Li League - Match 20 - Igo & Shogi vs Senko

 

Final team match before the finals has the two finalists matching off. The actual finals will involve all four players of each team playing and the 1st place finisher wins on a draw (2 wins each) if either of the captain or co-captain win. Therefore getting 1st place is important but last year the finals involved the same two teams with Senko in 1st place and Igo&Shogi won.

Pairings

Interesting pairings.Senko have gone for the strongest team but Igo have put their 4th string in.

First match has Xie Yimin versus Tsuji Hana - which is a replay of the first round game where Xie Yimin won but Hana had chances. Second board has the Senki vice Captain Mukai Chiaki versus one of the younger players Takayama Nonoka. Finally the replay everyone wants of the ladies number 1 versus the ladies number 2 - Ueno Asami versus Fujisawa Rina - I think the current head to head between these two players is 26 wins for Asami with 25 wins for Rina. 

Board	Igo Shogi	Senko	Result	Winner
Board 1	Xie Yimin	Tsuji Hana	W+R	Xie Yimin
Board 2	Takayama Nonoka	Mukai Chiaki	W+R	Mukai Chiaki
Board 3	Fujisawa Rina	Ueno Asami	W+R	Fujisawa Rina

Full Cast is here

Board 1 - Xie Yimin (White) vs Hana Tsuji (Black)

Opening

Hana had Black and opened 34, Yimin White star point then Black accepted the diagonal game with another 34 and White again 44'd. Black then enclosed one corner with White instant knight approaching the other. Black knighted back and White instantly went of common Joseki and pincer knighted that stone...Black pincered the upper stone in turn and a bunch of messy security moves ensued. Both players even here but white has the corner and an 3 spaced based group on the right which might make a moyo if lucky .

Move 21 normal opening service resumed with a Black knight approach to the top left white star stone. White knighted and Black attached on the inside leading to a Joseki where Black left a B17 stone hanging to knight approach the other star stone. White ignored both to shoulder hit the enclosed black corner and once Black defended then pincered the Black stone (nice gives a semi position) Black then hopped into the corner and the usual Joseki played out with White facing the wider less supported left side (again nice)

White now split the Black left forcing Black to connect the handing stone as it's groups position was less safe. This allowed white to take a wide extension and the fighting started to spill into the center.

Middle

Black was able to attack this to start to gain a small advantage but Yimin is excellent apparently with both little time and chaos. It was way beyond my capabilities to work out what was safe and what was at risk. Yimin steadily increased her lead though until Hana resigned when about 42 points ahead.

Board 2 - Takayama Nonoka (Black) vs Mukai Chiaki (White)

Opening

Nonka with Black opened ni ren sei and White responded with a star point and 34 facing self. This was immediately approached 1 space high and the standard Joseki played out with the exception that Black knight approached the other corner. Causing a pause before White plonked a stone about where the extension canonically should have been. Now without a base Black made a large knight jump towards the center allowing white to take a 1 space enclosure bottom left which Black immediately poked (and White connected). Black then used this to bounce back at the invading stone on D9 with a shoulder hit. This now degenerated into wider fighting so opening over.

Middle

After both players had increased strength in that area (though white looks distinctly blobby to me) Blac made a san ren sei. White ignored to hane top left border allowing Black to take an enclosure on the sanrensei a more interesting approach was made against the top right star point which had a knight enclosure at this point. Useful attack to know I think..

Nonoka has been doing well but things started turning pear shaped with some decisions that strengthened White more than Black like here

So yes this forces White to play B15 allowing Black to drop to B14 forcing White to capture allowing Black to reinforce the other side of this position but it makes White's top also strong.. Both players now missed kills until Black played this allowing White to kill almost the entire center with H10 which Chiaki promptly did

Showing that Professional players can also get really focused on things that they should let go Nonoka continued to try to save those stones and White kept them dying until eventually she resigned being 62ish points behind!

Board 3 - Fujisawa Rina (White) vs Ueno Asami (Black)

Opening

Not a common opening here for Black. Asami opened star point then 53 point! White went for star point and 34 facing opponent. Black then 2 space high approached this and White knighted forward. Black then enclosed the 53 corner and White knight approached the top right 44. Asami then played her large knight response (which she has recently covered options on in her new book . Black extended and pincered this stone back again allowing White sent to knight enclose the last corner. Black knighted from the other side and White ignored to take a bottom center point, a semi very wide pincer?, Black took away the base one side and protected its own corner and at this point White kicked the approaching stone now a good sized base was gone.

Middle

This bottom fight now caused one of those confusing multiple group battles eventually leaching into the right corner as well. White had the best of the fight with no major mistakes and white getting 10 points up.

At 78 white hopped into the White large knight corner and played out the Joseki and I personally think Asami looked a little uncomfortable at this.

The position was still fairly equal but I think the position being so busy in the bottom of the board meant the wall this approach is meant to gain has less impact as there is less space to dominate.

Anyway Rina never let her 10 points lead slip gaining a great win and bringing their head to head level.

So Igo&Shogi drew the group games with their rival with both teams having six team wins and 14 individual match wins..

This meant I had to go investigate what the 3rd tie breaker was as I hadn't seen it but I did find it and the 3rd tie isssss Captain record and if the Captains are tied the 4th tie breaker is co-captain record (before no doubt going into SOS and similar)

Anyway Ueno Asami has only lost this one match and Fujisawa Rina actually lost 3 (her first match against Ueno Asami and both matches to Hoshia Shiho) so Senko is the 1st placed team having the advantage in a 2-2 tie in the final if either Ueno Asami or Mukai Chiaki win.

What Senko need is for Asami and Chiaki to get favourable matchups or to actually win then it doesn't matter how the remaining two do (and I think the two remaining Igo&Shogi have had more success in the Li League at least so far).

Final to come in two weeks then no doubt there will be another team member shake up (they are in 'sponsor us mode' for next year currently.