Wessex

British Go Journal No. 55. March 1982. Page 24.

This was the deciding game of last years Wessex tournament. Mark Hall, 3 dan, was on three wins after three rounds as was Richard Granville, 1 dan. Comments marked (R) are by Richard, others marked (E) are by the editors.

Black: Richard Granville, 1d
White: Mark Hall, 3d
The game-file in SGF format.

Figure 1 (1-62)

• White 18 - Black 21: I think it is better to omit this exchange, since white loses the possibility of a ko later on. (R)
  The ko arises if white plays 20 one line higher, after the exchange to 24. Then if black extends 9 along the third line white can pull out his dead stone 12 in the corner (E) .
• Black 25: This move is OK but black should expect white to invade in the middle of the extension immediately. (E)
• White 34: This move is hamete. Doubtless I would have fallen into the trap had I not done so already at Linz! (R)
• White 44: Now that Black has found the correct replies at 41 and 43, white can only live in the corner in a very miserable way. Mark tries the more interesting idea of sacrificing the corner for an outside wall, but first he reduces Blacks group to one eye so that any ko which may crop up later will be nice and big. (E)
• Black 53: A small mistake - Black should simply play 55. If White replies with 56, then the cut at 54 looks better than 53; if white 53 instead, then black 57 moves out slightly faster along the side. (E)
• White 62: This is a reasonable result for White as blacks corner is about 25 points and white can start a multi step ko by playing on the corner point. (E)

Figure 2 (63-100)

• Black 63: Awful - A is the only move. White cannot achieve a great deal in the top right. (R)
• Black 65: A bad exchange for 66. Black should reduce the left side (where?). If White invades at 69, Black can handle the situation with moves such as B and C. (R)
• Black 73: Too deep. It is important for both players to count the game before this kind of play. Black would discover that a shallower invasion was sufficient, and White would discover that it was necessary to capture 73 by replying with 91. Therefore...
• White 74: Too slow, He must play 9l and try to capture 73. Eventually 73 did die, but more by Blacks efforts than Whites. (E)
• White 84: It should be clear that White has to cut off Blacks centre stones to win. The next few moves show White successfully persuading Black to let this happen. (E)
• Black 89: Rash.

Figure 3 (101-123)

• Black 101: Very slow, By now Black needs something more imaginative. (E)

I think the outcome of the game is decided by 123, although I played out the game right to the end. White could afford to relax in the yose and eventually won by 13 points. (R)

This game is a good example of a method of winning not so much by playing better than your opponent as by inducing him to play worse than you do. Mark has much experience of this approach. (E)