Lee Sedol - Gu Li, 4th encounter

Moves 1 to 10  

Black is Lee Sedol, White Gu Li. This is their 4th encounter and the final game in the semifinals of the 9th Samsung Cup.

marks the avalanche joseki. chooses the large variant.

Moves 11 to 20  

Black treats the stones involved in the corner exchange as forcing moves and uses their influence to make the big extension at . The clamp at is a common technique to attack these stones so that they cannot be easily sacrificed. For example, if were at immediately, then Black would sacrifice and play at himself, which would be a smaller sacrifice than the game sequence.

Moves 21 to 30  

Instead of firmly capturing the cutting stones in the lower left, splits the upper side. After a common exchange of pressure and escape, and take the last big points. defies the common knowledge to play at the centre of three stones (a) so there remains some aji in that shape.

Moves 31 to 40  

exploits the aji immediately and forms an empty triangle. Eventually needs to return and capture the cutting stones, so that the solid connection at has made strong influence in sente. White's stones are facing less open area and the opening now seems favorable for Black.

Moves 41 to 50  

splits the lower side and exploits the aji of the two stones once more. We can say they have done their job! On the other hand, White's left corner is very strong, so the job of splitting is more destructive of White's territory than it weakens White's groups.

The cap at tries to attack the black stones on a large scale.

Moves 51 to 60  

White exploits the thinness of the horse head to cut at , after the crosscut. Black remains however unaffected and continues to disturb the balance of territory.

Moves 61 to 70  

peeps and provides some support for the stones at the right, so that can take the time and strengthen the central stones. After Black seems to be firmly in the lead and looks like an emergency measure.

Moves 81 to 90  

While White links up his invasion stones to his lower left group, Black uses the obtained influence to attack the upper side with . The flow remains in Black's favor.

Moves 91 to 100  

Black wraps around the white group and obtains major influence in the centre.

Moves 101 to 110  

is a dual purpose move, aiming at killing the corner or connect at . Next the game becomes complicated with and .

(tbc)