A hard-fought game.

[tekesta]

I just played the following game on IGS. I must say it was a hard fought game, especially toward the end. I'm sure that if Black killed the S7 group with placement at S6 he would've won the game; the Black S11 group was a big one. White broke out at 102 to prevent from being cut off and to create cutting points in Black's wall. White 122 instead of 164, should've been the move to reinforce, so I can say that Black let that White group live as he was busy trying to contain the White group in the center. Otherwise, I'd have to get at least 14 points from the center. Or... suppose that after Black 123 at S6 and White 124 at T6, Black tenukis and lets White play at P9 in her effort to link up the two one-eyed groups on the right side, while using sente to take profit across the board. Among other things, I took the time to tenuki when I felt it necessary. Finally, Black's unsuccessful invasions in the endgame seem to have made up the lion's share of the difference in score. Much obliged in advance for your kind commentary.

[schawipp]

On move 71 you (I assume, you were black(?)) played an empty triangle, which should always give you some kind of electro-shock in order to look for better moves

My suggestion is to play the extension of R8 instead (R7 would be too far, since white has some forcing moves and could separate from R7). The three stones Q/R/S13 can not be separated if you take a bit care. That should make easy life for the group. At the end of the game, you lost by ~36 points and this captured group finally consisted of 18 stones. Thus, the life / death status of that group was decisive for the outcome of the game and after the w move 118, there is no point of continuing the game from black's side (I am the right one to say that ).

Maybe more comments follow if I find some more time...

Edit:

Finally, Black's unsuccessful invasions in the endgame seem to have made up the lion's share of the difference in score.

Yes, those invasions were completely pointless. However - since white always responded inside own's territory - they did not change the final score. The game was decided by the Q10 group.

[tekesta]

Sorry if I did not say it at the beginning. I was playing as White in this game.

[lobotommy]

I'm currently going through this game and will left here some comments in a few moments.

[Joaz Banbeck]

[lobotommy]

One advice - try to replay two pro games a day, one move in 3-5 seconds, no deep thoughts, just for getting better shape intuition.

Ok, here are some comments hidden in the game below.

[edit] Some comments are exactly in the same places as Joaz's but we were working independently

[tekesta]

One advice - try to replay two pro games a day, one move in 3-5 seconds, no deep thoughts, just for getting better shape intuition.

I have been doing this a lot lately. Two or three game records a day - if I am not too exhausted from my day job. Sometimes I even do five. My current collection is a mixed bag. One or two Honinbo Jowa games, a couple of Honinbo Dosaku games, a couple of Huang Longshi games, Shusaku's Ear-reddening Game, a Gu Li vs Kim Jiseok game, five Lee Changhos, and a Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke game from 1953. As well I have a couple of issues of Go World magazine from 1991 and a couple of Go Winds issues from Yutopian Enterprises. Since I do not possess a professional's powers of analysis and intuition, I don't try to think about the meaning of the moves as I play through a game record, but rather I just store it in my brain as background information to inform my decisions when doing tsumego or playing actual games. Soon enough I'll reach amateur dan and have some understanding as to why X pro played Y way in a game. Until then the best I can do is just play through the game records and train my brain to recognize things that happen on a weiqi board.