Shusaku Game 6 Part 2

Again, I'm in school now so these posts are going to be few and far between, finals are in one month though and then I'll have a bit of free time again. If you're just getting here you might want to start at the first half of the review. And now, the thrilling conclusion to our latest Shusaku game.

Fig 1

 101-129

Remember that black just captured a ko at M15 so white looks to reinforce the stones on top with 1. Black takes the opportunity to seal off the bottom with 2 which, after the forcing move at 3, causes White to invade the corner at 5. Black responds by blocking on the wider side with 6 but then plays a non-joseki move at 8. I did a little research and this is valid when black either highly values the right side or has a lot of supporting stones in the area. In fact it was played by Ishida Akira 9p as white against Takemiya Masaki 9p in the 1995 Tengen tournament in Japan and white went on to win by 2.5 points, you can review the game on Eidogo if you want. It also is hard for white to live in sente against black 8. Notice that after 9 and 11 black could have ignored these to jump in at B2 and do great harm to the potential for White to make eyes locally. If the 3 black stones at C8 were stronger this might have been a viable strategy. After white descends at 13 black turns to the weak group at the top and looks to take profit while destroying White's eye space. Unfortunately white moves out smartly and while black does take a large corner there is still a sense of the stones on the top, both the top center and the upper right corner, being over concentrated. Finally white connects at 29 to secure access to the center.

Fig. 2

130-151

Black strikes at the white group on the bottom with 30 before turning back to lash out at white's group which is safe enough to let white play 33 before connecting to the right through 39. Now black turns to the center with 40 and after building a little thickness with 41 and 43 before jumping into black's territory with 45. Adding in the hane at 47 and at 51 it seems that white has pulled fairly close to even on the board. Certainly black has not gotten much territory in the lower left after building such a large framework earlier in the game. I think white has done well at seizing the initiative so far.

Fig. 3

 52-79

Most of these moves are pretty clear, black defends his territory on the bottom with 52 and white creates some aji with 53. Black plays a series of sente sequences starting with 56 and 58 on the right and then playing the large hane at 60 on the left. After forcing a bit more through 66 black turns to the bottom to make a capture with 68 and 70. Now white plays at 71 to prevent black from taking the corner and notice how 76 and 78 work to create a shortage of liberties in the corner for white. White can''t block at T2 with 79 because he would put himself in atari. This is a nifty sequence that eats away at white's territory on the bottom. After 78 white turns back to block at 79 which is necessary to prevent the ko that black could create by playing at 79 (white pays O1 and black can create a false eye by playing at P3).

Fig. 4

 80-210

Black secures his territory on the bottom with 80 and white responds by cutting through the center with 81. A small fight starts and with 88 and 90 black decides to expand the bottom rather than try to salvage some territory in the central area. White makes time to make the large hane at the top with 91. Black turns to the lower left with an atari at 92 to which white defends with 93 forcing black to connect at 94. Taking sente white builds a bamboo joint in the center with 95 and proceeds to force black through to 203 (3 on the diagram) before turning to defend the lower left at 5. Black makes the sente endgame hane at 6 and because of the bad aji in his shape white has to make eyeshape at 9 which lets black turn at 10 in the lower right. The game is very close at this point and only small endgame moves remain.

Fig. 5

211-245

The final push for both sides is here. This takes us through to the end of the game record and while there are still a few moves to be made around H18 the game is almost over at this point. The record indicates that white won by a single point which gives him revenge on Shusaku for their last game which went the other way by the same minuscule margin. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the game.