Kibitz for Diplomatic Go: The First Game

I’m guessing HHG intended his second choice to punish whoever he thought was most likely to throw a wrench into the plans, and he just guessed wrong.

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On further thought, I’m guessing he just choose some arbitrary good place to play if the agreement went south, because if it did go south, there wouldn’t be much indication of who he’d be approaching, if anyone.

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I’m quite sure that Haze will play a defensive move next. He’s a cautious person, I think.

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Since Haze and HHG have attached, I think they’ll make natural allies, especially because it was a kind of accident, so no offense was intended. So, they might agree to extend out from that corner so they can try to build up some strength.

The lower left corner is most open, so that’ll be a coveted area, especially for white and red. Whoever goes into there should try to get an ally for support.

Any fighting is going to be much stronger with an ally. Three people coordinating could be extremely powerful.

If blue and yellow are allowed to easily settle in their own corners, they’ll be a good position. I expect others may have to ally to make an effective invasion.

What would normally be a settled group in regular go is still vulnerable to two or three players making a coordinated invasion.

I wonder what the endgame might look like. If there are some players who have no chance at making a living group, they may still be in a position to determine who wins or draws. In diplomatic free-for-alls, that position is called the “kingmaker”. You can’t win, but you do have leverage because you can ruin anyone else’s chances.

Because of the kingmaker power, it seems especially important not to outright betray anyone, because they won’t be eliminated, and you don’t want to be the target of a vow of vengeance.

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I’m still not sure if yellow colliding with HHG in round 1 was intentional or if it was just accidental due to not paying attention to the public chat.

Providing an explanation should have come up in private discussions, but it does not seem to have been clarified in public.

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Round 3 has begun

Current position

white@HHG and red@le_4TC collided on their first choice at C4.

Editable board

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Only place I was wrong was Vsotvep (only by a little) and HHG

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I wonder if sienna has formed an alliance with white or azure to ward against a cut in spring 1902.

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C4 has been an explosive point this game.

I wonder if anyone is going to challenge blue@Vsotvep over their big formation monopolizing the top-right.

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Welcome @bugcat!

They’re going to have to at some stage.

I think yellow was very bold to make the knight’s jump and contact. Seems risky, but good if they’re just able to pull back and get thicker.

Diplomatically, I would be trying to make friends, and tactically I would try to get liberties and keep stones well connected. Anything not absolutely connected can be cut by cooperation.

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I don’t think they’ll do it yet.

HHG and le4tc have to fight for the corner.
Haze with a z and 李建澔2 have to secure their territory.

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I think 李建澔2 and HHG might be less engaged than the others in this game. That may put them at a severe diplomatic disadvantage.

I think le_4TC could also turn to address the issue posed by 李建澔2 attaching below. Maybe they should work with someone else to capture that attached stone. Vsotvep seems to be telegraphing that possibility in the public thread.

Maybe Haze could play at E8. That slide both helps their corner and reduces Vsotvep. However, maybe that’s not diplomatically feasible and not what they have in mind.

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Round 4 has begun

red@le_4TC and yellow@李建澔2 collided on their first choice at F3.

Editable board

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First “1-atari” of the the game. It looks like both blueVsotvep and whiteHHG are moving hard against blackHaze, who does not seem to have made friends with either of them. The attachment at E7 appears quite aggressive against blueVsotvep, and the previous round’s hane at B6 was not friendly to whiteHHG.

It’s possible for blueVsotvep and whiteHHG working together to almost force the capture of C7 next round. One of them plays at C8 as their first choice, while the other intentionally collides (with an already placed stone) for their first choice and plays at C8 for their second choice. blackHaze could try to block the placement at C8 with their first choice, but then can’t stop the second choice placement. The only possible hope (a long shot) would be for blackHaze to recruit another player to help block (yet the other players have other things to worry about), but then they still have to get lucky guessing the right round and possibly risk it all backfiring with the other player filling the last liberty instead.

Looking at the south, it seems that yellow李建澔2 has created a fairly good position. Maybe yellow李建澔2 will want to play at F4, while redle_4TC plays at D2? Maybe that could be a way for them to deescalate? They could each solidify one of the bottom corners while the other three fight over the next couple of rounds.

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For later convenience, here are some snippets for mentioning player names.

Copy-pasting these should work for getting the forums code

blueVsotvep
whiteHHG
blackHaze
yellow李建澔2
redle_4TC

Alternatively, here is the code:

![blue|20x20](upload://SaluycyjMS8SgH1BUnDR1nvqGD)Vsotvep
![white|20x20](upload://9nBXq6d1yY0eNSY5hpo8JFNbhaB)HHG
![black|20x20](upload://yLrPgKxoopVTldV7Nr2hFC82RKj)Haze
![yellow|20x20](upload://glof5uXIiwp5IuItFTIwUCFvdLV)李建澔2
![red|20x20](upload://smvsQeyWFYuJzqyN9sWllx0QZb)le_4TC
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I notice that all the players have the strategy of focusing their strength locally. No-one has attacked a far-off position yet.

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Wow! I did not expect blueVsotvep and blackHaze to have such a mutually aggressive exchange.

If I were blue I would have just consolidated peacefully in the corner. If Vsotvep already has a working alliance with whiteHHG, then that could be interesting. But if it’s all accidental and they aren’t already working together, then anything might happen next.

A real atari on the the board makes blood in the water, and I think other players might work together to make a capture, but they could also just as well ally with blackHaze to avoid being the target of Haze’s undead vengeance.

I think that was pretty smart of redle_4TC to collide at yellow's most obvious move, then reinforce as a 2nd option. The result is that yellow's shape is a little worse, and le_4TC might have caused some diplomatic conflict.

I’m still of the opinion that peaceful diplomacy is the strongest strategy, due to the power of vengeance.

What I think the endgame might effectively reduce to is all the players voting with their stones on who they want to win, which should be the player who played most respectfully and honorably…

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Afterthought: What if the game results in a stalemate in which nobody can create solid life? Could that be the only way for the game to end with rational play? Consider that a 5-way draw is a better result for each player than losing.

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If there is no solid life, maybe players would continue trying to make some, after clearing some dead stones. I think it should be possible to make solid life, especially since it seems to make sense to make peace with your neighbor, while others viciously fight elsewhere.

It’s hard to determine what is rational, since it also depends on the players’ risk tolerance. If everyone is so afraid to lose, they might wish to draw right now. However, I think people would risk losing in order to have a chance to go for the win.

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