toastelo vs. adsfadsfhs

(30-34)

figure 1

This is one of the best game I have played on IOS with both players have fairly the same skills.

To be honest, I just learned this opening RIGHT before this game using WZebra. I am surprise that I remember how it goes. Unfortunately, I only learned up to move 17, which almost costs me the whole game. I did not do much thinking on move 18, which did not look REALLY bad at first. (Fig. 2)

Figure 2

However, move 19 (e1) is a quiet move that forces me to break his wall. Furthermore, toastelo can go to f1, which makes me flip more of his discs. Toastelo's following moves are focusing on reducing my mobility, which he successful achieves. (Of course, since move 18 is such a bad move.) My move 24 (d1) is a desperate attempt to regain some mobility. (Fig. 3)

Figure 3

Toastelo took a little bit of time on move 25. He takes b1 and think that he can run me out of moves before I can use the unbalanced edge against him. He was right because I can never go to the east side of the board unless he breaks my wall. After move 25, the game looks really bad for me. I have only c3 and c5 left to flip (since flipping other discs will put me in big trouble). My move 26 is b3 since the move will not be there if I don't go there at that moment. Toastelo's move 27 (f2) leaves me only one disc left to flip: c5. I took about 5 seconds to think about it, and realize c6 will be better (since b5 will result in less potential mobility for me). From this point on, toastelo can force me to make any move he wants me to, because I have nothing else to choose from other than the new frontier disc that he gives me.

Toastelo did his task well on running me completely out of moves. He happily thinks that a corner is coming up for him after he played his move 33 (a2). I make my move 34 (b7) that is the only move I can do without giving him a corner. His move 35 (c8) did not finish the job of getting a corner, although he forces me to make my move 38 (b7), which is an x-square.

I know in my mind that giving up the lower left corner (a8) won't do much hard to me, since I can go to a3 and then take a1. Then a1 will lead to more stable pieces for me. Toastelo, of course, knows this. He tires to force me to give him another corner. His move 39 (g4) is to get a foot hold of the diagonal, so he can take a8 if he wishes. I don't want him to get all the center pieces, so I flipped everything back with move 40 (h4). He makes his move 41 (g3) and probably thinks that I will go to h2. I make my move on h2 instead. I let toastelo to wedge in h3 and further takes the upper right corner (h1) because I can then wedge into g1 and may even take a1 if I wish. (However, doing so will let toastelo to get to a3 and get a lot more.) Toastelo sees this and goes to g5 instead of h3. I respond with the same tactic, with move 44 (h4), which flips everything back. He sees that I will use the same tactic so he refuses to go to g6, but instead go to h3. I respond immediately with move 46 (g2). He feels that taking h1 does little good to him so he makes his move on g6 and again I respond with flipping everything back. Toastelo thinks he got me where he wants, and go to f7 and flips the center pieces. (Note that after move 49 (f7), both players play a perfect endgame) I respond with move 50 f8 to flip as much of his discs as possible. He takes a8 as he planned, and I take a3 as I planned. He takes the x-square (move 53) to get control of the b column. I respond by taking the corner (move 54). He tries to make the endgame more complicated for me by going to g8 (move 55) but I see the next few moves and respond correctly with move 56 (h7). He takes the corner (move 57, h1). I think for a while and realize g1 and g7 yield the same endgame, so I randomly pick g7 for my move 58. The last two moves of the game are forced.