A short review of a game played in a parallel universe with Sofiam (originally it was a casual rengo with Sofiam+benjito against me but benjito left the game at move 31).
Black to play:
Answer
Black should play at E18.
Explanation
In the game, Black played at H19 but White can capture stones in sente:
The next position comes from this joseki. How should White play next?
Answer
Just connect. After the following tesuji, White has enough liberties to capture the marked stones.
In this position, how should White answer?
Answer?
AI proposes this but I canât say I understand where this fight is going, so forget itâŚ
In the following position, how should White answer?
Answer
Like in the joseki.
Black may owe a move later at B5 (or White has a followup there later).
If White plays at B3 instead of B2, White canât be cut but the shape is less good.
After white made those J3 and K2 exchanges, I suppose the KataGo doesnât like to abandon whiteâs lower side stones without a fight.
But checking that fight with KataGo on my own laptop, itâs immensely complicated (and black keeps the lead). Following KataGoâs fighting for 60 moves:
Two quick positions from a fast correspondence game that I lost against @Groin. The game was played in 4 days, I finished it this morning in a train (I wanted to chat after the game but my connection was bad so I couldnât).
First position, Black to play.
Answer
P8. This should have been easy (reverse sente move, border between two moyos). Therefore, White should have played at P8 before approaching the upper right corner.
Second position: Black to play.
Answer
The cut is a sacrifice. Black thus finishes in sente.
Yesterday I played a slow game (Fischer 30 minutes + 20 seconds/move). It was an internet tournament game organised by the FFG. The FFG has a âhybridâ rating system where all games, whether played in real life tournaments or in internet tournaments, are rated, whereas the âmainâ rating only takes real life tournaments into account. The handicap was setup according to our âhybridâ ranks, 1k and 3k, so I played as white and gave 2 stones. I was lucky that my opponent made a 44 point mistake at move 234 while he was 8 points ahead. Before that I misjudged completely two positions:
In the first position, a ko fight is happening in the center. Black played a local ko threat. What should White play next?
Instead, White could consider to respond to the ko threat since White still has a local ko threat at M9 but this is more complicated. Better let Black capture the squared group and capture the bigger triangled group in exchange, while securing the central stones.
Here is the other position in which I made a big mistake. White to play.
