Make sure your reviews go in a separate SGF file. It's very hard to do an effective synthesis if everyone's comments are all jumbled together.

If the starting point SGF is provided on OGS, make a new review.

Put them in the corresponding channel, and try to answer them during the week with someone else from the project!

Positional judgment is understanding the current state of the board. The simplest comparison here is to think of a tsumego. Knowing for sure that the group is alive or dead, in the tsumego, is positional judgment for that section of the board. A part of positional judgment, therefore, is knowing whether all groups on the board are alive or dead, given that either player gets there first.

Positional judgment is a skill we often gloss over during our own games and reviews, almost subconsciously, in our rush to find the next move. Our eyes scan the board quickly and we often blind ourselves to a lot of the situation. For instance, recognizing which forcing moves exist on the board is a part of positional judgment. And by that, I mean recognizing all the forcing moves, including the ones who aren't necessarily good for us at the moment. Filtering those forcing moves is a job for the next analysis section, Direction of Play.

So, here's a list of things to look at when doing a positional judgment analysis:

• status of all groups (how many eyes, is it sealed in, can it be split)
• what big areas exist on the board
• what forcing moves exist on the board for the player whose turn it is
• where the territory is
• where the thickness is
• how many points both players currently have

Now that we have done the positional judgment analysis, we are ready to begin the direction of play analysis.

Where positional judgment is a very quantitative analysis, direction of play is much more qualitative.

Now is the time to formulate your best strategies, given what's on the board, and start considering which tactics might work.

Direction of play is understanding what sequence of moves would be most beneficial to the player whose turn it is. We must, of course, assume best play from both players, so it is important to understand what is most beneficial for the other player as well. In the process of exploring direction of play, think about desirable changes for the player whose turn it is. Which forcing moves do we want to use? When? Would using a given forcing move disable other forcing moves that we might want?

• which changes would the player whose turn it is like to see on the board
• what sequences of forcing moves are available and how would they transform the board
• is a gote move required or desirable now and why

Would the player whose turn it is like to end with territory? Influence? Two eyes? A moto? Keep the opponent disconnected?

What results are available on the board.. and what will happen if we play things in a different order? Are we going to lose forcing moves, give sente, something else?

Seems odd to have a section just for this one, huh? Well.. Content TK.