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Yes |17.l9 is best. White threatens J5 which constrains black's response. White also threatens O6. There is nothing black can do. 18.n6 19.m7 for example.
Actually, pretty cool. I like that. I hope to be able to think that way. Maybe someday.
(meow)
with the rest of the game being irrelevant, after 1. J10 2. J6 3. L9 then it would appear that White has already achieved reaching the top border, and Black can do nothing to prevent this!? White has Peyrol's threats of J5 and O6, and so far, Black's attempts with 4. O5 , 4. N6 , and 4. O6 have been busted. Is there nothing that Black can do? Maybe 4. M5 ?
If not, it just seems to me that the Twixt board has been shrunk - like you can be guaranteed to reach the border with a peg in the square formed by 1. I9 , 2. P9 , 3. P16 , and 4. I16 !
(meow)
The opening moves are crucial. There are three or maybe four moves you make in a good game, usually in the opening, which involve more intuition than calculation, and the rest of the game you try to tactically justify the plan that you are now stuck with. More and more these days, opening intuition is being replaced with specific opening knowledge. This is why I like 30x30, not necessarily more than standard, I just like it.
Oh and thank you for the compliment earlier. I often don't take compliments well.
My 'compliment' to you was to the follow up moves you cited, which explain the underlying threats made by L9; these are moves that I would normally have not spotted, and I found them to be 'crafty', and thus my comment.
To further explain what I meant in my last post about 'shrinking the board', perhaps some polygons:
1.i9 2.k8 3.l8 4.m8 5.n8 6.p9 7.q11 8.q12 9.q13 10.q14 11.p16 12.n17 13.m17 14.l17 15.k17 16.i16 17.h14 18.h13 19.h12 20.h11
One used to think that it was necessary to have a peg on, or past this polygon in order to be guaranteed of reaching the nearest edge.
However, the discussion above with 1. J10 2. J6 3. L9
seems to imply that a peg on or past THIS polygon (with L9 on it) will do the trick: 1.j10 2.l9 3.k9 4.m9 5.n9 6.p11 7.o10 8.p12 9.p13 10.p14 11.n16 12.o15 13.l16 14.k16 15.m16 16.j15 17.i14 18.i12 19.i13 20.i11
The second polygon is SMALLER, which is what I meant. I am trying to see if I can generalize a rule here as to how far from the edge one can be in order to GUARANTEE reaching it, past any defense. Of course, in this specific game,
1. J10 2. J6 3. L9 , blacks specific defender of J6 may be the problem here - maybe if black had chosen a different move, then the J10 - L9 link would NOT be guaranteed to reach the top.
What do you think? Have I at least made my concept and question clear? (meow)
shyryan: I'm just referring to the growing archive of games which are available to study both on this site and with Jtwixt.