David B

New "handle" of "BotanyBoy"
The nickname comes from my early Undergraduate days. But since I stayed with Plant Biology as a research field, I like it now. Hmm, got tired of "handles." I like being called by my name.

Anyhoo, updates: Dec 2007, I'm now between 4-5k.

Happy to offer teaching/advice for those who could benefit. I'm hoping to reach 1 Dan before I reach middle age. It's going to be a close race...

New Favourite Tesuji: This reduction. Tetris on KGS first showed this in a review I was eavesdropping on and recently slade showed it to me quite extensively. I will place this on this site soon.

Nice sequences after the erasing move  

2nd Favourite tesuji: This crazy-seeming probe. Yilun Yang (my favourite lecturer on KGS) calls this an asking move. It "asks" black if it be allowed to live in the corner, or be sacrificed to reduce black.

An "asking move"  

DJ: Welcome, Botany Boy%%% When you say "...extends to the side", do you mean as in the diagram below? If that sequence follows, you obtain the Tripod group, that is alive as it stands.

But you may want to consider whether the influence you give Black couldn't turn out dangerous for other groups of yours...

The Tripod group  

Thanks DJ. Black 2 is certainly what I fear, but this makes it look easy. I wonder why I keep messing it up in games... No debate here that one must judge the board carefully before making this probe. What I love is the seeming audacity of the play and how it is so very labile in it's use. It is an inspiration for finding similar tesujis in other situations.

Bob McGuigan: Try looking at Tripod Group to see what to do to live in the corner against various attacks.

DJ: Actually you should judge the board carefully before living with this sequence, not before making the probe!

You do make the probe in order to see how your opponent answers, so that you can adapt your strategy taking advantage of the fact that your opponent has chosen an option ("fixed the shape") and discarded all the others...

Here Black can answer at a, b, c or even d.

The Tripod group  

This is a very high-level technique, I think you can start really understand it at least around shodan... See Yosumiru.

But don't get discouraged. Even title holders say that they do not understand Go! ;-)