Warrning! A wall of text incoming! 
First, please note that the title of the thread contains a play on words, or, more accurately, play on idioms. Whereas "getting into the weeds" means getting into the detail of something (often implying getting into too much detail), the expression "in the weeds" usually refers to someone (especially a waiter at a restaurant) being hopelessly behind. Thus, although the title is meant to convey that the game will contain detailed endgame analysis, the title is also meant to signify that I’ll need to perform a miracle to win this game ... or, more precisely, I’ll need to induce drishti into making a serious mistake if I am to have a chance.
My evaluation of the position is that
Black is ahead by 13 points (including prisoners). (There is some trickiness as to whether Black gets to capture the ko in the middle or not, but I think he does; otherwise, the lead would be 12 points.) This is a lot in itself in any endgame, but here the real problem is that almost wherever Black chooses to play (and it’s his move), he can expect to keep sente, while just about all of my potential plays end in gote. If the position where within 5-6 points, I would adopt the strategy of making optimal moves, hoping to capitalize on small mistakes from my opponent--a reasonable strategy given the playing strength disparity and given that drishti has not had much endgame practice or practice counting in the past. However, with 13 points difference and with the given sente/gote-plays distribution, such a strategy is doomed to failure. Thus, I need to resort to making at least one overplay somewhere (a move that leads to a loss of points, objectively speaking, but one that may induce a mistake from the opponent).
As a parenthetical remark, I should say that it’s very enjoyable for me to play lost positions. It’s very liberating in many ways. When the position is balanced or one player has only a small lead, a player needs to be weary of pressing his attack too far, of overextending, of making mistakes big and small. However, when the game is hopeless, such as here, it’s possible to try playing anything, even the most ridiculous invasions and overplays, because whether one loses by 10 points or by 100, it’s still only 1:0.
Beginning players: take note from this attitude! Rather than hanging your head and resigning after a huge blunder, look at the position again and ask yourself: “what’s the craziest invasion I can do in the position”? Or, stated differently, “what would Magicwand do”?
Answers to previous questions:
1). Black
2). Black is significantly ahead
3). 13 points in Black’s favor (more on that in another post)
4). I’ll come back to what Black should play in my next post
5). To calculate the score difference between White playing in the upper right corner and between Black playing there, we ought to consider the following diagrams:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Wc
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . . . 3 1 2 . . |
$$ O . . . . O X X X . |
$$ X O O 5 . O X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X . 4 O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
Notice that Black gets to play
in sente due to the shortage of liberties, so he gets a point this way. (Black may wait with playing this move so that he can use it as a ko threat, for example, but Black should get to make this move eventually, because it's Black's sente and White's gote). Also notice that White ends in gote.
Thus, we end up with this diagram:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Wc
$$ --------------------
$$ C C C C C O O X M M |
$$ O C C C C O X X X . |
$$ X O O O C O X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X M X O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
Counting the marked intersections yields: B = 3 points, W = 10 points => Score 1 = W - B = +7. (Incidentally, if the reader finds making such calculations difficult in any way, take it from me that it feels difficult only the first few times. After doing a few of these, it becomes fairly straightforward.)
If Black plays in the area first, this leads to the following sequence:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . 4 3 1 5 . . . |
$$ O . . 6 2 O X X X . |
$$ X O O . . O X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X . . O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
Now there is no shortage of liberties for White, so Black does not get to make a point in sente as before. Also, note that Black again ends up with sente.
Beinners beware!!!
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . . 2 X . . . . |
$$ O . . . 3 O X X X . |
$$ X O O . . O X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X . . O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . . O C 4 . . . |
$$ O . . . X O X X X . |
$$ X O O . 5 O X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X . . O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . 7 W 6 W . . . |
$$ O . . . X W X X X . |
$$ X O O . X W X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X . . O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
The marked group is lost.
Thus, the final diagram is this:
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bc
$$ --------------------
$$ C C C O X X X M M M |
$$ O C C O O O X X X . |
$$ X O O C C O X O X . |
$$ X O X O O X X O O . |
$$ X X X X O X . . . . |
$$ O X . X O X . O O . |
$$ . X X O O X . . X . |
$$ X T . O X . . X . . |
$$ X X X O X X X O . . |
$$ X O O X X O X . . . |[/go]
Therefore, the score is B = 3 + (Triangle), W = 7 => Score 2 = 7 - 3 - (Triangle) = 4 - (Triangle).
The value of (Triangle) is equal to 0, 0.5, or 1 depending on how much we know about the rest of the board. Given the knowledge of only the local position, it is unknown who will play first in the area, so the best we can do is say that each player has 50% to do so. If White is the first one to play, neither player will have any points in the area (i.e., Value(White first) = 0). If Black is the first one to play, he will have 1 point, White none (i.e., Value(Black first) = 1). Therefore, without knowing what the rest of the board looks like, (Triangle) = (50% * 1) + (50% * 0) = 0.5 => Score 2 = 4 - 0.5 = 3.5. (Incidentally, from a mathematical point of view, it is more convenient and less error-prone to assign negative values to points of one of the sides, say B points are negative, White positive. Also, it would perhaps be more accurate to write 3.5 +/- 0.5 instead of just 3.5, but I’m getting technical.)
Hence, we conclude that playing at the upper-right corner equals Score(limited knowledge)= Score 2 - Score 1 = 7 - 3.5 = 3.5
If we do know what the rest of the board looks like, then we might be able to determine whether (Triangle will or will not yield Black an extra point. After all, at the end of the game, there are no half-point values anywhere. In the present situation, I believe that Black will be able to make the point there, leading to the conclusion that the Score(full knowledge) = 3.
To summarize, the answer to question 5). is:
a) 3.5
b) 3 (perhaps I’ll return to this later).
For beginners:6). Now that you know my evaluation of the position, try again to count the board and to play out the endgame to see if you can match my result. In the very least, make sure that you can get that Black, and not White, is leading by a significant number of points.
Being able to do such evaluations accurately is of paramount importance! Knowing who is ahead and by how much dictates the strategy which one ought to adopt at a given point.7). What’s the difference in score between White playing in the lower-left corner (at "a) and Black playing there (at "b")? For each player, is the play sente or gote?
- Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$Bcm1
$$ | . . . . .
$$ | . . X . .
$$ | . . X . X
$$ | . a X O X
$$ | . b O X X
$$ | . . O X O
$$ | . . O O .
$$ | . . . O .
$$ ------------[/go]
, 
the move that yields Black the most number of points? Is 
drishti rises to the level. 
Now I wonder: how would he have responded to this move?
(for sake of eyespace) and 
, but I'll write more about that later.