Resign when winning

   

It happens.

When there's a local setback, a player may resign out of disgust with their own mistake or overall disappointment, while they were actually still ahead.

[Diagram]

Moves 111 to 120

B1 responded to white+circle, reducing the area while attacking White's connection. W6 en W8 deploy a sacrifice technique, gaining liberties for White's string below and allowing to cut at W10 in sente.

[Diagram]

Moves 121 to 122

When Black noticed that the sacrifice resulted in his 3 stones being captured, he resigned. What he (and me, playing White) seemed to ignore is that he was still ahead. Before this local gain for White, Black was up by 15 points at least.

Sure, locally Black had been outmaneuvered.

[Diagram]

Black's proper response was not to take the bait of the sacrifice but play B2 instead. While A is big endgame, strengthening the center activates aji like B and C. Black has a clear lead.


This is a copy of the living page "Resign when winning" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2024 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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