I wouldn't call a misplay at all. White got a huge corner and black got 4 floaty stones that you can attack. At white should perhaps atari the stone instead of capturing right away, to split black further, and similarly, actually capturing at or so was too slow, and white should have descended straight away at K17.

The other big issue is that white let black get away with the weakness at N6 for far too long. Cutting there much earlier would have been quite advantageous for white, splitting black into 3 groups. So long as white killed the bottom group or built up massive strength in the center, white would have been able to neutralize black's left side significantly better.

Thanks skydyr.

Well, guess I screwed up on the followup and not the move itself, good thing you pointed that out, gotta burn those followups into my memory =)

How is it even possible that I get worse every game? If this **** continues I'll soon be 30k again...

I don't feel very confortable making comments as I'm very not a strong player but... seems to me that you followed to much your opponenent... I think I would have taken the corner first... maybe on hoshi ? so that you can take another corner if white approach...

Also 31 looks on the wrong orientation to me, I would have played it on C16 as by move 33, you extend toward white thickness is it ?

_________________
Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

At move 79 you fall into a cutting trap. Your big group is now disconnected. There is an opportunity to live with it a few moves later but the major point is that when facing a choice between giving up some territory or giving up a connection between two heavy groups, then you should always sacrifice the territory. At the beginner level, those who keep their groups connected will usually win.

- stay connected (and cut the opponent)
- count your liberties (and those of the opponent)
- read 3 moves deep for almost every move

Look again at 79. Think about what you may have been thinking at that moment. And think again how to preserve connection with minimal loss.

Don't be too harsh on yourself either. Take the bare minimum of good play into account. Put it into practice. Develop some mental toughness. See http://senseis.xmp.net/?DieterVerhofsta ... mesmanship

Cheers!

Well, I managed to create another abomination



The only positive thing I have to say is that I knew the last sequence would fail, but I was pretty far behind, so I just played it out for the lulz^^

I dont really need a review, but I have one question:

W22: I feel like at some time during the game I should have attacked that stone, but I never found a good way, any ideas?

About , why did you think you should've attacked it ?

If you want to attack something, you must have at least one
good reason for it (and the more good reasons, the better.)
So, what are your reasons ?

Even if your reason is you just want to practice fighting
and attacking, (and not concerned at all whether
the attack was good for Black or not),
all you care about is learning how to attack,
that's OK — as long as you are aware that
your attack may turn out to be misguided.

After 27 I really didn't know what to do. Most of the groups were at least somewhat safe, I coudn't find a good way to build a huge moyo and white didn't have more potential, so no reason for a reckless invasion(this changed shortly afterwards....). The only thing that seemed out of place was that one lone white stone, so I felt like it would be the point to look at.

Hi Pak, is gote. Too early. You didn't have to reply.
You had sente and could do whatever you wanted.

Ok, time for some journal updates =)

- Revisited Attack and Defense, specifically the Attacking part, gonna focus on Invasions next
- Still doing my Tsumego, 50 every day is hard because of university, but I manage most of the time
- Playing a little more, I try for 2-3 games a day and make it more often than not .

And here the latest game, I didn't feel terrible about the game as a whole, though I lost because of a stupid endgame blunder....

Main question: How should I have dealt with the invasion on the right side? I feel like I should have gotten more out of my wall.

I guess I'll go back to once a week updates, that seems to be not too much work.

Played 1 game a day
Did about 250 Tsumego over the week

life has been busy, but in August lots of free time is coming my way, so I hope I can get some more games in then.

Here is a game I just played, losses like that are always hard to swallow x.X

You did very well actually.

Although there were many opportunities to finish that dragon on a massive scale, the last one was 168. I leave it to you to calculate what you could have done instead and why.

On another note, I believe you shouldn't resign here. Although you are behind by a good 10-15 points, it's your turn and there are still many points to take. At this level, the opponent can easily make a mistake which is bigger than yours.

My advice:

- don't resign, especially not at a point where your emotions are bad due to losing something which was rightfully yours

Try this for your next games.

Yeah, I looked at it afterwards and it was closer than it seemed, but I was so on tilt I doubt I would have gotten 10 more points out of that game.

Anyway, still not 100% sure, but this looks like it might be the solution.



I often hear that good players spend a lot of time on the opening, but I wonder if this is the way for me, a lot of my losses come from mistakes like this. Maybe I should rush a little more in the beginning to have more time for the important fights.....

Correct solution. This finishes the dragon and you cannot be cut.



It's subtle. There's no reason to rush during the opening but we amateurs should expect no magic from it. Our openings should be such that we're not at a big disadvantage when the real stuff begins: the middle game fighting and the endgame. This should be the mindset.

Studying tsumego is one aspect of improving reading but as you stated keeping your concentration at peak level during the close combats and during the endgame stages, when liberties become scarce, is vital to safeguard victory.

Many amateurs expect too much from the opening, because that's where imagination and creativity play a big role. Pros try to make a difference in the opening because they're close to perfect in the endgame. If you can carry a favourable opening into a comfortable victory, you're already close to professional strength. A funny way to think about it: a 2 stone handicap is a favourable opening.

Cheers

Soooo, 1 more test to go, then I will be free for a couple of weeks => more go

But I've been procrastinating like a boss, so I actually did a lot of things besides studying.

- New ava, to show my current dependence on energy drinks....
- About 30 Tsumego a day. Slowly the effects are showing, I get a lot better at killing groups. Once I have more free time I'll up those numbers, did 120 Tesuji problems and 50 L&D problems today, that definitely is doable.
- Read Kato Masao's book on the Chinese opening. Really interesting, I'm still a little clueless, but overall this opening seems a lot of fun, I'm gonna continue to play it more for the time being, even if it just forces me to learn some more 3-4 Joseki.
- Played more. Usually I tried to go for a game a day, but recently I have been consistently above that. Results are good as well, its almost like playing a lot helps you get better
- Regarding the last game I postet: Played the guy twice more and won both times, ahhh, sweet revenge.

And finally a question regarding the Chinese opening for someone who knows more than I do: How to respond to this approach? (My first instinct is saying 3-3 or 4-4)

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

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$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Today:
- 50 L&D problems
- 1 game, made a ton of mistakes, among them 3 major ones that together were more than enough to cost me this game

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 8 . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 7 3 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

If the game had gone this way up to , would you play ?

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

In the games that I won I did so both times(panic mode, since I didn't know the move). But no, I would block on the other side, so I guess 3-3 is the answer?

- Did 100 problems (a little more heavy on the Tesuji side, but I had some L&D in there)
- Played 3 Games, won all of them (but all against weaker players, so this was a must)

Right now I'm super motivated to actually try to improve, lets hope summer is kind to me =)