What I find amazing is that Sumire won in yose.
She does indeed seem to be good at both the endgame counting phase and the earlier boundary-making phase.
As an example of the former, the drawn-out final-dame-point battle she had with Kim Ta-yeong last August in the Chinese women's league seems to me to be the best proof. She won by 0.25 even though she has nugatory experience of Chinese rules.
But the second aspect is the more interesting one. If you accept number of games that end in resignations as a measure of aggressive play, the overall average in the huge GoGoD database is 65%. But Ueno Asami has 78% and Fujisawa Rina 77%. In stark contrast, Sumire has just 63%.
The way she keeps the game always within reasonable bounds, by paying attention to the boundary plays from the beginning, seems consistent with her style, at least as I see it. Many (most?) players take the shotgun approach to attacking, seeing the board as a kitchen garden being overrun by rabbits. These are attacked with a barrage of scattergun pellets which can damage the cabbages and carrots, or even the garden fences, as much as they do the coneys. But Sumire seems to take the Monarch of the Glen approach. Very, very early in the game she identifies the one magnificent stag she wishes to cull, and she
stalks only it. Often she ends up making a clean kill with a single shot. Sometimes, of course, the wind shifts and the stag senses her presence and bounds off. But Sumire has not damaged the heather or the moor all around her. The boundaries remain intact. Nor has she compromised or endangered herself. I sometimes wonder whether this ability to focus so intently on one thing is actually a result of her extreme youth. Babies can play with a rattle for ages. Toddlers. too, can play for hours with one thing - such as the cardboard box their expensive toys came in at Christmas. They seem to get bored (or flustered) when there are too many alternatives.
For the first time, we/I will know what he thinks about Sumire. Years ago, he said about Rina "we expect a lot from her". Let's see what he will say now.
Let's hope we can read some of his thoughts after the game.