Day 9 - 3 games (31), 23 kyu

Fair warning: the games I played last night were quite painful, the mistakes I made might make you wince. In the first one I opened with the 4-4 points, my opponent unsuccessfully attacked me in the top right with a tsuke, which I've learned is not a good first move for an attack. I fought him off and attacked his 4-4 point in the lower left with a shoulder hit. I chose to extend towards my side of the board and I believe I came out on top. Playing #16 at C4 instead of D3 may have been the better option though:

The game developed quite peacefully, and we got a big wall running down the center, as is quite typical. While I didn't attempt to count the score during the game, a quick glance at the board made me think I had slightly more territory, before komi. Black hence had to make a go of it inside my territory. Aside from one or two blunders, I felt like I was doing an okay job fighting him off. Then black played this:

If you're reading this, chances are you see what to do in 10 seconds or less. I, however, had to stop and think for some time. Eventually I saw that it was a capturing race that I could win. Everything was going fine, I captured black's middle group. Then I decided to demonstrate to my opponent how one can lose the game in one move:

The only thing I can learn from this is to slow down my play, but in byo-yomi it's easy to get reckless. The situation above of course stems from the fact that all my groups were not connected. However, it's not entirely evident where I would've had the opportunity to do so. Perhaps H7 at move #80.

In the second game I once again tried invading the 4-4 point. It went alright, however my opponent managed to gain more influence in the centre and I ended up a little boxed in:

In the picture above I am losing, so now it was my turn to make something happen. My idea here was that he will capture my stone at D3, instead of responding to the ladder breaker I just played:

This worked, I cut at J3 and then I made another massive blunder:

In my head, I had already seen this sequence playing out and I thought I was one move ahead further than I was. I meant to cut at H2 one move later. To be honest, I didn't even see the atari on the right group. The lesson is the same as before, I need to stop and think more, which is funny considering I typically find myself using more time than my opponents. Not playing at 1 am would also be a good idea.

While I lost the third game too, it wasn't because of one single, painful blunder. It started off similar to the previous game, though in this one black had played a 4-5 opening in the lower left; something I thought would make it easier to invade. I honestly can't tell you why I played #9 at E2, when C5 is the better move. Eventually I realised that I had to concede the lower left, and began making moves elsewhere. The thought to resign did enter my mind, but it's rude to resign so early and it's good to learn how to make the best of a bad situation, so I kept playing.

At move #26 I decided that my best chance to get back into the game was to start a fight, and with more nearby stones than my opponent I thought I would have the upper hand. Therefore I played K9:

 Things developed well from here:

I did make a mistake and let the triangle shape in the top left get captured. Still, white had three groups that I felt I should be able to capture. I started trying to seal off territory on the bottom side. Then, at move #70 white played L7, trying to save his group on the right edge of the board. If I had played L7 first I don't believe there's any way he could have lived. At move #73 I missed a critical atari, but luckily my opponent didn't see it either. Had he captured that group the game would certainly have been over there and then.

White managed to surround three of my stones, but I knew that wasn't enough for two eyes, and by playing M10 and M9 I knew I had stopped him from getting another eye there:

At this point in the game I thought that I needed to live in the lower right and then with the captured stones I might live. Then I completely blew it by playing K4, white responded K3 and I did this:

My concentration must have been completely gone at this point, because my intent was to force white to capture my three stones on the right, and for some reason I thought he didn't and that they were in atari, which they clearly weren't. K4 would have let him make an eye anyway. Something like this is what I was trying to make happen:

Hopefully my mistakes in these were painful enough that I won't repeat them too often.

Today's lesson:
-Slow down my play in life and death situations.