Strategy
Basic Strategy
Bridges
Look at the following example,
It is White to move.
However no matter where White moves, Black has won the game.
Why?
If White plays on a dot, Black answers on other dot of the same color.
In the example above we had 3 bridges.
So we can consider that pieces like in the exaple below are connected.
pieces.
A bit of careful
White to play and win.
White wins by playing on any of the blue dots because Black can not
play on the other one since he would create a Line (the opposite
objetive) before creating the Y.
For example: White and Black play the marked pieces and Black creates
the grey Line.
So bridges sometimes are vulnerables as well. However bridges gain more
space than the adjacent move, so they are still very important, and
very common in an Unlur game.
This bridges liability will be covered deeple in the intermediate section.
Center and templates
Begginers usually start to create his Line or his Y by placing a piece
on a border cell, and after that they try to lead the chain to the other(s)
side(s) they need to connect in order to achieve his objetive.
However, this strategy is vain, since although you are very close to one
side you, are very far from the other(s) side(s) so the opponent will not
have problems to stop you from connecting to the distant side(s).
The center is the strongest cell of the board, since it spreads its influence
around the whole board.
Besides, now that you have learnt some about bridges, you know that you do not need
an explicit connection to a side in order to ensure that a group is connected
to this side.
Let's consider the example below. Black does not need to take a blue dot
cell in order to ensure a connection to the connection to the lowest side
Black can simply play elsewhere on other more important place
and if White plays on a blue dot cell Black
answers in the other one.
One step ahead:
the 3-row side template: Here we can also say that black is connected to the lowest side
If White wants to prevent black from connecting the lowest side, he
only have 3 options( numbered from 1 to 3 on the board), if White plays
elsewhere Black can simply play on 3 creating a bridge and ensuring
the connection. Even more, black does not need to be worried about
ensuring the connection if White does not answer on a numbered or blue
dot marked cell.
How to follow if White answers in any of the numbered
cells?
On bigger boards we migth have more side templates, but I think I have already said
enough for an introduction.
Corner templates.
When one player migth have the possibility of achieving connections to
two alternate sides we say it is a corner template. We are going
to have a look to the 1, 2 and 3 row corner template.
Corner templates are specially important for White.
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| 1,2 and 3 row corner templates |
the 1 row corner template is trivial, white is connected to both sides.
the 2 row corner template is sligthly more interesting.
If it is White's turn he can connect the upper side and the upper left
side of the board playing on the blue dot.
If it is Black turn, Black can force white to take just a corner
(palying on the blue dot), but white can choose the side he wants to connect.
(playing on the green dot he desires).
the 3 row corner template is more complicated.
If it is White to move, White can connect to both sides if he plays on
the green dot, since it creates a 2-row side template to the upper side
and a 3-row side template to the upper left side.
If it is Black's turn, Black, by playing on the blue dot, can force white
to connect just one of the sides, again white can choose the side.
In the 2-row and the 3-row border template if Black attacks the corner
and white does not defend inmediatly, white can still get the connection
to one of the sides, but this time he can not choose the side and Black
has the option to choose what let white.
Ladders
I am going to explain what a ladder is with an example.
Black is very close to the victory, the only thing
he has to do is to play a piece on the blue dot. But it is White's
turn so he play there( and threatens a line himself, so now
black has to defend)
Black defends playing the marked piece, and now White has to defend a winning threat!
This sequence (the ladder)continues until Black and White reaches
the upper left side.
Now, it is Black's turn but he can not stop the White Line between
upper left and lower rigth, since white can win by playing on 4 different places
so White wins.
Intermediate Strategy
The Contract
The Contract is the positioning of black pieces when a player passes.
Most of the players find difficult to know when to pass. There is no a system to apply
which ensures a good contract and experience seems to be the best teacher for this phase.
In general terms we know that fewer pieces are needed if they are spread out,
and fewer pieces are needed if they are close to the center.
The Contract on a board of 6 cells per side.
This is the only board size that has been reasonably analized.
We know that a contract of just two black pieces is almost always if not always bad for Black,
we also know that it is possible to create an even contract with ten black pieces.
In other words, we can state that three black pieces close to the center can represent a fair contract,
and that ten black pieces close to the border cells forming one or two compact groups can represent a fair contract.
But this just gives to us a very primitive idea of what if fair or what is not, since each position is essentially different from any other.
Aproximately in the 25% of the games played between experienced players, the result of a game is decided due to a bad contract.
Below, we have got two examples of fair contracts.
Corridors
Everybody knows that at the begining of the game both players place pieces
in order to ballance the game, not only because creating Y-s is more difficult than
creating Lines but also because it is not very difficult for White to force Black to create a Line and therefore losing the game.
As a consecuence of this, sometimes Black can not play on some cells when the move produced a Line, so White could play there blocking Black's chain.
On the other hand, since White's winning condition only requires to connect two particular sides of the board,
it is very unlikely that White could lose by creating a Y, a pattern which requires to connect three partiular sides of the board.
Special Winning Conditions
In addition to the normal winning conditions, there are a few other
configurations which guarantee a win for one of the players. Ie when
the game reaches such a position, one of the players cannot help but
win, even if the players collaborate to not let that happen.
It is said that a player controls a side, when he has a chain of
stones connecting the two adjacent sides. For example white controls
the side B if there is a white chain connecting the side A to the
side C.
The three winning configurations are:
1. If White controls two opposite sides, then White wins.
2. If black controls three non-adjacent sides, then black wins.
3. If white and black control one side each opposite to each other
and the two controlling groups are adjacent to each other, then white
wins.
These winning conditions are not the most common way of winning a game, but sometimes they are.
Moreover, this winning conditions are a threat that have a real significance in the strategy of each game.