Hot Off the Press #102

Ma s t e r Pl a y : Th e Te r i t o r i a l St y l e s o f Ki t a n i Mi n o r u & Ch o Ch i k u n b y Yu a n Zh o u

Published by Slate & Shell (www.slateandshell.com)

This is the fifth in a series by Zhou explaining the play- Zhou suggests that understanding a pro’s style will not ing styles of various pros. Zhou analyzes two games of only enhance your enjoyment of the game but will also each pro—one playing Black and one playing White. help you to develop your own style. The games are In the process he makes clear the significance of play- easy to follow in the book because the diagrams have ing a particular style and clarifies what distinctive tac- very few moves, often only one or two and very rarely tics are involved. more than five.

The following selections from the book do not mimic the formatting of the book.

[The first Kitani game is the famous one with Shusai.]

47

48

47 – 48 xdp is a clear example of a rock solid style of play. There 46 45 is a small weakness here, but it is not a major problem. Nevertheless, Kitani connects. Many players saw xdp as too slow. It allows White to 45 – 46 erase much of the impact of Black’s thickness with ZDQ and reduces the compensation Black gets for giving Black [Kitani] next plays the sente peep at xdn to con- White the left side territory. nect all his stones here. White connects, of course. Later study confirmed that xdp is in fact a good move What should Black do now? The right side and the for Black, but very few players would make this sort of bottom are both big. Actually, Kitani’s next move is very solid play. It is typical of Kitani’s style. famous and was a shock to many players. It is a good At this point White is happy with the opening. How- example of Kitani’s style. Only Go Seigen would un- ever, with all his positions free of weaknesses, Kitani derstand this move. is now ready to fight back. 1 [In the game below Kitani is White and Black is Sakata Eio.]

A 95

B

94 93

13

13 xal is a clear example of Cho’s style. It is not that he 93 – 95 doesn’t know the joseki [lower left], of course. First, in xil is another step in Black’s plan to attack White’s two the normal sequence [already shown], the bottom ends weak groups in the upper right and lower left. Then xin up good for White but that is a bigger area than Black strengthens this group and leaves clamp aji at A. gets in the joseki. Secondly, Cho does not think there is a problem about his group in the corner being safe. If you were White what would you do now? Territorial style does not mean finishing every joseki. 4 kyu: White’s groups are not in immediate danger, I There is no creativity in that. xal is Cho making sure would take the territory at B. the game is broken up into small pieces and preventing White from building a large structure by attacking \. That would be common thinking, but it is not Kitani’s style. ... [In the game below is White and Black is Yoo Chang Hyuk.]

55

A

96

96 ZIO is another good example of Kitani’s style. This move seems very slow, but this is a good move. It strength- 55 ens the lower right group and helps the group in the Since Black is not ready to fight a ko in the upper right lower left. It’s not an easy move to see, but it is impor- corner, nor take gote to kill two stones, he plays else- tant. Now White can aim at getting more territory on where with xen. How should White continue here? The the right side. upper center is the focus because of black’s potential In the next game Cho Chikun is Black and Fujisawa there. A balanced player would cap at A to reduce this, Shuko is White.] but that is not Cho Chikun’s style. 2 wants the outside and is not going to invade at this point. 56

A

1

3 5 4 6 2

56 Cho again takes the cold, hard cash and leaves it to Black to try to do something with his upper center po- Diagram 15 tential. ZEO is a huge move, more than twenty points, and Black doesn’t have a tight way to seal in White’s upper Cho judges nothing is bigger than this. Most players left corner, but if he continues to develop his center would not play here since it is only a matter of points potential with a play around w1, the game will continue and not of life and death, but Cho is not impressed by this way. After Z^ White is comfortably ahead. Black vague possibilities. This is why xcr (\) was a msitake. cannot play this way. It should be at A to prevent this outcome.

Of course, when Black played xcr it was a natural move, sealing White in. A lot of later study has shown that it would have been better for Black to let White run out there since White would get little benefit from doing 60 so. Once again we see how incredibly deep go is.

A 57 59 58

59 – 60 xer is a good move although it does not prevent White’s connecting his two bottom groups. However, if White does that, Black can now develop the center and White won’t have the counter-play shown in Diagram 15.

57 – 58 Now Cho must begin reducing Black’s center with ZFS. this play may seem risky. See Diagram 16. Black naturally continues to develop his potential in the center, which is becoming very large. An ordinary opponent would be very worried about this and start reducing immediately. However,Cho calmly makes his corner bigger. He does not have to hold back at A, which would make the corner solid, because Black 3