David’s Go Dojo

Here is the board at the final position, which with the prisoners shown to the left indicates that I won by 26 to his -1. In fact, there were even more changes, as neither of us had noticed some other group of stones that would have tilted the score more in both directions, but the essential point was that I had a solid victory. This is now my second victory at two stones with Bob, and after the next, we move finally to a 1 stone advantage.

This battle was very long, and in fact I was almost afraid I was going to run out of stones by the end, as there were only 10 or 15 stones left in the bowl. There were a great many captures, some clever and some not as much.

One decisive turning point was when we noticed that a group of his stones in the lower right corner were already completely surrounded, and thus dead and should be removed. He had been playing for life and death, and this sudden change in fortunes, after he had made a critical move, was devastating. Although it was only like 5 stones (small), we both agreed afterwards that it was when the tide turned decisively in my favor.

When we began combat at the beginning (fuseki), he attached and refused to leave in the upper right corner (shown rotated here to the upper left). We fought and it looked good for me right off, when I took this picture:

I think things are looking good for black here, I feel pretty positive that I can eradicate those two white stones with only two liberties remaining, and thus solidify position into the corner. So, it turned into a pitched battle and I next took this:

This shot was right after he said, “That look, on your face. You just realized that you’re screwed there, in the corner. Heh heh.” And he’s right, Black had killed white, but had also run out of liberties as well, and he had more than I no matter how I cut it. It was a disaster, and I had to cast about for somewhere else to take the fight. I plunged in, and fought hard everywhere I could.

In some places, I managed to play some thought out sequences with his assistance that continued to favor me, including one critical spot where I linked my growing corner influences…Obviously, at the end, I won. I get one more game at 2 stones, and then we enter a new phase of my go training. I look forward to my next victory!