Annotation of a 19x19 game

The game is practically over so I hope Shumacher doesn't mind. http://littlegolem.net/jsp/game/game.jsp?gid=1593425

It was my first tough game on a board of this size and gosh, what a mess resulted from avoiding ladders and all 'local' play.

2.m14
Copying from smaller boards I wanted to strenghten the empty side

4.p17
A direct answer to opponent's move, p17 should be as strong against o15 as o15 is against m14

6.h7
I wanted something that can attempt to connect left either on top or on bottom, h7 looked fitting for this purpose

8.k12
Now I think I probably should have gone for a short diagonal move, i.e. m7, but I was affraid that red m9 might put my m14 out of the game so I picked k12 to strenghten m14's position and threaten to cut directly through center

10.h11
At this moment I recognised that there were many possible ways to connect right (on short diagonal - m7, or somewhere red stones) so I chose to play on left and cooperate well with both h7 and k12

12.m7
Red blocked a direct link to k12 so finally it was high time for m7, although the board started to look pretty messy with those loosely floating stones in center

14.c5
I used an opportunity to make an escape for ladders over left edge, because top was pretty unplayable for me anyway. Perhaps it was an error, because the opponent picked a very good d10 that denied most obvious options to force a ladder.

16.e12
This move gave me a solid connection to left and it could be reached from both h7 and h11.

18.p4
Probably the worst error of red came at 17th move. Maybe it was an attempt to take advantage of the surrounding mess, but I gained a free move to secure m7's connetion to right. P4 threatens to connect right directly and in worst case scenario it turns into ladder towards p17.

20.j14
Yet the game was far from over because I still needed to somehow connect m7 to my other floating stuff. It could be impossible straight through center so I built a wall that could reach left side under red i11 and reach right side under red m12.

22.l15; 23.k15; 24.g15
Red closed down the gap giving me the oportunity to further extend my wall on i16.

24.g15
In truth I left this extension on i16 virtual to use later if needed. Instead, g15 did as much as i16 and moreover threatened to disconnect f14 from bottom.

26.j9
Red fell straight into my trap and possibly h13 would be a better move here, at least it would start putting things together. However, there was a chance that red e14 made a quick escape to top, I didn't want that for sure. Hence j9 was to force red to play in opposite direction - from top to bottom.

28.g13; 29.f12; 30.h13
Red f11 provided a neat escape for i11 and f14. Here I noticed that the mess got totally out of my hands so I decided to finally make connections between my floating stones. I formed a line that got a formidable power of going towards right side through bottom.

32.e13
A free improvement.

34.f8
Now I just needed to connect my anchor-stone h7 to left and wait to see if it can also connect to all the rescue stuff I had prepared in center.

36.d8; 37.c8; 38.f6; 39.i9; 40.g9
Thankfully red gave me a chance to get an additional improvement - g9. I don't know, but maybe red had chances to play it better. Anyway, without g9 my plan was to go like this: http://www.trmph.com/hex/board#19,a3m14o15p17f14h7m9k12m12h11i11m7d7c5d10e12r5p4l7j14l14l15k15g15i14j9f11g13f12h13e14e13f13f8e9d8i8i6h10k5.

42.j8; 43.i8; 44.j6; 45.l6; 46.k6
A necessary ladder.

48.i16
And here my virtual i16 comes into play. The k12-j14-i16 wall has 2 ways to connect right and 2 ways to connect left. The connections aren't simple yet, but the game is finished. Here are possible options:
1) http://www.trmph.com/hex/board#19,a3m14o15p17f14h7m9k12m12h11i11m7d7c5d10e12r5p4l7j14l14l15k15g15i14j9f11g13f12h13e14e13f13f8e9d8c8f6i9g9h10j8i8j6l6k6l8i16k10i10
2) http://www.trmph.com/hex/board#19,a3m14o15p17f14h7m9k12m12h11i11m7d7c5d10e12r5p4l7j14l14l15k15g15i14j9f11g13f12h13e14e13f13f8e9d8c8f6i9g9h10j8i8j6l6k6l8i16i10l9m8l10n10j17k9j10k11k10l11m10n9m11
3) http://www.trmph.com/hex/board#19,a3m14o15p17f14h7m9k12m12h11i11m7d7c5d10e12r5p4l7j14l14l15k15g15i14j9f11g13f12h13e14e13f13f8e9d8c8f6i9g9h10j8i8j6l6k6l8i16l11l9m8l10m10j17

And we're done. I'm open to suggestions at which point I could have avoided all unnecessary untidiness :)

Haha, crazy game. I'm not really able to comment about how to avoid the mess...

One thing I was thinking of trying in 19x19 is to play moves closer to the edge. In your game, you played a bunch of 7th and 8th row stones in the opening. I'm not sure if that's necessary - why not play 5th row stones like in 13x13? Or even 4th row stones, I think they're underrated.

I don't know, but I have a feeling that 4th row stones are likely to be useless after opponent's correct play. I mean, the side is so huge that 4th row covers only a little part of it, so the other player can easily attempt to use the unoccupied part of his side.

5th row is reasonable. Next time I'll try more on 5th.