Some notes I have about the game (please comment on this part, in particular):
* The sequence starting with
(to where I tenuki-ed at move 100) was not good, I think. My plan was to cut off the single stone at N14, but it was obviously an overplay* At move 104, I was not sure what I wanted to do. White had some influence/moyo mojo going on, and I wanted to reduce it or invade it. It wasn't clear to me the best way to do this. You can see the sequence that follows.
* The sequence starting at move 134 was obviously not working for me, and bad for black. I thought I could cut off his R12 group, and had weird visions of killing it if he didn't let me connect. I was obviously imagining things.
* Please let me know if you think 142 was the best play locally. Was G5 better?
* B13 (move 170) was a misread and an overplay. The plan was this: I wanted to play b9, but it did not work directly. I was attempting to get black stones to connect to after playing b9 if white blocked at b8 in response to my b9. Obviously, I did not accomplish this.
* R10 (move 196) was bad. I forgot white had S16, so the cut does nothing. Instead I should be the one playing S16 - or another part of the board.
Those are the major thoughts I had of the game.
Does anybody have any other insight into the game?
. If you look through professional games, the only move B ever plays locally (apart from tenuki) is the tight R7. To non-professional eyes, this move looks awkward and inefficient, but with practice it starts looking better, and eventually it even looks good
as a tenuki from White's approach and then dive into the 3-3 in gote? This seems like it is inconsistent? Did you have a plan and did this result seem appropriate to you?
is heavy and gives White a live group. You end up playing two stones (
and
) to separate the two groups. O13, threatening to cut, is probably better for
point below).
I would tend toward J16 myself. However, I might be wrong about that. I think the real point is
. With the two White stones waiting in the middle of the top and Black already having played the cap at N12, the situation demands that Black continue at the top. Should it be L16, or maybe K16? Both look at something like L13 next. Jumping out to H15 looks like it leaves too much room at the top for White (immediate K17 by White?). The upper left will have to take a hit, but I believe this makes more sense across the board as a whole than answering
in the corner.
why not just capture everything with D18, E17, B18?
was definitely not a good idea. White should have answered at O15, just to make sure that Black had destroyed his own eye potential here!
. White out-thinks Black here (or Black out-thinks himself). Basically it is correct that the White stones are not yet clearly alive - but they are not cut off and isolated either. A more reasonable idea would be to surround them from a distance. Also, Black has just as little eye shape as White and is in more danger of being cut off. What is worth doing on the rest of the board? One task is to reduce the White bottom area. Another would be to build up the Black left side. Either of these can involve plays that begin to surround the top White stones from a distance. However, right now Black should be a worried about being surrounded by White. To me a play that moves out from the upper right and begins reducing the bottom feels about right. That said, Black's shape is weak here. The combination of P13 and N12 played earlier is liable to be cut. Even a one-space jump like N10 is open to a White peep at N11. Something like N13 is slow and ugly, but Black needs to do some repair work. If White M14, Black jumps to L12, threatening to activate H14 or to jump down toward the bottom (all the way to N7 even?).