I agree the opening has been bad, but many players make to 7 kyu or so without understanding opening. If the midgame is strong, I'll believe balmung is 7 kyu.

Violence, for me it's 30 years ago for me that I was DDK to 5k
and I could grab some old kifu (I have some) to make probably even Balmung laugh.

I do not criticise the moves so much which go along a certain Go level (there will undoubtely also be many good ones among them),
it is this dicrepance that Balmung boasted in another thread having '1-3k fighting strength'
and losing by emotions,
while it appears to me that he has 10k fighting strength + boasting self-perception.

Let's not be *too* hard on Balmung. He's actually being a good sport for playing this game after the last thread he started.

I think every go player goes through a phase where they think they know something about this game. Then reality eventually (and painfully) forces its way into their brain...

Eventually you have to stop making excuses for yourself and accept that you're not as good as you hoped.

The invasion was a mistake I made when I had just woke up. So the best I can do now is try to gain profit from the stones.

No. Better is to simply forget those stones for now and move on (i.e. tenuki).
Continuing to play locally is being stubborn, throwing good money at bad
and only serves to help W -- removes bad aji for W and
gives W both more thickness and dead B stones.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm10 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X 5 |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . O . 3 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I hope Balmung is not considering this... this is pretty much the best thing ever for white.

Lets make this exchange first

in my opinion it was the better of the two responses aphelion had, but we will see how this plays out.
heres a variation

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B1-13cm10 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . X . 3 . 1 . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X 8 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 9 2 |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4 0 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 2 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

1-3 in the upper right are 11-13 I couldn't figure out how to get double digits in this diagram.

Like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ --------------
$$. . . . . . . |
$$. . . . . . . |
$$. X . . . . . |
$$. . . , X 8 . |
$$. . . 7 6 9 . |
$$. . . 5 4 0 . |
$$. . . 3 1 2 . |
$$. . . O X O . |
$$. . . . O X . |
$$. . . O . . . |
$$. . . . X . . |
$$. . . . X . . |
$$. . . O . O . |
$$. . . . O . . |
$$. . . O X . . |
$$. . . , X . . |
$$. X . X . . . |
$$. . . . . . . |
$$. . . . . . . |
$$ --------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bm11
$$ --------------
$$. . . . . . . |
$$. . . . . . . |
$$. X . 3 . 1 . |
$$. . . , X O . |
$$. . . X O X 2 |
$$. . . X O O . |
$$. . . X X O . |
$$. . . O X O . |
$$. . . . O X . |
$$. . . O . . . |
$$. . . . X . . |
$$. . . . X . . |
$$. . . O . O . |
$$. . . . O . . |
$$. . . O X . . |
$$. . . , X . . |
$$. X . X . . . |
$$. . . . . . . |
$$. . . . . . . |
$$ --------------[/go]

While this is obviously good for white, is there a local variation you would prefer? I agree with comments that tenuki is best so maybe b can use some aji later, but I don't see anything much better locally.

Tenuki is the only option here.

The mentality here is to realize that you dun goofed, plain and simple. You might be able to utilize the aji of the stones... later... but right now, he's just helping white for an inferior exchange.

And ten bucks says that he'll feel comfortable with the sequence I mentioned.

It's quite common in many players to mess up, and then go into damage control mode, and then feel a bit proud of yourself for not totally falling apart, but this mentality can be dangerous. It's always important to recognize when you've fallen behind, and have the maturity to go:

Yeah... I'm losing... but... LOOK OVER THERE!

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm10 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Emphasizing the rest of the board is much more important than suddenly switching into sacrifice mode, unless you can see a clear sacrifice sequence that is both forced and good for you.

Stones like R9 are like zits. It's really best if you just leave them alone as soon as you realize what they are.

Later, start a fight nearby.

Even later, maybe you'll see a way to use them that gives a clear benefit. That's when you do something with them.

But never throw good stones after bad.

Every decent go player will eventually learn the sunk costs fallacy and avoid it, even if they don't know it by that name.

Violence,
as a humble DDK with time and distraction issues (I really hope these are the major reasons for my slow to inexistent growth) I can only say: realizing I made exactly this error in a number of my recent games could become a major boost. So

THANK YOU!

for spelling it out.

there are korean baduk saying that is true for most cases.
"if you dont know what to play...tenuki"

But this is such a bitter pill to swallow! I blame Aesop getting to me a good decade and a half before Kageyama. I act on a bad idea, I know I should tenuki but Aesop begins telling me a story about a little boy and a nettle...

I'm looking forward to you getting your feet back on track and the game becoming interesting. Remember that, even if you are at disadvantage, playing the best, most honest moves you can find is still the road to victory; rather than the dark seductions of overplays.

My pleasure.

I think that's also a Chinese saying too. And I'm pretty sure I've heard someone say it in Japan, during a lecture. It's pretty good advice.

I overheard the following at a Go Congress that I found pretty hilarious:
"Why did you keep playing here? It's just helping black..."
"Well, I felt like I had tripped and fallen into this bad situation, and I was trying to crawl my way out."
"Dude, screw crawling, teleport! *tenuki slam*"

I now want to see an aesop's fable about the psychokinetic who fell.

At any rate, let's see how black picks himself up from this situation and continues the game.