I've been playing as a guest a lot lately. It's not that hard to find games. I'm sometimes amazed though at how some people just decline requests by guests no matter what. They have free games open with different board sizes or have crazy ultra blitz settings yet they reject guests. Do they think they'll somehow not have any fun playing guests with those weird settings? Seriously crazy. Sometimes, I'll even be rejected by guests. That's the biggest shocker. Some people just don't get it.
Anyway, I played this game as a guest against another guest. I thought the level was quite high. Higher than the games I play with my 4k accounts. Care to guess which colour I played and the strengths of each player?
Time settings = 10:00 + 0:50*5; komi = 6.5
Moves 1 - 50White 16 is an interesting answer to the pincer at 15. Normally White would play 18. 16 shows that White is afraid of Black's wall facing towards 13. Black answered 16 with 17 and it reduced to the normal pincer 3-3 joseki facing the other way. Black trades 25 for 26 and approaches at 27. 41 and 45 seem like mistakes and Black decides to go for the last hoshi at 47. Then White invades the last unsettled corner. Black chooses to block with 49 instead of 50 because White 26 is closer than White 10. After 50 moves, White has 4 fairly large corners while Black doesn't seem to have much. After finishing the 3-3 joseki, Black has roughly 60 points. White has roughly 60 points + komi. But I'm overestimating Black a little at the top and underestimating White at the right. So I'd say White has a lead of about 15 points.
Moves 51 - 100Black chooses to go for the top with 73. White makes out with the top left corner and Black is forced to live on the left. White reduces the top with 94. After 100 moves, Black has roughly 76 points while White hasn't gained much (only reduced) and has roughly 62 points + komi. I'm still underestimating White on the right probably.
Moves 101 - 150Here's where White really slips I think. White didn't bother playing the ko in the center and connected with 112. When Black takes the ko with 113, White should make a safe connection move. While 114 is a threat to connect to the right, it's not very safe, so Black cuts with 115. Black prevents the connection on the right and now White has to live in the center. However, Black makes a couple critical errors. 135 should be played at 39 first. White should immediately live with 139, but White gives Black a chance. Black's second mistake is the trade of 143 for 144. This reduces Black's liberty and forces him to play at 149 instead of one right of 148. This mistake allows White to live starting with the sequence from 150. White captures the block containing 117, 119 and 121 to live. Compared to the last figure, there's a swing of roughly 24 points in favour of White. So White is up roughly 10 points + komi.
Moves 151 - 185Black has to catch up 16.5 points in the endgame. This is where Black should resign, but Black decides to play on. To Black's delight, White makes a mistake in judgment. 172 is certainly large. However, I think it is better placed at 175. If not, 174 should be at 177, allowing Black one more push at 174. After White connects, Black's push at 175 would still be sente. I think this is as big if not bigger than 172. It became even bigger because White played the way he did. 175 should be responded to with a move like 183 or 177. Black captures a large chunk of White's corner with the sequence to 183. White made another mistake by taking another large point at 184, but not living with 185. However, the game was already decided. White resigned here.
Like I said, I thought this game was of high level while I was playing it. This is probably because I didn't know the rank of the opponent. When I know the opponent's rank, I kind of know what kind of moves I can try and what kind of moves they know how to punish. While I try not to play with that knowledge, I just can't help it. It's a really bad habit. It's probably why I'm not improving much lately.
Playing a guest or someone with a ? is really fun. I think you play some of your best games when you find someone decently strong (i.e. not a total beginner) yet are uncertain of their rank. I find it a great way to break through that habit.
Before, I used to advise against playing against guests, but now I think everyone should try playing guests. There's no harm since it's a free game, and you can leave the game (just resign) at any time if you find that your opponent is much too weak to have fun.
