Introduction

About a week ago, there was a bit of discussion about the importance of endgame. Now while I would never even begin to propose that endgame is not important or can’t make a huge difference, I was saying how I didn’t think studying it would serve kyu players as much as say dan players.

Ironically, the game featured this week was played shortly after the discussion and happened to feature endgame as the shining star of the game. In addition, this game is also a good example of competing moyos and how critical points in shape and boundaries can make a huge difference in the resulting outcome. Hope you enjoy this review!



Please enable JavaScript to view this game. Download SGF

[download label=”Download Kifu”]http://bengozen.com//wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2014.06.30-MGM-62.sgf[/download]

One Point Lesson

When you’re really behind, your only hope is to complicate the game and push your opponent’s abilities to the absolute limit.

Game Summary

[table colwidth=”50|140|375|375″ colalign=”center|center|center|center”] no,Category,Good,Bad1,Opening,– Decisively ignoring White’s extension to play on the right inside seemed like the correct move.,– This was a bad move that allowed White to get a nice result on the upper right.2,Attack and Defense,– Ignoring White to defend my group was an important step to giving me a chance to make a comeback.,– Letting White attack my group like this was very painful. It could have been awful if White had continued his attack.3,Shape,– Being able to find this point in the midst of near death was another proud moment for me.,– Letting White get this shape point was unbelievably painful.4,Strategy,– Ignoring White’s approach on my corner to try and reverse the game was importantly to try and reverse the game.,– Trying to take the corner instead of expanding my moyo was a pretty big mistake.5,Overall Reading,– Being able to read out this attachment almost instantly was a proud moment for me.,– This was so painfully obvious to my opponent. Should have saved it for later.6,Endgame,– Taking my sente to connect here is probably what eventually pushed my opponent to resign later.,– Seeing White fly into my area like that was so painful. It nearly ended the game.[/table]