I was playing white. Above is the result of my 3-3 invasion. The black group at the bottom has only 2 liberties, and my 7 stone group has 4. The only cutting point is at S3, and even if black plays there, I can kill black's 5 stone group faster and live. I make a mental note to remember I need to be careful about the cut at S3, but I don't move there. I decide all is well, and my next move is a "big" move in the center of the board.
About 50 moves later, we return to this corner group. Not only is the set of stones that I had before still there, I have expanded a bit on the bottom. Black seals the border with J1 - he also puts my 3 stones on the left in atari. I continue to assume that my 8 stone group is alive and well. I don't pay attention to the fact that I had some worry down here, and I play without thinking.
I quickly save the 3 stones that were in atari by connecting. Doh! Bad move. It was a reaction rather than a thinking move. If I had looked at things a bit longer I would have seen the play at L3. L3 takes the black stone at L2. If black plays at L4 (threatening to retake by playing L2 next, I could have played L2 myself and gained an eye at M1. Not only did I lose that eye, I filled in my own liberty! Now my large group has only 2 liberties.
Black does the right thing and punishes me for my mistake. He cuts at S3 and leaves my group in atari. My 12 stone group is dead and Black claims the entire corner.
The toughest thing about this was that I lost the game by 19.5 points. My mistake in this corner cost more than enough to switch the win from white to black.
Looking back I want to call a play at S3 "urgent for white". Playing that one stone would have won the game. I could even have played it as late as when black put my 3 stones in atari. I would have traded 3 stones for the corner - definitely a better deal.
Next time I hear myself making mental notes about an area, I will try to recognize that I am seeing an urgent move. The other half of that is, when you see yourself wanting to tenuki (play someting "big" on another party of the board) remember this proverb and recheck the current area - can you really leave it safely? Last thing, I am going to try to force myself to count the liberties of the group I plan to play a stone in, before playing it. Hopefully that will help me see that a group is in danger earlier.
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