These variations are very helpful, but I am lately dissatisfied with my learning progress. Oh how I suffer. I think I should try to improve my understanding of the opening stage, for example 5.s9 I could say that I am setting a trap here, but it's worth noting that shyryan did not walk into the trap. Maybe it still wins for me, but compared to other games where I play a "trap move," black here has significantly more room in that corner and has more options on how to respond. Maybe I'm entering into unnecessary complications. I wonder if |5.j10 would have been better. Maybe it's too soon in the game to tell.
On 2026-06-13 at 13:19, Alan Hensel said:
For what it's worth, |5.s9 is one of Twixtbot's top 3 considerations in this position. It ultimately picked |5.n10. The other top 3 consideration was |5.j10. So you're not so far off Twixtbot's sensibilities in this opening move.
Twixtbot seems more willing to enter into local battles than mere mortals, and I assume that's because it can see further into the outcome of those battles to know whether it ultimately works in its favor or not. We tend to hedge our bets more. Twixtbot sometimes hedges its bets too, until it sees the opportunity in the distance to go for the jugular.
Still a lot of weeds, but the bot seems to be able to save the situation from move 15: |15.s18 16.k7 17.k5 18.m12 19.s7 20.t4 21.u6 22.v3 23.q6 24.m8 25.o7 26.r18 27.q19 28.q16 29.p15 30.p6 31.m6 32.r8 33.u10 34.v10 35.t9 36.t17 37.o17 38.p19 39.n19
Twixtbot seems more willing to enter into local battles than mere mortals, and I assume that's because it can see further into the outcome of those battles to know whether it ultimately works in its favor or not. We tend to hedge our bets more. Twixtbot sometimes hedges its bets too, until it sees the opportunity in the distance to go for the jugular.
Bot picks for other opening moves:
|7.u6 or |7.m8 or |7.m13
|9.q17 or |9.t18 or |9.s18
|11.q17 still (but evaluates as stronger for Black now)
|13.q17 still! or |13.f11
|15.s18 (now it's too late for q17)
|7.u6 8.t6 9.s7 10.v5 11.m8 12.q7 13.n10
That's with me playing Black. With Twixtbot playing both sides,
8.u4 9.m8 10.n14 11.s7 12.q7 13.u2 14.q17 15.i13