Splatted and I played this evening, as per the vague 'league' discussed in his journal. I'm up 1-0 against him as a result.

Here's the game to look at. I've included the review as well because we had a question about black's move 71.



Should black have tried to save the three stones, say with a one space jump, instead?

The review (which may be rambling) is here:


Comments highly appreciated

I inquired about at our club on monday of a 5 dan player. He said that he thought it was fine, because if black saves those stones to continue to try and chase, the center was so open that black couldn't get many forcing moves or much profit out of it. He was of the opinion that if white followed up by trying to capture the stones, black should either enclose the top right or force and then enclose, much like in the game.

I did not ask how white should have followed up, but my impression was that he thought white should move to reduce the black moyo that is forming on the right immediately. Capturing those stones is similarly not urgent because of the space white still has in the center, so white can treat moving into the center and capturing those stones as miai of a sort (or so I gathered).

Thanks skydyr, this position is really intersting. Looking at the board again I actually like your move better. I think I was just relieved to have settled my weak group and let that colour my analysis of the situation.

The question of whether or not white should capture is part of why I now like your move. On the one hand, it's painful to have to capture a few stones in gote, especially when white's not in any immediate danger, but on the other, black is well placed to profit from attacking white in the centre. I guess rather than saying that white can treat the two options as miai, it would be better say that white can guide the game in a direction that makes them miai. That would take some skill but I can see how it would be better if done properly.

That's an interesting distinction, and one that I haven't considered before. Definitely has caused a lot of thoughts to swirl around in my head, to the point where I'm not sure what it entails but I want to contemplate it.

We've finished game 2 on OGS, and are 1-1 now. I've included the game below, but haven't made comments as yet, as I think we both lost the flow of the game as we went on various trips, etc. and I need to look it over again.