Life In 19x19

Handicap games are so weird to me. When I give a weaker opponent several stones, I always feel so intimidated because I feel like I'm so far behind. Of course, I often am able to come back and beat weaker players despite giving them an initial advantage. But then I end up feeling intimidated by players who are several stones stronger than me because they are strong enough to give me the stones, I imagine them reading things that I didn't even think about.

Anyhow, when it comes to handicap games, I play them as though I was playing against an equal. If I were playing another 1kyu with four stones, I would be happy to have a lead and I would avoid the most complicated of fights where it's questionable what I have to gain, but I won't play passively. I fight and try to gain more than my opponent at every opportunity that I can while not being foolhardy.

I will strive to show magicwand that his wand has no power that can compete with a magical unicorn horn piercing his abdomen.

giving 1 kyu 4 stone is hard. but i think it is 50/50 game.

I will tenuki. He can double approach if he'd like and I'll prevent myself from being sealed before taking sente for another big point. The idea is to play a fast game. Of course, I think that players around my strength are known to tend to pay too much for the sente that they take giving too great of a local advantage, but I'm going to aim to make a moyo and then make him find a way to erase it.

My move hardly affects his stone at all, but it does prevent an approach from that side later, so it makes the bottom less interesting.

nothing i havent seen.
if i tenuki here and play elsewhere to stop his growth..then i am playing at his turf.

I like to have influence in the center. I can choose to tenuki if he takes the corner.

It was just a short while ago that I was planning on playing fast and that I would tenuki here, but I decided that I'd rather get that center influence that was sounding so nice to me just a moment before. After this, white will certainly have some territory in the corner and he played twice here to my once, so he should get a good result in this corner, but I want to come out of it with some nice influence of my own. Pressing here should increase my influence in the center which should be nice for the rest of the game. Especially early, I prefer influence.

it is going to be hard to win but i will manage.

As white, I would want to tenuki as well. I think that locally, he was best off playing at , so I will take that point for myself. Again, he may double approach one of my stone and I may very well play like I did in this corner. If he tenukis and I bend, he has a move at 2-2 later to connect to one of his other stones.

One thought: Tenuki. If he now spends a move to connect to his stone on the right, it was on the second line in gote. I've been after central influence this whole time and so I don't need to be too concerned about his stones connecting. white gets less territory this way than if I hadn't played my last move.

Locally, a, b and c come to mind:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc1
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . c . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . X . . X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . X . . . . . b O . a O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I'm going with a because I would be fine with white connecting in gote and it does strengthen black's group quite a bit even if the white stone on the bottom still has aji. It does severely weaken it and it would be painful for white to try to move it too early. He probably won't connect and this may remain unresolved for awhile. If he does connect in gote, count me among the people who aren't complaining.

hum...i dont see any mistake sofar..
he is going to atari and tenuki..

I atari here as a forcing move. White keeps the corner, but I take sente. White's stone on the bottom still has aji, but I feel like black is not bad here.

The right side has a lot of space. This move being high means that I'll more easily be able to aim at getting into the center and invading on that side if he tries funny business like double approaching on the top.