Toge wrote:Kirby wrote:The point is to play the best move. This may or may not be a tesuji.
- This truism won't help in actually finding the best move. People read tesuji books because they want to improve their game. Which move would you play in examples listed in OP?
I don't think there exists a "silver bullet", like you seek. The answer is always to read and evaluate.
Here are some ideas of how I might think:
Above, let's say black plays "a" and white plays "c".
Black may decide to tenuki, but if he does and white later captures the black stone, white gains a point. If black plays "b" immediately, and white does "c", if black does tenuki, white playing "a" doesn't give an extra point.
On the other hand, if black plays "b", white may be less inclined to even answer than if black plays "a".
So instead of trying to develop an always working heuristic, I think it's better to consider the implications of each move, given the entire board.
Both have goods and bads. Suppose you want to preserve ko threats. Taking the stones off the board removes the ko threat white has of saving the stones. I this sense, "a" may be better.
But suppose that there is a weak black group to the right of this, and playing "b" will allow you to connect. In that sense, "b" could be better.
As white, I'd usually connect at "c". If I play "b", black gets "d" for free, and I still have to connect at "c" after he captures, anyway...
BUT, let's say the position was ignored for awhile, and now it is ko somewhere on the board. Playing "b" gives me more ko threats.
"a" could be good for giving white less ko threats, and "b" could be good for taking away white eyespace, for example...
So basically, go is too complicated to have always working heuristics like this. That's why reading and evaluation are important.
It is great to study tesuji - it gives you great ideas on possibilitiea you could do... But you should still play the move you think works best with the current board position, whether or not it is in a tesuji book.
