Unexpected Move

A few days ago I had someone play this against me.

 

I had not seen it before and suspected it wasn't joseki, but the question is how to deal with it. If you want to see the game and how I dealt with it, click here.

Another interesting situation which came up in that game has to do with a capturing race starting at move 176. It is a simple capturing race according to the Hunter book (Counting Liberties and Winning Capturing Races). Still, I was as always surprised to see how much harder it is to read this out in a game, in 30 seconds byo yomi,than from the comfort of your arm chair in studying the Hunter book. Looking back I should have tenuki'ed from it much earlier I think.

Yet Another Go Tournament

Two tournaments in one month. Such a miracle! This was in Boston and I won one game (out of four :D) The game I won surprisingly was the one in which I was giving handicap (2H to a 2k) which usually are my weakest games. Interesting.

 

Picture by John Uckele.

Butterfly Conclusion

This position white can live, although depending on board situation, white might choose a ko anyway.

 

Here is David (from Go Game Guru)'s comment on it, which includes a link to a sensei's library page which is a good and thorough summary of this position.

As you and badge have said, white still can live, as shown at length here: http://senseis.xmp.net/?Butterfly

However, I've found in practise that it's often better to fight the ko as white. This is because it's a heavy ko for black and often you can force black to back down and let you live more comfortably.

Anyway, who wants to grovel for a small life when you can die gloriously in ko...

Interesting position, and thanks to my studying this, the last time it came up in a game, not only did I live, but I managed to 'cut black into pieces' like senseis library says. Ah, the sweet fruits of studying!

Don't worry, I'll find another position in which to die ^^

Butterfly Followup

Thanks Badge, for your input. I had forgotten about the butterfly name. I do remember it is considered bad shape because of the sansan invasion. But when I invaded... It didn't end so well for me.

 

This was your proposal, which is basically correct apart from missing an atari on the way. Of course is easier to see on the board than when you type a sequence.

 

This is how I have learned the invasion (but without the extra okeima stone at N17. As you can see, black's hane at 13 looks weird and superfluous now. Just showing it here for completeness.

 

One day I was playing a black who agreed and instead of the O17 protection decided to atari me at A. For a few moments I was overconfident as always, because I knew that the punishment for that is to cut at P17. No problem, ha, I would kill him so badly!

 

Isn't it great how we can be totally overconfident in our games, even when it is not quite warranted. Soon after he played A, and I cut at P17, I found out that the stone at B was very significant indeed. And instead of the cut being a punishment for him, it actually got me into deeper trouble.

Ouch!

Random Study Subject: Invasions

Since I am studying more again, I have been looking into invasions. This was one of my interesting ones that I didn't know yet before it jumped up and started attacking me.

 

When I played white in a game, I confidently invaded, because we all know that an okeima star point corner lives without any problems, right?

Well...

There was the tiny issue of the other okeima. But this was a nice and sunnny day and the birds were singing, so I was willing to pretend that other okeima wasn't there, since it was too far away to count anyway...

I bet you can predict what happened. Yes, indeed, I died a totally miserable death...

Reader input: What is status of this corner with TWO okeimas?

You Can't Get There from Here

Finally, I played a real life tournament again. On Sunday I drove to Middlebury in Vermont and was amazed and shocked to see the damage hurricane Irene had wrought. Even our favorit snackbar in Woodstock has been mostly washed out.

Anyway I made it to Middlebury just in time for the start of the tournament.

 

I played 4 games.
Game 1: Even, no komi against a 1k, I won by resignation when one of his groups died an unexpected death.
Game 2: Against a 2d, even no komi again, but this time I had black. I lost that game by quite a lot of points.
Game 3: Against a 1d, even, I took black after choosing for colour. I lost by one point on the board, but he had komi too, so 7.5 altogether.
Game 4: Against another 1d. This one I won by resignation again.

 

End result 2-2, not bad, but not stellar either. I'll try to post some interesting positions of the games over the next few days. In my spare time that is, so don't hold your breath ^^

I loved playing serious games over the board again, I am happy I made the drive up to there.