Bet it all on a moyo

[Shawn Ligocki]

Just had an excellent game against my friend Neil at the local go club on Thursday. After reviewing it a bit I can see that I missed several chances to take great local moves for profit and, in the end, to win the game. But I feel like I may have made some poor global strategic choices as well, any comments on my direction of play and whole board reasoning?



Big things I'm wondering about:
1. Was I too focussed on my one large moyo? Counting points near the end of the game I realized that White will clearly win if all I get is that moyo (It is maybe 60pts, but White has double wing of territory, plus some on the right.) Should I have disrupted White's moyo earlier? How?
2. Around , was there a better way to reduce/invade White's moyo? I was happy to get my reduction in sente, but maybe I really just helped White to solidify his territory?
3. Was it a good idea to let run out so far? I think it was good because my moves were dual purpose, reducing White's moyo and surrounding the invasion, but maybe I let the invasion get too big?

Local mistakes I noticed (Please clarify if you think I read this wrong):
1. should have pushed in at Q7 instead of P6! This would have sealed White in or made him run for his life!
2. should have helped my weak side group, not sure where.
3. : would it be better to connect here? I cannot read this well.
4. should have wedged to get aji while connecting.
5. pushes the wrong way, White is happy to abandon that one stone.
6. (and maybe several earlier plays) should have attacked the invading group? For example at J2.
7. Black 105 at H5 kills, I think.
8. Black 127 should have continued pushing. Let White push from behind and get enough liberties to crush White's group.
9. Black 135 also should have continued pushing. Same reason.

(Reposted here from my study journal because that didn't get any comments. Sorry if this is rude!)

[tapir]

No time to look longer, but there is quite a bit of wishful reading in your comments, e.g. the "White loses the race!" on a B135-139 line. No, it isn't, some of the black stones are dead in a snapback! If this happens during review, it probably happens in the game as well. Similarly "trying something fancy" in a corner needs to be backed up by reading before you play it.

W/ B13 you considered the enclosure, why did you not consider it again with B15 when you already had played the move you considered the alternative w/ B13?

[Shawn Ligocki]

I did consider enclosing the corner again at B15. I decided against it because I thought it still might be more profitable to let white invade and build a big wall in sente. I also thought that extending my moyo was better because it was dual purpose, also reducing white's moyo.

Do you think it would have been better to enclose at this step?

[tapir]

I would have played the enclosure. This is very unimportant in the grand scheme of things, however.

You commented on some major mistakes yourself, but why did they happen?

P6 was very likely automatic play according to joseki - really harming yourself here and wasting the golden opportunity to enclose White (or take her base). Now, I am all for studying joseki (see http://senseis.xmp.net/?topic=3019), but here you are thoughtlessly replaying joseki moves with no concern for context. This is bad.

P8 was a desaster, pushing the opponent into your framework without any benefit to you (and forcing you to patch your weakness the next turn). I do not know what you thought here, but I am sure this would not have happened, if you would spend at least 30 seconds for each move and consider at least three different moves to play.

Q6 was almost equivalent to passing at this stage. Again 30s per move and considering alternatives would have helped. However, even if you did not misread and this were actually sente, it would still be doubtful. An endgame move in early middle game.

P8, Q6 both required an answer by yourself to fix the self-created weakness, basically wasting two stones. Not wasting these two stones gains two stones strength. If you take a little time for each move and force yourself to consider two alternatives even where you feel there is an obvious move this two stone bonus strength is available to you, without any additional study, complications whatsoever.

And reading... in your discussion variations, what happens when White tries N2, when White plays G2 first? Try reading the responses you fear, not those you are confident to defeat.

[mitsun]

The most serious problems with your play in this game were simple reading mistakes -- moves which lost sente by creating weaknesses in your own shape, and moves which appear to be greedy or optimistic reading, failing to consider a good response your opponent could make. Tapir already covered all of that.

If you want a difficult reading problem, take a look at the right side of the board after move 50 or move 68. W is split into two apparently live groups. Around here, I would spend at least several minutes trying to read out the situation. How does W live after the placement S5? How does W live after the placement S12 or S13? If each groups is separately alive, is there some tesuji which simultaneously threatens both groups?

[Uberdude]

I did consider enclosing the corner again at B15. I decided against it because I thought it still might be more profitable to let white invade and build a big wall in sente. I also thought that extending my moyo was better because it was dual purpose, also reducing white's moyo.

Do you think it would have been better to enclose at this step?

The first jump was playable, the second was much too slow. The first jump is indeed a moyo boundary point and helps patch up the m3 weakness. It also makes c3 more severe but the corner isn't so important yet in a mutual moyo game like this. Btw, f5 one space jump is not the only move in that area, g6 big knight is also possible for a faster development to the centre (and means white's cap at f7 is no longer plausible. The follow up from f5 in a moyo game is d7 shoulder hit, but as white already has d10 in place d7 is not effective. In fact d10 being there means white f7 would make d10 inefficient (too close) so you are happy for white to play there and make his own stones look silly. Your e7 is a better idea but still too timid: if you want to continue here (but I prefer q5 shimari) then e8 is a better idea: it hopes for white to submissively answer to defend the gap with c8 or d9, then you could contine with f10 or probably best to tenuki as it's already a good exchange (white would likely not be so obedient). Here's an example of me using this technique (move 23) with my opponent resisting as expected.