Spot The Move - Answers

British Go Journal No. 67. April 1986. Page 12.

Richard Granville

The problems for these solutions are on page 5 of BGJ 66.
This month's problems are on page 3.
The answer to problem 3 may be found on page 11.

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 67 are numbered differently to the problems in BGJ 66. This third answer here relates to question 2!

You might wish to open a second window beside the first one to view Dia X6 whilst reading the text in the first window.

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Problem 2 - Marks

Marks for various black moves.

Diagram 6

Problem 2 - Commentary

Diagram X6

Panelists replies:

• K - Matthew Macfadyen 6d
• F - Toby Manning 2d
• K - Francis Roads 3d
• E - Piers Shepperson 3d
• T - John Smith 3d
• F - Alastair Thompson 1d
• R - Brian Timmins 3k

Macfadyen: "This is not really much of a problem - nothing has happened yet. The Chinese fuseki at H or J seems unattractive, since white K is an easy reply: Black should play K himself to forestall white's approach."

"But it would be just as good to make a shimari in the top left. Alternatively black could try and expand the right side with D, C or E. Of these C is least attractive, since white gets too much at the top."

"Personally I would play at K or G, but it is hard to find a fuseki move which is bad for black."

Matthew is the only panelist who considers that there are no urgent moves. The rest of the panel focus their attention on the bottom right, where a joseki has occured.

Manning: "In this joseki black can continue with N, L, Q or tenuki (according to Ishida). Which is better depends on style. I dislike N as too passive (playing on the second line so early), and the alternative moves seem a bit slow."

"On the other hand, tenuki allows white to start a fight with P, which is slightly unpleasant. Accordingly, I would play at F, expecting white A, black L. If instead white attacks in the lower right, F will turn out well placed in the ensueing fight."

RG: Toby wants to complete the joseki, so chooses his fuseki move accordingly. Presumably Matthew is prepared for white to attack his group, black having taken another large point elsewhere. For this reason I have awarded consolation marks to all the conventional fuseki moves available.

Sheperson: "The main feature of this position is the unfinished joseki. I prefer E as the best local move, expecting the sequence white A, black L, which defends the right side on the largest scale."

RG: Thompson agrees, but chooses F. In the actual game, my opponent, Terry Stacey, played at E and continued with L in answer to my extension to A. One panelist agrees with just one of Macfadyen's alternatives.

"It is tempting to complete the joseki with N or L. The trouble is that the lower side, with the black hoshi (star-point) stone and the strong white group is very ripe for development, unlike the right side witht he boring old san-san (3-3) at the the top. Whoever gets to the lower side first gets an advantage: eg black L, white K."

"For this reason Black had better play at K himself. Of course he must be prepared for an attack at P, but after U black can slide into the corner or counterattack againstthe white group above."

RG: Finally two answers I consider wrong.

Smith: "Black should be looking to develop the stones on the right hand side. Trying to expand on a large scale with B or E seems to be building on shifting sand, while playing tightly at M or L doesn't get rid of the problem. I prefer to play at T, which stabilises the black stones, and is not negligible as far as profit is concerned."

Timmins: "The bottom right is unsatble, ahere white is threatening to squash black; a play around P or S would threaten to utilise the weakness at V. Best for Black seems to be R, which is very solid and gote, but leaves T and L as miai. Next best for black might be P, but this leaves many weaknesses behind ."

RG: T is far too slow at this stage of the game, while R doesn't appear to do anything at all. black would be delighted if White plays at V, sinceW will weaken the stone above. White's strongest attack is actually to block at P.

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Results

Scores for this competition were higher than previously (the lowest was 11). Winner, with 24 points, was our BGA book distributor, Clive Wright (2 kyu); second was Edwad Blockley ( 3 kyu). Our congratulations to them both.

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This article is from the British Go Journal Issue 67
which is one of a series of back issues now available on the web.

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