The Insei League on KGS has Australia’s own An Younggil 8p participating. In the KGS English Room on February 27 (1pm GMT, 11pm Brisbane time), there will be a live review of his game against Ilya Shiksin 8d. They invite everyone and anyone interested to come and watch; they’re hoping to get a record number of observers, and will repeat the event later on if they do.

At the very last minute, we’ve arranged a teams match between Melbourne (MU-SPGO and the Victorian Go Club) and Brisbane (Brisbane Go Club and QUGS). It’s on at 2pm Brisbane time tomorrow (Sunday the thirteenth of December) in the Australia Room of the KGS Go Server. More details at Sensei’s Library.

This is an annual series of teams matches between cities held in the Australia Room on KGS. After the first match for 2009 the current standings are: Adelaide 2 points, Brisbane 0.5 points, the other capital cities no points. Teams are self-organised, although Brisbane’s is easy (there’s only one club in the city and by definition I know where they all live). There are (were?) teams from Adelaide and Brisbane, and sniffs of a team each from Sydney(-ish) and Melbourne(-ish). No word from Canberra or Perth yet.

If you want to join in/watch/mock, details are on the wiki page, or comment on this blog entry. Get stuck in….

(hat tip: Rene Hexel, Australia Room regular on KGS)

Update:White by resignation after one hundred and eighty-four moves. The SGF record is here in the KGS archives.

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

Following the success of the Brisbane-Keio match, Adelaide has decided to join the party. The inaugural Adelaide-Brisbane match will take place in the Australia room of KGS on Sunday 22nd February. Games will start at 3 p.m. Adelaide time (2:30 Brisbane, 3:30 Melbourne/Sydney, 4:30 a.m. GMT).

Come and cheer for your favourite team, or laugh at our mistakes–you choose!