Life In 19x19

Strong players predict all the good moves. If you aren't playing one of those, your move must be worse.

speedchase wrote:Strong players predict all the good moves. If you aren't playing one of those, your move must be worse.

This is false.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?EarReddeningGame
as an example, I don't think Gennan Inseki saw that move, and 8d is not weak.

Twitchy Go wrote:

speedchase wrote:Strong players predict all the good moves. If you aren't playing one of those, your move must be worse.

This is false.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?EarReddeningGame
as an example, I don't think Gennan Inseki saw that move, and 8d is not weak.

What exactly is a "surprise strategic" move? It isn't like there are secrets or anything.

Twitchy Go wrote: This is false.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?EarReddeningGame
as an example, I don't think Gennan Inseki saw that move, and 8d is not weak.

I was talking about what usually happens. Shusaku didn't play that move because he was trying to be unpredictable, he played it because he was trying to play the best move he could.
I was talking about a strategy of being unpredictable. Corner cases aren't relevant

speedchase wrote:

Twitchy Go wrote: This is false.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?EarReddeningGame
as an example, I don't think Gennan Inseki saw that move, and 8d is not weak.

I was talking about what usually happens. Shusaku didn't play that move because he was trying to be unpredictable, he played it because he was trying to play the best move he could.
I was talking about a strategy of being unpredictable. Corner cases aren't relevant

From this example and as a consequence of your statement, as a corollary, I could conclude that a strategy that depends on predicting an opponents move is also not relevant, but I don't think this is what you meant either.

Esp. at the SDK and DDK level I think this idea of "unpredicitability" can be expressed in the view of looking at Go play as a game of "chicken".

I make a move that looks sente to me. It is now your call if replying to that is the biggest move on the board (or most important or best, however you want to describe it..) or if there is something else "better". Both players can continuously, alternately make moves in multiple parts of the board and then also continuously, alternately make the fixing/honte moves that turn loose incursions into solid pushes and/or groups. It doesn't have to be "I push then you push".

I'd imagine that the ability to make these calls is a big part of what we generally call "Go skill" or just plain rank. Weaker players make bad choices and stronger players make better ones. So in the context of tenuki-ing frequently, good play along this line would be realizing that a 5-point move that finishes a joseki is less important than starting a 20-point sequence on another part of the board (as long as that sequence works...).

So I'd say, be creative but make these "unpredictable" moves with a conscious purpose and with the light of full-board evaluation not just to throw stones around and see what happens.

Bruce "Stochastic==Drunk sometimes" Young