Episode #92 Young-sun and Hikaru
Hello guys. Hello. Hello.
We are sad.
Today we are very sad because we've got a new board.
And we've got some Hikaru no Go.
Hikaru no Go again, oh no...
It's like some really annoying kid who always wins..
But we're also excited! YEAAAHH!
Because we have a new board. A new board, Hikaru no Go, come on guys!
We're going to do a game from volume 9.
Do you see this guy? He's called Suyang in the volume.
He's a very strong young kid. He's a brat.
He's a brat! He's playing against Hikaru, that is this guy, you probably know him.
And Hikaru plays as white and the kid plays as black, BUT..this game was actually played in real life, right?
Right! Our teacher today is Young-sun and Young-sun actually plays Hikaru today.
Hikaru plays white in this game, which is actually played by Young-sun.
And black was actually played by Yi Cheong-weon.
This is a game from the Kuksu Cup. The Kuksu Cup is one of the most important tournaments for female professionals in Korea.
Right and Young-sun played this game when she was a 1p and her opponent also was a 1p. They knew eachother very well because they studied together.
So Young-sun is Hikaru as white and I am the kid as black.
Today I get to play Hikaru.
Yeah, I'm a bit sad but yeah..
He's the brat.
I always want to be Hikaru, but I'm always a brat, what can I say.
Young-sun told us that she played this move, and she played it to scare her opponent!
The 3-5 point is not so often played and difficult variations can arise, so...did it scare you?
Well, not me but eh..actually the kid also not. Because he just approached here..Suyang! is his name.
There are all kinds of complicated variations here, for example this [taisha] is ofcourse the most wellknown complicated joseki.
But Young-sun just played this pincer. It also works well with the other stone in the lower left.
Like we just saw, this [taisha], has a LOT of possibilities. After this black also has a few possibilities.
Black can play this kosumi which is joseki, or [jeongsuk] as it's called in Korean.
This keima is also a joseki move. But in the game this jump was played which is also the most common and also the most old variation.
So the general idea is that black should split white. And white played the hane, which is natural.
So far so good.
At this moment white has two choices. White can take the 3-3 point which is vital for both black and white.
But white can also play here. It's a move to try to attack black.
Makes things a bit complicated. Now black takes san-san because it's the vital point to make a base.
And white tries to surround black.
This is always tricky for black. If you don't know this variation it's easy to make a mistake. Because now as black you have to play a special move.
Which is this attachment.
Why is this a good move? When white plays something like this, black is aiming for a cut.
This one. White can not capture the two black stones because black will squeeze white. This will be very painful.
Atari!
And after this black connects in good style. There is still a cutting point here and he is outside and thick.
So this is not a good result for white at all. You can also see that this is a strange cluster of stones. It's not very efficient for white.
So this strange looking move by black is aiming for this cut.
Let's maybe first also show why the normal move for black, to simply push out, is wrong.
Because at this moment you probably won't think about this connecting move if you don't know it.
You will just think: hey, I'm going to push out here.
But this is pushing from behind and white will be very happy with this result.
Black still has to go out, he is still not free and white is making territory at the top. So this is a bad style, don't play this way.
So we've seen that after black attaches here he's aiming for the cut. So usually white defends that cut.
Black links up his stones and now if black would play tenuki, it would be a mistake.
Black plays here for example. Then white will cut. This cut is not only big for the outside, over here, because white is making something, but also the corner of black is not completely alive yet.
If black again tenukis then white can kill the corner.
White plays on this vital point and makes sure that black has an L+1 shape.
Now white connects and black is already dead.
If black plays here he has an L + 1 stone, so L+1 shape.
And he has only one eye.
White makes miai of playing here and stealing an eye here.
This also ofcourse depends on the strength of white on this side. There is still some aji with this atari and moves like this. But locally black is dead.
So when black connects, after this it is good for him to finish the shape.
And white also naturally plays at the top to defend his own group.
Now black has the initiative and can play tenuki.
So this is one of the variations, but they played a more simple one in the game. Right.
Instead of the difficult kosumi, white played at the san-san point.
Now if black plays tenuki again, then white will really want to play this kosumi again, because black will be weak. He will have no eyes.
So instead black comes back in the joseki and makes a base.
Now white immediately approached here and this is an aggressive move. It aims at a weakness here.
This move sets this stone in motion and it threatens to connect underneath here. Or to connect underneath like this.
Right.
So you might think that black needs to defend. Perhaps by playing here, or maybe jumping here..
But this would be very slow for black. So black did choose to tenuki.
In the game black played on the lower side.
And afterwards extended at the bottom to make a big framework here.
At this moment white needs to split the right side and white can do so by playing here, or playing here.
But Young-sun actually chose to play this move which looks a bit strange to me.
Why would you play in such a way?
Yeah it's an usual move. This one is more natural. So let's try to figure out what the idea is behind this move.
If white splits the right side with the most common move, it is very natural for black to play on this side.
Because when white plays here it is completely in the middle, so it doesn't matter from which side black attacks.
But at the lower side black is building a bigger framework so black prefers the lower side.
Exactly. His stones work together.
And also when white needs to extend upwards, black gets a nice extension and black is also happy to get this move.
Because white has a high stone here so an approach by white here is very big. It works well.
And when black gets this stone here white is a bit unhappy.
So when white plays here we can expect that black will get stones at the top.
Either like this, a very straightforward variation. And white will play here to make a base and black takes the corner.
Or white can also jump one space further. We will just show this quickly because it occurs in professional games a lot.
At this moment white has two choices. White can capture black's stone, however white gets a bit overconcentrated. When black plays this move there is some aji here for black.
Black can connect his stone underneath.
So usually white needs to defend and white feels a bit overconcentrated. It's also quite slow for white, black still has sente.
That's why white often plays this sliding keima in the corner.
Black wanted to play there right? So now white plays there. And white at this moment afterwards would like to play here, because if black comes back in the corner, white will be satisfied.
Now white can take the stone and this exchange has become very good for him, because black can no longer play this in sente.
So white gets more territory and is also safe.
So when white would like to play here, black would also like to play here.
And at [this] moment black would really like to play at the 3-3 point. So ofcourse white takes it.
They're spoiling eachothers plans constantly. Now again white afterwards would like to attack black, so black plays there.
And white can move out with his stone and a running battle follows.
After this black can jump to make something in the centre or sometimes connecting solidly is also possible.
But again note that black is getting stones at the top, where white would like to extend.
So if we go back all the way to the splitting move on the right side..
Playing here for white kind of makes sure that black will get stones at the top.
However when white will play here, Young-sun and also Hikaru because they are the same person in this case, were aiming to get a stone there themselves.
The idea is that now it is only natural for black to play from this side.
Because this side is bigger than approaching from this side.
And also white gets a bit overconcentrated.
White's group feels a bit under pressure. Usually when you have two stones you would like to extend with three spaces. So this feels a bit too narrow and also black is attacking white.
However, white does have sente.
So in this case white was okay with being a bit overconcentrated, because white got the big point at the top. This was what she was aiming for.
Black responded and defended his side, or [her] side, because this was the Kuksu Cup.
The players are women. And white also defended the top.
You might think that it is now good for black to defend his group over here because white got stronger at the top. However this would still be slow.
Black can also consider jumping. But both these moves are slow. It would be better for black to for example attack the lower side.
This technique makes sure that the corner will be solid for black and white's group is still weak. So black can still gain some profit out of that aswell.
There is also another tactic here right? Right.
Instead of playing the hane immediately, first you can play this forcing move and then play the hane.
This also makes sure that white is still weak and usually white has to play one more move.
This move is a kind of eye-stealing tesuji. It is at the right place to destroy an eye here. So this is a meaningful exchange for black. If black now would play here it is not sure that white would answer.
And usually after this white jumps either here or here.
Those are the two shapes you can remember. So this would be very big.
This would be very big. And black could also play at the top right instead. This is also one of the big points at this moment.
And Young-sun said that if she would be black she would probably play like this. And it is still a bit tricky in the upper left side. If white descends here, black is in a tight spot. But black can fight.
This move makes sure that white can no longer connect underneath. And after white tries to seperate black, black has this push in sente. It is a bit painful to push from behind but it makes sure that you can connect your stones in a good shape.
And because this connection does not work anymore, white needs to connect underneath like this.
And now black can fight. There is still an invasion point at the lower left side.
So black can manage.
So in the end black should have taken a big point and fight like this. Or attack this group of white in the lower right. Both is possible.
But defending his group over here was definitely a bit too slow.
Now that black's group is strong after this move, white made it even stronger.
What is the meaning of this move?
It is difficult to say, because it looks weird. Black becomes stronger when he descends here, but with this move white makes sure that it will be difficult for black to invade.
There is still a big invasion point here. But when white has this move, black can not easily connect underneath.
Because white can block here.
If this move wouldn't be there, black would be connected. But because of this move white can go through.
And we can see a similar shape like this move in another situation. In a corner situation, when black has a stone on both sides and he slides into the corner. And he plays on the second line again, this move threatens white's base.
If white would block here then black has this nasty peep that we've shown in one of the other episodes. And after this black can connect to his other stone by playing like this.
White has no eyes anymore. All his territory is gone and he will have to run. So this is a great result for black.
To prevent this variation, at the moment when black pushes here white can (in emergencies) play this bump instead.
Normally white would play something like a jump here, but sometimes this is not good for white.
Then, as a last resort, you can push here. Ofcourse black will extend, and locally this is a good result for black. So only play this as white when you really have to. But the idea of this bump is that now black can no longer connect underneath.
This sequence of tesuji's doesn't work anymore for black. Because of this stone white can seperate and black is dead. And white is safe.
So this bump was similar to the one that happened in the game.
Which was this one. Black descends and becomes more strong but because he was already strong in the area it is not a big deal.
So this invasion is a bit less severe.
And after this white played tenuki.
White now strengthens this group. What is the meaning of that?
The meaning of this move is that white gets stronger. And it works in two directions.
White can use the strong group by now invading here. If this group was still weak, if this stone was not here, then this would be a bit of an overplay.
Because black has this powerful descent.
When white now lives at the bottom..
..black can attack! And it's all because of this move that seperates the two white groups. Black is happy with this type of result.
If white would already have this stone in place, then this is playable for white, because his group can manage.
And in this case black would not play this move but instead something else. We will see this in the game.
In the game, after white plays this jump, black enters white's corner on the lower left side. This is very big.
And this was a good sequence.
After this white immediately invaded here and we will see that now this would be an overplay for black.
So black plays this one instead. Young-sun told us that she now continued in the lower right side. But actually the upper right side would be biggest now.
And she could treat this move as a forcing move. Because now black has answered in this way and perhaps later black would answer in a different way.
For example this move instead or block here. So this is a testing move at this moment.
It was a good forcing move and white should have played tenuki now.
But instead white continued on the lower side and this was a small mistake.
It was too small in this situation.
And it was also a bit painful because black gets this stone in a natural flow.
Black plays this atari which is sente and afterwards he jumped here.
This was a bit far, the jump. We will see later why this is a bit far.
Again, this would be the biggest point on the board. But black was trying to create something on the lower side instead.
Locally on the lower side this a better move. It's more secure. But we will see in a few moves why this is too far.
White jumped here and now black played another dubious move.
It looks like it's a good move because it's sente and black prevents that white can do this in sente, so destroy his territory instead, in nasty style.
But in fact this is not a good result for black because it makes this peep by white more painful.
And we saw that after black jumped here white played this magnificent peep.
We can also see this move in the manga, right?
Right!
Check this out guys. There's no page numbers, but here Hikaru plays this powerful move, which was actually done by Young-sun.
And what is the meaning of this peep? What happens for example if black just simply blocks here?
Right. This would be the natural response, to think about that.
Black would like to block here because there is a cutting point here.
Yes. However when black does block on this side, it will leave a big weakness on the other side. White can slice through here.
And this is the reason that this keima was a bit too far. The keima should have been played one move lower. There was still a weakness here.
So this is not something that black can afford. Blocking here is too passive. When black blocks from the other side, to prevent white slicing through however, we saw that white can go through.
And this is quite painful because white not only takes quite a lot of points on the lower side, but also looks forward to slice underneath into black's territory here.
And it will be difficult for black to stop white.
And this was actually the reason why this descent by black was not a good move.
This descent. Earlier, when it was like this.
When black descended here, he made this peep more severe for white.
If black would not play this, then the peep is less severe.
If black now blocks from this side, then sacrificing this one stone is not as bad as sacrificing two stones.
Also, after this it will be more difficult for white to go underneath.
In the other variation white has a stone here. Now the stone is like this.
So black can block much earlier and will get more points on the lower side. Right.
So this is something that white will not do, this cut.
And when white plays this peep and black blocks, instead of cutting here white will probably play this attaching move.
Black sacrifices one stone in order to protect his lower side.
And white gets sente in this variation, where in the other variation white got gote. But here black's territory is not as damaged as before.
This would be better for black.
So the descent here made things a bit worse for black.
This one.
And blocking here gives some problems with the cut here, so in the game, after this peep, black found a fancy way of defending.
But still there was a weakness in the shape of the big keima and white did slice through here.
And after this we can see that black is linking up with his stones, so this is a nice defense, but still these two stones of black look a little bit strange.
Black wanted to make a big territory here but it proved to be impossible, because this stone was too far away from this stone.
Sorry guys, we forgot this stone.
And now, Hikaru (Young-sun) as white took the opportunity to play in the upper right corner.
And the same joseki as in the lower left is being played.
This was the point in this corner that both players wanted to play for a long time already, but black missed his chance so now white has the upper hand in this game.
On top of that black played a dubious move here, by playing a similar shape as white did on the left side.
Black was afraid of this invasion by white.
White can connect underneath. And when black plays like this he makes sure that it is more difficult to connect underneath.
The same kind of shape as we saw here. This one.
And ofcourse black is hopeing for a white reaction. For example here.
But white took the opportunity to take sente.
She started by making herself stronger and erasing some potential of black on the lower side.
Black is being flattened and after this white played tenuki. Make sure that you do not come back because that would be quite slow for white to do this.
You also do not have to be afraid of this cut. If you play tenuki and black plays here, you can always sacrifice this one stone.
And you even get a strong shape out of it. And you have sente again. You don't even have to play this atari, you can also play tenuki.
So after this white played tenuki. And if white would have played here, the game is good for white, right?
Yes! Young-sun regretted that she did not play here. But she's young and she wants to fight and she wants to find a better move than a solid and simple move.
Where did she play?
She played here. And this develops the upper side. And she was also still aiming at some aji on the left side.
She was threatening black, kind of scaring her! Right.
Nice. So she was hoping for a black answer on the left side, but black resisted and invaded.
A very nice move, over here.
And again Young-sun regretted that she did not simply answer this black move and take the territory at the top side.
But out of fighting spirit she thought: I have already played this move so I need to continue there. And she played here.
"After this my opponent really has to come back" she thought. But still black was not scared and took this very big point at the top.
Now the game is kind of switching the other direction again, black is happy with the last few moves and white really has to be able to attack this very well in order to gain these points back.
So let's see how white can attack the black group.
White started by playing here. This makes sure that black only gets one eye.
Black defended.
Jumped.
White is taking away the black's eye shape in sente now.
At this moment this might look like a perfect spot, however black can live when black plays here.
So white played here and at this moment black only has one eye.
Black plays here, has one eye, but also has a lot of space to run to. So it is very difficult for white to directly kill black.
But white found a nice way of making a double attack very soon.
So white thought that attacking this group directly would not be of much use.
White started attacking the two black stones.
Black pushes here first and afterwards defends his two stones at the top by playing this kosumi.
This peep is sente. After the peep Young-sun regretted that she played here. Instead she said she should have continued the attack and try to set up a splitting attack between these two groups.
Try to get strong here and then attack this group.
If black pushes out after this keima of white..
..then we can expect white to gain stones in the centre by attacking.
After this black is forced to connect here in strange shape.
And we can see that white gets stones here which help a lot for attacking the four black stones at the top.
At the same time, this group of white that was first weak, is now being connected to the rest of his stones. So it also helps his own weaknesses.
So Young-sun regretted playing this sequence. Also it is not easy for black to connect to his other stones. White can still fight. For example by playing like this.
So instead of playing this nice keima that sets up a double attack, Young-sun played from this side.
Black jumps in a natural flow and white now tries to seperate this black group from the rest.
But after this hane, which is also natural, white found a great move, right?
This is a move which is popular. It also appeared in the manga. And white played here.
A lot of people thought: Oh this is a very bad move. Except for Sai. He said, oh, this is wonderful! He was smiling.
I'm still looking for it, I will find it for you guys. Here it is! Can you see Hikaru making the powerful move? And everybody is doubting him, but only Sai is smiling.
This is great!
Let us first explain why extending up here is not good. It would be much too easy for black to connect his stones like this.
And there's not much aji for white. White can try to cut, but there is not much that she can do.
Black can easily jump and it seems like it's more like white is under attack than that black is under attack.
Right. Black is also linking up his two weak groups. So that's something that white really wants to avoid.
So instead of playing this move, white played this one which looks ugly and looks like a dubious move, but has a great idea behind it.
After these few atari's, white can connect and cut black. Like this.
And after extending here black is cut in two pieces. This group at the top is still weak. Also the left side is very much weak. And these three stones also come under attack after this extension. They're not safe yet.
But we should also note that it is not all good for white. Because this white group is also under pressure. However there are three black groups under pressure and only one white group.
Black defends his group at the top and after these exchanges for white, white can play this really nice keima.
Black has two choices. Black can go out like this, or he can defend his three stones.
Let's first see what happens when black plays here.
White needs to extend. Black is trying to save his left side, but now white can capture the three black stones in the centre. And this group, that was weak before, is now connected to his other stones. So this is a good result for white. Also these stones of black are still not completely alive.
Instead of going out here immediately, black can also consider rescuing his three stones. This is important because now this group of white is weak.
But white can try to settle it in sente by first playing here and cutting through.
The reason that Young-sun thought that white will live here in sente is that black still is very weak at the top. So black will really have to worry and make eyes for himself.
While attacking black, white can make eyes for herself and then come back to the left side.
When white gets sente on the right side, playing something like this is maybe not a 100% kill, but a 90% kill of the black group.
So this also would not be good for black, when black defends here.
So after all, when we go back all the way to this wonderful move of white, we can see that it really was a brilliant one.
Usually this type of shape is very bad when black can just block. But black can not just block. Then he will be in trouble.
In the end black didn't play here, but played the atari on the other side.
This is something that Young-sun expected. And eventhough black got a ponnuki in the centre white was happy with this result.
Because after this black needed to come back here and white got a big endgame move in the upper right.
This is very big in the upper right corner and white also got a solid group in the centre. It was under attack before, now it is safe, and it is also quite a lot of territory.
So after this the game was balanced again. White managed to gain something from the attack. And eventhough black sliced through white's territory, white got back into the game with this powerful move in the centre.
It was very surprising that after giving this centre ponnuki to black, white was leading. And in the end white won with 1,5 points.
So at this moment when white played this move, it was a wonderful one. And it even became the topic of one of the Hikaru no Go episodes.
We hope that you like this new format, on a real board, magnetic stones with personal connections of Peter and me and we will see you next time!