White to move versus p_adt_y

[thequietcenter]

Hello, what moves should White be thinking about making in this position:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GoPositions/co ... ietcenter/

[CDavis7M]

I have a few ideas but I'd be tempted make. I'll just type thoughts as I have them. It would probably also be helpful if you gave your own thoughts first so for feedback.

First, seems like all of White's groups are OK. Maybe the lower side could use a move. I'd like to defend the lower right corner better but maybe too slow. It seems like there is aji in the upper right corner White can make use of later. There is also an idea to make a high approach or a 4-4 attachment against the lower right corner. I wonder about the 2 space high approach.

...Probably should have thought of Black before all of those other ideas because Blacks group in the lower left has no eyes and can make 1 on the side. Also, if White plays around the lower right corner and Black defends the corner, the 3/5 black stones on the right side start to look weak and White can probably cut.

The black group on the lower left seems like the best target. But to play from the corner or from the lower side? If I wanted to try to kill the group maybe I'd start attacking the lower-right corner to build White stones there and then attack directly, but Black has so many stones I think it'd be hard for White to get sente. The two stones on the bottom are weaker than the corner/left white stones. So playing from them to build their strength seems best. White can jump to J5. Otherwise if White plays in the corner and I were Black I'd probably play J5 or K4. Black probably needs to escape -- Black probably shouldn't be able to get 2 eyes on the side. So maybe there is still time for White to get the corner.

[mhlepore]

First, seems like all of White's groups are OK.

I was wondering about the right side. Maybe black can create some problems at O14 or O16? Perhaps not now but eventually.

I agree the lower left is a target. Probably not killable, but rather attacking to get profit.

But there's a lot of suboptimal shapes so it is hard to evaluate.

[jlt]

I would play E3. Corners are big, and in addition this removes Black's base.

[Harleqin]

The white groups are all quite stable. The two stones at the bottom are the weakest area right now, but even those are not under much pressure yet.

Black has three cuts from the right side to the centre, and the lower left group, while not entirely eyeless, seems quite heavy and attackable.

My vision for the game would be White taking the base and the points in the lower left, Black strengthening both the white and black groups on the lower side, and then the question is who gets to play the lower right side first. If we assume Black, then Black might make around 15 points there, plus 10+ upper right, plus 10 upper centre, plus 6 upper left. White would have about 20 in the lower left, 10 with the long group in the upper right, 3 upper left, 5 lower side, plus komi. So it would seem to me that White is a bit ahead.

So I think D2 is the move here. This has the mentioned inducing effect of fixing up the weaknesses on the lower side, and also the white lower side group gets additional sente moves around G3 for the case that there is some attack.