So, if you remember from yesterday we were going over my game from the Online Collegiate Go Championship. I was figuring out how to respond to Black's two space high pincer, and going over the various joseki in my mind. There are a lot of options:
White has tons of options for his next move. I don't like A, B, or D because they're the wrong strategy. C is probably best although F does indeed look shiny. So, where was my genius move?
I have a friend named Dave, and whenever I review one of his games, if he plays a really weird move constantly, I always tell him "This move is not a thing." Well, White 36 is not a thing. It's not a joseki, it's not anything. My brain fused the idea of playing from the right and attacking the pincer stone with my thickness and ended up accomplishing neither. I was thinking of the avalanche joseki, but it doesn't really work with that extra Black stone on the left.
So Black squeezes the crap out of me. Black 51 is sente and I don't have any crosscut antics on the right side. Instead, I'm forced into a brick and Black spears through with 63. We don't need to go over the rest of the game; it's really too horrible to watch. I've already lost. That's the one thing I don't like about higher level Go: if you make a really air-headed mistake, the game is over. There is nothing more to do. When I was 6 kyu it would've been possible to come back from this. In any case, the tournament continues either this Saturday or next. University of Michigan faces off against Princeton. I hope I don't have to play Michael Chen...
