[OGS] A giant Tygem fight on OGS

Well, I’ve never played a game on Tygem; however, judging from how people have described it to me, this game would have been right at home there: 266 moves of sheer terror.

B+66.5; 0.5 deom [덤; komi]

I’ve never done this before, usually I end up in very territorial games where the opening moves and the initial middle game (when not a handicap game) kinda decide who wins. But here, after a typical three-star-point-on-either-side setup, my opponent just tore right in, no regard for territory… attack, attack, attack, nuclear attack, biochemical attack, and eventually a suicide attack. At one point he was clearly ahead, and if he just defended and marked his territory he would have won, but he just continued on the offensive while I sniped off pieces off what could have been his territory. So lets look at some of what went down in this showdown…

In the white corner, taking one stone handicap, at 20k OGS rank, all the way from Chile: LevLynch, The Mauler! *applause* And in the black corner, at 21k OGS rank and an ELO rating of 82, from Korea and/or South Africa… HeJin, The Obsessive Blogger! *applause*

Round 1

Black goes for the star point, followed by white doing the same…Both sides are following up with Black going for the high Chinese opening, while White is opting for a version of the sam-yeon-seong po-seok [삼연성 포석; sanrensei fuseki]! Clearly they are moving to secure influence on their respective sides, and this will possible turn into a very influence based game with some nice scrapes in the middle for the centre territory… It surely will be an exciting game.

Black approaches, but wait… White is not responding as expected, moving to perhaps secure something on the upper side! Black 9 is trying to secure the upper left corner, and white 10 attaches… White 12 is making a diagonal move from the occupied star point on the right upper side. Black 13 again defending the corner. White 14 attacks and Black 15 extends. It looks like a fight is erupting there, and yes Black isolated the stones, but white doesn’t give up… After a few exchanges it looks like the fight turned into Blacks favour, having surrounded White with only one definite eye.

But wait, white is continuing the fight, going around into the corner… No! Black’s three stones died! What a simple reading mistake by Black, surely White is alive in the corner now! Black makes a dash for safety with 37 at L14.  But white is not giving up, he’s going after the rest of Black’s stones… It is a harsh fight, a tough fight… No! White 56 kills almost all of Black’s stones on top!

Round 2

Black is at least 82 points behind now… This will be an uphill battle from hereon. There are a few exchanges, and White kills the remaining three black stones at L14. Black starts to make territory on the bottom, and white does likewise on the right side. It looks like Black needs to play aggressively to even catch up, let alone win.

Another fights brakes out on the lower side, spilling towards the right… Black tries desperately to protect what little territory she has left, while White relentlessly moves forward… It is turning into resignation time for Black, slowly but surely…

But wait… Black 129 at L9… this might save Black’s stones around N7… And yes! It does! Oh but what happened? White 132 at K8 is suicide for the 9 White stones at L8! And yes, Black takes them! Still this isn’t enough, Black has 80 points to catch on.

Round 3

White will clearly defend; a quick count shows he’s still ahead, and defensive play will secure him the territory he needs. But wait, Black is going on the offensive, using her secured stones as a base of attack, keeping connected through diagonal and one point jumps… He’s surrounding the white stones on the left! But white isn’t defending there, or making eyes… There at most is one eye now! Ah! Black 187 kills the group… At this point it is unlikely that the required eyes can be made… A black eye for White in this ferocious game… Black has almost caught up…

Black marches on… Oh look, a skillful sort of semi double dansu [단수; atari] appears as Black plays 205 at E9! And White loses four more stones… But Black manages to force another such trap with 209 at D7, and White this time chooses to sacrifice two stones rather than lose the four on the left side. Now Black has caught up… As long as he doesn’t lose the corner, this game is Black…

…

It was actually exhilarating… and I felt more confident about my reading and fighting skills afterwards… So I’ve decided to pay some attention to my Tygem account, and go have a few epic slaughter-fests on baduk boards over there.