Saichina 2p vs Artem92 7d at 2 handicap stones. Misread in yose turns the game around in the last 20 moves!

Saichina China 2dan proffesional returned to kgs today and played a game!.  He is one of the few pros that i know of that played a lot of rated games in kgs.

Today he played artem and gave him 2 stones. It is remarkable how patient white was, letting black get moyo and thickness and naturally reducing and taking big points.

After black made a big cental moyo, i think whites strategy to reduce and sacrifice was excellent. After a fight in the right side, i think black made a mistake in direction of play by taking a group of stones in top right and letting white into the moyo.

As yose started, white was ahead. After attacking the top left corner, black was amazingly able to defend it by taking a big point (J9).

Even so, as the yose continued and white could connect in the lower side, white was a few points ahead until the fatal mistake : A7. I guess white misread the sacrifice as he is in damezumari (shortage of liberties). This ko is truly free for black and he got in exchange 4 stones, for a value of 11 points. Enough to turn over the game, which black won by 5 points.

Even proffesionals can make careless mistakes!.