9x18 Octopus

[Ed Gilbert]

This move (10-15 21-17 7-10 17-14 9x18) is a favorite of 3-move world champion Alex Moiseyev. I have expanded this line with the 10-piece kingsrow and book generator program. The updated book10 file is available at this link. After the 23x7 3x10 exchange, white has 3 moves that win: 26-23, 24-20, and 22-17.

Alex was kind enough to send me two of his games in which he played this line and managed to draw.

[Event "7th International Match USA vs UK and Ireland"]
[Date "October 11, 2001"]
[Black "Alex Moiseyev"]
[White "J. McCarthy"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
1. 10-15 21-17 2. 7-10 17-14 3. 9x18 23x7 4. 3x10 26-23 5. 11-16 23-18 6. 16-20 18x11 7. 8x15 22-18 8. 15x22 25x18 9. 12-16 18-15 10. 10x19 24x15 11. 4-8 30-26 12. 6-10 15x6 13. 1x10 29-25 14. 2-6 25-21 15. 8-12 21-17 {McCarthy had a win up to this point, but 21-17 only draws. 26-22 wins.} 16. 5-9 17-13 17. 9-14 26-23 18. 14-17 23-18 19. 17-22 18-15 20. 10x19 27-24 21. 20x27 31x15 22. 22-26 15-11 23. 26-30 11-7 24. 6-10 7-3 25. 10-14 3-7 26. 14-17 7-11 27. 16-20 28-24 1/2-1/2


[Event "practice match on Banks Ladder, game 6"]
[Date "2002"]
[Black "Alex Moiseyev"]
[White "Mac Banks"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
1. 10-15 21-17 2. 7-10 17-14 3. 9x18 23x7 4. 3x10 22-17 5. 11-16 25-21 6. 5-9 29-25 {Only draws. 24-20 wins.} 7. 16-20 26-23 8. 9-14 25-22 9. 8-11 30-26 10. 4-8 24-19 11. 15x24 28x19 12. 11-15 19-16 13. 12x19 23x16 14. 8-12 1/2-1/2

[Alex_Moiseyev]

favorite of 3-move world champion Alex Moiseyev.

Not anymore ! I can't remember if I played this line after 2003. I was lucky to survive in these and couple more suspicious games, but my confidence and trustness to this line seriously dropped. In the recent games I decided to "vary" from this line and played more usual 10-17. I decided - it is easy to learn a published play rather than hoping for opponent mistakes !

In first case everything depends on myself only, in the 2nd case - it depends of my opponent and ball is not in my court

What is interesting with KR analyses - I thought that only 24-20 is a winning move, but in reality - couple more !

Sinecerly,

Alex Moiseyev

===================================================================

Here is another assignment for KR

It was shown in MP that 9-13 24-19 11-15 28-24 8-11 !? loses. However later the status of this move became "untested". I played this move (8-11) several times and didn't lose any single game, but instead won couple with draws to the rest.

However my opponents never played it right giving me more troubles. So ... whenever KR has a time, maybe it will look at this line ?

This move, 8-11, is so natural, that many players continue make it today and I had a chance to observe this many times in different games.