Oza Round One: Liberties Matter

First game, board 42, I took black. I thought I was doing pretty well till I got greedy and tried to kill. Sendol looked at the game, and made me realize I know nothing about go. Big surprise, eh?



In this game, I got greedy and tried to kill. Which frankly lead to a mess. I had focused on this hidden liberty. The liberty that wasn't there in my reading, or my reality, but suddenly popped up when I tried to take the ten stones, and he politely pointed out 'They still have a liberty'.

Oh...

The liberty which was hidden between the bushes. The liberty who decided he did not want to be seen. And he wasn't. At least, not by me. It was one well-hidden liberty.

During review, I found out that that liberty issue wasn't a big deal at all, but many other things were. Of course, that didn't fix my 'I am guilty and I suck' feelings, but I decided I could work on those later. I still believe that every liberty in that group should have been accounted for. "It is midnight. Do you know where your liberties are?"

Some highlights:

Here I played A directly, but I should have played the two upper sansans first. I still have a hard time knowing when to play sansan and when to leave it so one can choose another joseki if needed.



For a long time, I always played it. When I realized I didn't always have to play it, I often ignored it. Followed by a period when I decided that it was too big to omit. Of course, that couldn't last, and someone convinced me that it is better to keep choices open. Which I have been doing. But shouldn't have done on this board. This position looks so much better with the sansan exchanges.



I think it is time to figure out when I want to play it and when I want to omit. Can't be too hard to learn, can it?




Here my opponent plays a greedy move (glad I never play greedy like that! Cough, cough... )



I failed to punish correctly. Where I knew I was doing a splendid job, sendol corrected me on that. I got remarks like
'sendol [-]: b too passive'. (me and my passive playing style...)
Leading to



Now if White plays at A, White will be clearly leading. Luckily, my opponent missed this opportunity and gave me some more chances.



I am too tired to show them all, but this link will get you the sendol reviewed game.

For fun, this is when I stopped recording because I was in byo yomi.



He killed my A group, I retaliated by killing his B group. It was a big mess, I was running out of time, and making way too many mistakes. I resigned.



I would like to tell about my other games, and tell many more stories, but my life is interfering. I started putting up a few oza pictures here, but I still have many to upload.