Erinys vs. MilanMilan

Erinys has returned to KGS as well, after a short break of nearly 20 days. He is very new to KGS, registering in late June. Not much is known about him except for some speculation that he may be Aragaki 9p from Japan.

In any case, there were so many high level games that were very interesting yesterday and the day before. For example, roln111 (Ilya Shikin) defeated MilanMilan twice in a row. Also smartrobot (9d) lost his 15 game winning streak in a two handicap game with kghin because he forgot to fill the last dame and the rules were Chinese (it was a heartbreaking 0.5 loss). There were also a great number of 8ds and 7ds playing as well. It was a great two days to watch KGS, there were nearly always high level games going on. I am not going to write about all of the games, however, if you would like to request for me to post and write about a specific game, I would be more than happy to do so.

This opened with the same opening as the bigbadwolf game up to White 8. Erinys decided to challenge the moyo immediately. The resulting joseki sequence is a very straightforward result: Black influence vs. White territory. I am unsure about White 18, I think it is proper to play at R9 instead (it is always hard for us weaker players to confidentally criticize 9ds ;)) The result from Black's severe attachment at 19 up to 35 is far too painful to justify the tenuki. Black is split into two groups, his corner territory is reduced to only a few points, and Black has just occupied the vital point at R11. When White plays the common tesuji of 36 to try to escape, Black is unyielding and forms a ko up to 47. However, White has no ko threats. White can only struggle in the center with 48. When Black jumps out to fight, White tries leaning on the corner with 50, but Black ignores it and chases after White's center 3 stones. Up to 77 a huge exchange has been made. White got 30 points in the corner and Black made a gigantic, uninvadeable moyo in the bottom and center right.

White immediately begins reduction with 78, however his group is a bit heavy and Black launches a severe attack with 91. I'm not sure what exactly goes wrong for Black (maybe the attack was too early?), but in the result up to 114, White has formed a very thick wall in the center while Black obtained a big corner and some more side territory. However, Black's 3 attacking stones are more or less swallowed up by White. At this point I think White may be better. Black continues to be relentless in his play and invades very deeply with 115, forming a ko up to 125. However, he has no ko threats. Soon, White calls off the attack with 140 to defend his top territory and it seems like Black has no more chances to win. Black must escape with 141 or lose. White manages to prevent it from connecting in the sequence up to 156 however, and all seems lost.

However, when Black makes the seemingly innocent probe at 157, White responds with 158 (G17), I think it should be at J17, that ways there doesn't seem to be any loopholes. However, in a brilliant sequence starting with 159 (M17) Black manages to cut off and capture White's R15 group, saving all of his previously captured stones on top and in the top right corner in a huge way. White immediately resigns after 195. Of course this was played in blitz so there may have been misplays in the sequence, perhaps White missed a small move here or there.

This game is another example, just like the bigbadwolf game, of how quickly a winning game can be turned into a losing one.