Li League Match 2 Wakagoi vs Nagoya

 

So the 2nd Match of the 1st round is due on Friday 16th January - This seems the date and time for the majority of the pool matches. Once this match is over we will have seen four of the five teams and this one involves the last placed team last year - Nagoya and Wakagoi who came 3rd.

Both teams took a very different approach to team building to the other league teams. Wakagoi went for retaining it's players but added an experienced 7 Dan, Nagoya seems to be betting heavily on youth and unexplored potential. In terms of team ratings Wakagoi has the highest combined ELO rating and average ELO rating. Nagoya has the lowest. This is partially because beyond star player and Captain Ueno Risa, Ueno Asami's younger sister they concentrated on experience and rank whereas other teams tended to splash on shooting starts (to a certain extent, the draft rules admittedly impact this).

Pre-Game Notes

We have the board order!

This was interesting as Wakagoi matched Igo&Shogi with the Vice Captain on Board 1 and Captain on 3, Nagoya went for Captain on Board 3 and vice on Board 2. 

Of the matches Board 1 should have Suzuki Ayumi 3076 Wakagoi's vice Captain  with Black versus Takao Mari 2898 - Nagoyas 3rd Player. Syumi is a stable territorial player who makes few mistakes versus a player known for liking the Traditional Japanese art style of Go. Should have similar approaches.

Board 2 has Wakagoi's number 3 Okuda Aya with white ( 2972) versus Nagoya's vice Captain Nyu Eiko (3023). Those ratings are close. Style wise Aya is the teams keen fighter versus the more toolkit Eiko

Finally on Board 3 we have both Captains, with White Ueno Risa (3179) versus Kato Chie (3031). Both having similar stylistic approaches and liking localised fights after calmer starts. If anything Risa is more shape then territory based.

I think all games should be close or at least could be...

Board	Wakagoi	Nagoya	Result	Winner
Board 1	Suzuki Ayumi	Takao Mari	B+2.5Resign	Takao Mari
Board 2	Okuda Aya	Nyu Eiko	W+21.5Resign	Nyu Eiko
Board 3	Ueno Risa	Kato Chie	W+28.5Resign	Ueno Risa

Link to Game Play 1st game starts 11:02, 2nd at 54 minutes, 3rd at 1:41

Board One

Black opened 44 and 34 facing with white doing the same, black then 2 space extended the 34 before white knight approached the other 44 (black just knight off'd). Black repeated that for white and white 1 space extended and in the other corner White large knighted its 34.

Beginning ended with Black semi sacrificing 4 stones to get a wall towards her 2 space left bottom extension, probably also a potential source of KO threats later. White showed her tendency to favour territory though before applying pressure by getting trapped in the opposite corner as well

 

Black tended to be about 4-5 points ahead until around move 100 (which is less than Komi and basically means even)

Around a 100 the confusing fight in the bottom generated a likely advantage for white

As it stood white sealed from the top (2) above and it swung from white up 15 to black up 9, white then caught those points up but the black influence in the upper side and right side was enough to gain a better end game. The following move in  particular being frowned on by AI

The casters watched even shouted 小さい (chiisai 'small') at this point though all that did was swing the points back to +1 black.

Black won by +2.5 in the end

Link to Game Record for Board One

Board Two

Both players started 44 points and there then occurred no less than 3 - 33 invasions. I liked Blacks ploy here as it used the sente from the 2nd to get the extension, when white then 33d the top right Black used it's sente to knights approach the final 34 which white was then able to wide pincer which allowed Black to pincer

Advantage was still 0.7 points to white at this point!

Black then built up influence but white had the territory and was able to gradually eat into the potential territory increasing score by the move almost

Game ended when white playedA2 which allows black to generate a KO but as white was 37 points up dropping to 19 when the KO option enabled I doubt it would have helped.

White wins by 21.5

Link to Game Record for Board Two

Board Three

Black started 34, white offered a diagonal opening by playing the other top side 44, Black accepted with the bottom left 34 and white took the other 44

Black then Large knighted a 34, white 1 space high approached the other with a simple Joseki running out giving Black sente to invade the other 33 and White moved to another common corner Joseki with the double hane seize the corner in gote variation, Black then used it's sente to Knights approach the Large knight with White pincering

Things were broadly equal and Black now attempted a reduction by playing into M6 which is slightly behind White lines my first thought here was it was a sacrificy type play as after white defended points Black one spaced jumped on the side giving a potentially nice moyo but white then cut between the two groups and made it run for its life (else White grabs a large bottom)

The beginning of the start of the deterioration though was here.

Risa really likes localised fighting and prefers shape that allows her to fight. So it could be argued that it might be risky getting involved in these sort of fights. Chie is also known for liking complicated variations and out reading her opponent.. Anyway Black played K3 when AI thinks it should have extended to O4 Essentially by not doing that it semi killed the 7 stones on the right giving instead a stick with no points as the result of it.

White then carried out the same trick in the upper section of the board and essentially locally killed another right group as 'pay' from letting a left group live

And that was essentially game though end game was then played. White wins by 28 points and an impressive game for Risa.

Link to Game Record for Board Three

So Nagoya takes it 2 to 1. I suspect Ayumi might be kicking herself as her game was razor edged all the way through. Aya's was mainly even but the talented Eiko managed to gain those incremental advantages. Game 3 showed the risks of playing to one of the top players strengths (potentially, though there is an argument for up and coming players to beard the beast in their lair (so to speak))