A few top of the head comments.

What, no ladder?

Solid connection.

White saves one stone.

Aji keshi.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Regarding move 4, the 3-4 point like this is a classic 'make the chinese inefficient' move, since if black makes the chinese formation, white can complete the corner enclosure and has a solid low stone on the bottom. Black's goal with the chinese formation is to attack the invading stone to make territory on the bottom (and the side), but with the corner enclosure in place, it limits black's profit. At least at a pro level, my understanding is that the majority (but not all) pros feel that it's better for black to approach the white 3-4 stone at that point.

In S2W's variation from to there is a ladder, but unfortunately it is white's three stones that are caught in it after one move. I think black's fight should be favourable if white goes the other way as well, so I'm inclined to think the double hane may be an overplay.

I find the trade up to 104 interesting, but it's important that white come back to the upper left at some point, both to use the aji of the captured stone to take more of the side, and also to make sure his corner group lives decently.

For some minor endgame quibbles: at 110, you can play one point to the right to capture those stones in sente. Also, at 128, you can push to C5, since black's attempt to cut you off will be gote due to shortage of liberties.

I pretty much open up 4-4 and 3-4 against everything, since my 3-4 joseki are still really bad, so it forces me to learn them. Maybe I should switch to double 3-4 and speed it up a little =).

@S2W: Thanks for the pointers. I went for the stones in the middle since I was already undercut on the top side, so I was pretty certain there wasn't enough points left there to turn the game around.

@Bill: omg, missing that ladder... The other moves I pretty much regretted immediately after I played them.

@skydyr: Cool to know, I only know some general opening principles, when it comes to specific fuseki I'm often lost.


Yeah, I know my endgame is not the best, but I decided to first spend my time more on reading practice, I will definitely tackle it at some point in the future.

On the contrary, you won this game thx to better endgame. You got the endgame in all 4 corners after 114.

Before, you got Into bad middle game due to heavy. Lower left group, after missing the ladder. In late middle game you attacked from strength i/o towards it. Good game!

I try to make at least one massive blunder in each review in case I give the reader the impression that I know something about the game.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Don't worry, I'm sure I've made much worse mistakes posting before. Please don't look for them.

Its been a long time since I took such a beating, but this game I got completely trashed. I think I played a little to fast, but my opponents two invasions still went way too well, I guess there really is something to hane at the head of two^^. Any help is welcome.

Two quick things to think about that sum up most of the early problems:

1) Don't let your shape get broken. In both invasions, your opponent pushed up and you couldn't respond well. Better not to give this opportunity and keep everything connected.

2) If your opponent is pushing on the 2nd line, KEEP GOING! They don't call the second line the line of defeat for nothing. I guarantee you'll get a better stone/point ration than 1/slightly less than 1 with yours.

Also, when your opponent invades like that, and you want to take the outside (as you indicate with your play) it's important to keep your shape without too many cutting points, and to be willing to give up a few points to accomplish your strategic goal.

More later when I have time.

If someone could have a look at this I would be grateful. I've played more than usual recently and it goes well most of the time. I have one recurring problem though: My mojos rarely amount to anything. My opponent invades and from that point on my game just falls apart.

To address your main question:

builds a moyo and that's it. Good moyos are built while doing something else. invades because White has his hands free to do so. While attacking the invasion, your wall becomes stronger but it has no purpose towards the bottom.

Technically should continue the attack from the weak stones towards the strong stones. Now you are squeezing out the toothpaste.

These and other remarks come back in below sgf.

Cheers

Some thoughts:

: Because white played high, this is a bit soft. The 2 space high pincer is typical, though it can be complicated. The one space low may also work. Pincering is a good choice in general here. The rest of the exchange seems reasonable for black to me.

: It may be worth considering splitting the left or approaching this stone from the left, since white has a lot of potential on the left, but the topside potential is limited by black's low stone at P17. Through seems good for black.

seems really slow. The corner group is alive and doesn't need any help right now. Better to approach the bottom left directly, or play another big move like that. At trading the rest of the side for the corner is not big enough, I think, and you could instead consider the 3-3 point or C4 to gouge out the corner or keep white small there.

At , C9 attacks white's shape. If white takes E8, black takes C8 to peep and connect under anytime. If white takes C8, black takes E8 to peep, and if white takes D8, you can take D10 and leave white heavy with an empty triangle to boot.

At you may want to peep at G10 first. It's hard to attack this group now, though, because white can play B10 to live at any time. It's worth considering if there's a good black invasion into the lower left corner now that black is strong there.

Later, around white is trying to make sabaki here. With to , though, black takes a vacation from the fight, and lets white get two moves in a row locally, so black fails to benefit. Another option, at is to fill at R15, and if white lives in the corner, just control the side stone with P10 as a follow-up.

is an odd place to resign, as white was already alive here. Black also has decent center potential, with a move or two around K5. There's still a decent reduction of the bottom left corner left, and the top is wide open to turn a lot of that into dame. The game certainly look playable to me.

Thanks, as always the variations are very helpful.

I played a game just now that was a lot like this, my attacks usually start to fizzle once my opponent starts pushing against my stones. Maybe its time to reread Attack and Defense again =)

One conceptual idea, if you don't do it already, is to put yourself in your opponents shoes. You've just created a weak group. Which points would really help you to take? Which points can you ignore and still make it out safe? Which would make you cry if your opponent took them? Does the order matter? Where would you like to cut your opponent to make something of the fight?

Now turn it around and figure out how to attack those points, either by taking them directly or making them bad indirectly.

Inspirational thought of the day:
The more I play go, the more I feel like influence is completely useless...

I'm not much stronger than you, so take anything I say with a grain of salt, but move 86 seems to work particularly poorly with the influence you'd built up to that point. After you played it, you found yourself pushing black into the center and being uncertain about which side to defend. I think 86 at O11 would have let you seal black in on the right side and build a huge center territory from which you could work on reducing black's territory around the edges. Black had a territorial lead, but I think the game would have been close.

I know that I was squeezing the toothpaste there, but I failed to find a move that actually contains black.

Does O11 really work? I looked at it in the game, but I'm pretty sure I dismissed it immediately because of the elephant jump it forms with Q9

I think black could make you sacrifice the Q9 stone and get some more territory on the side, but preserving your center is more important than that single stone. I don't think black can completely break into the center… it's amazing how hard it is to break through a weak wall when ALL the ladders work for the other side. That's one of the things influence is good for. It's possible there's something I missed, though!

At any rate, white's only hope in this game is to make a big center to combat black's big upper left. I think O11 would at least have had a good chance of making that work.

Ah! Time to switch to the New Fuseki.

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

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I wish it were that easy^^. Man, what would I give for an opening move between 4-4 and 3-4.