Life In 19x19

Is his different strategy to confuse me by playing moves that I have no experience in visualising? I will try play fairly sensible for now. Moyo plan on the back burner for now (I never like them anyway.)

As expected. If I just back off, then white can become strong in front of my large knight's move. Since I'm trying to claim that that is influence, I shouldn't allow W to build a group in front of it - I'll not be able to use it to fight or build or anything, so W becomes obviously more efficient in the bottom left. So I must pincer (kick and attach over top are not my style and not good here regardless).
Which pincer? Well, if I'm afraid of being shoulder hit later, I should play high, but I think I'm not actually that scared. My large knight's isn't committing into the bottom, it's just sorta there. So, if he builds a group later by shoulder hitting and I'm reduced, that should be okay. The tighter way to play makes it as unappetizing as possible to commit to the stone for white, instead of invading my corner. I'm very happy if he jumps and shoulder hits my stone, building a center oriented group, where I've already come out to the center. So, I'll go with the normal move here, activating my previous stones as much as possible.

Jumping into 3-3 feels like a mild risk of making that weird move look more natural, but I can't see how it won't remain weird looking. If this bottom side turns into moyo then I think invading/reducing will be fun blind!

If you play 17-4, R4:
Click to show

The only good block in this local position. Don't block the other way if you think your opponent will hane under at some point (he should). He invaded, I'm going to build my wall, and the large knight move looks very imposing in my mind's eye. I like it.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
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$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
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$$ | . . O . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . O . O . O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------------------------[/go]

In the country of the blind. . . .

Only move at this stage. I was wondering if I should try out the keima instead of the hane and connect next but I'm going to keep to the most common variation for now.
Like I said, I'm not sure how this trigger stuff works, but I'm happy with the following sequence if it pans out that way.
If 16-5 then 16-2
Then If 15-2 then 17-2
Then if 14-2 or 15-3 then 17-6
If anyone is reading this at such a moment then please feel free to play my move for me. You may quote the appropriate part of this text.

P7
15-7
Knight's move

At first I wasn't sure about a slight variation possible for me in the sequence, between solid connection at P3 and loose connection at O2. I prefer P3 on this board, since O2 is more for endgame purposes and leaves aji towards the center - incorrect direction. I've sort of emphasized the center, so I should be consistent.
That's the same reason why I'm playing P7 immediately after the sequence. I could tenuki, or defend solid, but the knight's move prevents white from pushing up at Q6, which would make me uncomfortable with my large knight's move on the left. I would probably move my stone at 12-3 more towards the center of the moyo, and to the fourth line, if I could. But if I had played it there immediately, I would expect white to not have dived into my corner in the first place. So I think I ought to be good, none of my stones look horribly inefficient.

I think if I were white, I would play R7 after all the suggested moves, because the easiest way to lose an influence game is to allow your opponent to get more influence with forcing moves. Then as black I'm going to play 6-17, approaching the upper left. It feels like I'm the only player with potential, so my game should be easier to play.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc
$$ -----------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
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$$ | . . 6 . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . . . . . 9 . 8 . . 0 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------------------------[/go]

16-16 Q16, 4-4 D4, 16-4 Q4, 4-16 D16, 6-3 F3, 3-6 C6
7-6 G6, 14-3 o3, 12-3 M3, 17-3 R3,

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm11
$$ -----------------------------------------
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$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
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$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X 2 . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . X . O . 1 O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------------------------[/go]

16-3 Q3, 14-7 R4,

Trigger: ( var: at (a) )

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm11
$$ -----------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
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$$ | . . O . . . X . . . . . . . . . 8 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . , . . . . . X 2 . . |
$$ | . . . . . X . . . . . X . O 7 1 O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . a 5 4 6 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ----------------------------------------[/go]

Reading is hard!
I investigated and did a thread previously about the joseki we just played out (I won't refer to it now as I'm trying to do this closed-book.) one of the things I noticed was that AI prefers the connection underneath significantly over 15-3 and likes to exploit the aji 15-3 leaves behind early on! I think the keima dealt with this and it leaves a nice move at 17-7. However it's difficult to figure out if one more move would make an intimidating centre.
The next few moves will be tough for me, hopefully they will be tough for both of us!

My opening mission has been accomplished!

We're already starting a fight where if things go badly for him, he'll want to resign. If things go as expected, he should be able to live this group while making me strong nearby. If things go badly for me, I'll still have hope somewhere - he only has like 30 points on the board right now. One semi-normal result for example: I can get a full surround, with him living in gote in 2-5 points, and my taking 5-8 points from the whole moyo as is, such that the 3-3 invasion in the bottom left is a serious threat, then I would evaluate the board as still even. Don't forget that he can be pressed down significantly later on the right to activate any center influence that I get from this!

In terms of the precise placement of his move, I don't like it at all. Why play a fourth line stone that's one space away from the shoulder hit against a theoretically strong stone? If I invaded on the fourth line, I would start either with 11-4 (to tempt black into attacking from the stronger side) or with 8-4 [8-5 better?](aiming at the weakness of the large knight's move, and preparing to take a flexible shape with the shoulder hit later. If he absolutely must go somewhere randomly in the middle, I think the fourth line is too low, given my 6-th line stones on either side. 10-5 would still feel pretty bad for B if I submit with 9-4 or something, so it's much less awkward to respond than it has to be for me, right now.

As is, he's given me zero reason to go underneath, hasn't poked at my weaknesses on either side yet, and doesn't seem to have an efficient way to make two eyes on the bottom when I cap. If capping was somehow wrong, then I'd be supposed to play something like 8-4 here, but I don't like that shape on the left - leaving a slight shape weakness at 6-5, and not really giving myself a followup when he jumps out with some flexible shape (two space, large knight's, etc., because I think I could still cap and attack if he played one space.)

I like to give a prediction about his move, but I really can't here. Normally in this kind of shape, I think he might either try running the group with a combination of 8-4 and the attach at 9-6 next, but the large knight's move and 7-6 becomes so good there that I don't think he can bear it. Maybe he's going to try cutting my large knight's move early, something like W 6-4, B 7-4, W 7-3? I think it should be bad timing, since he just made an exchange that makes influence I get towards the bottom side more valuable. I'm pretty sure I can take advantage. If he attached 7-3 immediately for strength, then he fixes my weakness for me and I should be well off. If he goes to the right, then he's decided to run right next to my wall, and I should win by move 60. So I really have no idea what he's going to do here. Sorry!

I'm not sure about this. My reading is seriously compromised since I'm trying to keep clearly in my mind which moves are actually on the board and which are candidate sequences.

I think I'd like to lean on this group with my invasion stone in order to get a bit stronger without fixing the faults in that strange thin looking thing above me. My logic (quite possibly flawed, comments welcome for after I resign) is that I should make this exchange now because I might not get the result I want later. I think he should connect on top in which case I have a nice endgame move later, but after I strengthen him he can probably cut the stones off without worry.

Will likely attach at 12-4 next.

Hane underneath.
Cutting off his two stones. If I don't, he gets a living group right where the action is. I want him to not be alive where the action is.
The question is between the descent 15-1 or the hane under 14-1.

If I descend and he attaches on top of my lone stone next, at 12-4, my instinct is hane 13-4, and then things could get scary at some point if he crosscuts 13-3. [If he doesn't crosscut, I can take 11-3 comfortably or if he takes 11-3 I can atari and he has bad shape]. I want to be able to atari 11-4 and extend up 11-5. I don't think I can, though, because he can cut and descend, leaving my stones with two liberties and I can't capture his stones fast enough. If I atari and connect he would roll over top of me and I would be a little bit sad. So, when he crosscuts I should extend my stone down with 12-2 or across with 11-3. If he then connects 11-4 and I capture his three stones with 14-4, then he can play the turn at 10-3 in sente, which makes me once again sad. That local strength from the turn makes it much easier to for him to look at cutting my large knights and otherwise doing dastardly things - it's a slightly poor result for black by my judgement.

If I had hane'd underneath, he would have one less liberty with his three stone he's crosscut with, so the turn would no longer be sente. This is magnitudes better for B, so I'd really like to hane instead of descend if it doesn't cause a tactical problem. What I'm talking about is that when I hane he can counterhane, and after I connect with the original descent he might make that exchange of 14-1 for 13-1 good for him. The simplest way to try such a thing is if he plays tigers mouth 12-2, attaching to my stone and almost connecting under. I would then be practically forced to play 11-3, but this is pretty nice, breaking his shape. This result is good for him only if he can get something good out of those four stones - so he might try to jump up at 14-5. I can then fix my shape with the forcing move at 16-6 and come back to my middle stones with a jump, something like 12-6. I think I like this result for black - it seems like he'll have to give me a lot if he wants to get out.

I have to do a blunder check for the first time this game. My plan was to keep a mental note of every shape weakness, and think about an tesuji he might have to take advantage whenever I'm a little unclear. Do I have any weaknesses that I haven't considered? I'm creating a weakness at 15-1, I have a very minor weakness on the right that I considered, and a some weaknesses with the large knight's move that I'm doing my best to help. I can't think of anything crazy he could do to make me sad just yet. So here goes! This is the first time I've ever actually played a hane underneath in this joseki.

Turns out that playing blind go against a significantly stronger player is hard! I feel like I should disclose that I looked at the empty board for quite a while on this move. That feels like minor cheating.

He called my bluff! I thought he probably needed to connect on top and now he's making me prove it.
I feel like the sequence in this situation is w13-1,b15-1,w14-5,b13-2,w13-3,b12-1,w12-4 and then I think black doesn't have time to cut at 13-4 because there's a need to fix around 11-3ish. That would give me time to make some shape with some kind of jump to the centre. However I think I must be missing something in this read