Li League Round 1 Match 1 - Team Igo&Shogi vs Fukuoka

 

1st Match is here! This will be fascinating for many reasons beyond the Go played itself mainly as it will give better information as to how the format will operate and coalesce guesses into information. So we should find out how the teams announce who is on what tables, whether they will go for the 1st board having the stone count for colour or not (and if that rolls down to the subsidiary tables, we wont find out if the opposing team auto gets the opposite colour in the Blitz games until those start - no guarantees this will happen as it could also be home team gets black/white/black etc etc)

Another thing which leaps to mind is in the league match logo above shows 3 of each team members and not 4 so are these the players who will be playing? will is be in that order? At a guess this is a composite shot and not a taken shot?

And an update. Since the match is now 3 days away we have a pairings image

So the boards are not following the above image, Fukuoka went for their captain on table 1 whereas Igo&Shogi put their's on table 3. In terms of ELO strength all of Igo and Shogi are higher than their opponents but that doesn't cover matching/opposing skill sets.

The following will be filled in as the links become available. If any notable casters later cover the games as well in any lecture series then I will eventually add those in as well.

Board One  Xie Ximin 3073 #408th vs Yanagihara Saki 2922 #604th 

So this will be interesting and not unsurprising. Saki is the girl who replaced Ximin as Captain of Fukuoka so you would expect the Igo team wanted this match as an extra impetus for 'you got rid of my but look what you actually lost' Buuuut that only works if she wins. No pressure. Saki is a balanced player so no major style mismatches.

Link to Game play

Link to SGF

Board Two  Moro Arisa Rating 2952 #578th vs Jo Bu'nen 2849 #690th

These are both the weakest players of the team with regard to ELO ratings. Moro apparently favours territorial games and Bu'nen Moyo so we have a potential style difference here.

Link to Game play

Link to SGF

Board Three Fujisawa Rina 3228 #246th vs Hoshiai Shiho 3001 #497th

Eek Shiho has a task on her hands but you would also say that they are friends and familiar opponents so there is no 'new task' pressure here. This is another Territorial (Rina) vs Moyo mix though at this level these are apparent player preferences.

Link to Game play

Link to SGF