Life In 19x19

Here is a game I played recently. I actually recorded a video of my thoughts while playing which was informative for my self-review, but I'm too lazy edit to out the swearing. In general, I think that the opening went well for me, but I wasn't able to sustain that advantage through the endgame. There are definitely a few slow moves and I underestimated my opponents lower center potential.

I am playing white.

Hi, Calvin!

A few comments. Go to move 111.


Main focus: The endgame is fighting strength.

@Bill Spight

With respect to the game move at 112, I see your point. It's kind of a small-scale double-open skirt, so there is less value in trying to close the bottom. I guess I didn't see it that way in the game. I was doing more of a local pattern matching.

My failure to see C11 is, I think, psychological. I had previously decided (even before move 54) that the C9 and D9 stones were light and could be sacrificed, so I reminded myself for the next few moves after that not to try to defend them. Now, of course, the game changes and the circumstances change, and by the endgame I guess they become useful in a different way. So I need to be sharper in the endgame but also be willing to discard my previous evaluations. I had considered L4 for White 112, but not K5. That's clever to have the ladder breaker follow-up!

I think there is also kind a "weak player's consensus" going on, where a vital point is missed by both players because they each trust each other that it doesn't work, even if it does.

I felt kind of terrible playing this game. Getting into byoyomi around move 88 probably isn't conducive to my best play, but there are still conceptual problems I struggle with that would show in slower games. Any comments are welcome.

Another one, but this one is worse, and shows some of the dangers of not doing a positional judgement.

I will title this: "For the Love of Gote"

I seem to be lacking sufficient sharpness. I played when 'a' was still possible. Still, there are lessons to be learned in not getting into this bad situation to begin with.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Where is my razor?
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$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . X O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . X O O O O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 1 O . . . . X X X O . a O . |
$$ | . . O . . X . O . . O O X . X O O X . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . X X X X X X . |
$$ | . X X O X X . O . . . O . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . O . . . . . . O . . O . . |
$$ | . . X X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X O . . . . . . . . . . . O . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . , . . . . X O O . O |
$$ | . . X O O O O . O . . . O O O X X O . |
$$ | . . X X O X X O . . . . . O X . . X O |
$$ | . . . . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]