This was one of the best games I've played in a while, we can see some interesting patterns, almost no mistakes and a plan that worked (creating a 2nd path to the left to be able to play a good breakthrough to the left, sounds crazy, but that's TwixT ;-) Ok here we go:
1.c4 similar to 1.d3, but harder to play, because d3 just helps if the ladder coming upwards ends on b4 or more upwards/right, but c4 is only good if you land on b6 (|2.e113.d104.d95.c86.c77.b6), coming upwards, b3/b4/b5 are all not good. So it gives more influence downwards, but only helps 1 specific ladder. Also when coming from the right to the left c4 is more difficult to play: |2.j63.i64.h55.g56.f47.d6, now it depends what other pegs are around if this is good for white, but generally it also gives more influence towards the center than d3. So I decided to |2.swap
|3.j9 Interesting move, similar to J10 (the move 'safely' connecting to the border with the most central influence). Compared to J10, J9 gives away a little bit of central influence but does a little bit a better job in neutralizing the first peg.
|4.j12 I thought I try to punish this move and dominate the middle myself, although I'm the one with the first peg. I decided the best way to do this is J12, because it connects nicely to D3 and I still have a lot of room to the bottom.
|5.l12 forms a very strong pattern, because of J13 and L8, I was shocked after I saw this move and for a moment I even thought the game is lost. The only problem this move could have is that it is too local.
|6.l16 It was hard to find a move that could not easily be answered with J13 and L8. I could have gone for |6.l8 or something like this, but I thought it's too early and local, I try to make a 'wider pattern'. I picked L16, because if white now plays |7.j13, then I can play a move that gives me more influence to the right, for example 8.i19, but j12 would almost be wasted I still don't like the situation. Another benefit of L16 is that it is one link (1.5 fields) above the diagonal towards the bottom right corner, this gives room for exactly 1 counter Achilles.
|8.n7 Accoring to the analyzation on the previous move I have to bring some pegs in the north. N7 works very well together with all the other pegs and threatens to make a chain north of J9. It also prevents white from playing J13, that move still scares me.
|9.l8 white goes for the obvious move L8, maybe a tricky move like |9.h10 would have also been possible. I like this anwer, because with m5 I still can threaten to go north around J9 and the connectivity of L16 to the left border hasn't changed.
|10.o13 Now going for the move which I have to play. White can't answer |11.q1312.p1113.r1114.r7. So white has to play the gap, which gives room for an attack I first discovered not so long ago in a game vs. Alan Hensel: |12.r16 with the intention of playing O19 afterwards, however it doesn't work because of 13.n1614.q1415.m14, so black has to create a 2nd path to the left to make this attack work.
|12.p10 Also more or less forced, at this move I thought I've already won, because |13.r1014.r5 doesn't look too good for white, however Klaus surprised me once again.
|13.p11 Nice move. I see no other way now than going for the 'm5/r16-plan'.
|19.q4 Klaus said he made a mistake there, I'm not sure if he could avoid my attack, if so he would have to go to the middle or play somewhere completely else. |19.o820.q7 doesn't seem to work. 19.p7 doesn't change anything compared to Q4.
|21.p14 Threatening to cut the connection of O13-L16, but this doesn't bother me, I just assumed everything works the same as if white had played 21.r14.
|23.g16 this move works good with the other pegs and is pretty dangerous if not answered correctly.
|24.k18 closes the L16-O19 gap and threats go south around G16. I figured this move is good enough to win (although there are some complicated patterns), so I didn't wanna risk anything and closed the gap.
|25.e15 Probably the best answer and the move I expected.
Very interesting ! Thanks for this in depth explanation.
d3 seems to work also if the ladder coming upwards ends on b3.
4.j12 : Why not 4.j11 ? It connects to d3 too, although if this is not with a nice pattern. And it lets even more space on the bottom.
6.l16 : Could we say that one wasted peg is an advantage for the opponent ? Seems Yes. I don't understand why you say that L16 gives room for exactly 1 counter Achilles to the bottom right corner.
9.l8 : 9.h10 seems far from the top. What about 10.i5 ? Maybe 9.h8 would have been possible ?
I haven't other comments because once your 2nd path plan is running I cannot find a way to avoid it. So it should have been avoided before...
On
2011-10-16 at 23:28,
Thierry Pertuy
said:
9.l8 : 9.h10 seems far from the top. What about 10.i5 ? - I meant i5 later in the game, after n7 has been played...
On
2011-10-18 at 03:32,
maaaraca
said:
Hi Thierry, I agree with your 2nd comment, I also had this move in mind, if Klaus would play 9.h10. The first remark of the 1st comment is also correct.
To the questions: - I played 4.j12 because I like how it works with D3. Also because of the potential moves L8 and N7. It also makes J13 useless for white. - I guess a wasted peg is an advantage for the opponent, but only if he can make a better move, if he just has to answer and nothing changes, then not. - The number of counter Achilles can easily be determined by the number of steps you can go towards the diagonal and the corner. This number is the number of counter Achilles possible. Here: |7.w28.m18 (1st step, on/above the diagonal) 9.w310.n20 (2nd step, behind the diagonal), therefore 1 counter Achilles: |8.o199.s1810.r22 (2nd one is behind the diagonal and useless). But if it goes like this: |7.n158.n179.p1610.p1811.t1712.s21 then 1 is good enough. - On |7.n15 I play 8.o17 and the next one a link if Q16.
On
2011-10-22 at 22:05,
Thierry Pertuy
said:
I think that 18.m5 is the move which makes black to win because it both threaten r6 and j9-l8 connection to the top.
@maraca : I thought this game interesting enough to make a graphical representation of the potential links for the #15 to the #22 moves. Since I think this is not possible to include them here I posted them on the Littlegolem forum
1.c4 similar to 1.d3, but harder to play, because d3 just helps if the ladder coming upwards ends on b4 or more upwards/right, but c4 is only good if you land on b6 (|2.e11 3.d10 4.d9 5.c8 6.c7 7.b6), coming upwards, b3/b4/b5 are all not good. So it gives more influence downwards, but only helps 1 specific ladder. Also when coming from the right to the left c4 is more difficult to play: |2.j6 3.i6 4.h5 5.g5 6.f4 7.d6, now it depends what other pegs are around if this is good for white, but generally it also gives more influence towards the center than d3. So I decided to |2.swap
|3.j9 Interesting move, similar to J10 (the move 'safely' connecting to the border with the most central influence). Compared to J10, J9 gives away a little bit of central influence but does a little bit a better job in neutralizing the first peg.
|4.j12 I thought I try to punish this move and dominate the middle myself, although I'm the one with the first peg. I decided the best way to do this is J12, because it connects nicely to D3 and I still have a lot of room to the bottom.
|5.l12 forms a very strong pattern, because of J13 and L8, I was shocked after I saw this move and for a moment I even thought the game is lost. The only problem this move could have is that it is too local.
|6.l16 It was hard to find a move that could not easily be answered with J13 and L8. I could have gone for |6.l8 or something like this, but I thought it's too early and local, I try to make a 'wider pattern'. I picked L16, because if white now plays |7.j13, then I can play a move that gives me more influence to the right, for example 8.i19, but j12 would almost be wasted I still don't like the situation. Another benefit of L16 is that it is one link (1.5 fields) above the diagonal towards the bottom right corner, this gives room for exactly 1 counter Achilles.
|7.p15 Klaus decided to go directly for the Achilles, so I can't go around it on the bottom, I have to go like this: |8.o13 which gives several possible playouts: |8.o13 9.q13 10.p11 11.r11 12.q9 13.s9 14.r5 15.q8 16.p6 17.o9 18.m8 ... looks not bad for black, so the next one has higher probability: |8.o13 9.q12 10.p10 11.r10 12.q6 (13.n9) ... feels stronger for white.
|8.n7 Accoring to the analyzation on the previous move I have to bring some pegs in the north. N7 works very well together with all the other pegs and threatens to make a chain north of J9. It also prevents white from playing J13, that move still scares me.
|9.l8 white goes for the obvious move L8, maybe a tricky move like |9.h10 would have also been possible. I like this anwer, because with m5 I still can threaten to go north around J9 and the connectivity of L16 to the left border hasn't changed.
|10.o13 Now going for the move which I have to play. White can't answer |11.q13 12.p11 13.r11 14.r7. So white has to play the gap, which gives room for an attack I first discovered not so long ago in a game vs. Alan Hensel: |12.r16 with the intention of playing O19 afterwards, however it doesn't work because of 13.n16 14.q14 15.m14, so black has to create a 2nd path to the left to make this attack work.
|11.q12 forced as seen before.
|12.p10 Also more or less forced, at this move I thought I've already won, because |13.r10 14.r5 doesn't look too good for white, however Klaus surprised me once again.
|13.p11 Nice move. I see no other way now than going for the 'm5/r16-plan'.
|14.n11 Sticking to the plan.
|15.q9 Natural answer.
|16.r5 preparing for M5. |17.o8 18.m5 is a loss for white |17.p7 18.p6 also. |17.p6 18.m5 19.o8 20.p4 21.h8 22.m9 23.h12 24.h16 also not good for white.
|17.r6 Another surprise.
|18.m5 here it comes, because |18.s7 19.o8 20.m5 21.q4 doesn't work for black.
|19.q4 Klaus said he made a mistake there, I'm not sure if he could avoid my attack, if so he would have to go to the middle or play somewhere completely else. |19.o8 20.q7 doesn't seem to work. 19.p7 doesn't change anything compared to Q4.
|20.r16 Executing the M5/R16-plan ... N16 is not good any more: |21.n16 22.q14 23.m14 24.i5 Still not an easy win, because of this: |21.r14 22.o19 23.o17 black has to answer 24.n21 or he loses on 25.q18 (losing variation 1), which can now be answered with 26.s21, but this move means also that white can try to go to the left with something like this: |21.r14 22.o19 23.o17 24.n21 25.m18. which has to be answered with 26.l20 (see losing variation 2) (Losing variation1: |21.r14 22.o19 23.o17 24.m18 25.q18 26.q20 27.u19 28.r18 29.t17, losing variation 2: |21.r14 22.o19 23.o17 24.n21 25.m18 26.k19 27.q18 28.s21 29.l20 30.l21 31.p20 32.p22 33.o23).
|21.p14 Threatening to cut the connection of O13-L16, but this doesn't bother me, I just assumed everything works the same as if white had played 21.r14.
|22.o19 executing the plan
|23.g16 this move works good with the other pegs and is pretty dangerous if not answered correctly.
|24.k18 closes the L16-O19 gap and threats go south around G16. I figured this move is good enough to win (although there are some complicated patterns), so I didn't wanna risk anything and closed the gap.
|25.e15 Probably the best answer and the move I expected.
|26.h13 Planned response. The only chance that white has now is |27.h14, but it also just prolonges the game: |27.h14 28.k14 29.g12 30.g11 31.f10 32.f9 33.e8 34.e7 35.d6 36.f4 37.f7 38.h5 39.h8 40.m9
d3 seems to work also if the ladder coming upwards ends on b3.
4.j12 : Why not 4.j11 ? It connects to d3 too, although if this is not with a nice pattern. And it lets even more space on the bottom.
6.l16 : Could we say that one wasted peg is an advantage for the opponent ? Seems Yes. I don't understand why you say that L16 gives room for exactly 1 counter Achilles to the bottom right corner.
7.p15 : Seems to be a correct option but it drives to your plan... 7.n15 seems too local but I like it. 7.n15 8.n17 9.r16 10.o15 11.q14 or 7.n15 8.n17 9.r16 10.p16 11.t15
9.l8 : 9.h10 seems far from the top. What about 10.i5 ? Maybe 9.h8 would have been possible ?
I haven't other comments because once your 2nd path plan is running I cannot find a way to avoid it. So it should have been avoided before...
To the questions:
- I played 4.j12 because I like how it works with D3. Also because of the potential moves L8 and N7. It also makes J13 useless for white.
- I guess a wasted peg is an advantage for the opponent, but only if he can make a better move, if he just has to answer and nothing changes, then not.
- The number of counter Achilles can easily be determined by the number of steps you can go towards the diagonal and the corner. This number is the number of counter Achilles possible. Here: |7.w2 8.m18 (1st step, on/above the diagonal) 9.w3 10.n20 (2nd step, behind the diagonal), therefore 1 counter Achilles: |8.o19 9.s18 10.r22 (2nd one is behind the diagonal and useless). But if it goes like this: |7.n15 8.n17 9.p16 10.p18 11.t17 12.s21 then 1 is good enough.
- On |7.n15 I play 8.o17 and the next one a link if Q16.
@maraca : I thought this game interesting enough to make a graphical representation of the potential links for the #15 to the #22 moves. Since I think this is not possible to include them here I posted them on the Littlegolem forum