TA1999 Problem 2 / Attempts

Bayer-Zhang  

Jasonred I know it's wrong but I'll attempt some poor answer anyhow... cut at 1 to force 2? Then, um... er... I dunno, but I'm guessing any move than forces a defensive reply and also strengthens your own position can't be too awful...

Bayer-Zhang  

Black will answer this way instead. White has no good tactic to continue here. Charles Matthews

A move like white 1 is generally considered bad, for the following reasons:

• It does nothing to strengthen white
• It loses the option to peep at 2 instead
• It loses a liberty for the white group
• It loses the option to play white 1 as a ko threat.

-- Andre Engels

Andre's attempt  

The most important part of the board seems to be the centre lower left. White has a moyo at the bottom, black has one on the left side. White will want to extend his moyo towards the center, black to both extend and strengthen it. There are three main strategies for white to take here:

1. Play around the meeting point of the moyos, extending his own moyo while restricting (but solidifying) black's
2. Similar, but play some forcing move(s) against the black stones on the left first. White might get further, but black's position is strengthened even more.
3. Make a deep reduction or invasion, destroying much of black's moyo, but also his own hopes of extending his.

Anothere thing to take in mind is white's weak group at the top - black might be able to get into white's moyo by attacking it. However, if the third option is chosen, there are chances of a black splitting attack, which would be even worse.

Without much confidence, I choose the second option and play white 1 and 3 here. -- Andre Engels

Ben's additions #1  

Attempt #1: White has invaded but his group at the top isn't helped much. Depending on how things go though there might be an attack on the bottom marked stones or a cut on the circled stone. This is pretty speculative even from my own optimistic point of view.

Ben's additions #2 black variation  

Attempt #2: Black also has another way to answer the peep which might even be better. After 9 it's a ko (a difficult one for white). The bad thing about the peep is it eliminates white's potential for making an eye on the bottom beginning with d-18 (6 in the above diagram) which may be very useful if a fight for that group takes place. So probably the peep is bad.