Sakata vs Takagawa

  Difficulty: Advanced   Keywords: Problem

Sakata (7p, White) against Takagawa (7p) in the 1952 Honinbo Challenger Playoff.

[Diagram]

Late opening

White W1 is considered too thin. Black played B2 and since White could not allow Black to build on such a scale, Sakata had to play tenuki.

In the following fight all marked black stones (and B2, too) died. Black won by resignation.

Before the game Sakata was considered the favourite. The game was won by Takagawa though, who went on to win the title and held it for many years.

[Diagram]

Final position

What is the status of the white group in the left bottom corner? Can White survive?

[Diagram]

Continuation

Dave Sigaty: It seems to me that B1 and B3 are what happens if Black wants to try to capture White. The play at W4 seems to make miai of a and b. Basically at this point Black is ahead by at least 20 points on the board and so the game ends :-)


Interestingly, this game features Crab Eyes during the opening.


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