(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2]
RU[AGA]SZ[19]KM[7.50]
GN[Monday Go Meditation: Game 67]PW[White]PB[BenGoZen]WR[1k]BR[3k]DT[2014-08-09]EV[US Go Congress 2014]PC[New York]RE[B+Resign]CH[1]
;B[pd]C[It had been a long time since I last played a real game, so I started with the familiar yet simple first move: star point.]
;W[dp]C[White plays diagonally of me and maintains balance on the board. No bias in direction yet.]
;B[pq]C[Since I was rusty, I decided to try taking out my old friend Chinese Opening back out for a stroll.]
;W[cd]LB[ed:A]C[Interesting. Offering me the easy approach at A (E16) was certainly tempting.]
;B[fq]LB[ed:A]C[But I was too caught up in my own original plan to setup a Chinese opening, so I just approached the bottom. 

Upon review though, I think that the appraoch at A (E16) would be to Black's advantage right now and would be the move I would make if I were playing again.]
;W[dn]LB[cl:A]C[The one space jump makes sense as White's 3-4 in the upper left indicates a bias to building the left side. However, there is a weakness at A (C8) that Black can look forward exploiting later if left open.]
;B[jp]C[For those who have seen me play, playing these high moves to threaten moyo building is pretty common. I usually prefer this over settling outright. ]
;W[qo]LB[qn:A]C[To my delight, White approaches one space away from my corner. Perfect time to harrass!

For those wondering what the correct approach should be, the two space low approach at A (R6) is the better move.]
;B[qm]C[Naturally I have to pincer in the most severe way possible: one space low pincer.]
;W[no]C[White's two point jump here was a surprise to me. And to be honest, I had no idea what I was going to do.]
;B[po]LB[op:B][qp:A][nq:C]C[I decided to try to cut immediately, but this seems rather premature now as White could definitely treat the stone lightly. Instead, it would probably have been better to kick at A (R4) first to make White heavy and then proceed with some sort of expansion move like B (P4) or C (O3) to continue building the bottom.]
;W[pn]C[White hanes as expected.]
;B[qn]C[No other option but to cut.]
;W[pp]C[And with this atari, you can see that things are not shaping out to be too hot for Black.]
;B[oo]C[Black has to run.]
;W[op]C[White follows with the atari and I'm really starting to regret my initial decision to try and cut White's two space jump.]
;B[on]C[But I'm already stuck in this sequence and have to continue running.]
;W[nn]C[White ataris once again.]
;B[om]TR[pq]C[And I have to extend once more just to end in gote. If you take a look at Black's Q3 stone (marked), it's looking mighty lonely.]
;W[qp]C[White repairs his cutting point and you'll notice now that White has now taken a rather large corner. Quite a big success if you consider that Black had the initial advantage.]
;B[np]LB[nq:A]C[In an attempt to try and get something in exchange for the corner, I cut without hesitation in hopes of getting a lot of influence when White plays at A (O3).]
;W[mp]C[To my surprise, White actually ataris from the other direction. ]
;B[nq]LB[mq:A][oq:B]C[So you think you can capture my cutting stone don't you? Well I got a miai of A (N3) and B (P3), so we'll see about that!]
;W[oq]C[White realizes that letting me connect would be really bad for him and cuts the connection.]
;B[mq]TR[nn][no][mp]C[So I take the other direction and keep up my attack on the outside stones (triangle).]
;W[lq]C[Seeing the double hane made it very clear that White was gunning for the kill.]
;B[lp]C[Too bad the double hane is full of cuts for me to exploit though.]
;W[mo]C[So White has to connect in bad shape.]
;B[lr]C[I get this atari.]
;W[kq]C[White can try to run, but he forgot that I have a technique for gaining more liberties.]
;B[or]C[This hane here threatens to connect my stones back up together.]
;W[pr]C[So White has to respond and cut.]
;B[nr]LB[qq:A]C[And then I can connect in sente because Black's extension at A (R3) would severely weaken if not kill the entire corner.]
;W[qq]C[White sees the threat and neutralizes it by capturing the stone.]
;B[kp]TR[kq][lq]C[This means that I get to connect here and capture the marked L3 stones.]
;W[nm]LB[ol:A]C[White tries to strengthen his group by threatening to play the atari at A (P8).]
;B[ol]TR[nm][nn][mo][no][mp]C[However, I am happy to extend on the 5th line since it means more territory for me while White's marked N4 still looks heavy.]
;W[km]C[With this two space jump, White looks a little better, but not by much as far as I can tell.]
;B[jd]C[To be honest, I'm a little surprised I didn't keep up the attack with a move like A (J7), but I guess I was in a hurry to take one of the remaining large points on the board with my impending power around P8.]
;W[qf]C[White sees what I'm trying to do and jumps into the fray.]
;B[qh]TR[ol]C[The pincer is the only natural choice in my mind as it acts as an attack and also an extension from my P8 (triangle) thickness.]
;W[of]C[White jumps.]
;B[nd]C[So now I get to jump and start building the top.]
;W[qc]C[White decides to immediately settle by invading the 3-3.]
;B[qd]C[So I descend and threaten to separate the two groups.]
;W[rd]C[White threatens to connect.]
;B[pc]TR[of][qf]C[I decide to continue building the top, but I'm thinking that it may have been better to actually separate White into two groups since I would then have a chance to attack the marked R14 group.]
;W[rb]C[White makes the tiger's mouth as is prescribed in the joseki.]
;B[qb]C[Black ataris once.]
;W[rc]C[White connects and Black gets sente. 

At this point though, the next move seems pretty obvious.]
;B[oh]LB[ed:A]C[However, I was clearly too focused on trying to build the right side. In hindsight, it's clear that the approach at A (E16) is way bigger than this one-point jump I made.]
;W[ec]C[And sure enough, White takes the corner enclosure which negates much of my top territory potential.]
;B[fo]TR[km][nm][nn][mo][no][mp]C[Since I lost the opportunity to approach the upper left, I tried to make do by expanding my bottom framework while eying the still heavy group of N4 (triangle).]
;W[eq]C[White kicks my stone here to try and prevent the 3-3.]
;B[fr]C[So I descend to further solidify my botom.]
;W[cj]LB[cq:A]TR[fr]C[And then White takes the remaining big point, but as far as I can tell, White helped Black get stronger while not even solidifying the corner since the 3-3 invasion at A (C3) is still available to Black (particularly with the F2 stone (triangle) in place).]
;B[fm]LB[cl:A]TR[km][nm][nn][mo][no][mp]C[So I jump again with my eyes on both the weakness at A (C8) and the White group at N4 (triangle).]
;W[nl]C[White extends once more, but again I see this benefiting Black more than White (as you'll see shortly).]
;B[nk]C[Because now Black will hane and happily build up his right side.]
;W[mk]C[White can hane and start making shape.]
;B[mj]C[However, getting the double hane here is great as the right side is only getting bigger while White is simply trying to make two eyes.]
;W[lj]C[To my surprise White double hanes as well and exposes cutting points for me to exploit.]
;B[lk]LB[cl:A]C[At this point, my eye was on invading the left side at A (C8) before White had a chance to repair his weakness. So I chose this atari in order to gain sente.]
;W[ml]C[White has to connect in poor shape.]
;B[nj]LB[kj:A]TR[mk][ml][nl][km][nm][nn][mo][no][mp]C[And though this probably surprised some of you, my connection here was to threaten the follow up at A (L10) which would put White in dire straits since his N4 group (triangle) is not quite alive just yet.]
;W[kk]C[As expected, White comes back to makes his group alive.]
;B[cl]LB[li:A]C[To be honest, I debated playing the forcing movve at A (M11) before invading now; but at the time I was thinking that White might not respond.]
;W[dl]C[White's attachment is normal.]
;B[dk]LB[cm:A]C[So I hane to see what White wanted to do. If I were White, I probably would have blocked at A (C7).]
;W[ck]C[White decides to cut though, which is actually perfect because it allows me to pull a switch-a-roo which you'll see shortly.]
;B[dm]C[I start with the atari.]
;W[el]C[White must extend.]
;B[em]LB[ek:A]C[With this solid connection, now I threaten a ladder that starts with A (E9).]
;W[cm]LB[bl:A]C[So White naturally cuts. And the next move you're probably expecting is the extension at A (B8) right?]
;B[cn]C[Yeah... I would played there as well, but apparently I thought it would be better to counter-atari and try to swallow the corner; but this doesn't work out quite the way I expect.]
;W[bl]C[White makes a clean capture.]
;B[do]C[And so I wrap around with another atari, but I fail to anticipate White's follow-up move.]
;W[co]C[Thie double atari was painful since there was only one move for me to make.]
;B[en]C[I had no choice but to capture.]
;W[bn]C[As a result, White got to link up all his stones (with a ko at worst).]
;B[cp]C[Since I am more of a fighter, I went ahead for the ko.]
;W[dn]C[White naturally takes the first ko.]
;B[re]C[And then I make a ko threat here to separate the White stones.]
;W[eo]C[White deems that it is not a threat and ends the ko. And while I was sad, I think that he ultimately made the right decision.]
;B[rf]C[So I have no choice but to follow through with my ko threat.]
;W[pb]C[And now White can easily settle with this atari. Epic fail on my part.]
;B[ob]C[So I can only atari and try to keep his territory small.]
;W[qa]C[White captures and now I have to find a way to profit from this exchange.]
;B[li]C[Since I seem to legitimately have a moyo now, the forcing move seems appropriate.]
;W[kj]C[White connects.]
;B[ki]LB[gc:A]C[And I go ahead and extend to give my moyo more depth, but in hindsight this seems rather slow. I should have considered a move at A (G17) to try and make top actually worth something.]
;W[ld]C[This invasion was very surprising at the time since it seemed like an overplay.]
;B[le]LB[ke:A]C[So I tried to "punish" it, but this attachment doesn't work out for me. A better move would probably have been a move like A (L15).]
;W[me]C[White can now hane.]
;B[md]C[And though I can cut, White is simply using the stones lightly to put a dent in Black's territory (which you'll see shortly.]
;W[ke]C[White ataris.]
;B[lf]C[So I have to extend.]
;W[kd]LB[ld:A]C[And when White connect,s it should become quite clear that White's invasion at A (M16) was very successful.]
;B[kf]LB[je:A]C[I turn to try and salvage what I can, by turning here and hoping a miracle happens and my opponent lets me get A (K15).]
;W[je]C[That is just hopeless thinking though. Sure enough White turns and is free from any further serious attacks by Black. 

As I surveyed the board, I realized I was in a bit of trouble since White had quite a bit of cash. ]
;B[bd]C[When you're behind, it's time to try things out and complicate the board. After all, if you let the game progress simply, you will definitely lose. So I decided to go ahead and attach to White's corner to see what kind of complications I could create.]
;W[be]TR[cj]C[White's hane here is consistent with trying to build more influence to work with the C10 influence (triangle).]
;B[cc]C[But that's just what I was hoping for since it would give me chances to poke at White's shape and plant some aji in the area.]
;W[bc]C[White cuts, but I'm not concerned since all these stones are light and are considered more probes than anything else.]
;B[dd]C[So I counter-atari.]
;W[ce]C[And when White connects, I realize I have a chance at doing some real damage in this area.]
;B[bb]C[So I play one more forcing move.]
;W[ad]C[White capture.]
;B[dc]TR[ec]C[And then I connect knowing that I should have no problems living. And if you look carefully, the resulting exchange actually allowed me to cut through White's shimari and isolate the E17 stone (triangle).]
;W[ed]C[White notices this and tries to strengthen his stone while threatening to seal me in.]
;B[de]C[Well I had no intention of living small in the corner while giving White a massive left side, so out I went!]
;W[ab]C[White hanes to prevent me from gaining easy life in the corner.]
;B[eb]TR[ec][ed]C[But I had no intention of living there anyways, so I hane here and try to put pressure on the E17 stones (triangle).]
;W[fb]C[White hanes in response.]
;B[da]C[So I form a tiger's mouth to give myself at least half an eye.]
;W[ba]C[White is clearly focused on trying to kill me since he makes the atari here to keep me to one eye.]
;B[fe]C[But the thing about invading and/or reducing is that you have to be flexible and not get attached to a specific base (especially when you have the freedom to run into the board and play moves that can capture your opponent stones or make sabaki.]
;W[cb]C[White makes the capture here to permanently remove any chance of me having an eye, but this is small and a miscalculation since Black didn't even have a second eye yet.]
;B[fc]C[Nothing says I want to complicate things like cutting.]
;W[fd]C[White has no intention of letting me seal him in.]
;B[gd]C[But that's fine since I didn't plan on capturing his stones anyways. I just needed some forcing moves to gain some strength.]
;W[gc]C[White has to capture, but you'll notice his eye is false.]
;B[ee]C[So I get another forcing move!]
;W[fc]C[And White has to connect in the awful dumpling shape.]
;B[he]TR[jd]C[And now I makes the tiger's mouth in hopes to making use of the K16 stone (triangle).]
;W[hd]C[White makes the atari as expected.]
;B[ge]C[I connect.]
;W[id]TR[jd]C[And then White cuts off the K16 stone (triangle) and effectively connects all his stones together.]
;B[ie]C[So I go ahead and cut here looking for either A (K17) or B (K14) as a miai for living.]
;W[jf]C[White chooses to keep Black firmly separated since Black is not alive, but he is severely underestimating my ability to make things seriously complicate.d]
;B[jc]LB[gc:A][kd:B]C[With this extension, it becomes clear the A (G17) group and the B (L16) group are now firmly separated. ]
;W[ib]C[White tries to salvage the situation with this one point jump.]
;B[jb]LB[hc:A]C[But this descent makes the atari at A (H17) work while keeping White firmly separated.]
;W[ic]C[So White repairs his weakness.]
;B[la]TR[ob]C[And now I can connect with the P18 stone (triangle) with this knight's move (though a small part me still thinks that this can actually be cut).]
;W[kb]C[White certainly though it was cuttable and starts with this attachment.]
;B[ka]C[Connecting is the only choice.]
;W[kc]C[White connects solidly while putting my stones in atari.]
;B[ja]C[So I connect.]
;W[mb]C[And when White plays here, I nearly panic as I think that I was wrong about being connected.]
;B[ma]C[But I keep my cool and just extend, knowing full well that a ko could be imminent.]
;W[nb]C[White extends as I predict.]
;B[na]LB[oa:A]C[And so I extend once more while fully expecting the throw-in at A (P19).]
;W[oc]C[To my surprsie though, White tries a fancier way to kill me outright without any ko.]
;B[oa]C[So I connect, but as far as I can read, this will not work.]
;W[od]C[White extends and "cuts" Black.]
;B[oe]LB[lb:B][nc:A]TR[mb][nb][oc][od]C[But this atari makes it very clearly that Black is completely connected because if White connects at A (O17) Black will capture all the marked stones (triangle) with B (M18),]
;W[qe]C[White tries to salvage the situation with this atari.]
;B[nc]LB[rg:A]TR[re][rf]C[I go ahead and capture to remove the aji. And while White can now capture the S15 stones (triangle) with the hane at A (S13), you'll realize that White has more urgent matters to attend to.]
;W[jg]TR[kb][mb][nb][kc][kd][ld][je][ke][jf]C[That's right. White's L18 group (triangle) is not alive and eyeless.]
;B[hh]TR[cc][dc][dd][gd][de][ee][fe][ge][he][ie]C[So I played this extension that would act as a reinforcement to my own eyeless group (H15 - triangle) whiel also simultaneously suffocating White.]
;W[mf]TR[le][kf][lf]C[White descends in hopes of capturing my M15 stones (triangle).]
;B[lg]C[Though this is bad shape, it's the only move I find that will allow me to keep White separated and ultimately dead.]
;W[mg]C[White continues keeping pressure on Black.]
;B[mh]C[So I make the double tiger's mouth while prevent White from trying any shenanigans.]
;W[lb]C[White then threatens to make an eye now, but that seems rather pointless to me now since there is little to no room for a second one.]
;B[jh]C[So I go ahead and fully smother the group with the diagonal.]
;W[qg]LB[rg:A]C[To my surprise White simply extends here instead of the hane at A (S13). However, in his defense, White had something a bit bigger planned.]
;B[rg]C[I naturally extend while wondering what in the world White has planned for me.]
;W[ia]C[With this extension, it becomes a bit clearer that White is aiming for a capturing race.]
;B[hb]C[They say the best defense is a good offense, so I went ahead and retaliated by poking White's eyes out here.]
;W[hc]LB[oc:A]C[When White connects here, the first thing that a few of you probably notice is that Black could connect at A (D18) and then White would be left with one eye and then would ultimately die. The only problem with that is that Black is not quite safe yet and will in fact lose from the liberty race due to tesujis like the throw-in at A (P17).]
;B[pf]C[So I had no choice but to secure my own group knowing that at least I would get sente.]
;W[oc]C[When White throws in, I have to admit that I started to sweat as I was worried I had read this out incorrectly.]
;B[od]C[I capture.]
;W[pa]C[White ataris.]
;B[oc]C[So I connect.]
;W[mc]C[And then White makes an eye while removing one of my three remaining liberties.]
;B[pg]C[But with this extension I'm perfectly safe. Whew.]
;W[hg]C[White now attaches to try and wriggle free.]
;B[gg]C[But I hane to keep him firmly sealed in.]
;W[ih]C[White wedges.]
;B[ii]LB[gi:B][ji:A]C[But the atari here is just what the doctor ordered since it also forms the tiger mouth at A (J11) while giving me the follow up shape move at B (G11).]
;W[ig]C[White connects.]
;B[gi]C[And as I mentioned earlier I make great shape while keeping White firmly dead.]
;W[fh]C[White peeps to try and make something work.]
;B[gh]C[I just connect since I'm almost certain that I am ahead at this point and see no reason to let White complicate the game now.]
;W[fg]LB[db:B][gf:A]C[White then keeps trying to salvage what he can of the left side while threatening at wedge at A (G14). The reality of the situation, however, is that the wedge is not a threat because Black still has B (D18).]
;B[ff]LB[db:B][dg:A]C[But I protect like an idiot since I'm ahead and plan on erasing White's territory with a move like A (D13) after he saves his group with B (D18). I'm pretty sure you all can pretty easily see that a dead group at J19 is worth more than a reduction move. Stupid me.]
;W[fi]C[White doesn't see the issue though and tries to keep building the left side.]
;B[db]C[So I decide to connect and just take a massive lead. And with this connection, White realizes that there is no coming back and resigns here.])
