First, the good: I feel happy with D10 and Black's response. C9 doesn't put much, if any, pressure on D10, meaning that I'm still free to play where I like. I was much more worried about a black play at D12 which would force me to decide early how to treat D10. Now I can regard it as simply a probe or light reducing stone. I also feel like after C9/D10 the left is now not quite as important from a direction-of-play standpoint, since I got a low response from Black. Black still has some ways to build a moyo there, especially if White makes a mistake, but it doesn't seem as scary to me any more.
Now, the bad: I don't like my original plan anymore. I think I was overlooking something important:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . a 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 O . 3 . 5 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 8 , . . . . . b . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . X . 2 . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . O X O . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
The problem generally seems to be that White is continuing to play low stones. I tried to fix this with D10 and D13, but the rest of the sequence is all low. In some cases, I could think about playing at A (another low stone), to put pressure on the black top group, but since D10 and D13 are weak too, this isn't really much of an attack. On the other hand, playing at B (trying to play high), also looks pretty slow. So, I went back to the drawing board.
From what I wrote above, (I think) I know 3 things:
- (1) The left is now less important;
- (2) I need to fix White's balance by playing high; and
- (3) D10 is a probe/light reducing stone.
A play at D13, however, ignores points #1 and #3. It tries to build more on the left, where I was never going to make more points (especially after C9). Instead, I'm back to thinking about F16. It's oriented along the top, which seems bigger, it's a high stone, and it keeps me from investing more around the light D10. This sequence seems pretty natural:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 5 3 . a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 2 O . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . |
$$ | . . 4 , . 1 . . . 9 . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . X . b . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . f . . |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . X . . . . . . . . . . e . d . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . , . . . . . , X c . |
$$ | . O X O . . O . . . . . . . 0 . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]
Comparing this diagram to the previous one,
,
, and
are all as they were before, but
is higher than White-3 in the previous diagram, and Black hasn't yet been able to play in the center, which both seem like good things. At this point I'm leaning towards
instead of A, because I'll want to keep Black's top group as unsettled as possible to make it harder for him to turn the whole left into points (and less likely to play at B). It leaves more aji behind, but I can fix some of that by coming to
and
. This is a bit thin, but I think I'm ok with it. This line of play also means that Black gets a shimari in the lower right, but because g3 is low, the bottom also doesn't seem that interesting to me. I would probably play C, D, E, or F next.
Of course, Black might choose to try to still build the left by playing
at B, but I think this also helps me fix the aji of playing
, and I don't see D10 being surrounded in one more move by Black.
As a side note, I find it's a very help discipline device to force me to write out these explanations for my moves. It keeps me honest.
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seems to be a natural response by white, which brings me to a position that I don't like. 
lets Black catch up in the number of stones, two to two. However, it makes 
a good play. That is enough to make it questionable, and, early enough in the game, almost unthinkable. Also, what about the relation between the 
here. The left side is urgent, in the sense of urgent points before big points.
.
is pretty small for this early in the game and might be gote (if Black chooses to leave the shape defect), so I should probably come straight to attack the H17 stone instead. With more strength in the middle, I might be able to turn it into more clearly sente later. If Black wants to fix his shape there right now, I'd be happy to take another free fuseki move. They key is that I got