MikeKyle v. TelegraphGo (Blind)

[jlt]

diagram

[MikeKyle]

9(J)-5

For a moment I was going to give up these two stones and just atari, but I get a kind of squeeze anyway like this and I keep black with one and a half eyes this way.
If I can get 3-2 in sente by keeping this group eyeless then that would be nice.

[TelegraphGo]

8-8
H8

Ladder.

My god will this be embarrassing if I somehow misread the ladder for the last 70 moves. But I don't think so

[MikeKyle]

9(J)-8

Trigger:
If 7-7 then I play

9(J)-10

Comment

I could atari the 3 stones to live right away, but I want to be more active and try to spoil the centre a little bit.

[TelegraphGo]

Trigger accepted. B plays 7-7, H7. Captures: 3 for B, 0 for W.
White plays 9-10, J10.

Then I play 8-19. H19.

Captures.
He jumps.

Hane.
Captures.

Everyone is always like oh man, I gotta respond and keep my moyo. Nah. That's not how you use the stone effectively. Right now, he's jumping into my potential territory - directly, his move made 0 points. My move made 20 points. This is how you catch up to all those early territory moves before they know what hit them.

Okay, it's not that simple, since you can't just tenuki to every reduction on a moyo - I had to respond earlier on the right, for example. The way you check is by calculating the difference in size after a black first move followed by some white sente, as opposed to a white first move (and maybe some more white sente).
If I play first, I'd play around 9-12. He could then attach at 8-12, I hane, he extends, and for the sake of argument suppose I protect. That looks pretty settled, so I hold that position in my head.
If he plays first he'll play maybe 8-12 again, and then I can play 9-13, he'd play 8-13 and I'd play 9-14. That looks close enough to settled to serve as a good comparison.
So how many points different are they? Around 8. The difference in strength nearby also has to be taken into account, but in this position that strength is not very useful. I think it's fair to call it a 15 point move, but that's too small in comparison to about 20 points on the top.

Anyway, now that I've captured the ladder stone I feel more comfortable down on the bottom left. The reason the three stones were big wasn't really because of territory or because he's attackable, but because it brings me out. He's right that if he tried to play the last forcing move right now, I wouldn't respond. Since the ladder aji is clear I don't have to count extra nonsense points for him on the left, which is nice. With his last move, he's made 8-9 a shape point, but I don't want to take it yet because it lets him jump much further into my moyo on the top. If he plays it, I'm happy to make a move towards the left. I considered playing that move immediately with something like 4-8, trying to establish something on the left and slightly pressure his corner. But it's really just not as good as the big fat dinner of points on the top.

I figure I should count again now that things have calmed down. My expectation is that I'm still slightly behind.
For B: Bottom right - 2. Bottom left - Assuming he gets the hane under in sente, I still have some work to do to live. Call it 5 points. Top: 8 points in captured stones, 35ish in the moyo. Total: 50ish points.
For W: Bottom left - 10, top left - 8, bottom group - 6ish, right side - 30ish points, plus komi - Total: 65ish points.

So I've caught up a bit, but not as much as I thought. Maybe my extra defense on the right should have been on the side instead of in the center, though I think that had some problems as well. Well, I have to hope for a decent result on the left side and good endgame, I suppose.

[jlt]

Something's wrong. 7-7 is not the same as H7, and the capture count is incorrect.

[TelegraphGo]

Oops! 7-7 is G7, not H7. I forgot MikeKyle captured one of my stones over on the right, too. Captures should be 3-1, right?

[jlt]

I think the capture count is 4-1 after your move.

(Sorry, I posted a wrong message previously.)

[MikeKyle]

I agree with 4-1 on captures to black.

18(S)-18

Comment

Seems good timing for that endgame :/

I think I shouldn't leave it too late to squeeze with 3-19. Since this top right corner could be a ko, I'll play it first so I have one extra ko threat... I think that's sound logic.. Not sure

[TelegraphGo]

19-18
T18

Atari.
Ko.

I realized during our count of captures that I forgot to add captures into my count, so I'm only about a dozen points down.

I also have to admit, however embarrassing it might be, that I still can't figure out where I got a 4th capture

Anyway, since I'm still behind, and there's a decreasing number of unsettled areas, I should add complexity to the game. Making ko here can only be losing a little bit of equity, and the game probably becomes harder to handle for him. I have a bunch of ko threats in the bottom right, while his right side ko threats look really loss. I also have a bunch of threats on the upper left, though he does have some extra threats due to my just taking the four stones.

My real plan, though, is to use 3-8 as a ko threat. It looks really hard for him to answer. If I make other ko threats first, then I'm mostly just hoping he'll make some bad ko threats before I get there.

What I would do if I were him is just ignore the upper right entirely and start playing normal moves until white has more ko threats than black. I'd be forced to keep considering the ko situation, and he might be able to do a slightly better late middlegame than otherwise. Basically, I'm suggesting 4-9 for his next move. I'd be feeling real rough.

[MikeKyle]

19(T)-17

Didn't expect this ko right away actually. Black must be confident about threatening the centre group. Another interesting development

[TelegraphGo]

3-8
C8

Captures: B: 4, W: 2

Approach.
Mild Overplay.

I realized what my 4th capture was - his first line stone on the bottom right! I forgot about that one.

Anyway, the problem is that he has too many good ko threats - on the bottom and the upper left - for me to hope he makes some bad ko threats. Oh well, I won't try to make my own bad ko threats first. I'm playing on the third line because if he commits to disconnecting me, then I should get more natural ko threats while I ask him if he really wants me disconnected. It's also a good ko threat because if I played here first there's no way he would tenuki to the upper right. I'm raising the temperature by loosely threatening his bottom left.

The game is about to get very complicated. I've been looking at an empty board for my reading during this last fight, because otherwise it's too hard to keep track of where neighboring local situations interact. When things calm down here, maybe I'll try to play the endgame without the empty board assistance. I don't think I'm very close to losing track of the position.

I bet he plays 3-2 for his next move. It's probably what he should do.

[MikeKyle]

3(C)-2

Trigger:
If black 18-17 then

3(C)-19

Comment

Kos are hard so please take my comments with a big pinch of salt.
I'm not sure I agree that black was wise to play ko this way. I think just fixing at 16-18 and leaving a potential ko for later made more sense locally. This way black seems to be offering a huge bite out of his only decent territory.
HOWEVER black does have a lot of ko threats and in that sort of position you can start uneven kos like this.
My ko threat isn't big enough for the size of the ko, but given that black started the ko I guess he was planning to answer threats of this size.

[MikeKyle]

Comments only

Being focused on the decision of the ko I forgot to mention: I really like blacks first threat. Initially I wasn't sure he had enough threats but this kind of thing shows he does and shows that I was naive in thinking I could pressure that centre group. If I had answered with the ko too much in mind then I could easily give away a lot here and still loose the ko.
Just a nice move imo

[TelegraphGo]

Trigger accepted. B 18-17, followed by white playing 3-19, or C19.
I then play:
6-19
F19

Trigger: If you play 19-17, T17, then I play:

17-5
R5

and captures will be B: 5, W: 3.

Comments:

Captures.
He takes the ko.
I push as a ko threat.

Well, I got what I wanted on the left, and he's just using up his good ko threats, so now I'll go ahead and make my good ko threat over here. There's no way that I'm going to use this white weakness in any other way, like throwing in on the second line or something. It is technically possible if some crazy ko shenanigans happened in the middle that I might not be able to get this exchange anymore, so I figure I should take it now.

One move I'm getting tempted by is 2-6. It looks like it should be pretty sente, since he made those bad exchanges on the bottom. I shouldn't get too overexcited though, it's important to try to play ko properly.