I've lost. I have 19 bonus points, but he's leading on the board by over 30. This is just to see if he makes a mistake.

Has to be on this side. The minus points make this attack of his so much less happy.

Good reply, I think. I'll probably resign in a couple moves.

It's not going anywhere. Even a seki is fine by me, though I think playing the minor point to capture is fine too.

Two muffins were baking in an oven. One says to the other, "Boy, is it hot in here, or is it just me?" And the other screams, "Aaah! A talking muffin!"

Oopsie, I'm dead. Should have played this more sensibly

I honestly didn't expect to get anything significant out of this attack. But I certainly have. Next I think White will throw in at B1 and then I will cut on the 4-4 minus zone. That turns the situation into a 2-stage ko in my favor... I think.

I have been spending lots of time looking at the variations for this move as well as B1 and D4. The carpenter's square really is complicated like they say! I ran into direct kos, multi-step kos, multi-stage kos, a double ko and even a thousand-year ko! Throw in numerous considerations of who plays the minus zones and when, and this is definitely on the upper end of the difficulty scale that I can access.

Now that I seem to have a chance of winning, I've got to get my head back in the game.

Hmm, looks like I have chances to live again. Must remove ko threats asap

Hmm. The main reason why I played what I did last move instead of cutting at D4 right away was to see if he would play this, which, as far as I can see, is a mistake. I don't understand why I would need to protect where he suggested. White can't cut there, because then I just capture the cutting stones.

As for the status of the bottom left, it looks like a thousand-year ko (D1 will be an approach move for either side) that I have the option of turning into a seki (at B1). So right now, any move there would be small. One related thing I notice is that I potentially have four big ko threats from threatening to save my four stones and kill his three, but they all vanish if he plays G9 or H10, either of which also prepares the cut that I didn't defend against.

This is all really complicated for me. I don't feel like I fully understand the implications of all this ko shenanarama, so I'll try to learn from the outcome, whatever it turns out to be.

This move is just endgame. It is sente-ish since it sets up the reverse monkey jump (monkey squat?) at B9. The other big area is the bottom right, but I think it's smaller than it looks since it's hard for either player to make territory there.

Aiming at mutual corner damage. Then I'll aim at G9 which is kind of sente.

If he encroaches too much further in the lower right, I can probably force him to take the minus point, so it's no big deal.

As for the lower left, it may very well end in seki. Assuming it does, I count the game as very close, with W slightly favored.

Another thing I may have to worry about is maintaining two eyes for myself. For now I think I'm fine since I have one around G1, and I can make another either in the upper left or lower right (or even at F3 or something).

Let's go mutual damage

It's difficult to say whether it's bigger to do this or respond (I would probably K3). But it is dangerous for W to ignore this and let me play E10. And I don't see any sente followups for W down there.

At any rate, this mutual destruction is quite fun and hilarious.

Well, looks like I won that staring contest. Back to business.

This is something of a trick move, although I'm not even sure it's technically worse than H2, the other move I would consider. I think White should now play K2. Any other move seems very inferior, so we'll see if he agrees with me.

I have no idea what the score is right now ...

Looks very close, but taking the plus point at F11 is sente for black now!

I find it really amusing that I'm now about to have a whopping 34 bonus points (3 minus zones for White = 15, 2 plus zones for me = 10, 7 komi, and a scan by White = 2).

However, I'm by no means winning. I actually count us about even, so I need to play a tight endgame. I'll probably spend some time looking over everything after Graham makes his next move.

Gargh, these minus points!! Quick guess count:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Score - B: 71, W: 70
$$ +-----------------------+
$$ | x x B B W W y y y y y |
$$ | B x X W y y @ W y y y |
$$ | x X m O y y W y O y y |
$$ | B W O y W O y y @ y y |
$$ | B W W W B O y O O y y |
$$ | X B B B X X O X X O z |
$$ | B X # X B O O X O W y |
$$ | X O O O X W B X B O y |
$$ | W O m O # B B X O z z |
$$ | O X X O O X B W O O y |
$$ | . B X . O X W W y y y |
$$ +-----------------------+[/go]