Shusaku Game 2 - Part 2

More Shusaku! You having fun yet? We'll be going over another game from 1839 which means Shusaku is nine or ten years old. I feel like these games are definitely good material but not so advanced that we cannot comprehend what is going on. If you want examples of really complicated games try looking at some some of Go Seigan's fighting games (courtesy of gokifu.com, you can also download sgf files directly from their website). Here we should be able to follow along pretty well with our own skills. Perhaps as we go through the game record we can improve alongside Shusaku so that when we get to his later games when he was in the full flower of his skill our own abilities will have risen somewhat and we can continue to enjoy these marvelous games.

If you want you can jump to the beginning and see what has happened so far and you can always go to the 'Game Reviews' tab along the top to get a full index of games that I've annotated here. Shusaku is black, his opponent is a 3 dan player (sorry, I don't know his name, the book I have is in Mandarin which I tragically cannot read), and there is no komi.

Dia. 1

White has just lost a ko in the upper left giving black a big corner but allowing white to play two moves in the upper right. Black's stone at R16 still has some aji but black will have to find the right time to make use of it. Black approaches and white pincers at 56. This type of move should be reflexive and automatic. Any chance to extend while making a pincer is worth taking. Black presses white down a bit and then plays lightly at 61 and 63 so Shusaku can take sente to crawl out with his cutting stone. Had white captured this stone, maybe in a net at G11, the white wall along the top would dominate the whole top half of the board with its thickness. We can see black's plan take shape through 69, white has to scramble to escape with his group on the left, and with 75 and 77 Shusaku destroys white's wall and breaks out into the center. White, though, has gotten to play 76 and seeks compensation with 78.

White 78 is kind of a tricky move. In some shapes this is a tesuji, the one space diagonal jump, but in others it leaves a weakness at the middle point, here that would be D6. In the game black chose to play 79 and it is easy to see why. If black defends the corner or even hanes above or below at B4 or D4 white will fall back and capture the black stones above. This is unacceptable because black wants to continue attacking these white stones and this would give white not just a base but some territory besides. Black choses a difficult path with 79 but I'm not sure what choice he really has. I think after investing the stones at 65-69 that black needs to attack these white stones to maximize his overall efficiency.

Dia. 2

Here we see the trade take place with black sacrificing the corner (his stones still have some aji but white's four stones are obviously very thick) to keep up his attack. This also concerns the base of the black stones on the left. As a rule of thumb a move that concerns the base of both weak groups in a fight is extremely important. Rather than letting white capture these stones black judged the fight to be most urgent and so decides to simply let go of the corner. First he pushes out at 81 and 83 and then, since white has to descend to 84 to break up black's corner enclosure, has time to cut at 85.

Dia. 3

Note: 1 = 101

White forces at 86 and 88 and jumps to 90 which do a good job of reinforcing the large floating white group. It is hard to see black surrounding white after these moves. Black turns and threatens the top with 91 which helps get rid of the aji around J15 that white had. After black connects with 93 white hanes at 94 to slow down any black attempt to try something in the corner. When white cuts at 96 the situation becomes more dire for black on the right side. While he settles his stones in the lower right white can probably solidify a large territory in the upper right.

Dia. 4

Black pushes white around a little bit with 3 through 7 but white gets the time to play 10 which is a really large move. After this it seems hard for black to win. Black's corner is decently big, about 23 points in the upper left but white will get much more than that either on the top or, more likely, on the right side. It seems that black must take back the lower left and prevent white from making any territory on the bottom to win. While one of the two might be possible I doubt that black can achieve both. The alternative is too invade and escape but after 10 this seems difficult. The game isn't over yet but I think that the situation is easier for white, it is probably best not to relax when your opponent is Shusaku though.

Tune in next time for more exciting adventures of Torajiro and the Goban vs the World.

Continue on to part 3.