Joanne Wins Debut in League Against Austria

Our team lost again by three games to one, this time against Austria. The only win was by Joanne Leung, making her debut in the League on board 4. The next match will be on Tuesday 19th February, against Switzerland.

Andrew Simons wrote: I lost on time against Viktor Lin, from a good position that had just turned bad in an overtime panic. We had a nice opening fight when he allowed my powerful cut at p3: we both had weakish groups running out to the centre, but I got to cover the head at m11 and he didn't make much territory on his half of the board in the process. A fight on the lower side ended with an exchange, capturing a load of cutting stones for good profit to settle my groups. I think c4 was a mistake though (e3 or h2 better), as although I got a ponnuki and sente I lost chances to attack his group which didn't actually have eyes yet; he was obviously going to steal the base of my ponnuki next and pretend to attack it. Afterwards Viktor pointed out that with e2 h1 I had a sneaky ko which I hadn't seen and then ruined with unnecessary g5 atari. We had a fight on the left side as I started overtime, but I didn't simplify so ended up with too many stones to play and played some rubbish and lost.

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by the komi to Schayan Hamrah. Early on in the game there was a fun corner sequence arising from the "standard" AI komoku + one-space low approach, where I gained a nice wall in exchange for giving my opponent territory. I then continued to play an influence-oriented game and by move 79 I was confident that my position was winning - just a case of closing it out!

I maintained my advantage for a while, and my opponent created some juicy targets to attack in the centre of the board. Around this point I really should have cut off some of my opponent's stones to connect my groups but, in a classic case of showing my opponent too much respect, I followed him around for a bit.

Ultimately I launched a splitting attack that should have been decisive, but it backfired: my opponent's groups connected and I gained a weak group (the same one I should have connected earlier)! I did create a ko to disconnect the two groups, but with my weak group it was essentially unwinnable and there was no way back afterwards.

Des Cann wrote: I lost by resignation to Bojan Cvjetkovic. I overplayed in the first corner, then did well on the top side, but should have taken a liberty when I reinforced. So lost the fight there and it was all over.

Joanne Leung wrote: I won by resignation against Lisa Mayer. The game went well in general, but I think pincer would probably be better than my 23. I think she misread 86 and the game ends there.

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