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BGonline.org Forums
Simple early game 22
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: Simple early game 22 (Rich Munitz)
Date: Monday, 28 December 2009, at 1:48 a.m.
I don't see anything "simple" about this decision...
11/7 seems to be the wrong idea here. The bar point doesn't have much value when the opponent has an advanced anchor. Getting hit isn't necessarily a bad thing; we're way behind in the race and the opponent has no board, so we are not upset if the opponent breaks anchor to initiate a blot-hitting contest.
If we reject 11/7 then there seem to be four plausible options: either make the defensive 5-point, or pick two out of three of the 22, 11, and 4 points to make, leaving the third one slotted.
The 22, 11, and 4 points all have value; it's hard for me to choose among them. My first instinct was to make the 22 and 11 and slot the 4, but probably the 4-point is actually the most important if we imagine we're going to pick a fight soon. As for the 22 versus the 11, an anchor is always a nice thing to have, but converting a blot into a 6-away blocking point is also attractive. I think out of the three choices I would pick 24/22(2) 6/4(2), but it's a tough call.
The big question is whether 24/20(2) is better still. It has the advantage of immediately threatening the outfield blot, and we want as much contact as possible. Sometimes stepping up too far has the disadvantage of allowing the opponent to play behind us, but this is not an issue here because we still have a goalkeeper on the 24-point. Another advantage of the 5-point is that it keeps us in the game forever. We can't get primed or attacked and will retain 5-point holding-game equity in almost every variation. The disadvantage is that we forgo both the 11-point and the 4-point, leaving ourselves with scattered blots and a weak board.
I don't know what's right here but I think I would go with 24/20(2) to force the issue sooner rather than later.
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