I guess I should have noticed that nobody liked my plan. I’ll do something fun on top instead of sticking with this row.
1 Like
Huh, I just realized something halfway urgent since yebellz can’t help. Yes, I’ll take the top.
1 Like
Not sure what part of top you are gonna take. But I think it’s worth a try to capture the M12 pink group.
1 Like
Yes 
Round 39
| Team | Blue | Green | Pink |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | @Maharani: O10 | @Jon_Ko: A2 | @Vsotvep: K11 |
| White | @yebellz: J13 | @Feijoa: A2 | @terrific: A2 |
This time we have a three-way collision between Jon_Ko, Feijoa and terrific. I believe Feijoa had a good idea here, but team white got unlucky.
New Position:
Check-in Time for Round 40: 2022-02-02T09:00:00Z
5 Likes
Ahhh, if only I had played on top instead. I thought terrific would assume Jon_Ko would play on the bottom to save at least one more stone. I was less sure about Jon_Ko. So I played bottom too to avoid colliding with terrific 
Let’s see how bamboo joints work in this variant: I’ll play G4 this round. @terrific and others can try to use that information however they want.
3 Likes
I don’t know why you are so against attacking the M12 group. Don’t you want to save your dragon? Plus I didn’t need help in that corner. That green group is far from having 4 eyes if we keep playing 1 vs 1.
Okay. We can do this this round.
It seems hopeless to me, but maybe you can change my mind? If you really don’t want help down there I could also work on some other things too. I think I should get back to blocking Blue-Black soon, for example.
1 Like
Even if that group is dead eventually, we could make a lot of trouble. It’s like making use of dead stones. Also, by threatening to capture the pink group, you and yebellz are dragging pink and blue into the fight in the center, which makes time for me to play 1 vs 1 in the corner. Be aware that a 1 vs 1 fight favors the attacker, because in this variant a group needs 4 eyes to be alive.
2 Likes
I think we have a pretty huge deficit to overcome. Green/Black seems to have escaped to safety in the lower-left, nullifying a lot of potential territory. I doubt that we can really save Green/White in the top-right. Even the aji seems limited as Black could capture relatively quickyl. On balance, I don’t think our solid areas can match those of Black.
Which Team is Winning?
- Definitely Black
- Likely Black
- Lean Black
- Even Position
- Lean White
- Likely White
- Definitely White
0 voters
1 Like
I still think the endgame could get really crazy. For example, we might kill all the blue stones and start over in the fight for the center.
Even killing off a dead group could have lots of complications if its eyes contain more than one intersection, and there might be many opportunities for three moves on one side to be wasted while the other side uses theirs productively.
5 Likes
I think the lower left will decide the game, but I expect a complicated fight there. White+pink has less eye-space than black+green, but some shared liberties with white+blue.
Black+pink and black+blue can’t help much on the inside, so they might need to create some trouble on the outside.
I think the lower-left is essentially settled.
It seems that Black/Green can easily make enough eyes to live, and White/Pink (except for the dead stones at G2 and J5) can easily live by sharing some eyes with the White/Blue formation above.
This round I’ll play in the corner. Here are the tasks for you two @Feijoa @yebellz in the next few rounds:
- Make sure our alive stones are alive. Say, we need a green-white stone at P6; otherwise the bottom right could die. Some other things you could do: connect L6 with P6; capture D11.
- Put pressure on pink and blue. The pink group in the center is still attackable. The goal is to force pink and blue to waste moves defending. Notice that capturing the entire pink chain isn’t the only way to make trouble. Say, if we can attempt to kill the blue stone L11 or the white chain L11+L10.
For now I don’t see a way for green to live in the corner. Let me fight alone against black-green alone for a while. Feijoa, be careful if you want to play in the corner, since you are green yourself.
2 Likes
Okay, so next round I’ll go back to hassling Blue-Black. Or should I switch now?
1 Like
I’m thinking about this question:
For such a shape, assuming it’s white to play, how much space does black need to have a non-zero chance of making four eyes, with basically the same rules except that it is played between two players, black and white, instead of six players.
The reason I assume there are only two players is (I believe) black’s teamates can’t help, and white doesn’t want to give black free moves outside.
The question can be reformulated as: when does white (not) have a must-win strategy? Why don’t I ask when black has a must-win strategy? Because it seems that if white is lucky enough to collide with black in each round, black dies anyway. In other words, black never has a must-win strategy.
My solution, which may not be correct
First notice that to clearly make four eyes, black has to play 3 moves. By then white will have played 3 moves as well.
To find a must-win strategy for white, we need to consider the most lucky situation for black. So we just disclose where white will play their 3 moves. Equivalently, we let white play their three moves first.
Then I find the following must-win strategy for white when the space has length 9,
and I don’t think it’s possible when the length is 10.
4 Likes
Seems fine. But be flexible. Don’t let them know your strategy.
3 Likes