Requesting general review. So, I won this game but only because my opponent made a dumb mistake late game and gave me his corner.

I had two handicapped stones but I don't know how I fell behind by mid game. Thank you for the help.

I don't think you were as far behind as you think. I think the game was very close up to the point where you got the bottom right corner. I think you were quite ahead in the early middle game, but white made up a lot of ground in the center after that. If you made any mistakes, it was in not dealing with the center earlier.

Here are some comments. I think you played very well. I also tried to make it clear when I was sure of a comment and when I wasn't. Hopefully, others will correct any mistakes I made!

A few comments on the opening.



The variation on the right side is a bit advanced, but it shows how to use aji.

Main focus: Avoid passive play.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Major potential for improvement:
You tend to swallow dead stones small scale where bigger points are available

70, 72, 74, 80, 116

Another common technical issue:
don't attach to stones you want to attack; angle plays have a similar effect:

26, 30, (176: it works, but is not best style)

Missed opportunities to kill some vital stones

52, 162 (not easy to see perhaps)

You take territory, then reduce enemy moyo, which is a consistent strategy. You play some technically good moves (knight's moves, often)

Knotwilg, for black's 72 (below), you feel that A as played was slow. Where should black play instead? And how concerned should black be about the cuts at B or C?

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X X b O . . . O X . . X X . |
$$ | . . . X a . O X . , . . O . X X O O . |
$$ | . . X . O . X c . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . O . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . O O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X X . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . O . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X . X . . . O X X |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . O . . . . O O O O . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . O X . . X O X X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . O . O X X . X O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O . . . X . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

Thank you all for your review. I found them insightful and frankly... brilliant

My intuition may betray me, but it is hard for me to get too worked up about a cut from a stone that looks like this:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$
$$ X X .
$$ . O X
$$ . X .[/go]

I'm sorry if this was obvious, but it wasn't to me. However, after playing out a few more variations, I managed to answer my question.

I hope my reply was not taken in the wrong spirit! I meant literally that 1) I hadn't read anything out, so I could be wrong; 2) my intuition tells me that the cut is very unlikely to be successful. The zooming-in was meant to demonstrate graphically just how weak that stone is.

No worries. I didn't get all of that, but I didn't think you were criticizing