Our Team Gets a Fourth Win for the Season

The British team moved up to a creditable fifth position in the B-League by scoring their fourth win of the season. The time it was against Switzerland.

In a late change Andrew Simons played John Walch (3d) on board 1. Andrew writes:

In my game against John Walch we both played slowly and carefully (I got into overtime before move 100 and him not long after), but he made a mistake right at the end which allowed me to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. I avoided a book opening by ignoring his 4-4 approach to approach his 3-4, we had some reasonable josekis. When I pressed his 3-4 he attached and I didn't hane as he had the ladder. He backed out of playing a complicated variation in that corner and stymied my lower side ambitions so I approach the top right, which was maybe bad direction (instead defend left side) as the side was open. Rather than invading there he reduced from the centre and built his own moyo, but then surprised me by invading my moyo rather than growing his top. In the resulting trade he lived comfortably on the left and me on the top. I essentially started the large endgame on move 58 and although we had some trades with me getting into the top side a lot and him making a larger centre (maybe I should have reduced it earlier?) there weren't a lot of swings and it seemed I would lose by a few points. But then at the end he reduced his liberties by putting some stones into atari and I made a ko which he didn't have enough threats to fight and thus gained a few points and won by 3.5. I made more comments if you're interested.

On board 2 Bruno Poltronieri beat Sylvain Praz 1d by resignation.

Alex Kent lost to Sebastien Ott (2d) on board 3:

My game started with a standard Kobayashi fuseki where I played the 2-space low approach to black's stone. I opted for a complicated variation which seemed to give good chances, but I underestimated the power of my opponent's cut (in hindsight I think a different move order may have allowed me to capture the cutting stone in a net). This in itself wasn't game losing and it still seemed interesting, but my opponent subsequently denied me the chance of making a large potential and I found that I just didn't have enough territory. In a last roll of the dice I started a Ko to try and regain some ground - but bad aji inside what territory I did have made it impossible.

Des Cann played Felicien Mazille (2d) on board 4:

My opponent invaded my Chinese fuseki and before seeking safety he invaded again on what would normally be a kikashi point. I separated the stones and enclosed his first group. It lived but at the cost of giving me a great wall (of China?). He leant on my isolated stone on the lower side but I declined to fight there instead invading the left side. A standard but out of fashion sequence occurred where he maximises his corner but with some aji. I outplayed him on the aji settling my group and built moyo in the top right. By now I was well ahead on the board and the clock. He invaded, then reduced and I attacked. He soon had three weak groups; one of them duly died and he resigned.

The team's final match of the season is on 17th May against Poland.

Meanwhile at the top Israel are guaranteed promotion having won all 10 matches. Hungary is likely to get of the play-off match against the ninth placed team in the A-League.

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