22 Feb 2009 5 Comments
Adelaide-Brisbane match report
Thanks to all who played in, observed or otherwise supported today’s Adelaide-Brisbane match on KGS. The final score was 6 games to 2 in Adelaide’s favour. There might be some further discussion and game reviews on Thursday night. Meanwhile, you can entertain yourself by laying bets on which two cities will be next to play a KGS team match.
Here are links to the game records, with some brief and slightly flippant comments by me. In each case, the first named player is white. We agreed to use handicaps according to club ranks rather than KGS ranks.
(I’m giving KGS names only, in case anyone doesn’t want their KGS identity linked to their real name. But I’ll admit to being “xela” onilne.)
Board 1: jackoheart (Brisbane) vs bestedwin
Bestedwin gave a powerful account of the high Chinese fuseki, building thickness and preparing to attack forcefully. Jackoheart’s ambitious play at move 36 met with a violent response, but white skilfully defended his weak group, leading to a close endgame.
Result: B+5.5
Board 2: xela (Adelaide) vs Nighteyes
Nighteyes threw xela off balance from the start by opening at the 7-4 point. Xela responded by building a moyo around the lower right corner, and even managed to kill one of black’s two invasions–but at the cost of leaving severe weaknesses in the centre and top left. Surprisingly, neither of white’s two weak groups died. Nighteyes chose to finish the game with an all-or-nothing ko fight rather than playing out a close but unfavourable endgame.
Result: W+R
Board 3: Greenfuse (Adelaide) vs powidl
This was a fighting game from beginning to end. Powidl’s early attack at move 25 backfired badly, with black forced to make small life in the corner. However, Greenfuse’s invasion at move 44 led to a big ko, and the game seemed to swing back in black’s favour at move 121 with the capture of fifteen white stones. But then white dominated the fighting in the lower left quarter of the board and made up the lost ground very quickly.
Result: W+33.5
Board 4: jasonchan (Adelaide) vs matjet
This game started calmly, but white 16 launched a messy fight. At critical points of this game jasonchan seemed to take the most complicated option each time, leaving heavy groups and cutting points, but his tesuji knowledge was enough to get him out of trouble at each crisis.
Result: W+R
Board 5: Benlaowai (Adelaide) won by forfeit
Board 6: Hello12345 (Brisbane) vs weissm (3 stone handicap)
Both players did a fine job of demonstrating classic principles of handicap go in this game. Weissm built thickness and attacked white’s groups on a large scale, sealing in the invasion at move 32, capping at move 48, and using the resulting thickness to attack white’s central stone after move 81. Hello12345 for his part handled the white stones deftly, saving both weak groups to reach a roughly even endgame position. Black 104 was probably the losing move, with the cutting point proving fatal to the stones on both sides.
Result: W+30.5
Board 7: Kifudancer (Brisbane) vs Onehan (5 stone handicap)
Onehan hasn’t played at the Adelaide University club since more than a year ago, and it seems that he’s improved quite a bit since we last saw him! Five handicap stones were just a few too many for this game. Up to move 38, black’s play was a model of how to attack in a measured way: not trying to kill the white stones outright, just herding them along and securing territory in the process. Black took a firm grip on the top of the board, and the game was essentially decided in the opening. Kifudancer had a small moral victory in killing the lower right corner later, but black was still ahead.
Board 8: aguido (Brisbane) vs Ozball (6 stone handicap)
This was another game featuring many exciting reversals of fortune. At move 28, a mistake by Ozball allowed white to live in the bottom left corner, and white was off to a good start. Aguido built an enormous moyo at the bottom, but Ozball made an even more enormous moyo at the top. White’s moyo got reduced, and black’s got invaded, and the final result came down to a question of who could make fewer mistakes in the endgame.
Result: W+22.5
