The next game in this series is the second in the match between Simmon and Gerrek, this time with Gerrek as white and Simmon as black:
This game begins with the prominent adjacent corner opening (1. a1 f1). White opts to follow with a close center (2. d3), with black following suit (2. ... c3).
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| [1. a1 f1 2. d3 c3] |
White extends further into the center with 3. d4 and black mirrors with 3. ... c4. This is a position that tends to favor white. There is also a fair bit of exploration with playing capstones in these positions at this stage in the game - a strategy I am a fan of.
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| [3. d4 c4] |
White extends north with 4.d5, building the road and black follows up by cutting at 4. ... d2. This would have been another good opportunity for an early capstone.
White fortifies with a classic defense at 5.e3 and black extending his own stones with 5. ... e2. This whole sequence is quite common and is a pattern worth learning. As will become apparent later, this position favors white a fair bit.
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| [4. d5 d2 5. e3 e2] |
From here, white continues to connect his pieces with 6. f2, creating a nice diagonal connection. Black cuts and interrupts this connection with 6. ... f3.
This prompts white to play 7. e1, bolstering his pieces and creating a pincer on e2. Black responds with 7. ... e4, creating his own pincer at e3, also supporting the stones cutting through white's road.
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| [6. f2 f3 7. e1 e4] |
White here plays 8. d6', aggressing the situation and forcing black to capture. Black decides to capture with 8. ... d2+ to block the tak. While this does keep the pieces fairly connected, e4- would have also been a slightly better capture, maintaining influence in the south-west corner.
White, expectedly, follows up by placing his capstone at 9. Cd2, which is a solid capstone placement. Another line for players to consider here is e3<, with the expectation of Ce3 from black.
Black responds by capturing with 9. ... c4> cutting white's road at the root and keeping his pieces connected. This, however, leaves a good stack at d3 for white to capture. Moving 2d3+ instead would keep this stack away from white's cap, blocking off the road threat, and keeping black's pieces well connected.
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| [8. d6' d2+ 9. Cd2 c4>] |
White makes the anticipated 10. d2+ move, creating a good central stack, while breaking up some of black's pieces. Black replies by playing 10. ... f4 which looks like an attempt to connect black's pieces, but doesn't really address the growing road threat from white. TakticianBot recommends black playing c2 here, which would help fight against white.
White uses this as a chance to take advantage of his tempo lead with 2d3+'. This tak forces black to continue to respond. Black chooses to play e2+??, which is really not the best capture here - it actually yields tinuë to white. A better capture would be e4-. This keeps some of black's connectivity, but more importantly maintains influence in the south-west corner.
This lets white play 12. d2'', which is tinuë. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to show this.
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| [10. d2+ f4 11. 2d3+' e2+ 12. d2''] |
Overall, this game showed some strong play from white. White was able to effectively leverage his tempo to put black on the defensive. In addition, white took advantage of black's mistakes, allowing him to establish tempo. One of the biggest weaknesses in black's play here was not keeping up with white's tempo. At no point did black meaningfully play his capstone, a quite significant error. I also hope this demonstrates some of the weaknesses for black in this sort of symmetrical opening.
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Think with mind of air
Listen close to heart of stone
A beautiful game
Think with mind of air
Listen close to heart of stone
A beautiful game
