Li League - Match 14 - Fukuoka vs Igo & Shogi

 

We are getting a lot of Igo&Shogi at the moment and they are next against Fukuoka who don't seem to have lucked out in their pairings.

Pairings

This is basically exactly the same opponents as Match 1. Then Shiho actually managed to beat Rina in a magnificent match! I would be surprised though is she can repeat. Both the other Fukuoka players lost their games though Bun'en by only 16..

Board	Fukuoka	Igo&Shogi	Result	Winner
Board 1	Hoshiai Shiho	Fujisawa Rina	B+5.5	Hoshiai Shiho
Board 2	Yanagihara Saki	Xie Yimin	W	Yanagihara Saki
Board 3	Jo Bu'nen	Moro Arisa	W+R	Jo Bu'nen

Full cast is here

Board 1 - Hoshiai Shiho (White) vs Fujisawa Rina (Black)

Opening

Shiho opened at the star point as did Rina, Black the switched to komoku facing with White ni-ren sei, Black then knight approached the lower left 44 with white ignoring to carry out the same on bottom right komoku. The common attach Joseki started to play out but White took the tigers mouth variant at which point, after a noticeable pause, Black immediately poked at - the default version is for Black to take a base and then poke but in this case that would allow White to take a base and weaken Blacks other Star point stone, White then moved into the extend variant of that and the Joseki played out  with the only slight variant I noticed being White taking a final knight (as opposed to extend)and Black doing the same. Because Black had not taken a base earlier White invaded right in just under the star point. Black again paused at this point before taking a tiny 1 space extension of it's not threatened knight approaching stone and white jumped. This fight now took over much of the continuing play so opening over I think.

Middle

The next group of moves were a combination of White attempting to make life and Black poking/moving out or threatening the white left corner stone.. this continued a while until Black took a wide extension on the right that also undercut white's wall and white returned the favour immediately on the left with an even bigger extension poking at Blacks shape point. The game was still incredibly close at this point but White started to pull ahead as Black had to extend to the center in a stick to try to get a second eye allowing White to take territory on the left going around 2! points in the lead.

Soon after this Black knight enclosed the top right and White took a huge extension to J17 Black responded by a 2 space extension/side cap and White bent around with an elephant eye - Black instantly invaded the 33 on the top left and the standard Large Knight Joseki ensued - with the Sente that gave white Rina decided to not catch cutting black stone on D15 but 33 invade on the top right moving to the ko invasion variant you would expect with Professionals who can handle all the other 'I'll try this and see if they can handle it' that you see in amateur play. Interestingly Black did not start the KO but ignored to strengthen the cutting stone White had ignored

This is when a fascinating battle ensued..White responded by strengthening the top left group of stones at F16 and Black 1 space jumped white then poked at the bottom left connection twice to strengthen the left side as well (Black had to respond). Black then tried to generate an eye by jumping right to G15 - presumably trying to threaten to move into white territory but Rina was having none of it and cut through, Black blocked and White pushed essentially threatening to kill the cutting Black stones

Black then followed through with its threat pushing up the H line and then tried to make another eye at F11. White didn't like this and clamped at F10 which is possibly the deciding move of the game as it instantly caused the G14/13 and possibly F10 stones to be in threat.. Instead of the clamp the following preserves White's lead

Black cannot block at A as otherwise she loses the H16 group instead. Black promptly took advantage with these moves setting up a squeeze play

and Black had all it's groups practically connected

The game was back on a knife edge and White decided to try and utilise Black's ignoring of the KO by clamping at S14, Black instantly started the KO, White's first KO threat was against the top left Black invasion but that was 8 points for black and 6 stones or 28ish points for White whereas the top right was 26 points for Black but more importantly influence just below that group so  Black ignored and took the second ko point White had to carry on with the Ko threat and played D19. Black then  solidified it's position on the right and won.

What a great game and Shiho took out Rina for the 2nd time this league. I love both these players play styles but Shiho might be becoming a favourite..

Board 2 - Yanagihara Saki (Black) vs Xie Yimin (White)

Opening

Yimin started with dual Komoku facing self, Saki went for ni ren sei. Black then 2 space extended the top right 34 with White then knight approaching the other to prevent Blacks potential Moyo. Black responded with a forward moving knight and  white took a rather large extension. Black then knight approached the lower left 44 with White defending with a low knight and Black following up with the attachment Joseki which player out. White gained sente from this and Knight enclosed the other corner allowing Black to then push into White's loose top position rather effectively taking the lead with white losing it's base bar an eye and being forced into the center. White then had to try to make something on the right and the opening was likely over as the fighting started.

Middle

The impression I got was that Yimin - who had easily won the last match and had been unprotected by the team captain from the previous season (the manager had protected Saki instead) so was potentially holding a grudge or at least had something to prove. Anyway she seemed to be playing very aggressively - almost fox like in refusal to allow White any position. The top right fight now spread more generally over the right with Yimin throwing a stone into R6 to threaten an extension stone at S9 and then using that as a springboard for a 33 ko invasion. Now the Ko played out over 16, or so, moves but White's positions, due to the Black aggression, were more attackable so Black easily enough took the KO and the corner and a 5 ish point lead.

 Then came a fascinating little section. White cut at J10 looking to use positions at the bottom and top to potentially do something.

Black was still in a fighty mood so extended the 89 stone down and a gradual increasing pin wheel of threatened stones started, on both sides. Black made 2 mistakes that really hurt. First was connecting 2 hane'ing stones at J7 - the following would likely have been better

So the J7 move here is played a move later but the cut at L6 allows Black to apply enough pressure to move out lightly and have potential connection points to top and left.. As it was Black followed up the triangle with G9 - which is admittedly a Tesuji but in this case has less impact and white solidly connected. Black then descended at M8 which pushed the score in the other direction..

White gained a 'strong' central group from this which might be able to expand out to the left space and keep Black living small at the bottom whereas the other approach would have allowed white to live small but built black more..

Saki never lost the lead after this and came up with her first, well deserved win.

I think Xie Yimin was trying to use psychological aggression to gain a game advantage so I am pleased actually Saki resisted and won..

Board 3 - Jo Bun'en (White) vs Moro Arisa (Black)

Opening

Arisa with Black opened Komoku with white taking the star point facing side. Black accepted the cross start game by going komoku bottom left with white again star pointing. Black instantly 33 invaded the top left and White defended with the old style 3 in a row with Black knighting 3rd. White ignored now and played away by knight approaching the top right with black Shusaku diagonalling.

White then knight approached the remaining 34 with Black ignoring to do the same to the bottom right 44. White then played the default low knight response Joseki with Black attaching (same as the Yimin, Saki game actually) with the exception here being White did not Atari at R5 but instead connected at Q3. Black completed with a 2 space extension and white then did the same at the top.

Since White had let Black out of the corner Arisa started to come out by playing C13, a move Black ignored to double pressure the bottom left 34 with a second approach. Black then diagonalled out with White sneaking into the corner and Black using the position to push White down on the left and bottom. White then switched to the top to secure that Moyo playing J16 forcing? Black to reduce by pushing from the outside.

At this point White started pushing to the center at the bottom and Black started a moyo on the right

Middle

White then tried to reduce Blacks right moyo by reducing itself with a relatively deep poke at Q10 followed by R7. Black then surrounded allowing White to take a base and some territory and to set a KO up.

Excellent players tend to like KO's and Professionals are all excellent players but in this case it liked the KO was a mistake. If Black secured, at any point during the KO, P12 then White was locked in though alive. If White won the ko it could push out into thee center and that is what happened when eventually Black attached at J7 and White ignored to take the KO out..

Look at how secure this Black position looks

versus

At this point white had a lot of territory at the top and Bottom and a tiny amount left and right and Black has ok to the left, tiny to the right and 'potential' that needed realising in the center but White had 2 path's in.

White then reduced from both those springboard and under considerable time pressure now made 2 mistakes that increased whites lead here

Instead the more useful move was potentially the following

This reduces White chance to make a little island around E5

Black then tried to squeeze the little island of stones being setup at F2 but this is unlikely to succeed against a Professional and when white defended another mistake occurred when Black switched attention to play at C11 and missed all the bottom left stones were now not alive as the following could show

It is also worth noting that the mistake above set up this as the alternate play would have kept the group alive. This pushed White almost 60 points in the lead and Black resigned soon after, even without these mistakes though white was 20 up so Black had to take chances.



So Fukuoka win all three and the 2nd place Igo&Shogi are comprehensively defeated with Fukuoka moving to 3rd place in the tables - Igo will still move to the final but it is looking less likely that they will be able to get that key tie breaker they really wanted..

All three games were brilliant and enjoyable.