UK Gobbles Up Turkey

The UK team kept their unbeaten record in the Pandanet B League by beating Turkey 3-1.

Chris Bryant was first to finish; he said: Got off to a good opening, tried to build up a big moyo and was allowed to do so. My opponent got a group cut off, which I then harassed to turn that moyo mostly into territory, and it was a very comfortable game from there.

Jon Diamond played a very entertaining game and said: Got off not too badly, but then he pressed a bit too much and I counter-cut creating a weak group of his in the centre, but with one of mine not quite having 2 eyes and another floating a bit, I needed to be careful. (His corner has group looks OK and he has to leave his weak group to try and capture my other one. No go there, but he squeezes out along the side and lives in my corner - damn.

OK, now need to surround his one eyed group in the centre - I’m not sure I can kill it, but will make a big territory anyway. Made a silly mistake in the semeai and lost 12 stones, rather than capture another 20 or so - damn again! But the territory I’d made was more than sufficient to seal the win.

He tried to live in it, surely he can’t(?) and made it - damn again. Still at least 15 points ahead though, so another more desperate effort to live inside my territory after I started playing yose. Came to nothing, so he resigned. Carelessness almost cost lives.

Des Cann was our only loss; he said: A blunder in a corner put me behind. I caught up somewhat playing more strategically and then a fight at the bottom looked a little better for me, I felt, as he two weak groups. However another mistake let him off the hook. Difficult then, I needed a good centre. Got closer to him but I still needed to play all out. Got a ko on the top side which could have won the game for me but he had too many internal ko threats and I had very few. So instead I lost the ko and he went further ahead. No coming back after that.

Andrew Simons played a very long game, with the death of a group eventually forcing the opponent to resign. He wrote:

My game started with a standard joseki, but then he did a weird old one with descent to 2nd line instead of pull back and I answered with a weird nobi that Takagawa played against Kitani and felt I got a decent result extending in front of his shimari. Later I invaded his lower side and he made a shoulder hit as a pre-emptive ladder breaker so I had to live more submissively; but he played inconsistently in attaching to my corner to prevent a link up there, but then going back to spend a move there later so I lived by scooping out lots of his territory without losing my corner.

He then pressed my side to build the centre but I resisted, allowing myself to get cut. He defended the wrong cut probably thinking I didn't have the ladder for the other, but I would squeeze him to an ugly dumping so did well in the fight (but probably should have haned instead of one point jump in the centre as my group there still felt vulnerable once his cutting stones connected out).

Next he offered a ko and I accepted though I probably should have just defended the side, let him win the ko and take the last big point, but instead I played the ko and he ignored my not-so-amazing ko threat and invaded the side, so I had to be careful of some weak groups as I was entering overtime. He started a pretty desperate ko in the ensuing fighting, which I eventually won leaving some bad aji in his surroundings, but when I poked at it he overplayed trying to gobble me up (he was in overtime by now) and instead I killed a bunch more stones for a good lead.

In the endgame he tried a few more desperate reductions; I played a poor timesuji so he did gain about 20+ points but was still behind and I got sente to tease him more in the centre; he then ventured further into my territory with his weak group so I cut him in the centre, he defended one side so I cleanly killed the other and he resigned. A comfortable win in the end, though I should have tidied it up sooner.

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