I am a quick learner and am generally quite good at any type of game, more especially those involving strategy. Chess hasn't interested me since I was a kid, but Magic and strategy board games I do quite enjoy as I can pick them up and win by the end of the evening (yeah, I'm that guy, sorry...) I picked up Go after watching Hikaru No Go, and am enamored with the culture of the game (though I can only play online where I am...)

So now I'm faced with a humbling truth - I absolutely suck at go! I learned the rules, I understand basic shapes, can do life-or-death problems, I understand sente/gote and I think my fuseki is ok (I don't know many/any joseki yet). I've been mainly learning by watching lectures on YouTube.

I can't beat SmartGo on my iPad in 9x9 unless I have 3 stones, then we're even. I can't beat anyone online, thought I've played less than 10 online games so far.

My last game, a 2+ dan on IGS issued me a challenge last night with a 9 stone handicap, I accepted, and my proudest moment so far, I feel like I resigned at the right time and didn't further waste his time! I was so happy to "feel" that was the correct "move" and I think that's a stone up for me Anyway, maybe some dan players could have taken my seat and turned it around, I can't read that well, but either way, I'm still stuck with the fact that I suck!

How do I post the game record here for some advice?

This is a fairly common tool for sharing SGF files. http://eidogo.com/upload

If you play on OGS they have a fairly easy review system, so you can just post a link to your game and others can add reviews. https://online-go.com/play

If you play on KGS your game files can be found here: https://www.gokgs.com/archives.jsp

http://eidogo.com/#vIq69RUV
(how do I embed that game here?)

Besides everywhere, where did I go wrong? I know there are things I must have missed, but here is what I did see after review:

I see move 24 as a major mistake pushing up instead of down, after that I should have read out the ladder, and 48 was just plain wrong, I guess I was playing quickly and trying to go after that panuki eye? I didn't see the atari at 108, tenuki at 144 because I lost the mouth, 169-170 I couldn't read that far ahead to keep the dumpling.

If I'd done those things differently, I still would have lost, I'm sure, but what is bad about my play?

I find it quite hard to believe that black was a 2+ dan in that game. Or he was crazy drunk.

Or he was deciding to toy with his prey?

No, I'm just short on coffee and somehow got the colors flipped in my head. Black was playing like a player new to the game would be expected to play.

9x9 games and life-and-death practice would be a good thing to work on. If you'd like to post one of your 9x9 games I think there would be a lot more to talk about than this full board game. Your mistakes are basics that all new players have to work through and have little to do with full board strategy.

You went wrong primarily by playing too many contact moves. Try ignoring your opponent's last move and playing in a different part of the board.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Work on ladders and tsumego in general.

Forget about fuseki, joseki and similar nonsense for now.

I would say don't worry to much right now, just play and have fun. You will improve quickly. I added some comments to the beginning.

http://eidogo.com/#4e7ztLFSh

Here is a 9x9 I played against a robot, I don't know what the final score was, but I played Japanese timing, and I'm trying to play quickly so I can play against humans without boring them. Also, I think I play about as well if I take a day to play that game or if I play it in 120 seconds, so my instincts are about caught up with my knowledge and experience I suppose...

But seriously, how do you embed the games here?

Thank you for the insight, I understand some of it, but will take time to look more and study some of the consequences of different moves.

And I think maybe I figured out how to embed?

Hi CelloFingers,
If you look at an SGF, it's all plain text.

Just embed the entire text of the SGF inside these tags:

[sgf] ( Include the entire text of the SGF here. ) [/sgf]

Example:

Oh, thanks!! Great to know. It was unclear in the tip section I read.