To Kill An Edge Feeder Part 1
White to move:
The position seems to lean more on the black player to me. White has some pieces hanging far away in the west and in the south. White generally has no access to the southwest region. Black also seems to be having a lot of central pieces. However, after white makes h4, we arrive at the following position:
It is not immediate obvious to me what the best course of action is for black. I’m unwilling to take h3. While it pushes white further into black’s region, black is likely to be stuck with a bad edge. Furthermore, it sets up a very nice g6 for white to go to. Black will still have to break into white’s region after that.
The move to c3 seems decent. It’s a sweet 16 move, as well as playing into “the outskirt” of white’s territory, instead of opening up the southwest region for white. It further extends black’s control of the center. However, is it really that good?
After c3:
The first part of this article will be exploring the path down c3. A future article will investigate other possible sequences for black other than c3.
At this point, black is sealed off from the north. White’s main objective is to force black to open up the southwest region. The move to h6 is looking good. First, it is not a bad edge for white to take at this moment. It also gives white access to e7. Most import yet, black doesn’t really have many good options other than breaking into the southwest region. Besides the the southwest regions, you can argue that h2 and h3 are not total suicide. However, h3 leads to a nicer edge for white while h2 leaves black hanging – setting black up for some unpleasant surprises down the road.
After h6:
So how does black break into the southwest region? Gently, I hope. The two moves that are jumping out to me are b5 and e7. Both of them flip only one disc and they create something really nice for white. The main difference between b5 and e7 is white’s access to e7. If black goes to b5, black is allowing white to go to e7, which is not awful for black. Black can take e7 away, but can white respond with ruining black’s move to b5?
After e7:
Can white do anything about b5? Notice if black goes to b5, black can’t go to b3 without flipping a massive amount of discs up north. That makes b5 an attractive move, since it does not create a nice move to b3. However, if whites goes to c2 now, the same cannot be said about b5 anymore. What you are left with is this:
the sequence of c2 b5 b3:
Basically, with this sequence black loses a tempo. The result of this is that black has lost some advantage of the position. This goes to show that, for the original position, b5 is stronger than e7. Let’s go back to the position after b5:
With this position, white has a few options. There is the question of how white should flip f6. There are two options for that: g6 and e7. White can also leave that region alone, and going to to quiet move up in the north with f2.
Part 2 of this will explore these different paths.
. Just putting that out there in case anyone wants to contact me. I will try to let the front desk know that people can call up to me, etc. And if you know me well, or perhaps if you don’t, I’m interested in possibly sharing a double room with someone while I am there. So email me about that, or email Benkt Steentoft, who I think will have more frequent Internet access and said he would mention anything that comes over to me.