Life In 19x19

Usually the player with fewer total groups on the board tends to have an advantage. I just finished a game that was an interesting counterexample. I had five separate living groups at the end, while my opponent had one large connected group, but I still won by a fair margin.

He spent most of the game running without making points.

And why didn't you play 183 one point to the left?

It was probably early in the morning or late at night (it's a DGS game).

Does a 4k really play R16!?

Something to take away from the top-left corner:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W White to play.
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . O . . . .
$$ | . . X X O . . . .
$$ | . . X O O . . . .
$$ | . X X O . . . . .
$$ | . X O . . . . . .
$$ | . O O . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Given that, black has a way to avoid the fate above by playing differently in the below position:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B Black to play
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . O . . . .
$$ | . . X X O . . . .
$$ | . . X O O . . . .
$$ | . . X O . . . . .
$$ | . X O . . . . . .
$$ | . O O . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Ooops! I thought L+2 was alive even with that descent.

To be honest, after watching first 15 moves, I was convinced that this is DDK (double digit kyu) game. You should both work on your fuseki =). About weak groups, neither of you really had any weak groups throughout the entire game, so group count didn't have any impact.

Fwiffo, I guess the take away from this is that next time you need to up the ante and win with having 5 weak groups; don't bring any of this weak stuff in here!