ScartolVsOldskyman2003HugeBattle

Moves 71 to 80  

seals up the middle and stabs toward the bottom weaknesses -- more importantly, though, it attempts to make eye space. There was a chance that White could break through, but I had to worry about that later. First, I had to kill eyes. felt really good, and being allowed to make the thick felt even better. And of course, and make the eye there false. Chalk one up for Black!

Moves 81 to 90  

Whithout , White gets dangerously close to making an eye. tries to split Black up, but I kept it together with some pretty slick twisting. looks painful, but it didn't work.

Moves 91 to 100  

is necessary to surround the black stones, but traps White in damezumari. forces the capture (I don't think this is the best use of the aji), and Black is happy to do it. Now the pressure is really on White. This was the first point at which I felt like this might actually work.

Moves 101 to 110  

feels like atari from the wrong direction. If is at , then is sente. is threatening to steal the eye, and White a seemed obvious to me. But White kept up the policy of "no retreat" and it cost him.

jsha: Even better is at , which is also sente. A case of One-Two-Three.

Moves 111 to 120  

steals the eye. If is meant to cut Black off, it seems overconfident. I expected White to use the forcing move to make an eye on the right; but no. worried me a little, but then I got paranoid about a possible snapback near (but it needed another stone at a, so my fears were silly). Then, of course, I realized that White capturing -- although it kept everything connected -- still resulted in a false eye.

Moves 121 to 130  

is a paranoid move which resulted from poor reading. White could have seized sente and finished me off. But instead he tried to kill the black beast in the middle with , which is really close in my opinion. The cut at is also odd, and guarantees the safety of the black stones in the middle there. It also makes it impossible for White to make an eye at a.

Moves 131 to 140  

W130 makes here inevitable. threatens the cut, but is one of them fancy dual-purpose plays. It connects (White can't push because of damezumari, and it falsifies another eye. threatens another cut, but makes a TigersMouth and just helps Black get stronger.

Moves 141 to 150  

threatens the cut at a, but a simple connection would have been too passive. sets up the snapback, but White chose to ignore it. saves , and makes automatic. The throw-in at worried me a little, but I felt like Black had enough room on the side to make two eyes anyway. I expected White to push at b.

Moves 151 to 160  

The final nails go into the coffin. forces , but the cut at does very little. Black makes sure to live on the right with , and if anyone can tell me what does, I'd love to hear it. keeps things connected, but by now it's too late. A calm removes the last margin for error. is a final prayer for Black to slip.

Moves 161 to 165  

But I knew it was over. and makes everything nice and solid. After , White resigned.

THE END

Author: Scartol