In this category I will attempt to add snapshots from real games that took place online (usually between highly ranked players), and comment on good, or bad, moves that come up.
In this first entry I give a game that took place earlier today. Both players are ranked in the top-10 on blokus.com. I have used the blokus puzzler applet from GottfriedVille.net to recreate the game so that the turn order is visible.
First of all, we should note the obvious error by green in the top left corner. On the third-last turn for green the L4 is played when the V5 could take its place giving one more point. Though it didn’t cost much in this case (just one point in a winning game), its another example of even top players forgetting to double check that no 5-piece can be played instead of a 4-piece when making a move. I previously discussed this common error here.
Secondly, after the game there was some discussion of what went wrong for B/R here. Though this game is still close, its a fair question because B/R starts the game with an advantage (statistically about 12 points), so in order for Y/G to win at all, B/R must have made an error somewhere.
In this case, my answer was this:
The red X was not an aggressive enough move. A better choice would be the T (in the “upside down T” position, being played from the same spot).
This should be combined (on the following B turn) with the B T5 instead of the V5 on the right in order for B to be able to move between the R F and N. In this case, green would have too many threats to worry about, and B/R would hopefully be able to create a DCCZ somewhere (either top left or bottom right). Either way, it should open up some more moves for one of B or R, and hopefully take away some moves for G.
I’m up to work on some “dual-commentaries” from time to time. If you feel like giving that a try.
Sounds great. If you have a board position in mind to start with let me know, otherwise I’ll try to find one in a couple weeks (or less) and get back to you.