Shusaku Game 6

A quick apology for the lack of recent updates, school started so less free time for me. Its sad but I will survive. Without further adieu here is game 6 in our Shusaku series. This game was played in 1840 against a stronger 7 Dan player, Shusaku is still a Shodan at the time of this game. Shusaku takes three stones as black and there is no komi.

Fig. 1

1-20

An Interesting Joseki - The attachment at 4 is not a commonly played but the pattern up to 11 are joseki. Traditionally black would either play at F17 or played directly at 16 but Shusaku attaches at 12 and makes a hanging connection before playing 16. This works well for him in the corner, without exchanging 12 and 14 for 13 and 15 white would have responded to 16 (the joseki move) by playing at C16 and taking the corner, but it hurts his two stones on the top. Before 14 black would have had the push at F17 and his top stones would be more secure. White wastes no time in striking at black's thinness by first pincering on the top with 17 and then playing 19 and threatening to undo the work of black 12 and 14. Black ignores 19 to press with 20 which gives him a nice position along the top. White's stones are fairly settled in the corner and black's left side group is precariously perched. Just as a quick question do you know how black should reply to 19 once he comes back to the local situation? Would you connect at C16? What about creating a ko shape at B16? One of these is a terrible move and the other is very good, do you know which is which?

Figure 2

21-36  

29 takes ko

An Early Ko - White tries to make a position at the top and manages to get a decent group established in exchange for making the black group thick. This is an excellent sequence for white as black's stones are clearly overconcentrated on the top while white's shape is very light and hard to attack. Having to give way at 30 is submissive but there are no ko threats in the opening and allowing white to capture here would make him thick on the top would amount to an utter collapse for black. White makes a fast paced second high kakari at 33 after ignoring the black pincer at 32. Black takes the corner in the upper right at 34, this move guarantees black life in the corner as well, and white approaches at 35, another fast paced move. Black turns his attention to his weak group in the top left and reinforces at 36 which makes the pincer at 32 a little more relevant. I think that the pincer at 32 is questionable as the black group on the upper left, particularly before 36, is very weak and it is hard to attack when both sides in the fight have a weak group to take care of. Also, imagine that these three white stones and the black group above both move out into the center. The black stones will face the settled position at the top and the white stones will be hovering over the open area at the bottom of the board, obviously a more important future area.

Figure 3

 37-49

A Second Double Kakari - White captures at 37 because letting black play here would threaten the cut at B18, protect against white's cut at D13, and almost certainly assure black of two eyes which makes the situation of white's three stones on the left entirely different. If the black group above has two eyes then black won't have to run out with it and can chase the white stones from his position in the lower left and now it is black that will build a wall facing the bottom of the board. Black takes a huge point at 38, separating white's top from the right side which prompts white to reinforce somewhat at 39. After black responds at 40 (a white move here would be a disaster in the center for black, entirely changing the balance of influence) white makes another double kakari at 41. Letting white make two double kakaris is usually not recommended in a three stone game but young Shusaku's fuseki (opening) is the weakest part of his game, although remember he is only 11 at the time of this game. Black plays an attach and extend joseki. White's extension to 49 is well placed since it coordinates well with the single white stone further up the right side, white could have played at R9 instead but this would not be an extension from the top as well as the bottom even though it protects the cut at R7 better.

Figure 4

 50-70

White 55, 61 at K16

Black 58 at L16

Slow Motion Ko - Black starts by taking aim at white's position up top with 50. White makes a threat at 51 and after skipping to 53 (black cannot ignore this because a white hanging connection at 54 would destroy black's influence in the lower left) turns back to retake the ko with 55. Black makes another threat on the left with 56 and after white defends, and note how nice white's shape is, with 57 black retakes the ko with 58. This repeats with white threatening a large scale capture by playing at 59 and black defending before white takes the ko with 61. When black plays at 62 the ko fight stops for a while because any of these moves along the bottom are worth much more than the value of the ko. The entirety of the lower side might rest on this sequence and once 62 is on the table the ko fight on the top becomes uninteresting. White ensures connection to the center before  jumping into the corner in a quest for eye space with 69. Now black takes aim at the poor aji in the white formation on the right by cutting at 70. 

Figure 5

70-91

Using Aji - Black sacrifices two stones and so as to play 74 and 76 in sente. This paves the road for the sharp combination of 80 and 82, cutting off the white stones from the center. White manages to make a base  but while white is making eyes with 87 and 89 black gets magnificent outer thickness with 88 and 90. White has some compensation in cutting at 91 but, as we shall see, Shusaku has a plan to deal with this cut. I think that 79 is somewhat dubious since black can cut so efficiently at 82. I think that a push up to 80 would have worked better. If black hanes at 80 in response a cut at 88 feels better than where 79 and 81 end up in the game.

Figure 6

92-100

99 at C13

A Bold Plan - Shusaku plays a shrewd series to force a ko in the upper left by playing atari at 92, creating eye shape at 94 and initiating ko at 96. As soon as white takes at 97 he takes the ko on the top. White can't win both the top and left hand ko so has little choice but to fill at C13 with 99 and let black take the top with 100 which.greatly weakens, but does not directly kill, the white stones scattered around here. This is a trade in white's favor but black now has no weak groups, perhaps a parity of territory and a huge lead in influence so despite the loss in the upper left the game still seems good for black. Next time we'll go through the rest of the game and see what happens in the middle game fighting and whether black gets to close the lower left corner or make anything of his moyo. Also important is whether black gets to invade on the right or if white makes shape by playing at at R14.

You can read the rest of the game review in part 2.