Hi,
I’ve played a bunch of games (9x9 and 19x19) and I feel like I’m making the same mistakes over and over. Idk if it’s me not having a good enough grasp on fundamental concepts (like L&D), if I’m not thinking with the whole board in mind, or if it’s something else, so I’m wondering if anyone would be willing to analyze the games I’ve played so far and do a teaching game to help me with my weak points.
Thanks in advance,
-RedAgent14
I looked at a couple games.
I would suggest that you start with a simple exercise. Review your games, and ask yourself this question: what was my intent here, and why didn’t it work?
Just to take an example: in this game, what was the purpose of white D3? Did it work and why?
One recurring issue I see is that you place stones that only have two liberties (see above example). So they are weak and threatened from the start.
Hi there RedAgeny14,
@SanDiego Is absolutelly right in what he said.
But i would suggest a few things also. There are many resourses That are listed in the OGS forums. But to make life easier for you, here is a link: OGS Link Collection
Check out some of the youtube channels. I personally recomend you taking a look at Nick Sibiky. He does hour long lessons on GO, not just about how to play but different ways to play the game and why people use these different ways.
As silly as it sounds, the Anime Hikaru No GO will actually help teach you some of the basic principles of the game as well as entertain you. And if you dont want to watch it, then you can read the manga/ comic books.
But… there is one piece of advice that will help you more than anything else i could teach you or suggest to you… and that is to play. Play as many games as possible. Do not rush these games at all, but with each game there is an oppertunity to learn something new. And with every new game, there is new material there that you can use to work out what worked well in a game, and work on what perhaps didn’t work so well.
And lastly, dont lose heart… Many people, no matter how strong they are lose games. Go, while being a game, is something that takes a life time to really master. So take your time and be patient with yourself.
If you ever need someone to answer a few questions for you, or to take a look at a game, or whatever, hit me up, either message me on here in the forrums, or send me a chat message on the actual site.
I wish you luck my friend.
Welcome @RedAgent14! Self-review is a very important study tool. So is Tsumego. I’ve written some information for folks just getting started with Go, if you are interested. Also, if you are interested in watching Hikaru No Go, you can find links to watch it at the very bottom of this post.
To be honest there is little point in reviewing a game at this level expect to reinforce basic concepts and techniques. I tell his to ALL my go students. you need to learn your GO multiplication tables before you can reasonably review your games. Therefore first learn your options please let the GO genius of our past do the work and memorize their work. DO not reinvent math. Once you have your basics make sure those options are valid when you play them. THEN when your opponent deviates ask yourself how is this different and what does it do.
What do you mean by this? Could you elaborate? The only thing I can think you might be talking about is Joseki.
At this point you lack basic understanding of good/bad shape, as is evident by the fact that you play total nonsense attachment moves. For example, let’s take a look at move 9 in this game https://online-go.com/game/19281219 .
What is move 9 trying to accomplish? If you can’t understand that this is a very bad move then you are a long way from needing to learn joseki.
Well, he is 25k. How is he supposed to make sure his options are valid after memorizing old kifu? With some help of stronger players, I would assume—which is exactly what he was asking for. Moreover, maybe “there is little point in reviewing a game at this level except to reinforce basic concepts and techniques,” but, again, I can’t read his initial post and think he was asking for anything else. 
In the same vein, explaining why a move is nonsensical might sometimes be even handier, when speaking to someone who admittedly doesn’t have a grasp on fundamental concepts, than just saying they are nonsensical and leaving it at that.
Off topic:
How (and why) did you change the text to be justified like in newspapers?
Using HTML like this:
<div align="justify">some text that you want to justify</div>
I can’t answer the “why?” part though. 
Fair enough 
/ quickly defuses the topic before the forum devolves into a left-align vs justified war
Hey @RedAgent14 to get teaching games it usually helps to let us know whether you are thinking live or correspondence, and if you have a preference for 9x9 or 19x19.
(Though in this instance starting with 9x9 seems advisable, to most quickly flush out the basics of not playing into threats).
Greetings @RedAgent14
I do not play live 19x19 anymore, but if fast correspondence suits you feel free to just send me a challenge.
For live 9x9 feel free to send me a friend request and ask for a game when you see me online 
For review it might be best if you pick a game where you were more or less evenly matched and are not sure why you lost send me a link by PM or here I am sure several players would be happy to take a look.
Best of luck
Sorry about the late response; things have been really busy this past week.
I’ll probably take you up on your offer for 9x9.
(As for picking a game where I was “more or less evenly matched,” one of the big issues is that I don’t feel like I’m able to tell if a game is evenly matched; I only really recognize when a game gets to an extreme where one side is very apparently winning.)
Don’t worry about that too much, whichever similar rank is fine. It is just that it is harder to review a game where one player was 10 stones stronger (well at least for me), because of course he/she outread the novice everywhere on the board. But really any game is fine. If you had a nice game and want to get some ideas on where issues might have been, just share away.
Urk. One of the big weaknesses (I think) in getting people to play go is that there is an awful lot of resources for players who know the basics but very little on the actual basics. This leads to loads of books that say things like, ‘obviously this group is strong/weak/dead/alive’ and then move on with the beginner left behind confused saying ‘why?’.
The ‘Learn to Play Go’ Series is the only books I have found so far which seems to attempt this (Books 1,2 and 4 have been good. 3 Less so to me). Online I also agree that Nick Sibecky’s channel is the useful for beginners (just posted that on the blog last week https://sardonicrejoinder.blogspot.com/ which is tracking my own slow progress).
I still don’t get loads and loads of basic stuff. For example I can’t quite see how a one space jump can stay connected if the opponent drops a stone in the middle. So far I have worked up to if atari, extend, extend same side, cut then the running side gets a ladder. If atari, extend, connect, cut, atari, extend, connect gets a curving wall to one side or the other (with one lost stone in a net). Yet all the examples I see and read show people peeping before launching the cut so there must be something bad about it and playing 25 kyu games you will meet that. Meh the travails of a new player…
Yeah that is one that go players treat as “given”, but is actually more subtle than that.
White needs strong outside positions around A and/or B to consider cutting the 1 point jump. Usually peeping is better because chasing a weak group is usually more profitable than killing it locally.
If black plays 7 on the outside (on or near 8), then white can capture the stone marked 1, but black gets a good reduction out of it and a strong group facing the centre.
Black also has full control over what side this shape is facing, since it’s determined by which atari he takes, meaning white can’t cut unless BOTH ataris are bad for black, which is usually unlikely.
