Sunday, January 18, 2015

Game 11 - Me vs Hyxxy - 11/8/14 on iggamecenter.com

This game, amazingly, was pretty much over by move 7. I went over it 4 times, still trying to figure out what the hell went wrong.

1. c8-c6 h7-f7
2. g8-g6 a4-c2
3. b1- b3

My last 2 moves were escape moves, while hyxxy keeps the initiative. I am not sure how much of an advantage these moves are; might have been better to sacrifice a piece.

…a6-c4

4. b3-b5

A tough situation. I’m trying to avoid f7xb3, and I thought this was the best way to do it at the time. For:

4. b3-b1 simply retreats
4. b3-e3 loses to 4…h6xb3
4. d1-f3 (anticipating 4….f7xb3 5. f3xb3) loses to 4…h5xf3
4. c6-d5 a5xd5 5. d8xd5 might lead to an advantage for black.

…h2-e2
5. g6-d6 a2-d2
6. f8-c5 h6-e3


At this point, it was essential to play 7. e1=g3/ It limits the mobility of the pieces at h3 and h4, prevents a3-d3 and prepares d6xd2, in that red can't recapture with a5xd2.

7. d8-d4?

Sets up red’s next move.

…a7-a4!

Preparing h4xd4. capturing the essential d4 square. 8. e8xa4 would not change red's next move.

8. f1-f3 h4xd4!

Devastating! My pieces are firmly separated, while hyxxy has a firm base. d4 was the key square in this game. I should now be looking for options of connecting down the f-file, as I cannot capture any of hyxxy’s pieces on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ranks.

9. c6-e4



...a4xe4

My position is ruined. It’s all downhill from here.

10. d1-h1 f7-d5
11. e8-g6 h5xc5
12. g1-h2 a3xd6
13. e1-f2 a5-c3
14. f2-g3 h3-g4
15. f3-f4 g4-f5#

Interesting how in these last 2 games, there was a square that was key for both sides to connect. Also interesting that they were both central squares, I keep wondering if this was a foxed win for red, and if so, at what move did that manifest itself. 


Hyxxy is either a grandmaster or a bot.

2 comments:

  1. Hey, thought I'd chime in here and shed some light on where things went wrong.

    At move #7, you say you took D8-D4 instead of E1-G3, but E1-G3 was not your best option either. Splitting up your longest line wouldn't have helped much. You are correct that you needed to prevent red from recapturing D2, but another method would be to capture D2 from D6, allow red to recapture, then move D8-D5 and you're ready to recapture it once again. Red could then move A7-A5 and be in position to recapture yet again, but once red makes that move, you could move B8 to A7, then A7 to A5 and take it back again. Sometimes it doesn't matter if your opponent can recapture a space as long as you can recapture it more times than he/she can!

    At move #8 you say "I should now be looking for options of connecting down the f-file, as I cannot capture any of hyxxy’s pieces on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ranks.", but that is not the case. You could move C1 to A3 or B5 to B3 and then move E8 to E3, breaking red's line and giving you some more options. Red could block you if he sees what you're up to there, but he'd have to break his line to do it, leaving you free to attack either C3 or connect your pieces at F2 depending on his move.

    In general, I think you overreact to your opponent's moves at times and end up clustering your pieces too closely, which prevents you from having attack options later in the game. For example, your "escape moves" at #2 and #3 are unnecessary. The end pieces at G8 and B1 are not really in danger of being captured or blocked at that stage. If anything, you could have used turn #3 to focus on escaping D1 or E1, which end up being blocked by red's line. If instead, you moved E1 to G3, you would have mitigated his block and started your own block in the G file. Alternately, you could move G1 to G3, then E1 to H4, splitting his line and saving yourself some headache later when D4 becomes integral to the win.

    Hope that helps!

    PS - thanks for linking to my strategy blog. I will reciprocate soon.
    Guy Incognito

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback! Obviously, I haven't been playing a lot lately, but I hope to get to game 50 in 2016 sometime.

      When I started this blog, I based my annotations on those from boardspace.net:

      http://www.boardspace.net/loa/english/games/tournament-1.sgf

      where an ongoing theme was centralization of pieces. Your advice, in contrast, seems to emphasize mobility over grouping too early in the game. I wonder if this is just a stylistic difference or if your strategy is the only winning one for the game.

      As for my escape moves, I was worried about the exchange R: a5-c3 B: e1xc3 R: a3xc3 with no immediate counterattack. If he found a way to capture or occupy c1, I'd have been screwed.

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