By Viktor Lin | Reviews | 07.09.2016 20:59| Views: 6285
A little known event concerning European Go happened at the SportAccord World Mind Games that took place in December 2013: In the Men's Team Division, Ilya Shikshin 7d (now 1p) defeated the #1 player of Taiwan, Wang Yuanjun 6p (now 9p). Even though Team Europe lost the match, with Fan Hui 2p being defeated by former world champion Zhou Junxun 9p (by 0,5) and Pavol Lisy 6d (now 1p) by Lin Junyan 6p (now 7p), Ilya's victory against the holder of several Taiwanese titles marked a memorable milestone in European Go.This article will outline the highlights of the game between Ilya and Wang Yuanjun 6p.
We can objectively say that Ilya's opponent is significantly stronger than him. When Wang Yuanjun 6p (Black) plays the keima at 97, White is hopelessly behind.Simply defending the group by jumping home would be a safe way to play, but White would have no more way to catch up after Black defends.Therefore, Ilya strikes at the black corner by playing 100. What's the idea behind this peep?White could simply make life in the corner. However, if Ilya had done that, not only would the white group's situation become hairy due to a lack of connection around A, but also, even if Black just turns at B, White actually loses more than he gains.And thus, Ilya unleashes the attach and hane. And there is nothing Black can do about it.Black would really like to capture White by atari and bumping. However, this activates the magic of Ilya's peep (move 100). Thanks to that exchange, Black cannot tighten White's liberties by blocking at A anymore. Therefore Black just retreats and allows White to push and cut.Black could capture the six white stones if he wanted. But then it's likely that Black will die bigger after White's kosumi.So Black pushes at 111 and a capturing race commences. 117 is a good move that helps in the semeai (better than A).That means, if White simply takes liberties, White would lose by one thanks to Black 1.But Ilya read far ahead and now uses his magic stone (move 100) by playing counter-atari at 118.If Black took the stone, a ko would appear. This would be good news for White as he has many ko-threats against Black's other groups.In the game Wang Yuanjun 6p had no choice but to go down at 119. In the end, this fight turned out to be a great success for White. Not only did Ilya settle the initially hairy group, he also captured Black's stones in the process. After that, Ilya played flawlessly. Wang Yuanjun 6p did not have enough ko-threats to win the last half-point ko, and finally Ilya won this game by 0,5.
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