My first instinct in this board position is to play as follows:
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[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
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$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . B . . |
$$ | . . . , O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
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Some of you may have heard me whining about the fact that I'm a little bit rusty with my play... Well, if that's true, I think that my "first instinct" should be questioned, and not trusted immediately.
So I thought for awhile about why I had that first instinct. I could think of two reasons:
1.) The move slides under to take territory from his 5th line stone.
2.) It creates some sort of relationship across the board with the top right stone:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
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$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . B . . |
$$ | . . . , O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
The first reason seems kind of reasonable. I could have other objectives. For example, I considered splitting white on the bottom, and approaching the bottom left:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
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$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . , O . . . . B . . . . . , . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
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$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . B , O . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
But what about the second reasoning behind my intuition?
Thinking about it further, I don't think the second rationale is a good one for the following reasons:
1.) The top right stone has limited potential at the moment to contribute to a good moyo. It's on the third line, and his 5-5 stone limits my potential for influence.
2.) What if I put myself in white's shoes? How might I respond? Maybe something like this:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W . X . . |
$$ | . . . , W . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
But now the white stones seem to have a much stronger relationship than my pathetic stones on the right. This can't be a good way to play. White may have even better responses, but this example alone seems better for white to me.
...
Well, those are the only reason I really thought of, but they were enough to convince me that this idea of a "relationship" between the top right stone and this one was not a good excuse to play this move.
So then I considered the split at the bottom and the approach on the bottom left, as above. But then I thought about white's intention.
His moves seem to be speaking to me:
So how can I screw with this plan? Well, of course I can play the splitting move on the bottom, but it seems to make sense to play a local response that does what I want globally.
That's how I selected the move I chose in the game.