Game Notes.

Last night I had He Who Laughs over for a 15x15 game, 5 stone handicap. He won, as white, as per usual.

Things I learned:

1. No more cutting on the 2nd line!!!
   

   
2. In my belief that my opponent is always stronger than me (which, to be fair, is true right now), I follow where ever they tenuki by default, which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In He Who Laugh's case, I would make a weird move, one that made no sense to him and seemed like a mistake. He wouldn't know what to do with it, so he'd ignore and tenuki, leaving a potentially dangerous next move open for me to make in the original area. BUT, because I followed his tenuki, I wouldn't see or make it.
3. How I lose control of corners: I think of them as a 45-45-90 triangle, rather than “this side of the corner” and “that side of the corner.” So, when I think of letting someone have the corner, I let them have all of it, rather than just part. Likewise, I try to save all of it, rather than just part.
4. A 3-3 invasion is expecting to fight over the corner. Now.
5. Empty triangles are only bad if they're empty. They are also still empty triangles even when they're attached to other things. I misunderstood the shape.
6. If I feel like I want to make an empty triangle, see if I can move diagonally instead.
7. If it's a simple choice between an atari out into open space or toward my own stones, direct them toward my stones. Simple, but I made that mistake.
8. I can see the stabby moves, but twice I chose not to take them when I should have. Try taking the stabby moves.
9. Reviewing games together is awesome. Taking notes while reviewing games would be even better than that.

Things I did well:

1. He Who Laughs had a 6-stone group that he easily could have saved by filling where he'd captured one of mine. He forgot about filling, assumed they were a stable part of his wall, and lost the whole group.
2. I reduced He Who Laugh's territory in a corner by running under and forcing him to give up a row of 3.

New terms:

Gote – A move that loses me the initiative. My opponent doesn't need to answer it.

Bamboo Joint - Very difficult to cut.

Monkey Jump - A knight's move from the 2nd to the 1st line, running under an open skirt to reduce territory.