Stacey's Victory

British Go Journal No. 67. April 1986. Page 6.

British Championship - Game 2

Game 1 is on page 4.

Black: Terry Stacey, 5d
White: Matthew Macfadyen, 6d
The game-file in SGF format.

Figure 1 (1-63)

• White 8-28: (M) A sort of joseki, but 15-16 should be omitted to leave black's cutting stones lighter.
• Black 15: (S) Better at 17.
• Black 17: (S) Is better shape if one line to the left.
• Black 25: (S) Is better at 26.
• Black 35: (M) Must play 36 first. Now white gets two eyes on the side and a light cutting group in the centre, instead of a heavy one- eyed group. (S) A blunder. White has a definite advantage already.
• White 62: (M) Slow but almost completes the territory.

Figure 2 (64-120)

• White 78-120*: (M) May look skilful, but actually White loses out here, since black becomes thick and white weak in the centre; also White's good move at 82 disappears. Up to 120, white gets a very weak group and black starts building the side.
  BGJ had 78-102.

Figure 3 (121-200) 169 ko at 125, 172 ko at 134, 175 at 125, 178 at 134, 181 at 125.

• Black 125: (S) May be better at 157, followed by white 158, black 134.
• Black 133: (S) Playing at 140 is not enough.
• White 134: (M) 212 would be safer, but may not be enough.
• Black 135: (S) Seems to be necessary, but unfortunately did't work. (M) The fate of this invasion should decide the game.
• White 156: (M) Kills, but a cutting point remains.
• Black 157: (S) Should cut immediately with the sequence black 189, white 190, black 191, white 192, black 193. (M) The correct order of black's plays seems to be 161, 159, 158, 157. This becomes ko(?).
• White 168: (M) Should be the end. (S) Gives White the game.
• White 188: (M) Absolute lunacy, 193 is quite enough. (S) Looks reasonable, but nearly lost the game.

Figure 4 (201-304) 208 at white , 222 ko at , 225 ko at 219, 228 at , 229 at , 230 at 219, 247 ko at black , 291 at , 296 at 244. 299, 303 and 304 not shown in BGJ.

• White 214: (M) Black is winning the semeai, so white had better kill the centre group, but even that should not be enough. (S) If white starts the semeai the result is ko, and white loses, hence black is now unexpectedly winning. But Black was sufficiently confused about the result of the semeai to waste a couple of moves on it and permit White to regain the lead.

White won by 3½ points.

Game 3 is on page 7.