I like to review one of my games every day or two, to see what I’m doing wrong. I’m making this thread to keep them all in one place, instead of just spamming up the review requests category.
3/5/2018 - 6k vs 7k (me):
A lost game, but a close game.
My opponent played high chinese, I think, and I don’t think I responded well. Most of my problems, I think are in the beginning of this game. I ended up giving my opponent a substantial top left, and didn’t get much in exchange. I played well in the late midgame/endgame, I think (or my opponent played poorly), and managed to recover, somewhat, to make it an 8.5 point game. I didn’t lose any big groups, which is always an accomplishment for me, but could have definitely played better, as always.
I think I wasn’t sure how to respond to my opponent, who took a huge framework immediately. I’ve been trying to play corners, then biggest sides, but I feel like I was on the back foot with that approach, here. I think I should’ve approached the top left instead of playing on the bottom, even though the bottom is the “biggest side”, since my opponent can either enclose or extend from there (as he does) if I play the bottom, after which I’m jumping in without any real territorial goals aside from the bottom of the board.
What else did I miss?
2/23/2018 - 7k vs 7k:
I won this game on time, from a lost position.
Usually, my strategy is to try to carve out some blocks of territory, ideally by trying to attack my opponent’s weak groups. In this game, I didn’t feel like I had time to do so. My opponent invaded everywhere. He didn’t really even try to make territory, just invaded everywhere I went. Unfortunately, fighting is probably the weakest aspect of my game, so I mostly got chased around the board. I got a small territory in the middle, where I captured a few of my opponent’s stones, but either got invaded or messed up the rest of my territories. I think my opponent would’ve won by 10 points or so if we’d finished the game, and that’s generously assuming that I can win the big ko fight that I blundered into without giving up too many points.
My main question is: what could I have done to carve out points a bit more solidly? Did I miss some obvious big moves, or do I just suck at fighting? Thanks for the reviews!
2/21/2018 - 8k vs 7k:
Here’s a game I won, but don’t feel like I should’ve won. I ended up with some territory out of the opening, but my opponent had influence over most of the board. He had a few weak groups, though, which I was able to attack for profit. I ended up heavily reducing him, and living in a bunch of places I feel like I probably should’t have lived.
Overall, this just feels far too scrappy. I feel like I screwed up early on, and started fighting everywhere in desperate hopes I could catch up, and managed to more because of my opponent’s mistakes than because of my own play. What could I have done differently in order to not have fallen behind so much?
2/17/2018 - 7k vs 5k:
This one hurt. I think I was ahead at the end but missed that he could successfully kill one of the edge groups on my big territory, and reduce me by a lot. I ended up losing by 19.5. He failed to kill something big that should’ve died earlier, though, so maybe it was karma.
I think my direction of play is improving since I spent most of the game pushing him around and making territory, rather than getting pushed around. I need to make sure I’m reading out the critical sequences, though. I failed on several of them.
What else did I miss? Here’s the game: