Nice tesuji to win Maidenhead tournament

[Uberdude]

Yesterday I won the Maidenhead tournament. The pairing was somewhat unfortunate in that I played the only other 4d, Lucretiu Calota, in what was the likely deciding game in the first round. I found a nice tesuji to kill his lower right corner and set me off on a good start to the game (go to move 32).



This tesuji wasn't one I knew by heart but I had a feeling there was something. So his second line block was a mistake and he should have just lived: it's not like I had a good connection there anyway.
Also I wasn't sure about my 2 space jump after his tenuki on lower right, just extending on the side seemed slack as little potential for attacking his stick.

My second game I started rather greedily but then his tenuki to k16 let me expolit the aji I had been aiming at and then I managed to kill a big group. There was an amusing incident later (move 163) where Des illegally removed a stone which still had a liberty and we played it as a fake ko for a bit to the amusement of spectators.



Final game:

[jeromie]

Congratulations, and thank you for posting the game records. The two space jump at move 15 in the first game certainly looks odd, but it worked out well!

[ez4u]

After you beautiful tesuji in the first game, shouldn't you play M2 at K16 (or somewhere)? White is helpless in the corner.

[Uberdude]

After you beautiful tesuji in the first game, shouldn't you play M2 at K16 (or somewhere)? White is helpless in the corner.

Yes, probably. I had planned h3 to end in sente when I played it (I anticipated n2) but then I got nervous of white m2 leaving me with some dead shape in the corner despite my capture. I don't think that's actually true but I was lazy to read it fully, and also m2 is big for him to make a base. But for sure if he plays that and I get two big opening moves I am happy, much like I allowed him to make that miserable connection at t7 if he wished.

[DrStraw]

I don't know that this is a particularly exceptional tesuji. It is certainly one that comes up in tsumego problems. But I am willing to bet a lot of people would miss it in the heat of a game. I am surprised, though, that a 4d opponent would allow it to happen.

[Javaness2]

He's actually 5 dan I don't see what the point of demotion in amateur dan ranks is, why not just pair by rating.

[Uberdude]

He's actually 5 dan I don't see what the point of demotion in amateur dan ranks is, why not just pair by rating.

So you would suggest Francis and Alastair continue to enter as 4d, even though they now enter as 1k/1d and 2d respectively to reflect their current strength? Or Jon Diamond as 6d rather than 3d. Then you could end up with someone called a 4d playing as a 1k below the bar, with a 2d who is really 2d above the bar. That just seems confusing and inaccurate. I don't think it really matters if a former 5d like Lucretiu called himself 5d rather than 4d above the bar but a 4d to 1k mismatch is getting a bit silly IMO. Also how about the feelings of the 1k who plays Francis, would calling him a 4d intimidate them and make them not even try to win?

Another point to demotion is players may want to self-demote: I demoted myself from 4d to 3d in shame after I lost to Michael Webster a few years ago .

@DrStraw, yes I expect he could find that tesuji (I think it is nice not particularly exceptional) in a tsumego problem*, I couldn't tell from his body language if he was surprised by it. But I am not surprised that a 4d allows that to happen, after all many far simpler mistakes happen in my games. For example in this tournament last year I filled in my own liberty in a 3 vs 3 liberty semeai, and I still sometimes miss ataris.

* I think I have probably done it in a tsumego problem, because I had a feeling white could not play his last push without killing his corner, but I hadn't done that problem enough that I knew it instantly (I spent most of my time there reading the t3 hane and then the r1 descent which locally kills but he can then make a 2nd eye at p1 if he ignores p4 so I get to push through and cut there, and I had just started looking at those trades (maybe he can ignore r1 to play something in the q7 area to try to fix the cut in sente) when I thought about playing t2 initially and quickly confirmed it worked.

[Javaness2]

Well the highest rank you ever gained is just a badge of honour. If you are actually using rating to pair the tournament, why not just be honest about it and include it in the wall chart? Instead of using ranks to set the McMahon levels, you just use 100 point bins. At the end of the tournament you can have a wall chart looking a bit like this -

Code: Select all

Name Rank Gor Seed R1 R2 R3 Wins MMS GorChange
A.Simons (4-dan) (2370) 1 8+ 5+ 3+ 3 3 +0.005
.....
F.Roads (4-dan) (2020) 10 11- 12- 13+ 1 0 +31.001

Is it so bad?

[ez4u]

In game 1 if White had played 88 at 89, how would you have answered?

[Uberdude]

In game 1 if White had played 88 at 89, how would you have answered?

Solid block to the left at n9. When I chose to answer the q17 attachment on the outside I planned to play the sequence as in the game with s14 threatening both sides. However I had planned to answer o11 at o12 (with o9 n9 exchange before or after). I knew that I couldn't actually kill as white p9 taking a liberty meant I had to defend the r7 cut, but forcing white to live in gote whilst I got a wall and then attacked the other group with j4 then h5 seemed a good enough continuation in that white keeps making tiny groups, though I wasn't actually getting much territory from attacking so I then planned to break white's top left area (something like h16 and crosscut?). Anyway when it came to white playing move 88 I realised that I can't answer with o12 block and then answer o9 at n9 because then white has the p7 tesuji to cut me. That's why I aborted the surrounding plan with 89, but was pleasantly surprised that even though white could poke out he still wasn't safe and so could keep trying to kill. I also did wonder if I should have played n11 at o11 as that is the key shape point to stop white making the spare eye on the outside, but at the time I thought that was too close to white.

[ez4u]

In game 1 if White had played 88 at 89, how would you have answered?

Solid block to the left at n9. When I chose to answer the q17 attachment on the outside I planned to play the sequence as in the game with s14 threatening both sides. However I had planned to answer o11 at o12 (with o9 n9 exchange before or after). I knew that I couldn't actually kill as white p9 taking a liberty meant I had to defend the r7 cut, but forcing white to live in gote whilst I got a wall and then attacked the other group with j4 then h5 seemed a good enough continuation in that white keeps making tiny groups, though I wasn't actually getting much territory from attacking so I then planned to break white's top left area (something like h16 and crosscut?). Anyway when it came to white playing move 88 I realised that I can't answer with o12 block and then answer o9 at n9 because then white has the p7 tesuji to cut me. That's why I aborted the surrounding plan with 89, but was pleasantly surprised that even though white could poke out he still wasn't safe and so could keep trying to kill. I also did wonder if I should have played n11 at o11 as that is the key shape point to stop white making the spare eye on the outside, but at the time I thought that was too close to white.

As you mentioned, the play at P7 below looks nice. It looks like Black is thin and has difficulty protecting everything.

$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X O . O . |
$$ | . . O , . . O . . O . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . |
$$ | . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X . |
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . X . . O O O . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . X O . O . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . X O O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . X X |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . X . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O O O O O O O O O O |
$$ | . O O , X . . . . , X . . . O X X X X |
$$ | . O X X . . . X . O O X X X X X O O X |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . X O . X O . O X |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . X O . O . |
$$ | . . O , . . O . . O . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . |
$$ | . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . . . . X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O X . |
$$ | . . X . X . . . . . . . X . . O O O . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . X O . O . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . X O O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . X X |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . . . . X . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . O O O O O O O O O O |
$$ | . O O , X . . . . , X . . . O X X X X |
$$ | . O X X . . . X . O O X X X X X O O X |
$$ | . X . . . . . . . . . X O . X O . O X |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]