The first column of the New Year ...

By Rob Van Zeijst

The first column of the New Year is a sad one as Masao Kato, chairman of the board of directors of the Nihon Ki-in and president of the International Go Federation, died on Dec. 30, three weeks after a stroke.

Born in Fukuoka on March 15, 1947, Kato became a disciple of Minoru Kitani in 1959, entered the Honinbo League as a 4-dan (a record) and became the challenger for this title in 1969 when he was 5-dan (another record). He finally won his first major title, the 1st Gosei in 1976, after mounting unsuccessful challenges for eight titles. In 1977, he claimed the 32nd Honinbo title and held on to it for three straight years. During his career, he won 47 championships, winning more than 1,200 games, second only to Rin Kaiho, 9-dan. He also was named KIDO magazine's "Most Outstanding Player" six times and won the Shusai Award five times.

Diagram 1 (1-40): The moves shown are 91-130 in the actual game. This game, which we started Dec. 23, is between Lee Se Dol and Wang Xi (black) for the 9th Samsung Cup.

Black plays 1 and will win the game if he can connect his center stones to one of his groups on the left or at the top. However, white 4 is a sharp move. If Black counters this, his center group may get cut off during the ensuing battle. This is why Black proceeds carefully with 5 and 7 to establish a safe connection. During a live TV commentary Cho Hoon Hyun, the official commentator and a former multiple titleholder himself, was visibly shocked when White played 10, so much so that his hand hovered over the magnetic board for some time before placing this stone. See Reference 1 for an explanation.

However, this move eventually led to White's victory, not because it was a particularly strong one but because Black started faltering. After exchanging 17 for 18, Black should have simply connected at A to strengthen his stones and aim at cutting at B. Black 17 through 21 look clever, but White counters with 22 and 24.

Black has too many cutting points and cannot defend against all of them at once. He therefore decides to cut at 27 and captures three stones with 29. White now cuts with 28 and 30 to kill the marked black stones. Although, Black effectively has lost, the game goes on for almost 100 more moves, which are not shown here. At one point Black seemed about to stage an upset but eventually his center group died, leading to his demise. In winning this game, Lee captured the title and picked up a winner's purse of 200 million Korean won.

Reference 1: The point of the white marked stone (white 8 in Diagram 1) is to cut Black's formation with the combination 2 through 6. So when White pulled back at 6 (without first cutting with 2 and 4), Cho was stunned. The white combination of the marked stone, 2, 4 and 6 are a tesuji (locally clever combination).

Tsuke-koshi

In the game, White played 8, which is a tesuji called tsuke-koshi. However, white 10 fails to follow up this attack--that is probably the reason why Cho was shocked. Let's investigate in detail what the tsuke-koshi tesuji entails.

Diagram 2: The white stones form a keima formation, which has both strengths and weaknesses. An obvious weakness is that this formation can be cut if there is a black stone in the neighborhood, e.g. the marked stone. In this case, Black can cut with 1 and 3.

Diagram 3: Suppose Black's position is one line higher, where the marked stone is? In that case, Black has two choices, A and B. What is the best way to cut the keima?

Diagram 4 (Wrong): With the marked stone in place, the combination 1 and 3 is the wrong way for Black to cut. This is because the marked stone is in the wrong place. It should have been at A or B to have an impact on the white stones.

Diagram 5 (Correct): If the marked stone is in this position, the right way to cut is with 1 and 3. However, this involves a ladder--white A, black B, white C, black D, white E, black F, white G, etc.

Problems

Problem 1: How can Black split the marked white stones?

Problem 2: Black's corner stones appear to be in trouble. How can Black save them?

Problem 3: In response to the marked white stone, Black can connect his marked stones with 1, but then he ends up in gote (loses the initiative) with 3 and 5. Can you find a better move for Black?

Problem 4: In response to black 1, White commits a grave error by playing at 2. How does Black punish White for this mistake?