Spot The Move - Answers

British Go Journal No. 66. November 1985. Page 25.

Richard Granville

The problems for these solutions are on page 5 of BGJ 65.
This month's problems are on page 5.
The answer to problem 1 may be found on page 24.

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.

The answers in BGJ 66 are numbered differently to the problems in BGJ 65. This second answer here relates to question 3!

You might wish to open a second window beside the first one to view Dia X4 whilst reading the text in the first window.

Problem 3 - Marks

Marks for various black moves.

Diagram 4

Problem 3 - Commentary

Despite the five different moves preferred by the panel, there is general agreement about what to do.

Diagram X4

Panelists replies:

• H - Jeff Ansell 2k
• G - Brian Chandler 2d
• H - Matthew Macfadyen 6d
• L - Toby Manning 2d
• B - John Rickard 3d
• C - Francis Roads 3d
• L - Piers Shepperson 3d

Shepperson: "Although there are several big points on the board, there seems to me to be only one urgent area. If White gets the chance to play M (threatening Q), Black will be almost forced to make the N-J exchange, giving White a very favourable result. Hence Black must prevent this; L is the obvious way to do this (considering , H would be misplaced)."

Manning agrees, and so do I, but other panelists preferred H:

Ansell: "H prevents white M, which would be overwhelming, and puts pressure on the running white group, a possible continuation would be white E, black F, white D, black A."

Macfadyen: "H is the vital point of white's shape - if black plays M, white can force him down immediately with H, P and J, building eyeshape in the process, and then attack at A."

The other possibility is to play in the centre immediately:

Rickard: "If White were to play around C, black would be forced to move into the uninteresting area near white's thickness. I am not good at judging shape in such situations, but for some reason B feels better than C."

Roads prefers C, and Chandler considers D in the centre, but ends up preferring G.

In the game, my opponent played H, and I immediately extended to K - Black seems to have no devastating attack in the centre.

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