In general, I tend to have problems with fighting. In this game, I think I mishandled the invasion at move 62; in particular with moves 65 and 67 which gave me bad shape in the area. I think I would have been better off keeping some distance there ?
I feel like selecting the proper fighting style & distance for each situation is a recurrent issue for me. In another recent game, https://online-go.com/game/10791327 I was quite happy about my position after move 27 and thought I’d be able to close off my upper moyo by extending a few times through the board, but of course my opponent started fights which I wasn’t sure how to respond to - I wanted to keep extending (up to move 59) rather than handle close combat so I ended up leaving lots of cutting points which of course caused me problems later. I’m not sure what would have been a more appropriate way to secure the upper board in that game ??? OTOH I at least handled the inevitable invasion better there than in the first game.
So, I’d like to ask more advanced players, what do you think about either of these games, and what can I do to improve my fighting, especially in wide open areas (I think I do better when the fights are within already enclosed areas) ?
I have the exact same doubt before. I am 3-4k no and I still have not found an answer to this so any help would be appreciated.
In general, one thing that helped me is to remember that the center is important but it’s smaller than it look. so many instead of trying to protect some 10,15 point territory in the center, go invade your opponent’s side. You need a lot of moves to secure territory in the center. so it might not be a worthwhile investment to spend too many moves in early game in the center while there are other spot open. (Note: it doesn’t mean that you should just give away the control of center. )
I’m pretty bad at territorial game so I ill leave that part to better players. I ill leave some variation on some simple tactical mistake I see in the game.(edit, I made a review on the first game)
So it’s been two weeks already, but I meant to thank spatula & bugcat for the review and I guess, better late than never ???
I think handling invasions was the biggest issue in the game (moves 65- and 111- ) - the proper answer is to push the opponent towards my strong groups, and not get into cross-cutting fights. I’ve gone up 4 ranks in the 2 weeks since I posted the request, and I think this is largely due to not going into losing such mud fights every time I get invaded anymore, and also (as a consequence) being more confident about going into other fights when they are more warranted.
Other things that came up:
Too much delay approaching my opponent’s corner in the early game. Once I finally got to it, the opponent already had extra stones around, so that my approach immediately got pincered - by that time, I should have probably gone for a side extension instead.
Did not immediately defend my pincered stone. Did not claim enough of the corner when I finally did.
Mis-timed moves - doing things that would have been great a couple moves earlier, but have a lower value after my opponent’s recent moves.
Several times, stayed in local fights for too long. Should have tenuki-ed to reduce my opponent’s influence on the low side or lower left corner. Left those areas un-challenged for the entire game…
Slow development for my own invading group (going into my opponents moyo). Should have used longer extensions once my invading group had enough liberties.