UK Beat Switzerland to Claim Third Win

In the third round of the B-League for 2020-2021 the UK played and beat Switzerland. There was a big gap in time between Jon Diamond's win and that of Daniel Hu, with that last game lasting not much short of three hours when the opponent's cuckoo clock reminded him it was bed time and he resigned. This kept the UK team in top position, with Italy beating Finland to move up to second place, a point behind UK.

League Page with game records

Daniel Hu wrote: I won by resignation against John Walch. This was the last game to finish, with plenty of tiring calculations.

My opponent made a mistake in the upper left 3-3 invasion fight, losing 2 cutting stones early on after which the game was easier for me. He set up several weak groups over the board which all managed to live (though I kept wondering if the upper right was a ko, but didn't try it as I felt I was ahead). There were many kos into the endgame. I developed a large moyo from my thickness from ending a ko with a few ponnukis, but didn't manage to kill him, only gaining some territory. In the end I was leading by around 20 points or perhaps around 15 depending on if the lower right was his territory or thousand-year ko.

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by resignation to Flavien Aubelle.

The opening went in an interesting direction, where the bottom of the board had two symmetrical corners, but at the top I had a much more influence-oriented position. The AI overlords suggest that this is a balanced position, but I've tended to find that playing the influence-oriented side of these positions is harder, and this time was no exception.

I proceeded to play too passively in the centre, trying too hard to make territory. When Flavien attached on the right-side I knew that I needed to prevent him from making a strong position in the centre, but proceeded to choose a variation which gave him exactly that. I played on a little longer trying to introduce some complications, but it was pretty hopeless.

Jon Diamond wrote about his game with Sébastien Ott: I won, moderately easily by killing a group of his in a semeai in the middle game. It was a ko, but a multiple step one and he didn’t have any large ko threats. I thought he could have done better in the final fight, but…

I had decided to play a bit more conservatively, but it didn’t turn out like that, as I let the group that turned into the semeai get a little too close to death, in exchange for some large positions elsewhere on the board. In reality I don’t think he had a great deal of chance after he let my left hand side group live, whilst leaving good aji for me in the lower left corner and lower left centre.

Des Cann played Benoît Felix with a strategy based on creating and saving weak groups inside the opponent's sphere of influence, then attacking hard their weak groups in his sphere. Des ended with two medium territories against one big one and managed to win by 4.5.