here's an opening that I thought I didn't do too bad with. I was behind but I didn't make any huge blunders (that I could see). My opponent left. That's happened 4 or 5 times on KGS. Is there some protocol that I'm not following? I'm trying not to take too long between moves.

So...what do you think? Where could I have made better moves?

http://files.gokgs.com/games/2010/8/1/T ... ukulra.sgf

I hope I did this right.

edit: I was playing white.

Almost, try wrapping in SGF in brackets. If you hit "quote" under this post, you will see it.

okay thanks.

8: Contact moves (by which I mean either directly touching as here, or diagonally touching) are uncommon without more of a reason when there are few stones around (they're often good when your nearby stones are weak your opponent's are strong, for example). One point to the left would be a more normal idea.

10-20: These are all nice, natural moves.

22: This move is inefficient. You can instead hane with M14 or jump with N13. Your move creates an "empty triangle" because your opponent isn't occupying O13, which makes the move inefficient/too slow.

You could also leave the "contact fight" at this point. A good rule of thumb is that it's safe to do so when you have 5 liberties for your group. In fact by this measure it would've been fine to do so earlier. It's urgent now to make an extension from this group. Something around O10 (Edit: I meant Q10!) looks good. Note that when your opponent makes an extension from the bottom right with move 27 at Q10 your stones feel cramped. There are so many of them that you'd like to extend further than Q12, but you can't with your opponent's Q10 in place.

34: It's better to make an extension to around K3 than play here. You're blocking, but there's nothing of yours on the other side! If black now plays in the K4 area, your stones will be under a serious attack.

36: Good, you got the extension in.

40: This move doesn't do much at all. Note that it forms an empty triangle. You can just play elsewhere now, but if you continue in this area, something like H6 (mid game) or G2 (endgame) looks better.

42: This area is safe. Better to play H6 (jump ahead of your opponent) or leave the area.

48: It is in fact okay to leave this out. It's "just endgame". Of course, you're nearly in the endgame, so it's not so bad.

50: This is too close. You'll be able to go further if you don't touch black's stones. Something like H14 would be "faster" and also safer (not as easy for black to cut off).

54, 60, 66, 78: None of these moves do much (there was no threat particularly, and they don't threaten anything themselves).

At your level, you will improve quite rapidly, if you review this game in a month, you'll think "I'd never play this move now". Therefore, I won't overwhelm you with details, but mention a few simple tips.

1) Move 7 enters your sphere of influence--you have one stone in the upper right, and an enclosure in the upper left. It is natural to pressure this stone, but when you make a contact play, it naturally strengthens itself.

At move 11, you can already see how Black's single stone has become strong, stronger than your stones on either side.

A better move might be the knight's move at R14, or perhaps a pincer. The knight's move strengthens your stone in the corner, and therefore puts more pressure on him.

This is counterintuitive, but contacting your opponent is bad for attacking or pressuring, instead it's usually a defensive move.

2) Move 34: this move is slow--it doesn't give your stones a base (an area to make eyes).

3) At move 44, the area he's building up in the lower left is much bigger than the corner you're going to protect for white. Keep your eye on the big picture--you have to find a way to jump in to his area and keep it from growing.

This is scary. At first, you will often die. But you will lose anyway if you just give him areas like the lower left.

P.S. They probably left because you were behind and they wanted you to resign. But it is very rude to just leave.

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Occupy Babel!

Thank you very much for taking the time to review my game. I tend to play with a siege mentality because I sometimes get decimated by attacks that just rip my formations apart. Those moves you mentioned were all attempts to put some extra locks on the doors.

I'll try to be a little more assertive.

Thanks again.

Tom

Thank you very much for taking the time to review my game. I really appreciate the input.

I do try to invade but my fighting skills aren't very good yet and I usually get surrounded then annihilated. I'm probably waiting too long to launch my landing craft.

Your note about my surrendering is well taken. I sure don't want to waste other peoples time. On the other hand, I'm not sure how I'll ever get better if I wave the white flag as soon as I fall behind. I need to get some fighting practice somehow.

Thanks again,

Tom

Don't sweat it about resigning--I didn't mean to say you were in the wrong--his behavior was very rude.

As you play more, you'll get a feel for when it's appropriate, but if you worry about it now, you'll just end up resigning when it may not be appropriate. Wait until you're 1) obviously behind and 2) you can't think of any way to change the situation. If you can still try to kill something, or you can still try to invade, you'll often want to do that first, so things are more clear to you.

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Occupy Babel!

On subject: if you aren't counting the score, you probably shouldn't resign. The two go hand in hand.

Even if you lose some 50 stone monster, if it was all inside the opponent's territory before the invasion, the balance of territory hasn't changed very much after, has it? Count the score before resigning.

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1k KGS

In last terms group class Guo Juan told us (referring to the 5k - 10k players) to never resign in these situations, because we're all making such terrible mistakes that the game can easily turn around.

Now, if you're deep into the end game and making wild invasions just to annoy your opponent that's something else entirely. But the middle game position of a 25 kyu battle tells us virtually nothing about who the eventual winner will be.