13 Mar 2010 4 Comments

Match-up against a 9 dan Pro at the Nihon ki-in

With my extended stay in Tokyo, I was lucky enough to schedule a trip to the Nihon ki-in, the Japanese go association. Naturally, the first thing I wanted to do (other than well, cleaning out the English section of their book store) was to play a game against one of their professionals.

Despite the surprise that absolutely no one there spoke English, whereby appointment was made by various comical gestures, I succeeded in setting up a match with Nakamura Hidehito (中村秀仁), a 9 dan professional! I have played against 6p’s before, but never anyone higher.

With a 3 stone handicap, which is reasonably standard for a 9p to give a 6 dan, I was prepared for evisceration. It is then, with great, and pleasant surprise that I somehow managed to win! It certainly wasn’t easy, I was slowly, but steadily losing ground the entire game. But with a 3 stone advantage, I was able to lose ground slow enough to survive to the endgame with a 15 point advantage, forcing Nakamura Hidehito to resign.

Despite speaking no English, Nakamura Hidehito was able to convey the major mistakes I made in the game. I attach the game here, with the variations he presented. Hopefully it’ll be useful!

Black 22: The result is not joseki, but according to Nakamura, quite even. In a handicap game, that means good for me :).
Black 27: Should be more aggressive, at B.
White 48: Not joseki…. I didn’t know how to respond.
Black 49: The cut at D6 would have been better, resulting variation shown in SGF.
Black 91: A mistake I shouldn’t have made, but it wasn’t a major mistake.
Black 95: A good attack, if Black had wasted one move defending corner, it would be just what Nakamura wanted.
Black 147: Game winning move. White was hoping for black to make a mistake here and reduce the middle. With the center secure and all groups solid, white has little chance to reverse the 3 handicap advantage from now on.

by Mile Gu in Analysis, Visiting