Self atari in the Finals of the Female Kuksu - Game 3 of 3 !

Hey,

 I created this blog a bit less than two weeks ago, and it will be reaching 1000 hits by the end of the day already. It's really a pleasure to see that you all enjoy the reviews and the Go News (thank you all for your feedback !)

 A strange thing happened yesterday, in a pro game, I'm not even sure I should review it here : A self atari. Again ? yes. This time it was in a Title game tough. The game was between Kim Jaeyoung 1p and Park Jieun 9p, it was the last in the best-of-3 Finals of the Female Kuksu, in Korea. The record was 1-1 before that...

 The game was really beautiful (you can find the Final series below, uncommented)The flow of the game was very natural, since the early fuseki, and in the end, Park Jieun would win by 2,5 points, achieveing the Kuksu with a score of 2-1. If only she hadn't self-atari'ed. After 6 hours of play, she was probably losing focus, having counted multiple times that there was nothing left for her opponent to catch up, and she finalled filled a ko, which happened to put herself in a capturable position.

Park Jieun 9p (left)
Kim Youngjae 1p (right)











This is definitely not the first time we've seen such a sad ending, in a pro game. But as far as I recall, this is the first it happened in a Title Game, more especially, in a "last of the last" Finals game. A pity, really.

 Another interesting news. Gu Li was defeated at Round 1, in the 27th Mingren (chinese Meijin), by Jiang Weije, completely outread from the early beginning, thanks to a brilliant play by Jiang that Gu Li had probably overlooked (the descent on first line, on the right side - see the game below too). 

 Also, I'm preparing a lecture, which will be an interactive one, hopefully. For that purpose I prepared you a sample of "Irisxww" 's games, a strong 9d on tygem who always plays unusual moves (and surely unexpected). This will be the topic of the lecture. "How to react against an unseen-before move?". 

What would be great is that : 

1/ you take a look at the sgf (you can even download it) 

2/ Use your own records in which you had to face really strange, unexpected moves or variations, to add some more samples to the sgf (or create anther sgf) 

3/ Write down your thoughts about those moves, yes, all your thoughts. From the "omfg what the hell is that?" and the next thoughts. This will help me see if your "thinking process" is correct, and will make it easier for me to help you correct it. 

 This is sort of a homework, yes. Play the game, take 30 minutes to remember unexpected joseki variations, seemingly bad-moves, anything odd. And take 5 minutes for each to explain how you'd react, why / why not, how and so on. And if you don't remember seeing those kind of moves in your on games, use the sample materials in the sgf below. This way, when we'll be organizing the live lectures, it will be easier for all of us, to be prepared efficiently. Hope you'll do it :)

Send me your "homeworks" by email : Periclesbaduk[at]gmail.com or load them on KGS so I can save them :)

 Here is the small archive containing Gu Li's game, and the 3 games of the Female Kuksu Finals 

And click here to download the sgf about "unexpected moves"

Pericles