(;FF[4]GM[1]SZ[9]ST[2]CA[UTF-8]AP[SGFC:1.14]VW[]

PB[GarouFH]
BR[30k]
HA[0]
PW[Lothe]
WR[26k]
KM[0.5]
DT[2003-07-04]
PC[The Kiseido Go Server (KGS) at http://kgs.kiseido.com/]
RE[B+28.50]
RU[Japanese]

C[Hi Kevin:

I'm Bob (18k on KGS - look for me as "SirBowen" if you go there); I'll be reviewing your game.

I see from the comments you've added that you've learned some Go theory, and that you put thought into you play and your own review. I predict a good future for you at Go.

I'll put my comments, then, in terms of these same important principles.]
;B[ff];W[dd];B[cg];W[gc]C[Looks like manego at first, but this just seemed like a good couple of moves.]
;B[gd]
(;W[ge]TR[ff][gd]C[An attempt to either drive him to the left into my power (D6) or at least deny him access to the two black stones on the lower portion of the board.

---------------
SirBowen: Since you were white, you had to be a little aggressive to make up for black's head start (especially since you weren't playing with a komi). Even so, this was an overplay - that is, trying for too much and ending up with a weakened position.

You mention two goals, I'll take them one at a time:

 - Driving Him to Your Strength: A good principle. But there's a related principle - "avoid driving him toward your weak group". In short, your lone stone at D6 can't qualify as "strength" yet, so it's premature to try to drive him that way.
 
   See the next move for further discussion on this.

 - Cutting his Connection to His Other Stones: Also a good tactic. However, the knight's-move connection between the two marked stones is pretty secure; it can be cut under some circumstances, but this is not one of them. Generally, when cutting you can assume that the cutting stone will come under attack - make sure that it can survive long enough to do some good!

I've added some a variation here that explore some other options instead of this move.]
;B[fd]C[SirBowen: Here you can see more of what I mean by not weakening your own groups...

Your comment a few moves later says that "things start to go downhill." But if you look at the relationships between the stones here you'll already see the seeds of the problems that you run into later.

Black responds exactly the way you had wanted. But the resulting position leaves your three stones isolated, unable to support each other.

From this point forward, you'll be working at a disadvantage. You'll be trying to save what you can while black can take advantage of the resulting play to build territory.

After this, black leaves some serious weak points and I'll point out a few different things you could have tried. But it would have been difficult to make up enough to recover from this disadvantage.]
;W[fe]C[He moves precisely the direction I wanted him to; unfortunately, it doesn't do me as much good as I'd hoped.  I manage to block his access to the black stone on F4, but...]
;B[ee]C[He caps off my advance, and here things begin to go downhill for me.]
;W[he]C[I start outward.  Ideally I'd like to go up and around to my stone at G7, although I know the prospects of that actually happening are close to nil.]
;B[hd];W[ed]C[He blocks my advance again and I decide it would be a good idea to extend my lone man and also split his group on line six from the stone on E5.]
;B[fc]
(;W[gb]TR[ee][ff]C[Saving the stone at G7 with an extension.

------------------------
SirBowen: If there's much hope in regaining advantage in this position, it would probably involve forgetting the idea of saving the G7 stone. You're going to have to give up something, and his only real weaknesses lie in the other direction - the marked stones, which are in contact with your stones but aren't quite connected yet.

Because you consume moves in saving the G7 stone, he is able to settle these two stones in the next couple of moves.

See the variation on this move for some ideas.];B[de];W[cd]
C[If I can't reduce his territory, I'm going to at least wall this off.]
;B[gf];W[id]TR[fc][fd][hd][gd]C[I know this sequence never leads to an actual penetration, but I wanted to do something to try to save the line-five group.

----------
SirBowen: The sequence you start here is a common end-game move. It gains a couple of points (presuming that both sides play properly, which isn't true here - see the following plays).

At this point in the game, it's much more important to make bigger plays (like turning at C5, or doing something to limit the incursion of his marked group.)

It's especially futile in this case, since the group you're extending from is dead, anyway. You can sometimes use a dead group as a threat to gain advantage in some other way. But don't hold onto them uselessly, spending more plays that could be used better elsewhere.]
;B[ic];W[ie]C[Things proceed predictably.];B[fb]LB[hc:A]TR[id]
SQ[ic]C[SirBowen: Black made a serious mistake here. It might still have turned the game around for you.

In the common sequence that you started with the triangle stone, when you're in black's position it's VERY important that you not leave the sequence without protecting the cutting point at A.. Otherwise the opponent will trap it and there's usually no escape.

And, in this case, trapping the square stone would mean more than just one more prisoner. It's a key stone that would have meant that all 6 of the white stones would live, and that black would be pretty severely cut in two, with black's group very vulnerable to be captured.

See variation on the next white move for how this could have played out.]

(;W[fa]C[Once again up here.];B[ea];W[ga]
(;B[hf]LB[eb:A]TR[ic]C[The possibility of taking the black "L" group in the upper-right had been a faint possibility until now, but here it's irrefutably obvious that the line-five (and J6) group is dead.

--------
SirBowen: Another instance of the same mistake on black's part that I mentioned before. When in this position, you MUST protect the connection at A - either by connecting directly or by playing one point to the side so that you'd immediately re-capture if the opponent played there (see variation).

Of course, maybe black just realized his previous mistake (with the marked stone), and figures he'd better just go ahead and take your right-side group so that you don't take advantage of that and give him even more trouble.]
;W[eb]C[The implications of this move didn't occur to me when I made it; I just wanted to interrupt his connection between E9 and F8, knowing that allowing him that point would give him an unstoppable amount of influence in this area.]
;B[if];W[da]C[I hadn't seen this when I first played E8, but as soon as I did I took advantage of it.  I had figured the L-shaped group on the right was all but dead, but now it's suddenly liberated again. It doesn't do me much good territory-wise, but it robs him of four potential prisoners and points of territory.]
;B[ce];W[be]C[I decided to start this one early to see if I could cut into his territory just a tiny bit.

----------
SirBowen: This is a common end-game move to gain a few points of territory. It plays out here as expected.]

(;B[bf]C[I had expected a response at B6, although this is ultimately more profitable to me.

----------
SirBowen: If he had played at B6, you could have captured his stone (see variations).

As it is, he's threatening to do the same to you, and you settle it as expected.]
;W[ae];B[af];W[bd]C[The rest of the sequence proceeds as expected.]
;B[hc];W[ec]C[E7 to block a potential advance into my only territory :P]
;B[hb]C[If I had been smart, I would have played H9 to reduce his territory by one, but all I could see in the actual game was that at this point he would capture the L group I'd worked so hard to free in two moves.

----------
SirBowen: Your later analysis is right. H9 would have been safe and would have cost him 2 points. If we could only see things in the game as clearly as we can later...]
;W[ea]C[So my next move was aimed at protecting it.];B[ha]C[He takes the point I should have and captures two points instead.]
;W[cb]C[Just to ensure that there are no incursions into my territory. At this point my opponent and I agree that all has been done and we pass in turn.]
;TB[ii][ih][ig][ie][id][ib][ia][hi][hh][hg][he][gi][gh][gg]
[ge][fi][fh][fg][fe][ei][eh][eg][ef][di][dh][dg][df][ci][ch]
[cf][bi][bh][bg][ai][ah][ag]TW[dc][db][cc][ca][bc][bb][ba][ad]
[ac][ab][aa])
(;B[bd]C[SirBowen: This is the black response that you expected. Doesn't work out for him, though, he just gets captured - there's just not enough room from the second line to the edge to let him get out.

This is a common shape you'll learn to avoid (and to use to your advantage on the other side).]
;W[bc];B[ad];W[ac];B[ae];W[af]))
(;B[db]C[SirBowen: Black's protection of the cutting point.]
))
(;W[hc]C[SirBowen: Now black can't save his stone. And the continuations show how this also allows you to connect your two groups and gain two eyes.

Black's best choice now, is to give up on taking the corner, and work on saving his cut group (which is going to be difficult for him).]
;B[ga]C[Sir Bowen: If he presses an attack on the corner (like this, for instance), he'll probably lose his whole group - see continuations.]
;W[ib]C[Sir Bowen: Now black is in trouble. He can't keep you from connecting the two groups, so your total number of liberties is four, while his group also has four.

If he tries to attack your corner, he'll be using up his liberties faster than you use yours, and you'll capture the whole group (see first variation). He can try to make some eye space by going toward the upper-left, but then you can make two eyes with one more stone and you're safe, while he's still struggling for life (see second variation).]

(;B[ha]C[SirBowen: First variation - he presses his attack.]
;W[ec];B[hb];W[ic];B[eb];W[ia];B[fa];W[db];B[da];W[ca];B[cb]
;W[ea])
(;B[db]C[SirBowen: Second variation - he makes some move toward the left to get some room for his group.]
;W[ha]C[Now your corner has two eyes and is safe, while he's still trying to staying alive.]
;B[fa];W[ec];B[eb];W[cb];B[ca];W[bb];B[ba];W[dc];B[aa];W[ab]
;B[da];W[ea])))
(;W[ef]TR[ee]SQ[ff]C[Now you will capture one of the stones. If he saves the triangle stone, you catch the square stone in a ladder.

See variations on black's next move for  possible continuations.]

(;B[de]C[SirBowen: One variation, where he saves the center stone. Now you capture the other stone.]
;W[fg]TR[ff]C[SirBowen: Black can't save the triangle stone (see variation on next move to verify the ladder.) So his best play is to give up that stone and take what advantage he can.]

(;B[df];W[gf]C[Now your groups are still somewhat split up, but so are his. There's still a lot of battle left.]
)
(;B[gf];W[hf];B[gg];W[gh];B[hg];W[hh];B[ig];W[ih];B[if];W[ie]
))
(;B[eg]C[SirBowen: another variation, where he sacrifices the center stone to save the other one...]
;W[de]C[Now black is cut in two, and you'll be able to take some advantage while he tries to save his two positions.]
)))
(;W[fd];B[ge];W[df]TR[cg][ff]C[SirBowen: This probably has more promise than the original cut of the knights-move connection on the right side. Now you're threatening to cut at the extended knights-move connection between the marked stones - much more cut-able than the knights-move.

I've followed one reasonable line of play in the continuation, though of course there's an almost infinite number of them...]
;B[dg];W[ef];B[eg];W[cf];B[bf];W[be];B[bh];W[fe];B[gg];W[af]
;B[bg];W[hc];B[hd];W[cc]C[Now white's ahead, with a solid position.]
))
