Hello! In my local go club handicap stones are placed at 3-3 points on 13x13 board. And I wondered if there’re standard strategies to play as White against 3-4 stones.
For example, if we take four stones handicap, it seems completely impossible to win as White. All corners are taken and there’s not enough points in the center. All Black has to do is to cling to these corners, which is easy enough even for weak players.
Thank you for your attention.
This is a pretty big handicap. It’s roughly equal to a 9-stone handicap on a 19x19 board because of the smaller “real estate” on the 13x13 board (4/169 vs. 9/361).
Strategically, I’d play for influence and try to goad the weaker player into invading something. Of course, the weaker player shouldn’t have to invade anything. They are already leading. But if you overreach just a little bit you might encourage them to do that and then you can outfight them. I’d probably start with K10 L10, K8 and go from there.
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Hi, this might be a silly question as I have almost no experience with handicap play. But why not put them at the traditional hoshi? Wouldn’t that kind of solve the problem you have as black would also have to put some effort into defense?
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I usually approach from side, like L9.
Maybe if White L9 then Black H11, White could set up an invasion at J12 (with help from other side).
Also after W L9 there’s a possibility of attaching from inside M11 and taking some of the corner.
@Adam3141, well, we can think about it as free placement handicap.