Professional Commentary

British Go Journal No. 54. October 1981. Page 24.

Black: R Borcherds, 5k
White: G Bayliss, 3k
The game-file in SGF format.

This game was played in the evening after the British Lightning Tournament. The players were two kyu players who had both done particularly well in the lightning tournament earlier. Black was R Borcherds 5 kyu, and white was G Bayliss 3 kyu. They played on the back of the stage and Mr Nagahara, professional 6 dan visiting from Japan, commented on the game from the front of the stage, Stuart Dowsey translated. What follows is a reconstruction, so far as we can remember them, of Nagahara's comments.

Figure 1 (1-101)

• White 26 - Black 29: White should not play this exchange.
• Black 31 - 39: Black should not force White to make territory but just hane round the top of 6.
• Black 39: Black should connect solidly.
• Black 55: It would be better to connect.
• Black 57 - 69: White gets a very good result out of this sequence.
• Black 79: The hane is disasterous, black should just push up to 82 because of the aji of the cut at 84.
• White 88: Correct. At this point Nagahara asked Stuart Dowsey how strong the players were and was impressed at how well they were playing for their grades.
• Black 89: Nagahara grunted.
• White 92: White should sacrifice this stone and push through between 45 and 89.

Figure 2 (101-167)

• Black 109: Black cannot make the one point jump because White can attach to 13 and cross cut. Instead Black should put a stone immediately next to 13.
• Black 111: Black should play at 118 because it is very large.
• White 112: White should ignore 111 and protect against 118.
  (BGJ erroneously has W122 here.)
• Black 113 - Black 115 Large, but 118 is larger.
• White 116: Should just connect at 118 because the hane and connection is sente.
• Black 119: Now Black should protect against the attachment to 13 and cross cut. This is the big issue that both players are missing and continue to miss for the whole game.
• Black 121: Large.
• White 140: Should be at 141, which either lives or connects up.
• White 146: Very bad because it cuts down White's gain from the attachment and cross cut mentioned earlier.
• Black 149, White 150: Though neither player noticed it, this exchange opens up the possibilities in Dia A.
• White 166: White should cross cut as shown in Dia B. It is several points better.

167 moves recorded.
White won by 3 points.

Dia A

Dia B