BQM 459
CGT values of play
Was puzzeling about the following position
It is White's turn. Is there a difference between the CGT value of moves a and b? I am always wondering what is best.
Are they really equal?
Or am i just turning into Buridan's donkey
Can we add c to the comparison?
Tapir: There is a ko after b so they can't be really equal. The score difference between the 2 results for black / white winning the ko is 2 points. White playing a ends in the middle.
fractic: The only 2 moves worth considering here are a and c. b offers no advantage over a. Because a leaves a ko threat playing c is advised early in the game but a is correct in the endgame. You might be interested in the discussion on do inferior plays have values.
Bill: Without seeing the surroundings we cannot say what is best. But let us assume that the left is White territory and the top is Black territory. That pretty well eliminates the solid connection. (However, it is usually best when the left is not solid territory for White.) You also have to take kos and ko threats into consideration.
The hanging connection does not necessarily settle the corner. For one thing, Black still has a ko threat at a.
-
= ko threat and reply
takes ko back at 1
For another, under many circumstances Black can make a throw-in ko with . White's threat to capture
is not as big as Black's threat to capture
, so Black will often be able to force
.
That result is good for Black. We may assume that White can play with sente. The net result is that White has lost one point of territory (
above) and Black has lost one stone (
). However, Black can count 1/3 point for
, which is in atari in the ko, so the net gain to Black by comparison is 1/3 point.
So sometimes the descent and hanging connection come to the same thing, but sometimes the hanging connection loses 1/3 point by comparison. The descent dominates.