Ignore my peep if you want to pay the price
So I was playing this game and I played a peep in order to build the center:
Black ignored me, so I made good on my threat to push through his group:
Black protects and I surround:
Black now thinks he is safe to roam into my center:
But there is a saying “always look closely when there are two cutting points”
And I did not, but Katago did:
WHAM! Biff! Bam! Boom! cross-cut-spell has been cast!
black will lose a group or be caught in White’s area with no eyes and a long way to make a base or eyes… and during that time, I will threaten to kill and make profit in the process.
“Do not bend against stronger stones”
I was playing a game that I felt I was ahead in but needed to start strengthening my weaker groups. My rather defensive, protective play (as Black) got me into this situation:
Now White has commited an error. He violated this proverb:
I played P9 with no fear but that allowed white to get stronger. There was a better move and it is the subject of this post:
Playing the ideal move puts 2 white stones 1-step from atari against group 1 (which has 7 liberties). If you read out the sequences, you will see that White will always get surrounded and lose the liberty race against group 1.
Side note: sliding into the corner is a simple way to avoid the fight and secure life for your group.
The teacher gets taught
i was playing a teaching game live on my Twitch channel and i got to this position:
I played ‘1’ confidently, but a true cross-cut sorcerer improves his position by playing ‘2’
Download the game and jump to move 99 and play it out until you are confident that you can apply cross-cut sorcery in this position.
Admission: even at 7k, I still dont have the confidence after playing around with the varation. but one thing i am certain of is that after playing at ‘2’ black has 2 liberties and i have 3, so i have sente unless ‘Taps’ is his favorite song. so while he is squirming out of his liberty problem, i can make a run for it.
Another side note: beware of surrounded empty triangles
N10 is a huge liability for White – such triangles are subject to a snapback as was mentioned during the Twitch review of this game.
You can give me this, or you can give me that….
i was pitted against another 7k in this game. i was striving to eat up as much opponent territory as i could. had i been an adept cross-cut sorcerer, i would’ve played at 1 in this diagram:
The reason is simple: if black ataris the stone at ‘2’ or ‘3’, then i can play at 4 and walk into his territory. if he defends at 4, then i get to munch up the bottom.
may the cut be with you
and may many an opponent fall prey to your adept cross-cut sorcery.
Related Twitch Streams from My Channel
Two streams were devoted to this blog post
Stream 2