Last night we played 6 games online – and I was fortunate to win all of them. I think Vox played reasonably well, but he hasn’t been able to figure out how to beat me consistently taking a 2-stone handicap.

I’ve noticed that sometimes Vox plays stones to reduce my potential fairly early, even if it leaves him with a weak stone. When he tries to run these stones to life, he has to spend too many resources for little territory. See the first game below:

In the top left quadrant of the board, Vox has played 44 stones for only a 10 point gain in territory. There is a second example from game 4 last night.

Again, let’s look at the top left quadrant of the board. Vox has played 56 stones in that quadrant but has only achieved 8 points of territory.

It is true that in both these examples he has reduced my potential in those areas, but still, I think he would do better to worry more about his own stuff early on and less about mine.

The other constant last evening was that I did not feel my groups were under a lot of pressure through the evening. I think he has to be more aggressive about destabilizing my groups so I don’t get to choose direction.