Ranking Game from GS

Player name: 
vjsan
Player rank: 
13k
Player color: 
Black
Opponent name: 
Kugutsu
Opponent rank: 
9k
Review status: 
reviewed
Reviewer: 
Review rating: 
Review instructions: 

I lost by 12 points and have encountered a stall in my competence progress. I feel I have a good opening game but lose ground post joseki. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Game summary: 

So I do have a bit of a problem with a few moves in your opening, but you're right. It's mostly the other aspects you're a bit weaker in. Life and death problems, as well as problems involving the best move will help you a lot. There is such a thing as being too safe in my opinion, but for now learning good reduction strategy and endgame is more important.

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Comments

Much thanks for this review. I now see I must keep my opening more expansive, read the options of midgame play more carefully and study life and death sequencing. My reading ability is very poor and I have a huge challenge trying to hold the sequence of more than 2 or 3 moves in my mind. Your help is so appreciated!

Yeah reading is very important, even if you aren't a hyper aggressive player. You don't necessarily have to have an expansive opening, your style seems different from that. For instance the first move I didn't like too much, move 7, could have been played at C12 or C13 instead. White's fourth line stone doesn't have a base yet, making it rather weak but not easily attackable yet. A move putting pressure on that weakness is a good move and worth just as much if not more than E16. C13 also makes for a great ally if you ever want to invade white's attempt at fourth line territory on the left side.