New 9d: Frog99

Frog99 is a relatively new 9d, registering on May 17, 2009. He is undefeated except for losing to a 13k? and a 1k (seems to be on purpose) to lose the ? in his rank. His client is Japanese. This is his first game as a 9d on KGS and he showed us quite a game, beating wintogo 7d giving wintogo 2 stones handicap.

The game started off relatively uneventfully until Black's interesting probe of 20. I am not sure about this move, the follow up 22 also looks questionable. Next 26 is a slow move. When White approaches the top with 27, Black attempts to attack White's top group, through 63 the result is a ko. Black 64 is a weird ko threat (there seems to be plenty of ko threats in the bottom right quadrant), White answers cleverly with 65 and the resolves the ko. White immediately pulls out and fights with his lone stone after Black cuts at 68 (the purpose of his ko threat) and then daringly jumps into C3 with 95 despite his big group not having been settled. White attempts to kill Black's left side group, but through Black 134 the group is absolutely alive and White's center dragon had been weakened as a result. However, Black was unable to kill it. Black invades the right with 160 and despite taking lots of territory and destroying most of White's territory there.

The problem for Black was that the top right area was Black's only significant source of territory. After White initiates a ko with 219, Black was facing the destruction of much of his territory. Through 241, a big exchange had been made, Black taking 6 stones on top and saving a few of his While White captured 7 stones on the right side. The exchange seemed to favor White a bit. Black didn't have a chance afterwards and resigned later. White was ahead about 10 points.

It seems that wintogo was totally defeated this game, confirming Frog99's strength. Perhaps we can look forward to lots of 9d matches with these new 9ds appearing on KGS.