I just viewed the following game record on gokifu.com. It seems crazy that a pro could go so wrong so fast What could have happened?

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A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single search for cheap flights.

I wonder where he misread. Both are 9p. Crazy.

Maybe white watched baseball the previous day.

E2 looks very small to me, many of W's moves allow Black to fix his shape and get stronger to attack the eyeless group in the center and when his 2 groups were cut it was simply game over even if they connected B would have had a field day chasing them to oblivion

I don't know if e2 is good or not (in a professional point of view... ) but i really don't think it is small. Corner is big, and it attacks the black eyeshape.

I agree with this thought. E2 looks too passive on the face of it and sets up C7 perfectly - for Black(!). E2 loses at least half it's meaning - protecting the corner - when Black cuts at B6 and sacrifices in order to settle his stones. White's D5 looks like a request to get it over with.

According to GoGoD J4 was a new move, although not such a surprising one I think. For reference, below is the beginning of a game from last year's Judan where Yoda (White) beat Cho Sonjin in this line. Perhaps Kato was expecting the play at J3. It reminds me of chapter 7 in The 1971 Honinbo Tournament where is says, "Even 9-dan professionals are prone to make bad judgements in unfamiliar situations, and Kanno erred without delay...". Just change Kanno to Kato and looks like mystery solved to me.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Yoda Norio - Cho Sonjin, 50th Judan, 2011-07-14
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I actually know Kato Atsushi pretty well. He is not normally running around the Kiin on weekends, so I doubt I will see him when I am there Saturday (I also doubt he is in the mood to analyze this fiasco). But I will try and get some feedback from people who are there.

BTW the game was played in the 51st Judan, rather than the 52nd as shown in the sgf. Both are underway currently (51st main tournament and 52nd preliminaries).

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

looks like he missed black k9... white can escape, but black connects through and has insane power, and white has a weak group.

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Tactics yes, Tact no...

The chase from J7 was silly but what was with the jump to L5? Shouldn't White extend along the side to O3? Black extends to Q5 but White has a base and can slide under Black later at J2.

_________________
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single search for cheap flights.