The little mistakes count a lot

fathwad (17k) played a teaching game with me this evening which I lost by 23.5 moku because I missed a pinning opportunity which would have allowed me to save a threatened group on the bottom of my board.

Q18 would have been the pivotal response that probably
might have tipped the balance heavily in Black's favor.
Of course, I didn't play that.

Even without the pin, I might have won but I undercounted the liberties of my P17 group and sacrificed my L3 group when I didn't have to. My own time settings (15 min + 3, 25-stone byoyomi at 45 seconds) worked against me as I felt pressured to move and didn't take the time to fully read the board.

Overall however, it was still a very good game. In it, I recalled mungo's (4k) warning that, in some handicap games, white's victory will rest on being able to separate black's stones. My opening moves were intended to avoid that and, at the early part of the game, succeeded in 2 out of 3 sections of the bottom (until I blundered).

(Speaking of mungo, I hope he's doing alright given the hurricane that's hitting the Southeast.)

fathwad had observed and commented on an earlier game with Stukov (25k), his younger brother.

Observing this evening's teaching game were chrono3450 (16k), Akman (?) who I once played a match with on IGS, and aKuei. aKuei (30k?) now has a new identity in SlashZero (25k?). I owe him an even game so he can assess his progress. We started learning Go at about the same time.

I also need to sharpen my saw by doing a few more Go problems on a regular basis; my work schedule permitting.

In other news, I updated the Sensei's Library article on buying Go equipment in North America. I added Mark Henderson's Fun & Games shop which is located in The Great Mall of The Bay Area which is situated in the city of Milpitas. Mark has small Go sets with wooden boards and single-convex glass stones for just $19. These are great for beginners on a shoestring budget. Mark's shop has no website but you can call his shop at (408) 945-5745.