Looking for Reviews on My Games

[Bill Spight]

looks slow, it is not threatening anything, nor building much.

I'm actually trying to stabilize my left side's group because seeing that white is slowly building towards center it will cause issue to the group if I don't try and reinforce or make shape.

We are talking about the game between Thng-some_number?

is not bad, but the earlier extension on the left side is questionable. Why not play the double approach against the top left corner? Black could have done that earlier, as well.

Back to . The one space extension on the 3d line can be made at this stage of the game, because there is no two space extension possible. Extending on the 4th line is a bit wishy washy, though. Locally the 3d line attachment against White's group in the bottom left looks good to me. The likely result will be that you strengthen your left side, while White gets a bit overconcentrated.

[Knotwilg]

In the game against the Singapore 3d which you won by 30 points, I can't find any suspect move at first glance. It seems like you could play even with this player and so are 3d already.

[zafuri95]

In the game against the Singapore 3d which you won by 30 points, I can't find any suspect move at first glance. It seems like you could play even with this player and so are 3d already.

I think to play on even might be an exaggeration, as I lost the subsequent game to a 3k. Perhaps there are still things that I need to work on I.E. fundamentals and the consistency.

[Knotwilg]

In the game against the Singapore 3d which you won by 30 points, I can't find any suspect move at first glance. It seems like you could play even with this player and so are 3d already.

I think to play on even might be an exaggeration, as I lost the subsequent game to a 3k. Perhaps there are still things that I need to work on I.E. fundamentals and the consistency.

In that first game, you were bullying a 3 dan. Just look at 156. I'm 2d and wouldn't have found the move, let alone find the correct sequence to capitalize on it. You outsmarted a 3d there. At 116 you play at the centre of 3 stones, a technique as fundamental as they get. It didn't work out but technically it was dan level. At 66 you connect, having read out the corner aji and the possiblity to cut off his left side. You do so with a nifty hanging connection at 76, then follow up with a boshi at 80, to take sente with 84 and grow the centre.

That's very very impressive. I wish I could play like that.

[zafuri95]

In the game against the Singapore 3d which you won by 30 points, I can't find any suspect move at first glance. It seems like you could play even with this player and so are 3d already.

I think to play on even might be an exaggeration, as I lost the subsequent game to a 3k. Perhaps there are still things that I need to work on I.E. fundamentals and the consistency.

In that first game, you were bullying a 3 dan. Just look at 156. I'm 2d and wouldn't have found the move, let alone find the correct sequence to capitalize on it. You outsmarted a 3d there. At 116 you play at the centre of 3 stones, a technique as fundamental as they get. It didn't work out but technically it was dan level. At 66 you connect, having read out the corner aji and the possiblity to cut off his left side. You do so with a nifty hanging connection at 76, then follow up with a boshi at 80, to take sente with 84 and grow the centre.

That's very very impressive. I wish I could play like that.

Thank you. I'm pleased with the compliment but also at the same time equally bothered with my loss on the next game.

In the first game, the "flow" came to me after the left side cut, and I tried my best to exercise what it meant to enclose a group and build influence. Move 156 happened to be strikingly similar to the fundamental tesuji patterns that I practised so it was actually obvious to me. I'm trying to find the correct timing to execute the cut. Move 84 was made as there was no obvious weak groups , so I guessed I should turn my influences into territory and played that. The idea came from a NHK Cup game played by Takemiya that I watched few months ago.

In the second game, I wasn't consistent I believe ... I let loose and threw the game away when I'm somewhat ahead in the middle game. Perhaps lacking experience is what I should fix.

[SoDesuNe]

Not to rain on anyone's parade but as go is a two-player-game Black's play in the handicap game was a direct result of White's play. And as far as handicap go goes, White's play was highly unimaginative (and as a similar handicap player myself, I know what I talk about :p).

Taking gote with no follow-ups on multiple occaisons, fixing shapes early and most importantly not posing any difficulties to Black or even asking questions about groups or connections.

That being said: Black's strategy starting with was consistently follow-up and worked in the end, kudos to that! And move 156 was certainly a superb find.

By my estimate White managed to catch up one handicap stone by the start of endgame but then ramped up its game heavily and got all the big points to almost caught up the rest of them. Almost meaning Black would have won with at least Komi, anyway (that's my best guess ; )).

Some comments because I do find a couple of noteworthy moves ; )

[Bill Spight]

Another point is that White's O6 group is not secure yet. It is not very weak, but doesn't have eyes yet, so you can harass it a bit, maybe by playing around O10. If you can force the opponent to defend, then you get stones in the center for free, and these stones may be useful later to prepare an invasion or a reduction, or to save another one of your own groups that might be in difficulty later.

The hane at L-06 is also good, as is the eye stealing tesuji at O-08.

[zafuri95]

New updates came in.

So I've played against the same club player which I posted in the beginning of this thread yesterday in our league. He is now way stronger that he was before (about 2-3D now). I've missed a lot of progress during these period so the league system had me taking 4 stones handicap and I got rolled over.

We've reviewed the technical parts and he is very experienced with the tricks and techniques. He worked very hard, played lots of games during these period and got a teacher too. That made me believe if I'd been working hard the right way I too can get to Dan level.

I'm looking at a mentality fix because I was amazed how he got the center territory nicely, which kinda resonates with how I won my game against the Singapore 3Dan which I forgot how I'd managed to do it.

So I'm looking for review with opinions/comments on how I should change the way I look at my Go games.
Somehow I think it was my overall strategy that got it all wrong, my direction of play has issues.
In this game I find that I've missed out many vital points and my stones just doesn't seem to work together.

Some side notes:-
1. During the game, I dug myself a hole thinking at 4 handicaps securing the corner is enough. Maybe I was wrong...?
2. During review, I noticed all my stones are on themselves and there were no connections and I think it was duer to my wrong strategy in the beginning which made me got into the absurd situation
3. I often heard my club Dan players to tell us Kyus to master the basics, what are the basics? And they often mention "Go out into center", and "Connect your stones", it felt like it has to do with "Direction of Play", but it's too abstract that I still don't really get it to apply into my games. Can any Dan players here share about your personal experience on Direction of Play and the Basics?
4. I actually have the tendency to be comfortable with secured points and neglecting that my opponent is building moyo / influence, then I got myself into trouble because I need to do deep invasions and try to be a hero to neutralize the influences, then got beat up or if I lucky I got away with a win.

[Bill Spight]

A few comments.



Main focus: Shape and tesuji.

Also: Cut sector lines.