I made a topic about the success of 3-3 invasions, but since I’m a fan of smaller boards and I play a lot of 9x9, I’d like to know if things are simpler now and how do you treat the situation when you have a stone on the 4-4 point or the 3-4 point and the opponent places a stone on 3-3, firstly with the hypothesis that this is the only region that matters:
Lately, I have been successful a lot of times answering with a 2-2 move!
Now, of course, this will be heavily dependent on the surroundings. So, some examples to discuss if White will live or not … if it’s White’s turn or Black’s turn (I think White is doomed in all of them, if it’s Black’s turn at least..):
1 Like
Your opponents must have screwed up big time then, as it’s terrible.
1 Like
Lol, fair enough. Just to be clear, I meant my move as Black to kill White. I think in the examples with more stones they all work, but you still mean that it’s a bad move in an isolated context?
2-2 is a terrible move in your first 2 diagrams as a black move 3 in response to White’s move 2 at 3-3. You are making a new weak group separated from your outside stone.
2 Likes
Is hane from the inside the best answer for the first one and obviously the second one is alive, just as in the 19x19 board (ok, the problem is that the board is so small that there’s always something around)? By the way, is there a website where you set a random position and the AI gives you the heatmap of the best possible next move?
Hane from outside (g4) is (nearly always) better in the first.
IMO, 9x9 3,3 invasions are dubious. It allows the opponent to centralize and take command of the board. 13x13 3,3 invasions are situational. You mainly use it to exploit weaknesses in one’s position.
1 Like
3-3 invasions are totally a thing in 9x9. They tend to pop up most in the connect variant of the Black Boomerang opening and in the Flower opening. I wrote a bit about both openings and 3-3 invasions specifically in my book, Mastering Mini Go.
But honestly, you’ll probably get a decent feel for them by just browsing the variations in those opening books to see how they can play out. You can also see what humans are doing with a database like Go 9x9 Opening Explorer. You’ll just need to click around until you reach a position like those above where a 3-3 invasion is realistic.
1 Like
Thanks for the references, it’s something like that I was looking for. And congratulations on your book! It looks awesome, I’m planning to buy it. I noticed that Tromp-Taylor rules are used in some analysis I’ve seen, that’s area scoring right? I imagine the results wouldn’t differ that much if I’m only interested in japanese rules.
Yes, Tromp-Taylor rules use area scoring, much like Chinese rules. The slight difference in treatment of ko and multi-stone suicide hardly ever come into play (but never say never).
And yes, for most (kyu) players, half of whom are barely single-digit kyu, even the more significant differences between Chinese rules and Japanese rules aren’t all that important in the grand scheme of things. Their mental space is probably better served on other variables to reduce unintentional overload until they build enough tacit knowledge to start thinking about it.
Enjoy the book!
1 Like
