Life In 19x19

Hane Naoki is also good at making groups live. Not as good as Cho and Sakata, but he certainly has the confidence (look at some of the Honinbo games against Yamashita this year).

Thanks a lot for the replies. I think Gogameguru (David?) is right -- after reading the thread he pointed to, I believe sabaki is only one instance of the kind of skillful play that I am trying to learn more about (advancing in my reading of Sakata's "Tesuji and Anti-suji of Go" only helped to confirm this). I've begun to go over some of the games of the players recommended, and, even though it is mostly way above my head for now, I can see there's plenty of what I am looking for in there. Now on to study

If studying sabaki is what you want to do, then that is of course what you should do. As you've described it, it looks like sabaki on pro level, with seemingly unrelated plays that suddenly cooperate. That surely is fascinating.

I wouldn't anticipate on any spectacular increase of your winning percentages after that particular study, but perhaps an improved experience in playing Go. I don't believe any amateur below 4-5d wins or loses due to a spectacular and intricate combination of moves.

Yesterday I won a game by deciding to go for a seemingly slow move, but which enclosed a living group and aimed for endgame. My opponent took the endgame and I killed the group (while I should not have captured more than three stones). It was a good move, taking about 10 points, but thanks to my opponent's misjudging the L&D, the game was over.

So, surrounding + L&D skills does the trick far beyond shodan level.