Li League - Match 18 - Fukuoka vs Wakagoi

 

Down to the final games! Both these teams knocked the two finalists down in style recently and both would likely love to be 3rd place in the rankings so a win here likely also gains a tie break..

Pairings

So that looks like conceptually even  games are out of the window... The 1st board has Fukuoka's Captain vs the Wakagoi 4th string Kobayashi Izumi but the Kobayahi family are practically Japanese GO royalty. I would expect Shiho to win though. Board 2 has the likely decider game with the two vice captains going head to head. Neither did well first set of games though Saki seems to have shot up in confidence. If I had to bet I would say Saki. Finally the Fukuoka 3rd string Jo Bun'en versus Ueno Risa. Bun'en is unlikely to be phased by her opponent but should lose - Risa though only just beat Moro Arisa to get through to the final of this years female Honinbo and her opponent there will be Hoshiai Shiho

Board	Fukuoka	Wakagoi	Result	Winner
Board 1	Hoshiai Shiho	Kobayashi Izumi	B+R	Kobayashi Izumi
Board 2	Yanagihara Saki	Suzuki Ayumi	W+R	Suzuki Ayumi
Board 3	Jo Bun'en	Ueno Risa	B+R	Ueno Risa

Full cast is here

Board 1 - Hoshiai Shiho (White) vs Kobayashi Izumi (Black)

Opening

Black opened 44 then 34 facing self and White dual 34 facing opponent - which was interesting. Not unexpectedly Black actually spent a little time pausing to consider what to do here before taking the standard 1 space high approach to one (bottom left) 34 point. The standard Joseki almost played out with White taking a high knight instead of a 1 space extension and Black extending 2 spaces further then (usual). White now grabbed a 2 space enclosure of its upper left corner which meant it was looking for a potentially large moyo on the left and Black again spent some thinking time here before knight approaching White's bottom left open skirt. White knight defended (I need to learn to do this and stop kicking..) and Black then took a huge 5 space extension/corner approach causing White to pause before diving in favouring attacking the stone closest the top left corner extension.

 
Some localised combat played out with Black sacrificing the 13 stone to build a position and reduce. White actually seemed to get the worse of the conflict when Black managed to strengthen the sacrifice and by pushing the edge force a white 2 stone pillar allowing Black to threaten to both live and kill a clump of white stones. Now white in return was potentially in the center but it cost Black six to seven points to do this. This fight not spilled over the board so Opening over...

Middle/End

After a few more moves to potentially get that group (if Black was willing to give White a Sente move on the rest of the open board) White switched to pushing the F4 group into the now stronger White locally so Black had to run up with White following. When Black had pushed enough to allow a connection to the top left mass she started to hane right giving White and Black two new groups to handle. White now decided to free offer to free it's trapped group in return for Sente but Black refused taking the KO then the entire group and 16 points. This allowed White two right groups to gain strength but Black was unconcerned as it has two corners to build off of and in the course of White taking a few points top right almost killed all the top left. White tried to stop that but Black was to strong.

Great win by Izumi. 

Board 2 - Yanagihara Saki (Black) vs Suzuki Izumi (White)

Opening

Saki with Black took almost the same opening as Shiho in the previous game with dual 34s facing opponent. Saki though went diagonal in a cross game. White took a 44 and 34 facing. White knight approached the 34 with Ayumi Shusaku diagonalling, White then took a large knight extension of the bottom left 34. White used Sente to knight approach the other 34 corner (top right) and Black also Shusaku diagonalled. with white taking a 2 space extension for a base. White now finally knight approached the last corner, Whites 44 stone with White pincering and Black invading the 33 and the standard sente block variation occurred. With sente White now pincered the bottom right approaching black stone that Black had neglected to make a base for and another common Joseki ensued with Black diagonalling out. White took another two space base and Black snuck into the corner allowing White to take a3 space and a half extension to the L row.

Black now pincered the C12 pincering stone with both players jumping out 1 space once before White 2 space approached the bottom left large knight (beautiful opening theory game so far).

Finally Black kicked the P17 stone to strengthen the top right corner with White making a stone pillar before Black took a small extension to also threaten whites right side group. White ignored to hop into the middle of Blacks potential moyo to the left and the opening is finally over.

Middle/End

To this point the game was exactly even but as Black capped and tried to attack whites stones invading the bottom left moyo with White pushing to escape (it was a big hole on the F line) black made a small mistake by killing 3 whites stones where there was plenty of space to make more points elsewhere. White took instant advantage by playing F11 and threatening a row of unsupported Black stones..

That group isn't likely to die but it likely gives the white group above points. Black then switched to giving the bottom right group life by trying to joint the two together allowing white to strengthen the group below and above at the same time.

When White turned her attention to the top left she poked the top and Black blocked at J17 allowing White to kill the entire center top - Black tried to make a magic turnaround but failed with White being 70 points ahead when Black resigned.

And for those following the sgf

Board 3 - Jo Bun'en (White) vs Ueno Risa (Black)

Opening

Risa and Black went for a Moyo game (which is unusual in this league) opening into something like a high Chinese (the central stone was higher than the usual) . White went ni-ren-sei then followed with the standard anti Chinese of taking the bottom central star point and white then took a 1 space enclosure of her 44, white matched and then Black 1 space approached the central lower star point stone. White ignored to take the other central location at the top giving Black the chance to hop into White territory with a knight approach of the lower left 44 - note White central lower star point stone means the stone is auto pincered but there is space. White 1 space extended in response and Black knighted into the corner. White diagonaled that stone to prevent further incursion and Black knighted once more in the opposite direction threatening the now lonely lower central star stone

Middle/End

White lightly jumped out 2 spaces obviously deciding trying to save would be a bad idea and Black chased to make territory on the right. White instant sacrificed potentially a stone deep in Blacks moyo allowing her to capture a Black stone and get some shape along with a potentially huge moyo.. White then threw in a few lone invading stones obviously left to provide some Aji later on. Black promptly started pushing into the said moyo (and at one point AI decided White was in the lead breifly. I can't see to much different between it and the recommended moves though

Black gave that E7 group life and also had the H9 group poised to cause trouble. The fighting became general now with Ueno Risa doing her standard impressive job of letting her opponent decide which of her stones are dying i.e here

And later she sacrificed her own corner to allow her to set up a KO to suck up most of the top points here

Both sides lost multiple groups but a great fighting game and Wakagoi manages a clean sweep. They still might end up behind Fukuoka is they lose badly in their final match (against Nagoya on the 8th August - which will be a busy weekend as Senko go head to head with Igo&Shogi the day before)