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Topic: white wins the hammer as the head?
Replies: 19   Views: 81,342   Pages: 2   Last Post: Oct 19, 2008, 9:11 PM by: up2ng

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Replies: 19   Views: 81,342   Pages: 2   [ Previous | 1 2 ]
sjustice

Posts: 72
Registered: Dec 16, 2001
From: pensacola
Age: 40
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Re: white wins the hammer as the head?
Posted: Oct 16, 2008, 3:35 AM

I can't remember if it was a cold day in Dallas back in 1984, and I'm not sure if David Comberrel was a cruncher, but I played as white and intentionally gave him the handle of the hammer and I was not the one getting nailed. I played the whole game from my opening analysis which made things tough for my opponent obviously. Essentially my second move was designed to put me in a position over the board that I had completely analyzed and keep my opponent in a tough spot throughout. After my sixth move, black finds himself in a difficult spot. Zoey should appreciate the four straight captures at the end. I'm just going to give the old timer notation. Maybe someone more proficient than me can do that fancy stuff y'all do. Can that even be done if game is not in the database?

1984 US Open Championship
Dallas Texas

Scott Justice vs David Comberrel
1.0,L1D3 2.L3U2,L1D1 3.L2,L1D2 4.L1,R1 5.D1,L2U1
6.R1D2,U1 7.L4,L3 8.L1U2,L1D4 9.L1D5,D2* 10.L4D1*,L3
11.L2D2*,0* 12.L1D2*,D2 13.R1U1*,R2D1 14.L4U2,Resigns

I agree with Richard about no need usually to put yourself in the position as white where you are giving your opponent the handle of the hammer, but this was an exception.

watsu

Posts: 1,442
Registered: Dec 16, 2001
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Re: white wins the hammer as the head?
Posted: Oct 17, 2008, 10:44 AM

Here is the alphanumerical version of the game Scott posted (provided I've not made any errors in transcription):

1.) K10 J7 2.) G12 J9 3.) H10 J8 4.) J10 L10 5.) K9 H11 6.) L8 K11 7.) F10 G10 8.) J12 J6 9.) J5 K8 10.) F9 G10 11.) H8 K10 12.) J8 K8 13.) L11 M9 14.) F12 resigns

Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
db_input

Posts: 1
Registered: Jul 30, 2008
Re: white wins the hammer as the head?
Posted: Oct 17, 2008, 12:35 PM

here is the game,.. and based on whites second move i dont think we can call this the "Hammer opening".
having a handle alone in my mind doesnt define the hammer.
and but yes,.. the captures were nice, over all i enjoyed to see the game,.. although if it were me playing white i would had done the common K7 for my second. unless of course it were unrated and i was feeling adventurous.




sjustice

Posts: 72
Registered: Dec 16, 2001
From: pensacola
Age: 40
Home page
Re: white wins the hammer as the head?
Posted: Oct 18, 2008, 5:11 PM

1. Thanks for getting the game in the database and up on the forum.
2. I agree that this is not the "hammer opening". It is the "Tesh opening" with white intentionally giving his opposition the handle of the hammer. The "hammer opening" is a win for black, but it is still fun to play with since it is pretty tricky.
3. Sure, the normal response K7 would be my standard response. But, David, who was an excellent tournament player, knew how he would respond to that move and have the advantage of stearing the game into a position that he was familiar with. Figuring he may have had something up his sleave that would give me difficulty over the board in a timed tournament game, I opted to surprise him first with a line that may be inferior to white's normal move but would give me the advantage in the heat of battle. Making an unexpected move that may be inferior that forces your opponent out of his prepared openings is a good way to whoop him in a tournament setting. I would not advise doing that as white in a "postal" tournament, but recommend it strongly when your opponent is on the clock with only minutes to figure things out.

up2ng

Posts: 542
Registered: May 9, 2002
From: Northeast USA
Re: white wins the hammer as the head?
Posted: Oct 19, 2008, 9:11 PM

Yes, this is a nice hammer line and is certainly a win for white. As has been said already, the success or failure of the hammer position depends on the other "extra" stones on the board. In the more traditional "Hammer Opening", white ends up with an extra stone at K7, which does not help enough to maintain a winning position. In this variation, instead of having an extra stone at K7, the extra stone is at G12, which does help enough to create a winning position. There are also a few other positions on the board where a single white extra stone can help white to win the game.

I would say that although this is not the traditional "Hammer Opening", it is still a Hammer position or variation -- or a Hammer-like position perhaps. Remember, even in the "Hammer Opening", the resulting position is not a true Hammer, it is just a common opening by black with the intent of steering the game into a favorable Hammer-like position, so it became known as the Hammer Opening, or just the Hammer for short. Hammer-like positions can occur in many different ways, and can even occur in the mid-game when there are lots of extra stones of each color on the board and maybe even a few captures already made -- these of course all have an effect on whether such a Hammer-like position will be successful.

Remember, the only true Hammer actually occurs for white in regular Pente (not Pro-Pente with the Tournament rule) with a line something like this:


K10,L9,K12,J9,K11,K9


This of course should be a crushing win for white since there are no extra stones to help black's position.

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