Fox 4D - A Nice, Clean Fight

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. Just bringing you a four-dawn game today. I figured it could be kind of fun. I do want to get my original fundamentals account up as high as I can while still trying to be somewhat strict with what I play. But I think it when we get to the like the four-dawn, five-dawn, six-dawn area, it starts to be less about just playing in the right areas of the board and doing basic direction of play and starts to get into needing to properly play the correct moves. So, we'll see if I can if I can balance this properly or not. But let's get into a game and let's just have a little bit of fun today. Start to play.

[00:00:38]>> All right. I am white in this game. See if they want to play me.

[00:00:42]All right. All right. They do.

[00:00:44]See if they'll let me get my normal opening or if I'll do a cross opening.

[00:00:47]Okay, no cross opening. But they didn't play a 3-4, which is a little bit sad.

[00:00:52]So, you know, I really like to play with 3-4s, but I won't be able to do it.

[00:00:55]With this approach, I always like to enclose my bottom left corner, let them press me down cuz that doesn't bother me.

[00:01:03]And with the press, we just push one time and then jump.

[00:01:08]Yep, just like that.

[00:01:10]If they had a 3-4 stone over there, I may not have jumped. But with the jump, we can push and approach the upper right and maybe still make a couple points here. So, that's why I like this position. Okay, they're trying to get rid of my influence from my bottom left corner here.

[00:01:26]I wanted an extension there. I can't get it. So, they have an extension from their 4-4 point. So, I'm just going to approach their 4-4.

[00:01:35]Hm.

[00:01:36]That's an interesting move. I don't know if it's uh actually sente. If I get their corner in exchange for them taking mine, it's probably not a big deal.

[00:01:45]But my opponent is actually taking their time. So, this could be a hard battle.

[00:01:49]We'll find out.

[00:01:51]If I just go into the corner and they block me towards the bottom side and I go up and they extend. They are actually getting a very decent area.

[00:02:00]So, a double approach could actually be the right idea. Most the time, I would just suggest going into the corner.

[00:02:08]But, double approach could be fun to try.

[00:02:11]So, let's see how they respond.

[00:02:14]Oh, just doing the diagonal. It's not very common anymore.

[00:02:17]But, it doesn't mean it's bad.

[00:02:20]So, I guess I will just take the corner and it won't be too different from the other way of me just taking the corner first cuz I can still block towards the bottom and get that bottom side. But, I don't want to do anything that's too complicated. The double approach was already going to be more complicated than I like.

[00:02:39]All right, like I thought.

[00:02:40]Blocking to take the points on the bottom side, but I do get the corner, so I'm pretty happy.

[00:02:46]That's a very strange move.

[00:02:49]So, what they're aiming at is this peep in the corner.

[00:02:53]If I connect, they pull back, I'm not alive.

[00:02:57]So, that is painful, for sure. So, I don't know the best option here.

[00:03:04]But, it's definitely time to make a decision. I can decide to get this honey and connect underneath, which would probably kill my stone on the bottom side and they would likely respond and then I would still need to play again to get rid of that peeping move. So, I can probably bump to get rid of the peeping move. They go up and then I might be able to attach here to come out towards the center. So, that's one option of getting the extra territory, sort of sacrificing the stone. I could just bump first and do that this as well. That is also possible. But, something along those lines seems like it could be useful to break into the center. And then the other option I have that I think is is also interesting and I still want to do the bump.

[00:03:51]But, if they go up, we no longer have to worry about the corner. The corner should just be alive, and then we can play on the bottom if we wanted to try to bring this stone back to life. Now that I look at that, there's not that much like there is space for me to live, but I'm probably not going to be able to attack him. So, if I can't attack him with this stone, I don't think I want to do it. So, I think I'm just going to give up the stone.

[00:04:16]So, let's bump into the top stone here to prevent that peeping move.

[00:04:20]And instead of doing the hane first, I think I will just come out towards the center.

[00:04:26]Yeah, I think I will come out to the center cuz I want to leave some extra liberties on my stone on the bottom.

[00:04:31]That way the cut in the center might still be possible. The separation feels like the easiest and strongest way to play here.

[00:04:40]Now, I'm super happy to go through the tiger's mouth here. This should be pretty good shape for me, and there's still that cutting point left over, which I can actually still use even now.

[00:04:50]So, if I cut, they atari me down, and I connect, they still have a lot of audis they have to probably connect here, and then I can just atari and capture the stones very easily.

[00:05:01]This cut seems quite powerful. If they have to push again, I can extend out, and I've likely captured the stone on the top. Uh the turn also feels good though.

[00:05:12]And this move is also quite annoying for my opponent. Mhm. I think the cut is potentially too early because I won't have time to just capture the single stone stone that I cut off.

[00:05:25]>> now starts. So, it's probably better for me to attack the two stones, but before I do that, I do want to ask them a question of how they're going to respond to this move. This makes my group very strong, but also it's just a very annoying move.

[00:05:41]Cuz they have very bad shape here. So, they're just going to connect solidly.

[00:05:44]This still allows me to cut later if I want to, but also I have this honey and connect, which is very annoying.

[00:05:51]But it feels like right now it's starting to be a good time to attack the two stones.

[00:05:57]If I honey and connect, I don't think they have to respond.

[00:06:01]So the attack feels right.

[00:06:06]So I'll play low. I don't know the best move. I just looked around and I'm going to play low.

[00:06:10]Playing this one so I have at least two spaces towards the corner.

[00:06:14]And that feels comfortable.

[00:06:18]They are going to uh stop me from going towards the corner. Good question is, can I try to surround? You should always ask yourself this type of question whenever possible.

[00:06:34]I think I'm not going to worry about it and I'm just going to jump cuz I think it's not really worth leaving the weaknesses just to try to surround.

[00:06:43]And if they're going to give up the two stones, I'd rather they give it up with the one-point jump instead.

[00:06:48]Cuz then I'll get a couple more points.

[00:06:51]Interesting knight's move. So I can turn directly, which is not completely sente.

[00:07:00]The knight's move out feels stronger.

[00:07:05]So I think I'll do that one cuz then I can cut and already have the stone captured for the most part. It's hard to say when I should take this honey on the bottom, so I'm just leaving it for now.

[00:07:15]It's not sente for my opponent to do it, so it should be fine.

[00:07:19]Mhm, they're going to do it this way.

[00:07:21]This gives me a pretty nice uh turn cuz it's breaking their shape.

[00:07:26]And maybe Oh, okay. They're going to answer.

[00:07:28]That's interesting. So now I'm really interested in if they want to do anything here.

[00:07:34]Do I care about them attacking my stones?

[00:07:38]This is probably slightly off topic, so maybe don't follow me here, but this feels so good.

[00:07:44]>> [laughter] >> I guess that's slightly off topic, but it's probably okay.

[00:07:51]Yeah, yeah. So, I thought. I'm just going to come out as well. I don't know if I want to attach Attach is like a really strong way to come out and there's still a cutting point. But my corner's alive. That's why I didn't care too much if I did play away here.

[00:08:05]Eight. Seven.

[00:08:07]Six. Five. Yeah, I think I will attach and come out. I don't believe I had a way to actually surround this group, which is why I didn't care too much about trying to attack it.

[00:08:18]But I want to attach and come out just because it gets me a little bit faster, and I think that's better.

[00:08:23]I can probably just push and hone A or just jump out.

[00:08:27]>> Nine. Eight. Uh the appropriate move is probably just jump here to not give them the tiger's mouth and to start running towards the top side of the board.

[00:08:38]Oh, we're doing that, which is okay. I don't I don't really mind that. So, this is a good time to turn to make my shape really nice in the center. I thought about the uh um knight's move, but I like this turn cuz it gives me a direct eye and that feels a little bit better. And I really want to push one more time threading the hone A just cuz that feels like the right type of shape. And if they do answer, I can then go and take the 3-3 without any sort of problem. Even play this other move, which is kind of interesting. And also even get to the top side here, which feels pretty good.

[00:09:14]Uh coming out towards the center also feels nice. Nine.

[00:09:17]>> I think I will do this peep cuz that feels like a very strong move to have on the board.

[00:09:22]And jumping out towards the center seems kind of nice, honestly.

[00:09:27]But I want to make sure my weakest group is strong, so I'm going to play the top side first.

[00:09:32]I could play a little bit safer with the fourth line move, but I want to apply up more pressure to the corner.

[00:09:39]Oh, they are fixing that now.

[00:09:41]Uh they could have just blocked, I'm fairly certain.

[00:09:45]So, it's actually a really good exchange if I do take the move at the bottom right now. But if they go block this later after I've taken like the corner, then that feels good as well. So, 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I think I'm going to take the corner.

[00:10:05]>> [laughter] >> I think this honey on the bottom was already a good move. And they defended and they still needed to play two more moves to even completely take the points in the bottom and I feel like that's that's too many moves right now.

[00:10:18]But this upper right area is completely surrounded. So, taking the corner could lead to me getting a couple good exchanges. Like when they honey in the corner, this is really nice for me.

[00:10:30]And then I can usually jump next, which is the proper shape most of the time.

[00:10:36]And if they cover, then I've completely surrounded them and they're going to have a harder time living.

[00:10:41]And they can't they shouldn't be able to block cuz I should be able to push up there.

[00:10:46]Yep. So, this one here.

[00:10:48]Tiger's mouth is normally the right answer. If I push, they Atari and they Atari again and they push here. There's like a little bit of OG, so I will just do the tiger's mouth. Make sure there's no problems. This also leaves me with a push and cut, cutting off this one stone's actually pretty big.

[00:11:04]But they are just not alive, so I feel pretty good about the situation.

[00:11:08]Mhm, just jumping is interesting.

[00:11:12]They're probably alive. I guess they are threatening a wedge here, but I'm not sure the wedge is that big of a deal right now. If I am worried about it, we can do something.

[00:11:22]6 5 4 3 So, let's let's fix our problem and not worry about it. Get rid of the wedge.

[00:11:31]And we will block cuz they're not alive.

[00:11:34]I was tempted to push though, but we will block cuz they are not alive yet. 9 8 7 6 And then they connect so they should probably be alive now. They should have enough space. I do have this pushing cut which is really nice, but I think the left side or the middle is a little bit more important. So something I want to do uh is I want to fix my corner a little bit which will help me fighting the center. If my corner can't be invaded, then I should be able to do some damage to the center area.

[00:12:08]Uh they're playing very very close to my strength. So that's a little bit questionable.

[00:12:15]And I should be able to pincer and attack if I want to.

[00:12:19]But if we do look at this position the 9 uh 7 attack is probably the best way for our opponent to get back in the game.

[00:12:29]>> 2 1 But I think it still makes sense cuz I just don't want to give them all of the territory and I can make a two-space extension still. If they take that away, I can potentially attack this stone or even just connect.

[00:12:44]Oh.

[00:12:44]It's a little bit strange. I can just capture this stone.

[00:12:47]I can also just push and on A and go over the top and 9 I think there's no reason not to capture the stone I guess.

[00:12:55]So I should also be able to push, but I can just capture it directly.

[00:13:01]And he still has to deal with my stone and he hasn't actually gained any extra strength from this position yet.

[00:13:07]Now he's jumping this way.

[00:13:09]So I can definitely go back and get my base, but this could be a little bit dangerous overall cuz he does have more strength on the outside, but I have already mentioned that so if something bad happens here, it's my fault. And he has enough weakness in the center that this is probably a bit annoying for him.

[00:13:27]Um that's interesting. Or we can push here and we can go down. We can capture this stone.

[00:13:34]That's the standard way of playing. 9 8 >> do this.

[00:13:39]6 5 We Atari.

[00:13:41]>> 4 3 2 1 So I think the thing we don't want them to have is that extra move, this extra diagonal here for free.

[00:13:52]So we're going to haunt in the corner instead. Don't worry about any ladders here cuz I should have the ladders. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Last byo-yomi.

[00:14:10]Think I can Atari in the corner. This just feels really good.

[00:14:14]And again, I don't have to worry about the ladder. Cuz I believe the ladder should go straight to my stone.

[00:14:18]And I'm not worried about the co, but I will capture once cuz it's really nice for me.

[00:14:25]Uh sure. We'll connect.

[00:14:29]And then we just fix our weakest group.

[00:14:32]So we'll jump here, trying to sort of surround them a little bit. 9 8 7 Okay, they're pushing in so I can just block.

[00:14:40]Don't really need to worry about that.

[00:14:43]They're cutting so I can just connect probably.

[00:14:47]Cuz there's no ladder.

[00:14:50]Uh there's no ladder, right? It should be fine even if there's some sort of trade.

[00:14:57]Okay.

[00:14:59]Okay, now they're going to attack my group very severely. But it's okay.

[00:15:04]We just block. Can't let them connect so easily.

[00:15:08]And we block over the top. This is actually going to make us some nice shape towards the center.

[00:15:12]Cuz we get this Atari and now we have at least one eye, which is really good. And then we can jump to get closer to our other stones.

[00:15:21]We can also jump with this move, which is just a really nice move to get some shape. I don't know which one I like more.

[00:15:28]We'll jump with the more shapy move.

[00:15:31]Okay, they're peeping. Probably good.

[00:15:34]I'm going to threaten to connect. I think that's more important right now.

[00:15:37]9 8 7 And we'll fix this. Still threatening pushing cut, which is what we want as well.

[00:15:47]So, I want to push and cut.

[00:15:51]So, that way we're fighting against their group here.

[00:15:55]Yeah, just connect so they should be okay.

[00:16:01]Uh if they want to connect, I will let them connect, so I'm going to see if I can connect.

[00:16:08]Should I throw in?

[00:16:09]8 7 6 5 4 3 >> 2 1 >> I'll just do the Atari instead.

[00:16:19]And then we do want to go down here.

[00:16:23]Then we should be able to connect.

[00:16:25]Look, it's just going to come down to the co of course, but should be able to just connect. Can push as well.

[00:16:30]I think I think just connect should be fine.

[00:16:32]Oh, fox coins.

[00:16:36]9 8 7 All right, now we're starting the co.

[00:16:41]So, I will capture.

[00:16:43]One of the issues that they have is that I have a lot of liberties on my outside group. 8 >> And I can still make more by running away. 6 5 4 3 And I'm not sure if there's a co threat that's actually worth it on the board because this is a very large capture. Like that, that's honestly probably not even worth it. They are capturing these stones, but I'm capturing the left side. So, I can definitely just connect here. There's no problems.

[00:17:10]It's just not worth it at all.

[00:17:12]9 8 7 Yeah, not even close to worth it.

[00:17:17]And I can actually jump out towards the center to start breaking up the center a little bit. This is already dead. So, jumping over here actually feels really nice to make sure they can't build anything in the center.

[00:17:28]Okay. They are poking into my area, but the problem is I can push and cut them.

[00:17:35]So, if I fix this, they have to go back and fix. And then I'm still fine here, so I will fix. It is pretty big if I can capture their stones.

[00:17:45]But, we can definitely just push and cut now. They have to fix. So, we can just push and cut.

[00:17:54]They can't cut us yet.

[00:17:56]9 8 7 6 5 4 3 And the Atari does feel like a strong move here. So, if we connect and they do this one, we can connect. So, if we connect, they cut us. We can Atari this and capture the stone. If we connect and they do something like this one, we can still just connect in the center and it should be okay. So, the connection I think should be fine. But, I didn't double-check everything.

[00:18:26]So, the nice thing here is that we can just Atari here cuz if we can connect with this move, we feel really good.

[00:18:33]And then we can capture this. If we Atari here and they Atari us back, we capture, they turn here.

[00:18:41]>> 9 8 7 6 And that's where we're kind of going to be in trouble. We don't We don't have to worry, I think. So, yeah, this looks like it's fine.

[00:18:50]I just wanted to double-check it before there was any problems cuz we can just capture on the top. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Okay, so they are fixing that. But, the problem is it doesn't matter. So, I want to clean this up in the way that's going to be best for me overall. There's no way they can live on the top. The only thing that could ever really get me in trouble is if the other group here ends up having enough liberties to kill me or figure some other way out. Eight. So, I'm actually going to answer by playing Five. this move to capture the bigger group of stones.

[00:19:28]That way I don't have to worry about anything on the other side cuz my other group is just alive. And now I have no problems anywhere on the board, which is what's really nice here. Nine. Eight.

[00:19:37]Cuz the other thing I was maybe worried about was my corner having some issues.

[00:19:42]But definitely no issues at all here is for living.

[00:19:45]I'm just going to go down, and get rid of a potential eye there. I have three liberties, so I am fine.

[00:19:49]Nine.

[00:19:51]Eight. Seven.

[00:19:53]Six. Five.

[00:19:55]Four.

[00:19:56]Okay, they resigned.

[00:19:57]That was a very fun game actually. I said this this left side was a little bit risky.

[00:20:02]Maybe it's not the best way to play if if we want to keep it uh simple, but I think it was actually a really nice position.

[00:20:10]The problem that they had is that their group in the upper left was not alive. And their group in the middle was not alive, right? So, as long as I'm able to run towards the middle or threaten the upper left, I should be able to do something. But I think only really do something like this if you want to have a little bit of fun or you want to practice fighting.

[00:20:31]I did it cuz I kind of wanted to see if I could. And maybe against a higher ranked player, I might have lost that fight. Uh that's totally possible. So, that's why I wanted to specify you should be a little bit careful here. It was a lot of fun. We got to see a cool capturing race thing in the upper left.

[00:20:47]You got to see that the co was just so big that they probably didn't have a co threat anywhere on the board. My groups were so solid. They could even capture this corner, and I probably wouldn't even care.

[00:20:58]I think this was a really fun game. I hope you guys enjoyed it as well. Let me know what you think. Uh let me know if you want to see more four dan games.

[00:21:05]We'll be up to five dan here soon. I think in the two more games. If we win two more times, yeah, should be a five Don account. Anyway, hope you guys having a good day and have fun.