Played the last Euro teams game of the season, lost to Alessandro Pace of Italy (who was top of BIBA group B). Opening felt good for me, but then did the classic endgame move you hope is sente that isn't in a fight. Some comments/variations in the sgf.
I was happy with how the opening went, and played a shoulder hit I'd seen in a Lee Sedol game to counter his influence strategy. Once I played the last big opening point on the left he played a strange attachment underneath and rather than directly answering I went for a leaning attack. He then played a loose move (f7 rather than f8, afterwards he said it was misclick) which allowed me to clamp to get the side but instead I got carried away and played what was essentially an endgame move at e2 so he fixed the clamp problem in sente. He then played a sharp attachment which I answered submissively and couldn't break into his moyo due to his own clamp tesuji. By now I was in overtime and tried to reduce aiming at his bad aji, but my wall had a cutting point of its own and with just a few seconds per move I sacrificed a huge group to kill a smaller one of his with bad aji. Maybe I could have had a chance if I surrounded the centre and sacrificed the tail of my group, but I saved it and in doing so he saved his formerly dead group so I was miles behind but didn't have time to count so played it out and lost by 25 points.
https://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=8486
One position/move I want to understand better is that below. Lee Sedol played the tiger mouth connection of

and I did the same, rather than pole connection at
a, or hanging connection at
b. I can see how
b emphasises centre thickness/shape (it's common for black to peep that cut later, or in my game he just cut and killed me a lot later) but does have the downside of some cutting aji starting with the black empty triangle at 1 or a. As white has made the marked slide for 3-3 exchange (normally a no-no in another order with the jump out of pincer joseki, but here compensated for by the pleasant press on the top and black's approach from the wrong side at top left) you don't want black to cut there as you can't dodge to the 3-3 point as you could without the exchange, so I can see the downside of that. But what is the downside of pole connection? The upside is there is no peep to the left of
a, nor would
c be an atari after the cut, and that could help deal with the cut (in fact the cut would still be devastating in my game, but it could make quite a difference in another fight. So why did Lee play the tiger mouth? It takes a liberty from the black group, but that doesn't make the cut after d work. I can see it makes a little more eyeshape, and as Lee likes to let his groups get weak and then magically live maybe that's why. Or is it making
e not sente, and thus black can't so easily poke through the elephant eye at
f to break into the centre (if he does white can break into the top side, though maybe black can play
g first).
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$W
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There's also this similar 3-4 joseki where I once played the same tiger mouth and the centre peep at
a caused big troubles later; following which I vowed to never play tiger mouth but pole connection again in the future! Again why is this "the joseki" move rather than pole connection? (Not many pro examples though).
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$W
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$$ . . . . . . . . . . . . .[/go]
Edit: I just realised one other advantage of the tiger mouth connection is you can safely cut black's 2nd line attachment, if it's the pole connection black could break through at
a:
$$B
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
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- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$B
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]
In fact it seems Lee Sedol utilised this later in the game when black ended up being forced to live submissively with kosumi there (though it also takes white's eyeshape, and Park did end up playing
a to attack the whole white group, but he resigned when he went all-in and failed to kill it). It's impressive that despite getting the honte push up, Park's group there later got under pressure.
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . 1 . |
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$$ | . . . , . . . . X , X . . . . O X . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . O O O X . X O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . X X O . O X X . . . |
$$ | . . X . . O O O . . . O . O X . O . . |
$$ | . . O O O X X . X X X . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O X X . . . X O O O . O O , X . . |
$$ | . O X O . X . . O . . . . O X X . . . |
$$ | . X X . . . . . . . O . X X . . . . . |
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$$ +---------------------------------------+
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$B
$$ +---------------------------------------+
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . 1 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . X , X . . . . O X . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . X . X O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . O O O X . X O X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . X X O . O X X . . . |
$$ | . . X . . O O O . . . O . O X . O . . |
$$ | . . O O O X X . X X X . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . O X X . . . X O O O . O O , X . . |
$$ | . O X O . X . . O . . . . O X X . . . |
$$ | . X X . . . . . . . O . X X . . . . . |
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$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]