OGS June Team League

Quick self-review of the match bugcat-jlt. Focus on three positions.

In this position,

White was hesitating between A and B. If A,

Katago's main line is the following.

Capture

This seems complicated and I don’t really understand it.

The game variation is only 1 point worse for White, so is playable.

Capture

The marked intersection is an important point for both players, that both missed during the game.

However, the variation P2 R3 O4 P5 N3 mentioned by @bugcat in the post Playing "Sino-Tibetan formations" ("1-3-5s") - #19 by bugcat is 0.5 point better than the game variation and is easily understandable.

Here is the position at move 141

White made a bad atari (R15) which removed a liberty.

Instead the correct play was

Capture

This is a bit like in the game, except that White has an extra liberty so Black needs to sacrifice Q9, otherwise R11 gets captured.

Therefore after move 138, Black should have ataried at A and nothing works for White.

Capture

However, reading is complicated, there is a lot of aji.

After move 167,

White could have killed with...

B5. The reason is that if Black responds then Black may get one eye in gote, but White can then poke the other eye at G9.

Therefore, at move 161, Black should have played this way:

Black’s shape has defects at A and B but Black can either connect or make two eyes.

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