27th Street

Last night, I played 9 games of Go with Vox, once again winning 5 of them. Most of my wins were by the narrowest of margins, although I did pull off one win on the strength of a huge kill. Here is one of the close games.

The game began with action up at the top of the board. I took some cash in the top left, and made a shimari in the top right that was certainly going to net me some territory as well. The cost to that was 2 uncontested white stones in the bottom corners, one of which got too big for my liking too quickly. Looking at the game today, I think I should have been able to reduce his potential much more effectively in that area.

In the bottom right I gave up a modest corner, but I contained the white group and created strength on the outside. Worrisome, though, was white’s framework in the bottom left, which was already looking like territory. Vox approached my upper left low and from a distance. I chose to make a position on the outside in an effort to keep the white territory from getting out of control.

I was able to turn my outside position into a little cash to mitigate some of Vox’s gains in the lower left corner. He limited that with a 3-stone wall. I made an extension from my shimari which put a little pressure against the single stone Vox had on the right side. I was hoping to be able to launch an attack against that single stone.

Although I wasn’t able to attack the single stone severely, the wall I made against the weaker stones translated into a really good corner in the top right. Vox developed his 3 stone wall creating a loose connection with his stones on the right side.

Vox pushed against my top right group, which enabled him to develop some top side territory. He also monkey-jumped up along the right side for another reduction.

I tried an invasion in the bottom right but not surprisingly, Vox handled that well and my stones died. After the endgame we were neck and neck and black squeaked out a victory.