Handicap game play review

krafczyk · Post by **krafczyk** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:51 pm

Can somebody give me a critique of this handicap game I played recently on KGS? I feel like my opponent played solidly and wasn't letting me get away with some overplays which I felt were necessary for me to win.

(If you viewed this just after I posted it, sorry I was trying to figure out how to embed the sgf..)

LarryHH · Post by **LarryHH** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 9:57 pm

krafczyk, I don't know if this will help but here are some comments.
W7, You have sente. Look at the whole board. Are there bigger moves? Yes there are.
You had sente and end in gote for a small profit in the upper left corner, a small base.
Four times you coveted a small corner territory, 7, 9, 13, and 19-31, 35. Save those moves for after the middle game fighting.
W41, the monkey jump is for the end game, ~12 points. Look at the upper right side. your framework is adjacent to black.
That is where to play first. W41 should have been at 50. What difference that move and the follow up moves would have made in building a white territory.
With 50, 78, 86, 96, 104, black pressed you down to the third line.
With White 127-141, you make a small center territory.
It was imperative to reduce black's left-center moyo.

W21 at K3 could have been at K4, a shoulder hit, and then just run out to the center.

krafczyk · Post by **krafczyk** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:37 pm

Thanks a lot for your response.

point taken about the small corner territories. I wasn't confident my groups were safe enough for some reason.

Same for the monkey jump. I absolutely should've left that.

At B20 I have sente, but I wasn't sure how to go about reducing black's territory. The left seems pretty much uninvadable. and I felt like I couldn't make a base without making black stronger some how, and leaving myself with a small or weak group which black could chase around the board.. Is there a reasonable approach for this?

About the black group at the top, I think I tried to bite off more than I could chew. My plan was to kill this group, which I guess was already too big to really kill.

EdLee · Post by **EdLee** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 1:04 am

krafczyk wrote:some overplays which I felt were necessary for me to win.

Not necessary at all, especially not at these levels.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:43 am

A few comments on the opening.

As White it is your duty to make things difficult for Black, especially when giving a handicap.

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:01 am

krafczyk wrote:At B20 I have sente, but I wasn't sure how to go about reducing black's territory. The left seems pretty much uninvadable. and I felt like I couldn't make a base without making black stronger some how, and leaving myself with a small or weak group which black could chase around the board.. Is there a reasonable approach for this?

As Ed Lee indicates, the left side is actually invadable at this point. Your idea of attaching on the bottom side is not bad, but the shoulder blow is the play, as a rule. The 3-3 invasion is premature.

But you should not have let Black make such an impressive framework in the first place. It's kind of like the joke:

Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.
Doctor: Don't do that.

Very often, when you wonder what to do in a difficult situation, the real answer is don't get into it in the first place. White should have played on the bottom side at move 7.

krafczyk · Post by **krafczyk** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 5:36 am

Thanks a lot for the replies, you've given me a lot to think about in my games. The variations you've offered have been especially helpful.

Life In 19x19

Handicap game play review

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