Quick Questions
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Is it possible to stop Blue?
Playing red, I frequently run into positions such as the one below (there are other stones on the board, but I'm trying to simplify for my own understanding).
- Is Blue's stone 1 already connected to the right edge before I played 2?
- Is this because 1 is a fifth row template?
- If Blue 1 is not "unstoppable", assuming Red 2 is a mistake if the goal is to prevent Blue from connecting to the right, what is the correct approach?
Answer: Blue 1 is not already connected to the right edge, and is not part of an edge template. Since we don't know what is going on on the rest of the board, perhaps the best way to assess this kind of situation is in terms of what each player can achieve. After Blue plays 1:
- Blue can achieve a pair of 3rd row ladders along the right edge, one in each direction, via a ladder creation template.
- Blue can also climb to d13 via a pivoting template.
- Assuming that neither of these things allow Blue to connect, Red can achieve a 3rd row ladder going left from e11.
Red cannot prevent Blue from achieving what is mentioned above. To ensure that Blue cannot do better, Red must play at j8, creating a bottleneck. If Red plays at 2 instead, Blue gets a pair of 2nd row ladders along the right edge. Therefore, unless there are other red stones nearby, playing at 2 is typically worse for Red than playing at j8.
