One thing you'll notice about me as I play a rengo game is that I think much more than a normal game, especially since I'm paired with weaker players.

I try to take into account the turn order, and whatever I know about the players who are on my team to make my moves. I'm less likely to play impulsively, because I think a lot more about what my teammates see, and what they want, and what I think they should want, and try to put that into play.

I think games are more interesting with an asymmetric corner. I chose this 3-4 point because the other one (4-3) leaves white an approach that works well with his 4-4 stone. This could develop into the chinese opening, which is not what I normally play, but we'll see what happens...

Bleh, Chinese no doubt. Still, nice simple move here. Was tempted to play C16 and would approach a Black corner when Black approaches at E16, but this is rengo, and I have to feed the position to the weaker team member, which means something which fundamentally requires a non-intuitive followup is probably not a clever idea (especially if its a bizarre followup of my concoction that makes sense to no-one else anyway!).

I'm glad Jordus gets to decide whether we play Chinese or not... In a game like this the determining factor is how large of mistakes the weaker players make; Violence will be able to play Chinese or anything else approximately equally well. The same could be said for me only it's "equally badly". So Jordus should pick what he's comfortable with.

Normally i would play a more agressive move like (a). And if I was being cautious, I would usually play (b) or (c). However, seeing as how this is game is going to be intense, I decided to play the ever so safe c instead.:


Show Diagram Code[go]$$Bc
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[/go]Hide Diagram Code
I think playing at (c) gives a solid area of influence, and helps guard against (a) in the following diagram:


Show Diagram Code[go]$$Bc
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a . . |
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[/go]Hide Diagram CodeBlacks pincer at c is now stronger.

I am hoping that I am making a good decision here and
hopefully my moves don't hinder my allies too much.

Hi everyone. I decided to get into this game for two reasons: First, because all the other Malkovich games seemed like fun; and second, because I think I'm pretty bad at explaining why I play the way I do, both to others and to myself.
I'm hoping to become more systematic in my analysis.

So, the Chinese opening?
I remember that its objective is to expect an approach or invasion, and by attacking it, get territory.

I don't remember the standard responses, though. Memorization was never my strong point.
I am more of an intuition based player, which might explain I am still 9k. :P

I like black's position much more, and am not really sure how to play here.

I feel that I have to limit Black's possibility of expansion in the lower side, but playing too close would fall into the kind of attack black wants.


-*- Move #6 -*-
Show Diagram Code[go]$$Bc -*- Move #6 -*-
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . c . . . . . X . . . |
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[/go]Hide Diagram Code
One thought is to keep it symmetrical, playing 'a', but that would allow black to pick the top or bottom to expand.

Between 'b' and 'c', I think black would profit more from a play at c, so I'm taking that away.

A black play at 'a' would be inconsistent with the Chinese, so I'm expecting b or an approach on the top left corner now.

So, I hope I won't mess up the game too much for my rengo partners, and/or for any viewers.

My sealed move for black 7
Show Diagram Code[go]$$Bc My sealed move for black 7
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[/go]Hide Diagram Code

I think white 6 would have been better at a; black can exploit this.

When people usually play Chinese opening, they seek speed. I'll go along with this idea for now, and see what happens. White's stone is low at the bottom, so I'm not so worried about my corner stone. The key here is to go fast.