11 kyu looking for a teaching game

Hi! This is first time I am trying to play a teaching game. I don’t know what is good and what is bad in my games. So it would be great if you will give me a rating list of different skills. So I will understand where is more important to improve, where I lose more points

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Welcome on the forum ilimmd!
May I ask you, what is TL ?

Can you link here a game you played recently that you lost? I will gladly have a look.

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Here is my last game

Another one here

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Some comments about the first game:

Shape, awareness of shape defects (cutting points)

On move 20 I want to note that in this sort of shape it tends to be fairly important who gets to wedge at the triangled spots, creating multiple defects in the opponent shape.

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You didn’t wedge, so your opponent did, creating 3 cutting points in your shape:

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The AI thinks it’s still fine for white, because it can manage the tough fight ahead just fine. But for mere mortals like us humans, I’d advise to not let this happen.

Later on (move 25), your opponent shows some mercy by not cutting at D15, but playing hane at B16 instead:

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I wonder why you responded with the empty triangle at C15 instead of blocking at B15.
If you were afraid to block, at least play a one-space jump to C14 to maintain a decent shape.

Later on (move 30), you did block black’s advance, but now it was already too late, because this block was gote:

White is now left with a serious defect at C13. Both players keep ignoring it, but the AI keeps screaming about it for the next 50 moves or so. It pretty much dominates everything that gets played in the center for quite a while.

Even later, when a black cut at C13 wasn’t viable anymore, black could still use that defect to hollow out white’s left side, so to a large extent white has spent a lot of effort building an empty shell on the left side:

White cannot resist black’s clamp, because of other nearby shape defects:

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Development, playing for the center too early

When both players stopped playing in the upper left corner, you played a couple of 5th line moves while your opponent played 3rd line moves:

I feel those 5th line moves were a bit slow and played too early. Especially O5 has little effect on black and wasn’t really building anything.

Remember: Corners, then sides, then center. That proverb applies in most cases, including here. Playing a move around Q10 would have been better (when ignoring the defect at C13). Another big side move for both players is G18, because it is more or less sente for both players.

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That corner is very interesting indeed.
To me it shows you have still a short experience of shapes and fights. You played much better considering directions and strategy.

A big difference between the double hanging connection you chose and a solid connection at G16 is that you can now block black into the corner. The shape you got after black answers at G18 isn’t a good shape.
Then on the other side block is the only move, an empty triangle like you made is really hurting you should come with only if nothing else exists. Besides you may have to consider giving away some stones (like D and C16 if black had cut directly) at times to get a more dynamic way as you are a bit too solid as a player.

As study advices, 1 practice more reading (tesuji, life and death problems) 2 watch a bit stronger players games, trying to anticipate their moves and then analysing their efficiency compared to your guesses.

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Thanks a lot!
Every game I have different mistakes. Sometimes I think that my group is alive but it doesn’t. Sometimes I am sure that corner is mine but I lose it. Or I start to attack too early. Or trying to live in the centre that gives points to opponent.

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We (you and I) could have a competition about “who has the biggest group that they thought was alive but wasn’t” . I’m a champion at that :smiley:

The same with “attacking their weak looking group and thereby failing to claim territory”.

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About that 2nd game:

White A18 (move 30) was a mistake by your opponent.

Firstly, black can ignore it, so white gives away sente for a few points (at best).

Secondly, the right side looks like the biggest area to me. I feel both players should be in a hurry to take the last side big point around R9/Q10.

Thirdly, white left a couple of defects in his shape at C16 and G16. I wonder how white intended to handle a black cut at C16. If white intends to sacrifice the C17 stones, A18 will become a wasted move.

Development, invading too early

But instead of cutting at C16 or taking the big point around Q9, you invaded at D13. I wonder what was the idea behind it. I don’t think it’s needed for the cut at C16. I’d say you’re even inhibiting that option with this invasion, because you’re giving white a good excuse to sacrifice his C17 stones and attack that D13 invasion.

I’m not going into details about the tactics of that skirmish in the upper left, but after move 53, it seems that white recovered fairly well by sacrificing 6 stones in exchange for a solid wall towards the center and the left side in sente.

White now has a (2nd) chance to split the right side with R9, but instead he plays a 5th line move at O15 (my comment on your other game applies here too).

Development, premature endgame

So black gets a (2nd) chance to take that big point around Q9, but instead black captures a stone at B12 in gote. That was playing an endgame move in the opening.

So finally white takes his (3rd) chance to play on the right side, but he chooses R11. To me it seems a bit off. With R9 white would have made things easier for himself, because it creates miai of creating a base up or down:

Tactics, Aji-keshi

After some decent exchanges on the right side, black plays a forcing move at E6 and then invades at 3-3:

I think that E6 forcing move was helping your opponent to solidify his shape, making it more difficult for black to successfully invade at 3-3. So I’d call E6 aji-keshi, or a thank-you-move.

Tactics, tsumego

Black’s 3-3 invasion ends up dying, except white doesn’t really kill it on move 74, and then black doesn’t save it on move 75. The fate of that corner group isn’t really clear for some moves, but then on move 83 black dies in gote, giving white a clear lead.

Later on, white does give black some chances to get back into the game, but I’m going to bed now, so I won’t go into that now.

I’d say that in particular black’s play around D13 in the upper left seemed a bit myopic to me. Focusing too much on smaller, relatively unimportant things while disregarding the big picture.

Also, be careful with moves like E6 that may hurt your future prospects without having a clear benefit.

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Continueing from my previous post, I’ll add some more diagrams with variations that could have affected the outcome of that game.

Tactics, tsumego

There was a life and death struggle in the upper right during the late middle game that could have affected the game result. Both players made some mistakes in this struggle.

On move 134, white was the first to go wrong. He should have expanded his eye space like this:

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On move 136, white made another mistake. He should have made life like this:

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Black would have been able to reduce that group to a minimal life, but at least white would save his group.

Then black goes wrong playing L18 on move 141, helping white to make life. I think descending to K18 instead would have killed white’s group, (though there is still a lot of aji and ways for black to go wrong).

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Shape, bad/weak shape moves during the endgame

Still, even though white lived, white lost many points in this fight, so the game was close again when the endgame started.

In the endgame that’s left, the important question is how many points black can secure in the lower right. I’ll point out 2 mistakes by black that worsened his lower right position, which black couldn’t afford.

Black’s right side stones are not very strong and with black R10 (move 153), black weakened that lower right area more. Instead, black should solidify and expand his lower right area around the marked point O6.

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With moves 163 and 165, black made bad shape moves that helped white to cut off and kill 4 black stones.

Instead of making that empty triangle, black should have linked up those 4 stones with R6 or S6.
Losing those 4 stones was fatal.

Development, intersection of 2 moyos

One more middle game comment that I think is important, but I failed to make it in my previous post.

After white O10 (move 62), I can see that white is building a large moyo in the upper center, while black is building a large moyo on the lower side and lower right corner.

In this sort of situation, it is very important who takes N8 first, expanding their own moyo while reducing the opponent’s moyo. It’s the “intersection between 2 moyos”, or the point where 2 moyos meet.
This sort of move is much more important for whole board development than reducing white’s lower left corner, because both players already invested many moves into building those moyos.

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Summary:
I’d say there are a couple of areas where you might want to focus on to improve: development, shape and tsumego.

For development and shape practice, you might train your intuition by replaying stronger player games, preferrably commented games to help you understand the reasons behind the moves played.
For tsumego practice, you might want to commit to regular practice with puzzles.

But just playing serious games regularly and having some of those games reviewed (here or on gokibitz) can also come a long way.

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I did not expect such a detailed, high-quality analysis. Thanks a lot! This time I sent random games, but now I know what to do if I have questions about other games. I’ll write them in this chat.

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