Hi folks,

played this game recently. It was rather fun. My main focus was to think through my own moves; that is, not to rely on joseki etc. and try to play creatively. (It helped that I don't know any two space approach joseki ) I ended winning by killing the center group, and I'm fairly certain I was ahead as soon as I established my center group.

Besides specific moves, please note if you see any repeated or habitual mistakes, and direction of play issues in the first 40~50 moves.

On a separate note, I can't seem to link an sgf through pandanet social, so I just attached it.

Thanks again, y'all.

Hi Cynosure, here's your SGF:

Hi Cynosure,

bad. Probably one of your bad habits -- this kind of contact. For example, better at R5, kosumi.

- locally, you first make a broken shape for yourself. See also Toothpaste .

strange. Why not turn solidly Q8 ?

similar shape problem as -- White would push at D5, making a broken shape for you. See also Elephant's eye .

Loose. Did you consider either atari C4 or atari D5 instead ?

same bad habit as . For example, better at C15 kosumi.

wrong shape. The proper basic shape here is extend up at M4, not drop, because then you allow White to take the good point M4.
M4 is the shared local vital point of this shape.

White also missed the vital point M4.

eating junk food -- bad habit. The 2 White stones at Q4 are too small. Nobody wants or cares about them, at this moment in the game.

mistake. Why ? You study this shape and figure out why this is a mistake.

bad shape.

Up to here, you can see most of the mistakes for both B and W are basic shape problems. Not direction issues.

Black got pretty lucky that white didn't connect his dying group and took a move worth a couple points instead in the game.

The biggest issue I saw for black was a willingness to start lots of little weak groups without working to connect them or build potential on a large scale, and also a general choice not to attack white's invading stones very strongly, but just to live small locally while white got strong on the outside.

I would recommend trying to concentrate on having all of your stones working together over the next few games, and making sure that your stones have their heads poking out into the center as a minimum, so that you don't fall way behind in the battle for influence. In addition, just because your opponent invades somewhere or pressures your group doesn't mean it's a reasonable play. Consider how you can fight back before reacting submissively to live in gote.