Alright, so technical difficulties have been vanquished (huzzah!) and we can now continue on with the game review. So, we left off with the epic struggle between Dave and his opponent. White just played a good move, mayhaps a bit slow, but still, pretty shape. What happens next?
Black 39 is the correct direction, and Dave should pat himself on the bat. I might have preferred a one space jump, but for 5-10 kyus, if you're playing in the right area of the board I will feel satisfied. If you don't play 39, then white will reduce from this side and your right side stones will feel useless and have low self-esteem. White 40 is also pretty good. The idea is to halt Black's advance into the center while threatening to create your own territorial framework, so I can applaud this move. White 44 is also an okay idea, but it doesn't mesh with the moves he plays later. Now, if I were White...
We need to go for maximum pain here kids. Black's bottom right group is very weak and we need to exploit that. White 1 is a good way to doing it, depriving Black of a vital point on the right and then using White 3 to start building the center, and in sente! Building territorial frameworks is fun, but building territorial frameworks while attacking is even more fun! White has a chance to take the lead, but instead he tried to capture Black's reduction stone...which is impossible. In fact, in forcing Black to build a wall, he's made one of his previous moves bad.
Case in point, Black just grabbed a good fifteen points or so (maybe even more depending how the endgame plays out) of points with a simple push and cut, not sacrificing anything in the process. White plays 62...and I'm not sure what Dave is defending against with 63. Black concedes quite a few points here without putting up a fight, when it might have been better to fight back. Black 71 is very big. Dave later went on to win this match by killing his opponent's big group in the center, so congratulations to him! What's the moral to the story?
1. Be careful which direction you make a wall. If your opponent can play a stone that cannot be killed to reduce your influence, it's probably not the right direction.
2. If your opponent reduces your center and you can't kill his stone, don't attack him. Making him stronger doesn't help you.
3. If your opponent refuses to defend themselves, show them why it might be a good idea.
