Life In 19x19

Hi all,

It's been a while since I have gotten some outside input on one of my games.
The following game I felt I played reasonably well, but ended up losing by 1.5 points.
I am white.



Thanks

The first move that really made me wrinkle my nose was . What is it doing? Black is working on something at the top, but it's not so huge that you have to throw a random stone in at the sixth line in an attempt to reduce it. The moves that occur to me instead are things M3 or N4 that try to do more than one thing at once.

Before that, I wonder if should have attempted to keep Black separated (say G15) instead of acquiescing to getting sealed in, but that's something I'm less sure about.

Hi zac,

For me, the first and worst cringe-worthy move is , which is hopelessly small and submissive. Coming out to G15, while keeping B separated, is the only move. was very nice, at the border of two moyos. seems too early. It basically gives up on R3, which seems playable now. If you have really given up on any corner invasion, at least play S8 for a much larger reduction. In the endgame, B15 was much larger than E10.

FWIW, this sequence seems to be fairly common at the SDK level. I see it all of the time.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ +----------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 5 . . . . . . . .
$$ | . 4 . O . 3 . 6 . , .
$$ | . . . . . . b d . . .
$$ | . . X . 2 . a . . . .
$$ | . . . c . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 1 . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . e . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , .[/go]

I ran this through Leela a while back and Leela prefers A-D for . A has a slightly higher win percentage (1-2%), but they are all judged to be fairly similar. The sequence she envisions with C is quite complicated. Not surprisingly, Leela thinks is a mistake, strongly preferring e.

I usually play B because I'm not sure my reading skills are sufficient to handle the cut with A. The result is almost always a complicated running fight. Usually, black finds keeping all of this groups safe a bit difficult.

Thanks everyone for the comments. R.e the top left, my first instinct was G15. Usually I welcome a chance to split my opponent and fight, but for whatever reason I decided not to I hadn't seen it in any games, and so it was unfamiliar territory, next time it comes up I'll be brave and split.