Life In 19x19

fwiffo wrote:I'd like to discuss what happened in the lower left in the final. Specifically, how was it possible that a 3-3 invasion of that enclosure could live?

H3 is why. If white plays B4, black can threaten to connect underneath and live locally. If white plays D2 and pulls back to E2 to shrink black's eyespace, after black attaches at B5 there's a weakness white has to protect outside, letting black make two eyes (or take the eye point and watch black destroy white's moyo by running.)

Black's not unconditionally alive yet - white F2 is sente against a ko in the corner.

Oh, that seems simple enough. 3-3 aji is pernicious.

Something else about this game... The opening played by Gu Li is near and dear to my heart. and are quite popular lately, but the sequence - that follows is not one I recall seeing before, and I didn't find it in a database search (based on last summer's GoGoD). Is it a new joseki? I'd like to hear some stronger players' comments.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W New joseki?
$$ --------------------
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ , 7 . . 3 . X . . . |
$$ . . . . . 5 . 4 . . |
$$ . . . . . . 8 1 6 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 2 . . |
$$ , . . . . . , . . . |[/go]

dailyjoseki.com agrees with you, does not appear. It looks funky to me but I am not Lee Changho. I suppose black answers with a stone on the 2nd line, so maybe that makes up for it.

Locally it seems like black is pretty good, but white does get sente, and in terms of the whole board, black only has development on one side of the board.

fwiffo wrote:Locally it seems like black is pretty good, but white does get sente, and in terms of the whole board, black only has development on one side of the board.

lee changho's game is a balance game. i am guessing sente will makeup for the lost point and maintain the balance.
in my opinion i like black's point.