Life In 19x19

My plan is to work on the right direction of play. White is becoming my favorite to play, because white has to be more flexible. White has to adapt to any plan black wants, which adds a lot of variety to the opening, and I want to learn to handle anything black can throw at me.

I feel more comfortable with 4-4 stones in the opening as white. I don't like giving good approaches from one direction or the other until I've decided which direction I care about. So I'll keep it flexible and go from there. I'm allowing black to take diagonal stones if he'd like, because that mostly prevents him making any form of special strategic formation. Those strategic formations are mostly designed to beating komi, whereas diagonal fuseki kind of skips into midgame earlier, which is fine for white.

The diagonal opening makes it so that there are likely going to be four small groups that are all separated from one another. Since all of the groups are small and separated, it sets a good stage for a fighting game.

I feel like playing a fighting game, so I decided to play this opening.

Well, I said I'd be just fine playing diagonal, so let's continue. I still have no reason to prefer one side or the other, so I'm going to keep my stones flexible: 4-4. I expect some low knight's approach, to which I will fall back with another low knight.
A 4-6 would not be good, because I will not have the adjacent corner. Everyone who's reading this probably already knows this, but I'll show an example here, just in case.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1 If I played the high response, I would have a weakness at triangle facing black's other corner.
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . T . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . 2 . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |[/go]

If, after this corner, black tries for a double-wing-like approach on my other corner, I will pincer, to reduce the effectiveness of black's growing framework. Or perhaps I can ignore and approach the other black corner. Worth considering.

Nothing special, yet...

I played a diagonal game because I wanted a fighting game... So, I will keep his groups small and separated. Let's fight!

Okay, he approached in the 'double wing' direction as I'd expected, so I pincered as I'd said I would. Again, I pincer because otherwise all of his stones are working too well together. I'm choosing the low near pincer instead of one further away, because the bottom left is black's. If it was white, then a wider pincer would better help to set up a framework with that stone. An alternative I had considered is to pincer or kick O3, because he tenuki'ed my defensive move, but I'd rather keep things simple a bit longer. No need to force him to double-approach or something similarly complex. If he jumps into the corner, I'll seal him in and build a wall facing southwards. Alternatively, if he jumps out, I'll chase him with a one-space jump from the star.

Again, this is a fighting game. I will jump out to keep his groups disconnected. I want for him to get weak stones.

I am okay with this so far. Every decision so far has made the eventual total score for both sides smaller. For example, playing diagonal fuseki makes it harder to get quite as massive of a framework. Similarly, pincering often makes smaller stable groups on both sides, instead of one large group of each color. All of that said, everything is still fairly even. I'm going to start roping off side of the board while pressuring his group (a little). Kirby has several options here. 1) Press my pincer stone low in an attempt to build a wall. 2) Keep running. 3) Counter-pincer my pincer stone. I imagine he will take option one, which is even, and fine with me. The wall faces the middle, but the middle is not huge right now. If he does that, I can approach the top right (from the east) the next time I have sente, hopefully. There are a lot of moves I want, but first I intend to focus on the health of my groups. If black jumps again, I will take a two-space jump with my western group, to start stabilizing, for example. If my groups are stable, I cannot be pressed as hard, so I have a lot more power.

I want to keep fighting, of course. Pincering keeps his group small on the side.

I thought about the following, but didn't really like .

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bcm1 Prisoners: W=0, B=0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . O . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

So he might get some stones on the top, but it's nothing to worry about. For now, let's just pincer!

Hmmm, I'm a little hesitant to do this. This should give my group enough safety for now, and it'll make him give me some more territory along the top. I'm tempted to tenuki it, but I think I really cannot afford to lose that stone (giving his group safety and territory) so early. Now that I think about it, my stone couldn't entirely be killed in one turn, but this does induce him giving me territory, so I think I'll still do it.

I must keep white separated. Still fighting!

Fourth line, and at least part of this will be territory. Black will probably turn and jump south, and I will too. He'll have to stop and defend his lower group, so I can either help out my group in the middle more or tenuki. I was originally thinking that I would jump to C10 if black jumps to G10, but I'm thinking I'm better off jumping more lightly to E9. Black seems to have a lot of potential and loose framework, but it's far enough apart and weak enough that hopefully I can reduce it sufficiently.