Eric Yoder / Broken Ladder Game

Eric Yoder played a very cool game against Remi Campagnie in the 2022 North American Go Federation Professional Qualification Tournament. Like Lee Sedol's famous 2003 ladder game, it was a victory that relied on a big broken ladder.

The game was played in person and was relayed live to OGS. The kifu is here. The game was discussed in a Twitch steam on the BadukClub channel and saved on their youtube - "Blue Moves & Broken Dreams - Round 9 (semi) NAGF Pro Qualifiers".

The magic began after Eric (Black) played this defensive midgame joseki against Remi (White).

Broken ladder  

Remi ran twice out of the broken ladder.

Broken ladder  

Then Eric played a second little broken ladder, ending with an atari.

Broken ladder  

To the astonishment of the audience, Eric played out the whole ladder even though the marked stone doesn't break it.

 

Broken ladder  

The climactic sequence! Eric cut through to capture White's stones in the north.

Broken ladder  

In the end, both players build immense territories, roughly cutting the board in half; the game goes to scoring and Black (Eric) wins by 6.5.

Final position: Black wins by 6.5 points