Nice job, lindentree. You move on to play HermanHiddema. The winner of that game plays Araban, and the winner of that game plays Shaddy for the right to play Tabemasu for the title.

lindentree and myself will be playing this Thursday, 07:30 PDT, which is 22:30 Chinese time, my current timezone (also: 10:30 eastern, 16:30 CEST).

Well, I won against lindentree by 3.5 points, but don't ask me how

I played uninspired and with bad reading, and lindentree rightly punished many of my mistakes.

Still, it's fun to play someone who got up early to play before going to work, while I myself am off to bed immediately after the game

HermanHiddema and I are scheduled to play 7:00pm Pacific on the 24th / 10:00am China on the 25th.

I won my game against HermaHiddema, B+R:

Nooo, the last Dutchman was eliminated! Losing the ko at the bottom seems to have been the final blow in this game...

Anyway, I have a question about the top right corner. It really feels as though white got tricked there: even though he got sente, black has the corner plus a wall, and white still has a dodgy shape. How should white play there? Should move 48 have been the splitting hane instead?

_________________
My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move

Move 48 should have been the empty triangle:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . O , X . . |
$$ . . . X O 2 . . . |
$$ . . . . 1 . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

The reasoning behind the empty triangle is similar to the 5-4 trick play where a refutation is also an empty triangle:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . 1 , 2 . . |
$$ . . . . . 6 4 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . 5 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

Possible variations for this trick play can be found on eidogo. But going back to the 3-4 variation, the best I can really do after the empty triangle is to protect the cut and sacrifice the corner in exchange for thickness, but unfortunately White's territory exceeds Black's thickness in value:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$B
$$ ------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . 7 6 . . . . |
$$ . . 5 4 8 . . . . |
$$ . 9 . 3 O , X . . |
$$ . . . X O O 2 . . |
$$ . . . 1 X . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . 0 . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

Wouldn't this be OK in the current game, though, as black already has some power toward the top left?

_________________
be immersed

I don't think so, it looks rather inefficient to have two thick groups face each other like that over 6 lines. Furthermore, D10 is a thorn that neutralizes a lot of center potential for B. If D10 wasn't there and I had E10, then perhaps .

Shaddy and I will be playing this Saturday at 7:00pm Pacific / 10:00pm Eastern.

Won my game against Shadonra, W+R - SC2 fans who have been watching the GSL may be amused by the kibitz:

Tabemasu and I will be playing next Saturday (November 6th), 7pm Pacific / 10pm Eastern.

And just to remind everyone how the final match works: Araban has to win two games, but Tabemasu only has to win one (because Araban has lost one game this tournament but Tabemasu hasn't lost any yet).

Tabemasu has taken the Life in 19x19 title . Pretty handily too; here's our game:

Congratulations Tabemasu!

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Congratulations! Thanks also to Topazg for starting this mess, and to dfan for helping to administrate it!

_________________
Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

I join Chew in his congratulations and thanks. It was a very nice idea : to be repeated next year !

congrats tabemasu!

Although i didnt participate gotta say it was well organized:) thumbs up!

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admin of the ASR league and KGS admin

Congratulations Tabemasu!

And thanks everyone, espacially toapzg and dfan for making this nice tournament! : )

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Congratulations Tabemasu!

I enjoyed playing in this tournament a lot, and also enjoyed following it. There were a bunch of good stories, from Aphelion's great underdog run to Shaddy's 1d trail of destruction to Araban's comeback from an early loss all the way to the final.

I guess there will probably be another one of these in 2011. Hopefully topazg will be able step back in to run it, though I'm happy to keep track of it again.