Life In 19x19

My first instinct: White white white. It looks so much more active and white has the hugely important sente. B's side is pretty big, though, and the variations I'm reading aren't very clear. This one is particularly interesting, because I feel like I can play out the whole game so far.

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[go]$$Bc Who knows for the first 7 moves
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$$ | . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . |
$$ | . . 5 , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Not sure on who took which corner first but almost no doubt that this was the position after move 10. So far I would guess 50/50 or B slightly ahead.

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[go]$$Bc Order might be a little different
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$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X 0 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 8 9 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5 . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . 7 , . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

W's moves all look ok, so certainly not more than 65% for B yet. Actually, I thought that B wasn't supposed to allow W to get this cut and take the corner like they did in game. Is W is already winning? My joseki knowledge is kyu-level.

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[go]$$Bc End at the double hane.
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$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . O . 2 . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X 5 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X 1 . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 O X . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . 6 X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 9 . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

This is where the big swings happen, so let's look closely. The exchange of 3 for 4 isn't too shabby for B, but in the corner B wishes they didn't have to play 1 and 5 protecting the same cut, rather move 1 down a few lines. I approve of 6 and 7. 8 is maybe a little aggressive, instinct tells me to try to ladder or loosely net 3 instead, but I can see why 8 might be better than those. 9 is the logical response. 10 is the reasonable continuation, since B has so many weaknesses nearby, but B's double hane seems to work really well. You'd think that W should win with double atari, but B's plan is to sacrifice the one stone to capture the middle stones in a ladder.

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[go]$$Wm32 White to play
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$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X 5 . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . 6 O X 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X 4 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X 1 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X 2 . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

This instinctually should be disaster for W - but actually on evaluation even this doesn't look THAT bad. Thus when W plays a more modest move:

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[go]$$Wm32 White to play
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$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . O X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . 1 O X 2 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
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I'd expect W to be far ahead. The only moves I see that could be big mistakes seem to be B's, other than W's aggression 28 and 30, but it's hard to convince myself that those are such horrid mistakes. So I'm going to go with my first instinct, but I'm actually really eager to see the AI analysis of this one.

My ten-second opinion is Black; knowing modern AI play, it's just too easy for me to imagine Black scooping out all the territory at the top and White not being able to make it up.

My no-LZ analysis favors Black

I'm worried about the double atari white has, but by the meta-argument of "a pro wouldn't have missed that", it's probably not as worrying for black as I thought at first. It would probably be a trade of white ruining black's territory while black ruin white's wall.

Then, white has pushed from behind and been hane-ed repeatedly. The white chain at Q15 is a bit short of liberty and at the very least black can get forcing move taking advantage with that. Which means that getting something living on wide open top side shouldn't be hard for black. Thus, white wall looks scary, but it's only that, look. Still if black invade white can expect some of the center in exchange but reducing the center shouldn't be hard, and black can get a lot of territory on the side.

White should have sticked to its initial plan. I definitly imagine myself commiting the same mistake. White decided to put more weight on a general rule and did not acknowledge the concrete position enough. Lost a game today myself in a similar way, although I did not wrongly prevent a "ponuki". In my case it was the general rule "connecting" that stopped me from playing the proper move. Both in this game and in my game the efficiency of the "general rule" move and the "practical" move was not evaluated correctly by the failing players. In any case my blunder was much bigger than the pros, about 10 versus 5 points . (Intuition should have trumped formal knowledge, perhaps I learn to trust my intuition even more versus formal knowledge in cases where actual counting seems too difficult for me.)

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[go]$$Wc White to play
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$$ | . X . O . . . . . O . . . . . , X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . X X X . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . X . X O O . . |
$$ | . X O O . . . . . . . . . X O . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . . O . O . |
$$ | . . . X O . . . . . . . . . O . O X . |
$$ | . . . X a . . . . . . . . X X O O X . |
$$ | . . b O . . . . . , . . . X O X . X . |
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$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

After I evaluated the white double hane stone at C3 will survive, I was wrongly satisfied with white connecting at a and dismissed the clearly superior white b.

This game looks vaguely familiar, but I can't recollect from where. It feels like white knows what he's doing, so white should be ahead. I'd probably play at a next to fix the shape and black has to take care of his cutting points so that white keeps sente.

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[go]$$Bc White to play
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$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . O . O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O O X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . O X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . a . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I like white

Its the 1967 Honinbo Title Match Game 3 between Sakata (White) and Rin.

White was 47 years old, a 9 dan and "one of the pre-eminent geniuses of Go history" <to quote Bozulich>, Black was just 25 years old.

So my first impression is that white's influence at the top looks huge, whereas black is relatively confined. But then (still glancing at the position without reading), black's area looks more like cash in the bank, while white's wall has a few cutting points so it isn't really that thick. But once I start to read out specific moves, it looks like black has more than enough weak spots too. White P8 for example could do a fair bit of damage. If both sides get cut to ribbons, I think black stands to lose more.

So all up, I prefer white.