Team loses to Croatia

A late change on each team meant it was going to be close against Croatia in the fifth match of the season. In the end the UK lost three games to one, with Des Cann taking the only win. At the top of the B-League Italy drew and Netherlands won to equal Italy on match points. The UK stayed third, just ahead of Finland on board points tie-break.

League Page with game records

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by 2.5 points to Matej Zakanj (komi was applied retroactively as it was set incorrectly). The opening seemed very balanced - I played a slightly dodgy sequence in the lower left corner but this ended up working in the board position. We ended up with a situation where we each had a large framework in addition to some smaller territories. We traded moves for a while prodding each other's moyos before I messed up a bit and sacrificed a number of stones which I probably could have done more with. Fortunately, the mistakes ran both ways and my opponent's attempt to invade my moyo backfired more spectacularly with a number of dead stones. A half-eyed group of stones escaped, but I was able to take advantage of these to resurrect my old invasion and I took a significant lead (Katago puts me at >10 points ahead). I then went on to lose a shockingly large number of points in the endgame. I would say my biggest mistakes were at the top of the board where I really lost out in territory.

Jon Diamond wrote of his game against Stjepan Meštrovic: More quiet than usual - conceding all four corners should mean I win the game! It certainly generated a lot of thickness and hopefully territory. Perhaps I should have sacrificed some more stones to complete sealing him out though in my lower right corner? My abstinence resulted in a struggle raging through the lower side - not life and death, but struggling over whether he could enter the middle and if not what damage he would inflict to my side. I played slightly too aggressively and couldn’t hold the line, ending with some stones in the wall being captured… Shame.

Jamie Taylor wrote about his game against Lovro Furjanic : I got off to a bad start when I started a fight and my opponent played a good move I hadn't thought of. He played a few slow moves in the ensuing fighting and I might've been doing ok at a couple of points, but ultimately I tried to fight from weaker and weaker positions until it was hopeless and I resigned.

Des Cann wrote about his game against Mirta Medak: I was allowed to form a large lower side and got some thickness whilst her right side group lived. I just needed to reduce the rest of the board. The top left corner was fine although she got territory on the left side. The upper right corner was trickier. There was a frightening moment when I allowed her a ponnuki in the centre at which point. My right side thickness started looking like a weak group so I suddenly had three weak groups not quite connected. However I managed to strengthen my centre, connecting my right side group in sente, before living in the top right. I thought the game was still close but my opponent had a long think before diving into the bottom and thrashing around. She got short of time and everything started working for me with all her invasion stones self destructing. Eventually her ponnuki died as well and she resigned.