MikeKyle v. TelegraphGo (Blind)

[MikeKyle]

Of course! 19-18 is illegal! Translating between thoughts and coordinates continues to be tough!

13(N)-19

Trigger: if b 11-19 then

19(T)-17

Comment

Oops! Must watch out for these transcription errors!
Nothing has changed, my plan continues. Depending on blacks threat I may need to count the size of this ko, think about how the approach ko really works and maybe count threats..

[TelegraphGo]

Trigger accepted. B plays 11-19, white follows with 19-17. I then play
2-6
B6

Captures: B: 9, W: 5

Finally we've gotten to the interesting part. I'm definitely hoping that he makes some mistakes here. But we'll see.

I know I said I was going to play the 5-14 ko threat. The problem was that if he ignores it, I capture, and he extends on the side with something like 3-11, it's hard for me to make up the remaining points difference. He would have 13 points underneath the upper right, plus 30ish on the right side, 5 in the middle, 10 in the lower left, another 8 in the upper left, and komi. That's like 75 points, and I'd have only the top and some aji on the left to show for it. It's just not big enough to spend two moves capturing those stones right now.

That would change if I prevented him from making a comfortable extension on the side. So I'm playing 2-6, with the intent of continuing 2-7 if he plays 3-7, and continuing again at 3-5 and 3-4 to try to secure myself before playing out the center fight. It looks pretty scary for him, to be honest.

I have a feeling he will back off again at 2-5, which will allow me to claim that I played a good ko threat and come back to reclaim the ko.

[jlt]

Black has 10 captures, White has 5.

[MikeKyle]

2(B)-7

Trigger: if b 19-16 then

9(J)-1

I haven't done my ko homework properly yet. As far as I can see in the corner if I settle the ko then I get 15 points in the area but if black approaches and settles then he has 10 points, so the full swing is 25. I think some people would multiply by 1/3 or 1/4 or 2/3 or something to give threat values or values per move and such but I think these methods miss a lot of the subtlety and/or I don't understand them, so I'll have to work more on first principles or more realistically dodgy intuition.
Black's threat looks like it would be a serious headache to ignore and it feels like a basic mistake not to give the strongest response, despite the follow up threats. My threat is just a move I'd like to play. It keeps blacks group technically one eyed.

[TelegraphGo]

Trigger accepted. 19-16, T16, is answered by 9-1, J1. Then I play:
7-2
G2

Trigger: If white plays 19-17, I play:

3-7
C7
And captures will be B:11, W:6. Thanks jlt!

Comments:

I deeply considered playing away from this threat. If I had played away from it, then I would have wanted to play 3-7 before retaking the ko, so that he can't answer with 2-8. But I don't think I'm going to play away from it. It's the same problem as before - things simplify too fast. If I was ahead or the game was very close, then I probably would have let him have my stones.

But I think I can force him to find some scrappier (read: losing) ko threats. His response at 2-7 gives me several more ko threats locally, while also getting a slightly poor result. My plan is that he will get another ko threat at 8-1, and then I will get another ko threat with my atari at 4-6. Then I see only one decent threat for him at 4-19. I still have some big ko threats that aren't too bad, so it's looking like the ko fight might be a bit hard on him. Playing this way should keep him under pressure.

[MikeKyle]

Trigger accepted so w19-17, b3-7

2(B)-5

Trigger: if b 19-16 then

3(C)-10

Comment

It's not an approach ko! I'm being an idiot! My cut at 16-18 was just really really bad.
There's no doubt that black has more threats so I'll see if he will just let me make two nice moves here.

[TelegraphGo]

Trigger accepted. 19-16, T16, is followed by 3-10, C10. I then play:
4-6
D6

I think he realized the ko fight might be trouble and has decided to try to take two big moves, losing the ko to win the game. It's a good strategy, but I'm not sure I agree with the choice of 3-10 as the biggest move. I guess it's up to him to justify it.

I'm going to be taking 14-19 next and winning the ko, but first I want to make this exchange. If I didn't, then it's very possible that he would play first at 4-6, which is totally unnecessary to allow.

Since I'm winning the ko without ignoring a critical ko threat or making a bad ko threat, it seems I have made up for my dumb mistake at 17-19. That's good news, but I think that there's still quite a few points to be made until I equalize.

He should play 3-5 and then I'll take 14-19, but I'm not going to make a trigger in hopes that he makes a mistake!

[MikeKyle]

3(C)-5

Meant to say thanks too to jlt! if we get to count then we may well need a referee

Comment

Solid here at least for probably 9 points. black is still a tiny tiny bit harassable on the basis that there aren't two explicit eyes yet.
Will black now finish the ko?

[TelegraphGo]

14-19
O19

Finishing the ko.
Atari.

He didn't mess it up. Oh well. Time to give him sente!

I'm gaining a deeper understanding of the alphabet-number relation by playing this game

[MikeKyle]

2(B)-8

Comment

I hope this move isn't too slow. It seems like nice endgame.
Now the right is settled I count 29 points for me. I previously counted 9 points for the bottom left and I was thinking that the upper left should be more than 10 now that I have that extention. Saying 2 points for the centre would give a conservative estimate of 50 points on the board for me plus komi. Blacks points are a lot harder to count. I found about 35 totally safe points very close to the edge on the top side and I think another 5 seems like a minimum. But then the other two groups won't make many points. I thought maybe a large endgame point might pick up enough points that black might struggle to make it up in the centre? It's very tough for me to judge that potential though. I guess black will take a lead as we play out the endgame

[TelegraphGo]

9-12
L12

Two-space jump.

I'm pretty sure his move was much too slow. I don't think that my bottom left group should be very easy to attack profitably, so he ends up gaining a couple of points and a little bit of security with his 3-10 stone. I think I can make him regret that

My move is just playing at the point of greatest contention. I said it was small earlier, showing how it was worth on ~15 points to the four stones ~20. But 15 points is more than 2-8 made, and more than anything else I can see on the board. Also, I think it sets up a sort of miai for reducing his upper left at 4-11 or 5-14, but maybe I'm just being overly optimistic. Don't forget, as well, that his group on the bottom is not yet technically alive, so I may be able to squeeze out some good endgame there.

The midgame is soon coming to a close, and I'm not in time trouble, so I'll count again.
W: bottom left - 12, upper left - 12, center - 5, right side - 30, komi - 7.5, total of about 65.
B: bottom left - 3, bottom right - 2, upper side - 8 + 10 + 30 is about 48, captures - 5ish, total of about 60.

Now this was an optimistic count for black, so I bet I'm more like 10 points down than 5, but it's still an improvement for sure. I still need him to make a mistake or two, but it's definitely not yet become too simple.

[jlt]

9-12 is not the same as L12.

[TelegraphGo]

Gah! J12. The alphabet 9p is far too strong for me

[MikeKyle]

8(H)-12

Comment

It feels like my rationale behind my last move should have lead me to play around 9-12 but I wussed out because it's a little bit fuzzy and the move I played felt more concrete. It looks great now black has played it!
Since black is strong enough I'll lean here. If I get a few moves around then my distant distant attack on the lower left black group might just come back around again.

[TelegraphGo]

8-13
H13

Hane.

His move is nice - since I'm strong, he's building both of our strengths and his is more useful. But I'm kind of insolent - I'm planning on tenuki next move, and if he spends a whole move accomplishing just a little over here, it's going to be too slow again.

I used to never play hane and tenuki, but AI tends to like it much more than I used to, so now I play it more. Sometimes I still miss it, and sometimes I play it when I'm not supposed to - so at least it's a more even distribution of error.

The other moves I considered were backing off and hane inside at 8-11. Backing off looks like it makes my upper wall inefficient, and hane inside looks like I'm fighting for no reason. Hane feels like the only move.

What will he do next? I'm not exactly sure, but he'll definitely try to build his left side a bit- and I'll definitely stop him