Life In 19x19

After 3 months of silence, I finally found some time to play an online game.

I was lucky enough to win the last fight at the top right corner, but it is not clear how the real outcome should have been.

Would anyone care to put some comments or variations especially in respect to this last fight? Thanks in advance.

PS: I changed my opponents name to "opponent" to respect his anonimity and deleted all the comments and chat. I know that if somebody is really curious he can find the game anyway, but but but but.....

A very nice game. I made one quick pass through and didn't see any obvious improvements.
I think I'd be scared to play you now.

On a second pass, 15 was small, and 27 should have been the tobi to E6. Ok, I'm not scared, but I'd still be very respectful

I agree you should jump with 27 (make miai of C10/F4)

As far as the last fight goes -- it feels like W just imploded by making a lot of groups. I think B103 (atari at T14) might've been a little slow (I would be nervous if W responded with Q17). Then if B captures W has R9 to jump out. If B blocks on the outside, the fight should be easier for W than the one in game. As B I think I would play 103 at Q17.

For the final fight -- W really needs R9 before B closes off (I'm not sure what W was aiming for with 136, it should be R9 unless I am missing something). Once B blocks W in and B can cruise...After S17 B can even just T15, a local seki works for B because the outer white group dies.

Not bad, but could be sharper.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:On a second pass, 15 was small, and 27 should have been the tobi to E6. Ok, I'm not scared, but I'd still be very respectful

Thanks, Joaz. I take it as a nice compliment

Mef wrote:I agree you should jump with 27 (make miai of C10/F4)

As far as the last fight goes -- it feels like W just imploded by making a lot of groups. I think B103 (atari at T14) might've been a little slow (I would be nervous if W responded with Q17). Then if B captures W has R9 to jump out. If B blocks on the outside, the fight should be easier for W than the one in game. As B I think I would play 103 at Q17.

Nice point about q17. Actually, during the game I also thought about it but read some sequences where either I kill the corner or end up in sente for playing r10. But I fully agree it was quite dangerous.

Mef wrote: For the final fight -- W really needs R9 before B closes off (I'm not sure what W was aiming for with 136, it should be R9 unless I am missing something). Once B blocks W in and B can cruise...After S17 B can even just T15, a local seki works for B because the outer white group dies.

I was also surprised to see white 136. Probably he wanted to prepare for L14 in order to make the second eye but didn't work well.

About s17, the trouble was that I failed to see that it would be a seki after s17. If it was seki, it would obviously be a pseudo-seki but I couldn't figure it out whether it becomes a seki or ko during the game

Shaddy wrote:...

Thanks Shaddy, nice comments and teaching variations.

- Like Shaddy said, D17 is better.

- I agree with Shaddy again: jump to E6.

- No good: you play straight into a hane at the head of two stones situation. Since you have the ladder, you should play D5 (you can probably find the ladder variations if white cuts at C5, which would be overplay). If you don't have the ladder, you should at least play C5 first.

is such a crude move.

What does white think he can possibly get out of playing this? This seems like more of an emotional move by white than a rational one.

At some point during the next sequence, since white has committed himself to saving his D10 stones, he should play the atari at C11. It weakens your side group a lot.

I would play C11 myself. It is a big move territory-wise, and makes alive one of the groups white is threatening to cut. If white proceeds to cut, your other group is still very strong as well. Since white can get this move in sente, it's quite nice to take it away from him right now.

- K7 captures the cutting stones.

- Nice abuse of his bad shape.

- I would probably extend to Q12. A hane at the head and foot of three stones is still quite severe. Q12 avoids letting white get that.

- Both your groups are okay here, so how about R10 to apply more pressure and solidify your one group for good? White can probably find a humble life for his dragon in gote, and then you have all kinds of delicious moves to secure a large swath of territory (and likely swallow up the stones you captured small here on a large scale). For instance, O3 looks like an attractive move to me.

In summary, I've tried to focus on your moves, but I think you played much better than white the whole game. White seemed very greedy with moves like , , and trying to live with both O17 and R17, and you punished him for it.

Dusk Eagle wrote:...

Thanks Dusk Eagle! Especially something like o3 at move 97 was not something I would consider, very enlightening comment for me. It's a bad kyu habit to get too much focused locally.

B has a tesuji to win the fight at move 147 (which I am sure you can find once you look).

mitsun wrote:B has a tesuji to win the fight at move 147 (which I am sure you can find once you look).

O16? It looks so obvious once somebody prsents it as a problem Thanks