Life In 19x19

Hi.

Could you please analyze this 9x9 game that I played today. I was Black.



When I killed White's group I got too overconfident and started to play too quickly. I misunderestimated White's chances, and when I realized that my own group was getting short off liberties it was already too late... And I lost by 0.5 points...

In the opening, maybe 5 and 7 were slightly inaccurate.

The move which I think may have been the most critical is 31. It seems the White group is dead, so I could have played somewhere else like at E7, H6 or H7.

And maybe I should have tried 49 at H5.

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Hi Bill,

Alcadeias wrote:The move which I think may have been the most critical is 31. It seems the White group is dead

Yes. Not "seems". You make sure, 100%. Is it dead ?

Also, -- self-reduced your liberties. Why? If you learn from one move, it's already worth it.

Once you have reduced your opponent's surrounded group to a dead shape, it is much better for your surrounding stones to live independently, than to play all the moves needed to actually capture the dead group. So at move 31, you could win rather easily by playing F6 followed by H6. These moves would make two eyes for your group. After that, there will never be a need to actually play all the first line moves inside your own territory to remove the dead white stones.

One way Black can win.