FW solution: more pieces to the puzzle

OK, here’s a few more installments in my continuing battle against this opening. In my view Z5 is probably the strongest 3rd move for violet (now that I think I’ve dealt with Y-kiss). So here’s some lines that I think should do it for orange.

1. F – X / 2. W – N / 3. Z5 – F / 4. I5 – W / 5. X – Y / 6. U – L5.

…. 4. N – L5 / 5. X – Y / 6. U – P.

This is the trickiest line as orange has no combined block+attack on bottom. Here’s one possible line. I won’t spell out the moves as they follow the same pattern as above.

This is where I get uncertain. Suppose violet ignores orange F? What is orange’s best move on top? (If orange blocks the N with e.g. T4 then this is about a 4-point loss for orange IMO.) The game becomes very open, with orange having the smaller area but two leaks into violet’s area; violet has only one leak into orange’s. I THINK that this orange Y is probably the best move but would have to work it out in more detail. (The other obvious moves: turn the knob on the Y the other way; use Z4(G12rdr) for an unblockable move in anticipation of blocking on bottom right on the next turn. Probably others too.)

Blokus wishes for the New Year

I know that probably there’s little incentive for Mattel (the new owners of Blokus) to do a lot of tinkering with its site, since membership is free & thus there’s no monetary reason to hire a computer tech guy to make it run better… but a guy can’t help wishing, can he?

So here’s what I think would make it a better site.

REALLY EASY FIXES:

• A warning bell for when the timer drops below 1 minute. This would take, like, about 2 minutes of a programmer’s time to add… it’s unbelievable that despite this being frequently requested by players, this never gets added.
• 3D Duo in the Competition room, not just in Training.
• Add grid coordinates along the sides of the board–in duo: A through M on the X axis, 1 through 14 (bottom to top) on the Y. (This could be a toggle button: SHOW COORDINATES/HIDE COORDINATES.)
• Add an option to number pieces according to the move they’re played on, so you can actually figure out the entire sequence of play at a glance at the board. (This could just be a toggle button: SHOW MOVES/HIDE MOVES.)
• Install anti-spam software on the forum. I’ve never come across a more spam-prone online forum — it’s truly embarrassing. They eventually get around to cleaning it up by hand, but there are much better automated ways of ensuring this stuff never gets posted in the first place.

A LITTLE TRICKIER:

• Add an option to permit players — within the Competition room — to choose sides rather than being assigned them randomly. This would obviously require BOTH players to consent (they would each have a button). This would save a lot of headache when players are trying to resume a match (currently, the only solution is to keep quitting & returning, hoping that the other player is not such a schmuck as to penalize).
• Fix the poorly-conceived censorship in chat. (For now, let’s set aside the question of whether there should be censorship.) If it’s going to be done, at least program it competently. First: It should not be triggered by part-words. It’s dumb to turn words like “assuming” or “culminate” into “***uming” and “***minate”: if you want to guarantee that it catches both “fuck” and “fucking” then simply put BOTH words in the blacklist. Second: given that virtually all chat takes place in English, no words should be censored that are innocuous & commonplace in English: e.g. “pot”, “con” and “fan”.

MORE AMBITIOUS:

• The best solution to online misbehaviour would be to get rid of the censorship entirely & use a different system: give some trusted players “moderator” status, with the ability to silence unruly players or eject them if necessary.

FY open (vertical): possible line of defence?

This is one of those really tricky lines for both players. No idea which player to name it after–HRF likes it but I’m not sure if it’s his originally. I have not got a surefire defence against it but can usually make life difficult for violet. Here’s the start of one line I’m working on:

1. F – X / 2. Y – N / 3. T5 – P / 4. N ….. I vaguely recall that for move 3, violet L5 to close the centre (H8rrru) is bad, but it’s not obviously bad, so I’d better actually go & prove that another time…

Obvious next move for orange is Y or L5 (I think Y) off the X — haven’t decided what’s the best orientation yet. In general, it’s vitally important for orange to play through the hole the moment he gets the chance — it’s too soon this turn, but I would recommend it on the next turn no matter what. The trick is to avoid messing up the nice 1-2 leak off the top of orange P by letting violet block both leaks simultaneously.

FW rethought: Kissing

OK, so I’m trying to rethink my approach to this, in part because there are some good midlevel players who still insist on using it despite its evident weakness. (It can win big against low- or midlevel players, I’ll admit; I’m purely concerned with optimal play, though.) Anyway, the most formidable of the “kiss” variants is one where violet tries to use Y and then Z5 or (better) T5 to round the corner, killing off all orange’s useful corners in the bottom left. Here’s the start of my line against it:

Moves: 1. F – X / 2. W – N / 3. Y – F / 4. X – W. Note that it’s a good idea to hang on to Y as a last-ditch block in the midgame (I1uur), though if it becomes freed up then it’s a major threat on top (L14ddl).

If violet is so foolish as to play N on top rather than X then you get one of my favourite positions, eminently winnable for orange:

Moves: …. 4. N – Z4 / 5. T5 – I5. This is an elegant example of an unblockable leak, since the only block (V5[F14ddr]) produces a horrendous I2-T4-I3 series of holes. You can see the violet T5 “corner kill” in action here — not that it does him much good.

If violet plays T5 on move 4 (or Z5) it’s a different line, I still think bad for violet. Will unpack it later on…

XF Yasu, preliminary proposals

Sorry for the nonposting here lately… I always tend to be a feast-or-famine blogger anyway, & it’s been a weird last few months with the new job. I’ve also been gradually thinking more about the game, though it’s hard to be too systematic. Gradually I’m learning that it’s really nearly impossible to “solve” ANY opening, even the weakest…. there are simply too many possibilities. I think there are 2 types of players — the ones who try to keep to the “known” & the ones who welcome the “unknown”. I wish I were more of the latter type of player — great instances would be Toutatis and Kolub68 (neither of whom seem to be on the site anymore, alas), & often Bobby_Bob too. Nowadays lerpyfirth (previously known for the repetitive use of the infamous XF Lerpyfirth opening) is of this type: to some extent it can be just a sign of someone bored with “the normal game” (or someone who specializes in 5-minute games), but it can also in the right hands be a powerful “ice-axe to break the frozen sea” of standard play.

But I’m not usually that type of player — I tend to stick to familiar openings & try to thoroughly understand them & judge them by optimal play. Anyway, it’s served me in good stead… as well as leading to a few disasters.

Anyway, I wanted to get back to the infamous FW opening, in part because I think my posting below is wrong. But in the meantime, I think I’ll start trying to put more useful info on this site.

So, XF Yasu. I’ve been thinking harder about this one lately. It’s a fave of mid-level players, but it’s rather weaker than XF Rubik in my view. Nonetheless, it can be tricky, & I have not come across an airtight orange response. Here are two of the more usual defence formations. In my view, these are flawed, but will — with good play, which I’ll try to flesh out in future posts — get you a close game or a win versus anything less than top-notch violet play.

Orange has an unblockable left side, and is threatening I5(D7u) on left or some variety of block on the right (usually T5 or L5 — I’ll let you figure out the orientation). I usually use this one — despite its flaws — simply because newbies and even midlevel players have no idea how to handle it as violet.

This may be better, though:

This gives you the option of I5, I4, N or something else on the left, depending on what violet plays on the right (assuming he DOES play on the right). I’m less familiar with this line & look forward to exploring it.

(rejected) FW: complete solution, part 1

Considering all the depressing news I usually post about hard-to-beat openings, I thought it time to post something on an eminently defeatable opening. Sometimes I have a little trouble with it, so I thought it worth trying to work out a solution in more detail to avoid mistakes. As always in duo, even bad openings can win if you make a single error in your defence…

So: FW, the favourite of beginning & some mid-level players. It’s an interesting opening in that it looks pretty good but is actually one of the flimsiest of the F openings. I think this can actually be defeated by orange in ALL cases, though I must confess that I haven’t (inevitably) worked it all out. I would be very interested to hear from people who have suggestions for lines I should examine in more detail.

*****

UPDATE: I’m no longer happy with the line given below, as I think violet has a strong reply to the orange Z5. I will try to post more shortly. I will keep this page here nonetheless as an interesting false start.

*****

Here’s the basic orange response:

Violet must reply on the left. (If violet plays on the right, orange plays I5(D7u) and the game is easy: I won’t spell out that line here as it should only require basic understanding of duo strategy.) There are basically two possible replies: a hang or a kiss. My solution is simple: if it’s a hang, play Z5(K8ullu); if it’s a kiss, play F(K8uul). I’ll consider the various cases in turn.

Case 1a) Hang and circle

The usual pieces for the violet hang are Z5(E7lddl), T5(E7ldd) or N5(D9ddld or dldd). If violet circles, orange should keep going aggressively rather than block until violet pokes up around the side. Here’s the line:

Note that orange F grabs the V in the nook of the violet F (& note that orange Z4 is dependent on keeping the W for a block). This game should produce an orange win of about 3 points. If violet plays T5 not Z5 then orange needs a different path, playing W(A8urur) to grab the L4 spot in the nook and using a different blocking method on the right (you figure it out).

If it’s an N hang, then it’s a little trickier, but the I5 is still the best bet, I think. At worst it’s a tie but here’s my packing for a 3-point win:

Moves: 1. F – X / 2. W – N / 3. N – Z5 / 4. Z5 – I5 / 5. I5 – T5 / 6. T5 – F (very important to tee up the I3!) / 7. L5 and the rest is hole-filling and packing.

Or if you like to make things exciting this is a good line too, & possibly a larger win (I haven’t worked it out in full but in practice it can lead to bigger wins versus players who aren’t good with open games):

XF Lerpy du jour #2

Another line I’m thinking about. The orange V5 is an experiment… actually it’s not bad, 4pts loss is respectable though I usually try in “solved” lines to get it down to 3 or under. In general I want to find the key points where orange can play a defensive move without resulting in a huge loss (this is useful for tournament play).

Moves: 1. X – X / 2. F – Y / 3. T – N / 4. W – L5 / 5. L5 – I5 / 6. N – W / 7. Z5 – V5 / 8. U – T4 / 9. Y – L4 / 10. I1 – T5 and the rest is packing.

Note if violet plays L4 for U, then orange must not use the L4 to block (it’s needed on the right). Use O4 and I2 to block–one less point, but violet also gets one less point so the results are the same.

REFLECTION: Violet Y could also be V5 (the V3 leak doesn’t matter much since orange has already left a V3 spot for himself in top left corner). Then violet gets an extra I3 but (playing through the leak) orange also gets an I3 in bottom right & the results are identical.

XF Lerpy du jour #1

Still thinking a lot about this opening recently — I haven’t posted much on it lately simply because I want to give genuinely useful responses (otherwise this risks simply becoming a how-to manual for people looking to win as violet by lifting games from the blog… it happens). Anyway, my suspicion is that versus good violet play it’s hard to do better than a 3-pt loss. But it’s so complex I won’t pass judgment until a lot of lines are explored.

Anyway, for the moment I’m primarily interested in what is in my view the best reply: orange Y with the knob down. So I’ll just start regularly posting games that I think are close to optimal play. If you have suggestions for where orange or violet went wrong, please post comments, as I want to really map this line out.

OK: so this line is the result of some discussion with oldmanc, who agrees with me that the orange N kissing violet F on move 3 is kinda weak. We have both toyed every so often with L5 in that spot instead. I think these games show this may be promising.

Moves:

1. X – X / 2. F – Y / 3. N – L5 / 4. Y – Z5 / 5. T5 – W / 6. L5 – I5 / 7. I5 – F / 8. Z4 – N / and the rest is packing.

This could be improved (the screenshot is from a live game): orange plays V5 in place of N, P in place of O4, N in place of P. One point more for orange!!! But violet can also improve on it: U and 1 in place of the P, and P in place of O4. So we’re back where we started, just 62-59.

oldmanc thought violet might do better by blocking orange I5. This game suggests the results are more or less the same. It’s a little hard to tell because both sides have to worry about leaks so packing gets tricky.

1. X – X / 2. F – Y / 3. N – L5 / 4. Y – Z5 / 5. T5 – W / 6. L5 – I5 / 7. W – I4 / 8. I5 – P / and the rest is packing (but violet must not play the O4 till orange has used up the I2, otherwise there’s a leak).

XF lerpy: is the mirror response bad?

In my initial survey of responses to XF Lerpy the first defensive response is the mirror. My instincts tell me this is not a great response, but it’s far from proven. The usual results of mirroring look like this:

(Moves: obviously, X-X, F-F, Z-Z, P.) Why, you may ask, does violet immediately move into the centre on move 4? This is because (1) he doesn’t want to let orange get there first and (2) he’s planning to put a nasty piece through the leak on move 5, typically V5 (J11ddrr).

That V5 caused me to dismiss this line as a disaster for orange, but after playing this out a few times I’m less certain. Basically, it’s an important demonstration of the cardinal rule in Blokus: don’t panic even if things look bad, play aggressively rather than conservatively, and keep a few corners active in as many zones of the board as possible. I played 6 games with myself using variants of this position:

Moves: X-X / F-F / Z-Z / P-Y / V-T. I played the Y below first because it’s important to get something going in bottom left & the Y cannot be blocked in a single move. (It’s a question whether violet V5 is premature–violet could try playing W (I2urur) first, for instance.)

It’s hard to tell from playing versus myself — a live opponent may see angles I’m completely missing — but I basically tried to ensure that orange kept a toehold in all 4 corners, cut off the sides where possible, & generally just was maximally persistent & aggressive. The results were interesting: one big loss, 3 small losses, 2 small wins. That’s statistically pretty good, suggesting that though the violet V5 looks really scary this may be a viable line for orange. More to report on this once I’ve worked out some games more carefully.

XF Lerpy: initial survey

This is one of the most annoyingly complex openings, & tends to be regarded with exasperation by many players, largely because (1) it’s quite effective; (2) there are a LOT of mid-level players who, once they figure out that this one is pretty solid, tend to play it ALL THE TIME, game after game.  One of my major projects is to dissect this opening to the point where wins are by predictably small, rather than large, margins (rather as with the XF Rubik, XF Tetris-Time and XF Yasu, which are rarely used by experienced players versus other experienced players because the wins are so small they’re not worth bothering with). I have no idea if this opening can be ultimately reduced to a desirably small margin (in my view, 3 points or less) but it’s worth exploring at length.

I think it is worth setting out the plausible orange replies first. These aren’t all the possible replies — I’d be grateful for suggestions of any others I should examine seriously — but they are the commonest, & I think they are worth examining first before testing out others.

DEFENSIVE RESPONSES:

1. Mirror

2. F to the left

3A. N up

3B. N left

OFFENSIVE RESPONSES:

4. N kissing violet F

5A. Y kissing violet X, knob up

5B. Y kissing violet X, knob down

*

My current thoughts: Mirror (#1) is demonstrably bad, as I will show in a future post. F to the left (#2) is extremely effective against low- to mid-level players, but has fatal flaws that can be exploited by good players; it may nonetheless be worth exploring. N up (#3a) has a major vulnerability (violet can wrap Z5 around the orange X) but may be OK; N left (#3b) I am not very familiar with.

The major lines are #4 and #5A/B. My suspicion is that #4 is not good, because violet simply lays down N (B7drdd) and orange has no corners to work with in the bottom left corner. Thus #5A and B are the best options, the major branches depending on whether violet plays through the hole on move 3 (typically with T5, though V5 is an option) or blocks the Y.  If violet blocks the Y then orange has the option of playing the N in the same way as in #4, or playing something else there (typically T4).

I’ll try to pick away at these openings one by one, though it’s a tough job. Anyway who wants to help out, be my guest ……