DDK travails 3

 

Next game was against an old opponent from Poland, at this point I was 2 wins versus 1 loss against them and they were always close. I wanted Black so naturally got white, The opening went fairly 'meh' though I netted 3 stones on the right which was nice.

Lessons to learn this game included this dubious extension here. I should have han'ed and increased both my territory and threatened the 2 lonely right stones.

As  it was playing this way allowed Black to keep me hemmed into the top - not so good. 

2nd improvement occurred here. I am 'trying' (and this being a very loose definition of trying as I keep getting too involved in the game and forgetting) to ask myself 'what is my opponent trying to do?  and 'do i care and if so can I stop it?'

So when this move occurred.

'What's my opponent trying to do?' - well to allow the H stone to spring into life soaking up 5 or so points. Now I might not care but actually ignored what they were doing and played a defensive move instead that totally was not needed.

That will do for the game which I won eventually by  1.5 points... 

The next game to look at areas to improves should have been a loss, it only wasn't as the opponent ran out of Byoyomi but I was down 1.5 points (what is it with 1.5)

Anyway there are three things I can see to improve.

The first is an invasion failure - lot's of ways to kill this earlier but the bit I want to focus on is after I permitted a poke (incorrectly) should have connected solid from the outside

Anyway I did not do the above and instead Tigered  he threatened to poke and I took the 2 eyese he then  poked and I connected. He then cut leading to the big mistake by me.

Position as follows

Now what I actually did was to cut under at O9, I did consider N10 but thought white would get out. This was a wrong thought. So the mistake as follows is 

Well duh, I essentially freed the group to life.. What I should have done (if let to get this far)

Is to cut from the other side, if he extends I connect and White is still trapped. If he extends keep him separated.

Anyway this put White ahead but serves me right..

Next lesson to learn occurred top left. There was aji in the position and I want to focus on the C14 group of 3

Now I actually saw the 'drop to B14, if white takes A12 I can hane at A15 and my stones are alive' and did not see the 'if white blocks at A15 I can take A13and my stones are alive (though White then gets to trap me in).

Rather stupidly as my oppo was on byo-yomi now I resolved to push out to see if I could extend before connecting...I should have just kept the group alive which would have swung me back in the lead...I didn't and pushed twice before cutting the 3 stones, White protected the group and then I connected.

The lesson here as that playing hoping your opponent mucks up is not good practice. I got away with it here. Even though my has been lucky I then compounded it with this dodgy move. 

Can you see it? better to cut at C15 as it is an atari, white takes then atari again at G13. If white saves Black can connect at F13 and its in white territory (there is a ko at the base at A14 that could prove troublesome though..,

The final thing to learn was that we were now in end game

Rather than finish end game I started poking in that tiny white area hoping white would make a mistake. White did not and I should have lost as the extra moves gave white a tiny lead. What I should have done was FOCUS ON END GAME and finish the moves left so

Nice and easy and 3.5 points up. Lot's of good lessons to learn this game though..