Li League - Match 19 - Nagoya vs Wakagoi

 

Penultimate match between Nagoya - who wont want to be last placed and Wakagoi - who if they lose this will likely drop from 3rd to 4th place..

Pairings

The matchups are probably the best Nagoya could ask for. Nyu Eiko has proven herself against some of the elite players recently so is likely the only Nagoya player capable of upsetting Ueno Risa plus should have beaten Risa's older sister in a recent Li League game without a tiny end game mistake. The team Captain Kato Chie has the Wakagoi 3rd string (who  is an aggressive player but has not had much luck in league.. That leaves Takao Mari the Nagoya 3rd string versus Suzuki Ayumi the Wakagoi vice Captain.

Board	Nagoya	Wakagoi	Result	Winner
Board 1	Nyu Eiko	Ueno Risa	B+R	Ueno Risa
Board 2	Takao Mari	Suzuki Ayumi	W+R	Suzuki Ayumi
Board 3	Kato Chie	Okuda Aya	W+6.5	Kato Chie

Full Cast is here

Board 1 - Nyu Eiko (White) vs Ueno Risa (Black)

Opening

Risa with Black took the star point, as did Eiko, Black the  went 34 facing opponent before white did ni-ren-sei. Black then took a large 2 space extension of the 34 and White dived into the 33 top right corner. Initially the new AI knight joseki played out but Risa then extended 3 more times to make a wall with white after this taking an aggessive extension to L16 just past the star. Black ignored and knight approached the bottom left corner and when White knighted back invaded the wide space at the top. White defenced with a pincer/ knight enclosure and Black jumped out. White then jumped the original extension stone out, being unwilling to trade that stone for a currently invadable corner allowing Black to approach said corner with another knight from the other side.. White wasn't keen to give Black an easy side position and attached with a hane, extension, diagonal inside (then white blocked). This upper fight now continued so the opening was over.

Middle

There was some pushing by Black on the left to connect the two groups but white threatened to poke the walls cutting point with Black ignoring to pincer that stone, White then did a great job to force its way through the two groups - generating bugger all points but keeping Black split

The next few moves were key with Black knighting then connecting the wall to the lower section and gaining territory

Eiko knocked over a drink at this point so was distracted which might have been an issue as Risa started accelerating her lead with Eiko resigning when she was around 70 points behind..

Board 2 - Takao Mari (Black) vs Suzuki Ayumi (White)

Opening

This game was a tale of two halves...Mari had Black and took a 34 to start followed by a star, White took a 44 then a 34 facing self. Black immediately hopped into the 33 with Ayumi taking the old school 3 stone pillar sente variation allowing her to knight approach the top right 34. Black Shusaku diagonal defenced and Ayumi took a calm 2 space extension. With Sente Black now high 1 spaced white's 34 and White thought a bit before playing out the old school attach under variation. Black then did an interesting diagonal from the top left corner knight (never thought of that) allowing White an opportunity to repeat the 33 invasion with both players copying the previous top left moves. Black then approached 1 space the top 2 space extension and White thought again before pincering that stone. Black 1 space jumped to the center, White copied from the extension side allowing Black to Bend around the pincering stone.

Taking advantage of the new central strength Black now hane'd top left and a nice sequence of play gave a potential moyo and strength (will try to remember this), White defended the now threatened top which allowed black to bend into Whites top right group. This started a longer fight ending the Opening.

Middle

Now  Black used that attack to force White to live locally and gain a strong group at the top but the game was still really close

Black though next move made a mistake and played N13 which meant the now 6 stones there were at risk of death and the three white stones in the 56,58,60 group were potentially alive. Now these are Professionals so she got half the group out losing only the 11,51 and 53 stones but this now meant that right top right was not blocked and was both immortal and out in the center where there were two Black groups without any eyes to pick on. Ayumi never let the lead go and won happily enough in the end

Board 3 - Kato Chie (White) vs Okuda Aya (Black)

Opening

Both players went star point then 34 facing self, Aya then took a wide extension with White then knight approaching the top right 44. Black then Shusaku diagonalled forward attempting to sketch out a large sideways moyo which allowed White to hop into the 33. Black then blocked and an interesting variation of the 34 knight pincer joseki resolved leading to much the same result with white almost enclosed. Black then repeated the favor and 33 invaded the top left corner and the 3 stone pillar sente defence (Black knighting) was played with White using sente to take the top center star point.

Black now knight approached the remaining white 34 corner with the Shusaku diagonal again occurring. Black then took a wide enclosure/extension on the bottom right. With White promptly extending to close beside it. Black now diagonalled her own left side approaching stone with White then pushing Black down top left with a knight of her own. Black cut in to get some central influence and White secured top and mid left positions forcing Black to go into the bottom left corner for a base itself, for once and almost complete corner, side, center opening has finished with both players broadly even.

Middle

White now started to eke out a small lead by playing stones to threaten Blacks initial 33,35 and 39 stones using the large White wall behind them as the threat. When running white gained small strength. By move 147 White had a fairly sizeable lead but the board was very complex..

 

Black managed to pull some of this lead back in end game (quite a lot actually as White only won by just over 6 points) but the lead was too high for Aya in the end.

Nice win by Wakagoi overall, this ensures the teams order as the final approaches is

Finalists (these play each other on the last match, I am not sure if this match has consequences or if the lead can be flipped)

Finalists
Senko
Igo&Shogi

Wakagoi
Fukuoka
Nagoya