Analysis: Open Tournament, A: nqeron v. Simmon

Note: The analysis and positions described are for the 6x6 game. Extend the principles and ideas to the 5x5 and the 8x8 at your own risk...

Last month held the first ever online Tak tournament, the Tak Strategy Summer Invitational Tournament. In the wake of this, a more recent tournament has arrived, dubbed the Open Tournament. In contrast to the previous tournament, the pool of participants was open to any participants (though restricted to 16 total). In addition, whereas the summer invitational was scheduled with a live stream following - along with commentary - this tournament is schedule-free and none of the games have been commented on - in any form. Due to this absence of commentary, so far, I thought I would offer some of my own insights into the games of the tournament.

Before starting, however, a few things should be clear. My analysis is not intended as an end-all and be-all of analysis. Rather, it is intended to be a jumping off point - my own subjective evaluation, subject to scrutiny, criticism, and input from other experienced players. In the same regard, it is not intended to be complete. There is a lot that could be said about specific games and the strategies or possible lines - too much to be covered in individual analysis pieces. For the sake of brevity, and to highlight the more interesting moves, I probably won't discuss every position or idea. Where there are interesting ideas that fall out of scope, I will attempt to delve into them in more in-depth posts.

Finally, note that all the games will be oriented to the a1 and lower right triangle, using the idea of collapsing board symmetries. (As a result, while the games will be identical, the PTNs used here and those listed in the archive may have different orientations).

Without further ado, let's delve into the first game that I'll be looking at:

Strategy: Negative Placement

Usually, in the game of Tak it is most beneficial to be laying flats. There are cases, however, when placing a piece can make a position worse. I encountered this recently in a game I was testing my mettle against a bot: ditaktic v. TakticianBot

Game Analysis: Novice and Experienced play on the corner

Note: The analysis and positions described are for the 5x5 game. Extend the principles and ideas to the 6x6 and the 8x8 at your own risk...

In the last few posts, I discussed some theory in regards to the Adjacent Corner Opening in response to the AB line. In this post, I want to take a look at an actual game that was played on this line. My hope is that by looking at player moves, it'll be easier to see some of the impact of the choices of certain moves and how they pan out to the later game.

The game I want to discuss in this post is between two humans, a novice (white) and an experienced player (black). I would recommend following through the game as I discuss the moves in the viewer below or at the following link:  Novice-Experienced Game.

Opening: Adjacent Corner AB-D staccato

Note: The analysis and positions described are for the 5x5 game. Extend the principles and ideas to the 6x6 and the 8x8 at your own risk...

Last post I started to discuss the AB Adjacent corner openings.  In this post I wanted to continue this discussion with a focus on the 'AB-D staccato':


[PTN: 1. a5 a1 2. b1 d2 3. d1 e1]

While it may not seem like much, white now has a number of options that can change the look and feel of the game. With black having cut off the imminent threat of the 1-row, white now has a few options. For one (I), white can put pressure on the lower d&e squares - continuing the original thread. Alternatively (II), white can aim for the center (c3) or some surrounding squares. Or (III), white can direct some attention up the b-file. There are certainly other possibilities, but these are certainly the major lines, each with a different feel and rhythm.

Adjacent Corner Openings: A-B variations

Note: The analysis and positions described are for the 5x5 game. Extend the principles and ideas to the 6x6 and the 8x8 at your own risk...

I want to start by examining what I term 'Adjacent corner openings': that is openings of the form 1. a5 a1, where the initial stones are placed in corners of a single file or row. While I haven't seen this played too much online, it is an opening set that I think has a wide range of applications to other openings and a fair amount of intricacy.

Due to the breadth of possibilities, this needs to be divided even further, starting with the 'a-b' variations: 2. b1.

At this point the board looks like this:


[PTN: 1. a5 a1 2. b1]