incredible.

Bill: these comments are really spot on. I had found few of them in my own analysis but I still missed a lot. I feel like I have a better understanding of where I went wrong, starting from the opening.

Knotwilg: I really appreciate the kind words. It is easy to concentrate only on the negative when trying to progress, but it's great to also hear about one's strength. And again, your comments are really useful. I spend a lot of time doing tsumego and tesuji, which might be why I get a better sense of big points, sente, etc. But I think I'm going to spend some time as well to study Pro games, just to give me a better instinct with good shapes, favorable sequences and group strengths.

Hello!

I'm back after a quite long break. I play chess at a little higher level than where my Go is, but I can't stay long from the Goban I have done tsumego from time to time since the beginning of the year, but not much playing. I played this game recently, which I won, but I feel like I made a lot of mistakes. Could I get some quick reviews to help me identify my mistakes please?

Thanks a lot!

Q14/R14.

Q17. Don't let double atari -- the corner is very big.

take.

Huge loss by here.

strange. C6 direction...

C6/D6 double approach.

strange. C6 direction...

C6/D6 double approach.

slow, small.

heavy, slow. J5 ?

heavy, slow.

M3.

O3 bamboo joint (has corner follow-ups).

bad timing, killing useless stones.

, , good. K6 possibility.

, pass/gote.

LR corner is fishy. Consider something like R6.

Locally, I'd just take cash, B9.

C8, B10 hane.

good.

Take!

strange. R6 area.

slow, pass.

huge.

S7 push much better shape; game move is full of connect-and-dies later.

Both and missed the vital point S7.



109 L13

110, 111 See Toothpaste.

118, 119 See Toothpaste.

123 R9

132 small

Thank you very much for your very useful comments! I learned a lot.

Here is another game that I won (I haven't lost in a while, but I don't play a lot). It is full of mistakes so maybe you see a pattern in my problems? I think I have trouble invading but also defending against invasions. Thanks a lot in advance for any comment (full game or even just a few key moves).

One pattern that I see is that you play defensive moves too easily, even when you are stronger.
In a larger sense, you don't appear to consider relative strengths of groups when making decisions.

Start asking yourself questions like "Who is stronger here?" or "Am I attacking or defending" or "Can I make a move that attacks and defends at the same time?"





BTW, note the similarity of variations and possibilities at moves 25 and 39. The leaning kosumi is an example of a move that both attacks and strengthens the attacker while doing so. Add it to your repertoire and you will become a stone stronger overnight.

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