Competition Solutions

British Go Journal No. 64. March 1985. Page 24.

Richard Granville

The problems for these solutions are on page 25 of BGJ 63.
This month's problems are on page 8.

Richard Granville summarises our panelists' answers to the competition in the last issue.

The result of our first "spot the move" competition revealed a wide diversity of opinion from our panel of "experts", showing how hard - and rich - Go is.

Unfortunately response from readers was a bit thin. Come on you DFKs, there is no need to feel shy, for in fact the winner, and beneficiary of a lavish £5 book token was none other than a 13 kyu, our very own Stephanie Perks, who scored a commendable 17 out of 30.

The commentary on the problems makes interesting and instructive reading...

BGJ had a summary of replies for each problem listed here. It has been split to put each summary with the relevant problem. The original article used coordinates (such as K10) for most of this article. It has been altered to use marked up diagrams for the EBGJ.

Problem 1 - Marks

Marks for various black moves.

Diagram X1 This replaces BGJ's Dia 1.

Problem 1 - Commentary

The position occurs early in the game, with several big points still to be played. In the opening you need a sense of 'direction', ie to understand broadly what is happening so as to choose the right area of the board to play in.

Diagram X2

Panelists replies:

• E - Jeff Ansell
• U - Jim Bates
• E - Andrew Daly
• S,X - Matthew Macfadyen
• D - John Rickard
• C,D,H,I - Francis Roads
• S - John Smith

Some panelists were sure they knew best:

Roads: "The tense area is the top left hand corner, the rest of the board is stable."

Ansell: "White would like to play C , a combined pincer and extension. Black must therefore play on the top side."

Daly also picks the top of the board, following the principle of urgent points before large ones.

The other panelists, however, arrived at different conclusions.

Bates: "After the sequence in the top right, a black pincer around D has little effect as White can easily stabilise his group (eg by playing F or G). A play at D is therefore purely defensive."
"Furthermore, if White pincers at D or closer, Black can trade M for O, and then play a double-moyo point at L, pushing white into over-concentration and building a large-scale position."

John Smith focused on the top left and bottom right, but preferred to make a shimari at S, followed by extending to U if White pincers at the top.

Since over half of the panelists liked the top left, what was considered the best point?

Diagram X3

Roads: "The pressing move at J is satisfactory. If the regular line follows, of Diagram X3, White 6 proceeds to kakari (approach move)in the lower right-hand corner."

Rickard: "My choice is D, but only just in preference to C. After D any white extension to the right of it is cramped, while F may later be good for Black, forcing white to grovel slightly in the corner. Remember that Black can always reinforce at J. It may be, however, that D is too loose, and Black should play C."

Finally the British Champion gives some sample lines: "Black has three different approaches that make sense."

Diagram 2

"a) Expand his area of influence, let White invade, and consolidate the other half of it (Dia 2)."

Diagram 3

"b) Make a shimari immediately (Dia 3)."

Diagram 4

"c) Play at the top, let white invade the right side in gote, and rush to take the remaining big points (Dia 4)."

However he concludes that: "of the three approaches, Dia 4 is worst for Black, one reason being the stone." Well if is misplaced, why not play 3' at 4, making a pincer-extension?

I am more impressed by Rickard's arguments, and believe that C is the best move after all. Perhaps I should add that the position comes from one of my games at the 1983 European Congress; my actual move, C, was praised by the Japanese professional Nakayama, so it cannot really be bad!

The answer to problem 2 can be found on page 26.