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Can White Win At 136
The key point for assessing the position seems to be 1. If W plays here can she win? If instead B has the chance to jump to 6 first, has W definitely lost? The second key point is the ability to cut at 3 if B answers 1 with 2. This is based on B's bad shape in this area where the cut at 7 threatens to capture the corner plus the fact that the marked W stone is close enough to support W 3. Note that if B connects at 9 after W 5 and W stands at 6, the cutting stone at 3 can not be caught in a ladder because the marked W stone is a ladder block. It is very difficult to say what is the best choice for B here but it looks difficult to prevent W picking up a lot of points if she plays first. On the other parts of the board, B 'a' threatens to kill the corner but it is gote after W answers at 'b'. It is worth about 10 points though so B will choose it, leaving the other play on the right side to W at 'd'. In between W will be able to play 'g' and the rest of the sequence shown, limiting the upper side B territory to just a few points. Since W will probably get to play both 'k' and 'l' along the way, B's big center/right side territory looks like it is worth about 65 points. Compared to this, W's upper right and lower side combine for about 50 points. B's upper left and lower left corners are worth 15 points together at most (assuming W 7 and B 8 as shown). Then the issue becomes whether W can outscore B by 25 points at the top and along the left side. With komi this would make the game even. If B gives way and answers W 1 with 3, then when W pushes with 2 the upper side alone looks to be worth at least 25 points so B would need to outscore W on the left in sente (!) in order to get back to the right side in time to play 'a'.
Where have I gone wrong? One open issue is how many points is B's big territory really? I am neither patient nor skilled enough to count these odd-shaped territories with various large yose plays still lying around the edges. So what is the real score?
This is a copy of the living page "Can White Win At 136" at Sensei's Library. (C) the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0. |