17k game review - what to focus on?

[BotX]

Hello everyone. I will attach one of my first 13x13 games (I am white) to this post and would be very glad if someone could have a look and analyse it.
I think I have a basic understanding of the game and can react to simple attacks, I know something about cutting points and shapes and have got a basic idea of what I want to achieve with my moves.
My goal is to reach 14k and I know I will have to play many more games in order to gain enough experience. However I would need some advice what to focus on while playing in order to get better at it. From my perspective I lost the game when I did not notice black was able to capture my group in the bottom left - so I will definitely work on being more aware of the board but I am also pretty sure that there might be some huge mistakes I did not notice.

I am looking forward to you answers and suggestions, thank you in advance.

[Shenoute]

Hello,

A few thoughts:

- reduce obvious blunders
- do not try to save every stone (white group could live easily before that)
- identify where eyespace is
- identify the biggest areas

I hope this helps

[BotX]

Hello,

A few thoughts:

- reduce obvious blunders
- do not try to save every stone (white group could live easily before that)
- identify where eyespace is
- identify the biggest areas

Thank you so far. I do not quite understand what you mean with identify where eyespace is. In I tried to take some territory from black and in the end I was able to create two eyes. What should I have done different there?

[Shenoute]

Thank you so far. I do not quite understand what you mean with identify where eyespace is. In I tried to take some territory from black and in the end I was able to create two eyes. What should I have done different there?

38 is not the time to take territory away from black since white group is not alive yet. If black had used to connect his stone on the second line, he would have killed white's group.
does not add any eyespace to your group, playing below does expand the room available to make two eyes (but this may not even have been sufficient to save white's group at this point).

[BotX]

Thank you so far. I do not quite understand what you mean with identify where eyespace is. In I tried to take some territory from black and in the end I was able to create two eyes. What should I have done different there?

38 is not the time to take territory away from black since white group is not alive yet. If black had used to connect his stone on the second line, he would have killed white's group.
does not add any eyespace to your group, playing below does expand the room available to make two eyes (but this may not even have been sufficient to save white's group at this point).

Now I get it. Thank you again.

[Charles Matthews]

General comment is that your approach is too direct.

You have to be looking for plays like at K12, at L5, at G4. These have meanings like "live quickly, and if Black captures one, move elsewhere", "take corner territory", "build a whole side".

[skydyr]

As another general comment, pay attention to connection. White seems to consistently overextend or otherwise allow black to cut apart white groups without being cut in return. Keeping stones connected is vital to not allowing them to be attacked, and disconnecting your opponent is similarly valuable.

[BotX]

General comment is that your approach is too direct.

You have to be looking for plays like at K12, at L5, at G4. These have meanings like "live quickly, and if Black captures one, move elsewhere", "take corner territory", "build a whole side".

As another general comment, pay attention to connection. White seems to consistently overextend or otherwise allow black to cut apart white groups without being cut in return. Keeping stones connected is vital to not allowing them to be attacked, and disconnecting your opponent is similarly valuable.

Thank you too. I guess I will pay the more attention the more I play. Some of my mistakes were really avoidable and would not happen on a 9x9 board.

[BotX]

I have anohter game to review and do not want to create another thread. In this game I got destroyed in the beginning of the game already and I have got no idea how I could have prevented it. My blunders in the late game are pretty embarrassing too but I know what I could have done better then.

[EdLee]

Hi BotX,

Game mistake. Ask yourself: Why connect ?
If you play a correct move here (there's more than one correct move),
you can win the game already. Can you find it ?

Just fix the cut at D9. Example: simply connects at D9.
Ask yourself: what is the status of Black's corner group ?

Again, ask yourself: why ?

Your is worse than pass -- you forced B to live.
Just fix the cut at D9.

B was already dead at .
But you forced B to live with your two big mistakes: and .

Before this, you had two cuts -- D9 and E11.
Your only fixes one of them (E11).
Can you find a move that fixes both cuts ?

at E9 fixes both cuts.
See skydyr's note in Post 7.

I got destroyed in the beginning of the game already and I have got no idea how I could have prevented it.

Black first killed himself in the corner.
He didn't destroy you; you destroyed your own position
when you forced B to come back from the dead to live!

General comment is that your approach is too direct.

See Charles's note in Post 6.
We see the same mistakes in this game: , --
you made "direct", contact, or near-contact moves that are bad for you,
without looking at the whole board situation (the big picture).

Again, a "direct" move to fix only one (E11) of two cuts:
you didn't look at the big picture to see you had two cuts, D9 and E11,
so you should've looked for one move to fix both cuts at once.

[BotX]

Now I see how bad I played that one. I did not find the correct solutuins except for
How can I improve at making those "indirect" moves. Is it something I learn by playing many more games? Or has someone resources about some common moves I could learn?

[EdLee]

Is it something I learn by playing many more games? Or has someone resources about some common moves I could learn?

Hi BotX,

It's different answers depending on different people: the age, the experience, the environment.

About how many total games have you played so far, since you started Go ?

Please see also this thread, and this thread .

[BotX]

Is it something I learn by playing many more games? Or has someone resources about some common moves I could learn?

Hi BotX,

It's different answers depending on different people: the age, the experience, the environment.

About how many total games have you played so far, since you started Go ?

Please see also this thread, and this thread .

On OGS I played 30 games so far. I started playing go with my little brother and we had a few 19x19 games, but none of us played really good. Afterwards I taught my classmates the rules of Atari Go as you could play it on a sheet of paper during school. I played about 100 games of Atari Go. When I started to win each time I was black, I moved to KGS to play real go again. I realized that I am too bad for 19x19 and wanted to start with 9x9 first. As there were more 9x9 games on OGS I moved there - that's where I am now.

[EdLee]

I played 30 games so far.

Good. Continue and finish ~100 games.