The mirror tripple ko

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Something really funny happened during the Insei-games of this weekend. John and I were enjoying our break when Flavien suddenly approached us brabbling something of the occurence of a triple ko. We stopped our game and headed for the table where two D-class Insei were playing. In fact they produced a very complex situation in the center of the board which could not be resolved by either player -a triple ko. A lot of people gathered around the board including the Pros supervising the Insei classes. It was around this time when John noticed something else: Not only was the situation on the board a triple-ko, it was also pefectly symmetric: A mirror tripple ko.



(Note: If you take a second look you will notice that some moves in the centre have not been copied perfectly -so it is not accurate mane Go )

A good performance

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Hi there!

Since the first weekend of March was quite disapointing -with me only being able to win two out of my 8 games against the weaker half of the class (Nr. 8-16)- I was hardly expecting anything from the second one. Fortunately I was able to win my games against the two weakest players in the class but after this I had to go up against the top 6. Surprisingly I did do a good job (from my point of view) -by beating Nr. 1, 3 and 6.
Especially my game against the top ranked Insei in our class was totally unexpected. Still I feel that it was an interesting game -with him trying a new move in the opening. Here it is (I added some commentaries by Komatsu Hideki 9p -who gave some short comment on the fuseki. More commentaries -hopefully by Kenmochi Jyo-sensei will be added later).



Dia 1: A new move.

I played with the white stones.

Up to 20 the opening is classic but 21 breaks away from the common Joseki starting a complicated capturing race in the corner.
Together with some stronger Insei we discussed the moves of 22 at 27 (which is very complicated but seemingly not totally out of question) and 36 at 40.
However Komatsu Hideki-sensei did note that the result up to 41 is not at all bad for White, since the corner area is rather small (about 17 points) and Whites outside shape is thick. I was happy to see, that he did agree with my way of playing. Anyway 42 is bad. It should be one space below 49. In the game 49 became a very good move. 50 on the other hand seems to be a little too slow. The sensei did understand my desire to play a reinforcement here but it is just a little passive.






Dia 2:


52 is big. 55 is the losing move (well, that is my opinion). It was noted that it would be better played at 69 -the reason being the nice tesuji of 56. After 56 it is hard for Black to find a fitting answer. In the game White got a chance to further his attack with the good moves of 62 and 64, giving him a strong outside shape which in turn enables White to attack blacks group on the right. Still W's way to go about this attack (trying to attack the whole thing) is questionable. It would be enough to split the two groups and capture two stones at the top. Also Black missed his chance when he answered at 81. Instead of this it would be better to play at 89 after which White will have a hard time finding a good defending move.

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Dia 3:

By the time I played 100 in the previous Dia I already had used up my 30min of thinking time, meaning, that I was now in a 30sec Byo Yomi. The other player entered Byo Yomi a few moves later, leading to a tense endgame with many mistakes (for example 143 was played out of time trouble -he had to make a move as there was only 1sec of his time remaining).

After 108 W is ahead.

149 is another mistake caused by a lack of time...









Dia 4:

Of course W does not have to block at 153 but can instead give way with 152 rescueing all of his stones.

In the end White won by 14,5 points.