(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[Japanese]SZ[19]KM[6.50] PW[Kim Ji-Seok]PB[Gu Li]WR[7p]BR[9p]DT[2010-11-03]SO[weiqi.tom.com]C[This is a semi-final game of Samsung Cup 2010 It is between Gu Li 9P (China) and Kim Ji-Seok 7P (Korea) The semi-finals are "best of 3" series, this is the second game. Gu Li is leading 1-0 in the serie. Commented by: Mok Jin-Seok 9P (Korea) Translated by: Zhang Qi]RE[B+0.50] ;B[pd]C[Hello, "I" am Mok Jin-Soek 9P. Professional players usually comment on Gu Li's "Super Strength" (means fights super good in the middle game), and next his "fuseki" is very good. His fuseki is usually very brief and clear, following his opponent's step but never easily lose control.] ;W[dd] ;B[qp] ;W[dq] ;B[oq] ;W[co] ;B[pj] ;W[nc] ;B[pf] ;W[jd] ;B[cf] ;W[be] ;B[hc]C[Kim Ji-Seok is also know for good fighting. His won't feel happy if we say he is the second best fighter in the world. The first game, facing Gu Li's sophisticated board control, Kim Ji-Seok was not able to use his strength. Now, Gu Li has invaded. His is playing very actively today. There is about 10 pro players behind me watching this game in the studying room.] ;W[fc] ;B[he] ;W[if]LB[ie:A][je:B][jf:C]C[Kim Ji-Seok puts pressure on the black. If Gu Li "pushes and cuts", a fight cannot be avoided. "Push and cut", Chong Duan, in this case, means the sequence of A-B-C as shown.] ;B[ee]LB[de:A][df:B][ef:C]C[This is a brilliant move, "I" did not think about it at all. In this case, "I" would push and cut (A-B-C) without any thingking. Is there any hiding risk that Gu Li will attack if Kim Ji-Seok plays the "push/cut"? Kim Ji-Seok takes time thinking, feeling very cautious. ] ;W[de]C[Yes, he did. It is very cowardish if you do not push and cut in this kind of cases.] ;B[hf]C[Gu Li's previous move was "brilliant", this one is "astonishing". Both moves are not easy to find.] ;W[df] ;B[ig] ;W[jf]C[White pushed and comed out at the upper left, feeling very happy.] ;B[fb] ;W[eb] ;B[jg] ;W[kg]C[The game is getting tense. Both sides are leaving cutting points for the opponent. Looks like they are shouting: "Hey, come on and cut!"] ;B[kf] ;W[id] ;B[gc]C[Different from the first game, they starts fight in the very begining of the game.] ;W[fd] ;B[hg]C[It is pretty difficult to deal with the upper side for white. The cutting move 27 of black is like a fish bone in the throat. You can neither swallow it in nor throw it out.] ;W[oe]C[Bingo! That is the move. Making a remote net for 27 and looking at the upper right corner. Let's see how Gu Li fight back.] ;B[pe]LB[lg:a]C[Gu Li played very fast. He thinks that even if the 27 would not be able to escape, white is having bad taste around this area. If white plays "a" in the next move, 27 is almost captured. Of course, it is still a fish bone, makes the dinner less joyful.] ;W[lf]C[The exchange of 32 and 33 makes white lose something on the side and at the corner. Is this move "atari" valid?] ;B[ke] ;W[kd]C[If this move can settle down the two black stones, the result is good. However, does black really not have any way to escape?] ;B[le] ;W[mf] ;B[me] ;W[ne]C[Somebody must misread the variations. Who? Nobody can turn around and go back now.] ;B[md]C[This looks like both sides are pinching each other's throat and rolling to the edge of a cliff. In the studying room, pros are showing many variations that white turns out to lose the fight. It is a critical time for white now.] ;W[oc] ;B[lg] ;W[kh] ;B[lh]C[White tries to compromise by sacrifice some stones, but Gu Li does not agree.] ;W[mc] ;B[ki] ;W[qc]C[Ah, this can be only called "a compromise that cannot be called a compromise"...] ;B[jp]C[Now the black center is super super strong...] ;W[ql] ;B[qj] ;W[qo] ;B[pp]C[Now, white can only making chaos. It is very obvious that black is in advance. The only thing to console white is, the board is still very empty.] ;W[po] ;B[oo] ;W[on] ;B[pn] ;W[no] ;B[op]C[Black killed white's base, not giving any chance for white to breath.] ;W[om] ;B[qn]C[If white can find a base to live, this game would be very long.] ;W[kn]C[Let's see how Gu Li thinks. This move is very commonly used in these situations. Making the groups light, white is confusing black to attack them all or cut them into pieces. It is black's advantage now, but it is hard to decide how to attack.] ;B[lp] ;W[lo] ;B[mp] ;W[ok] ;B[lm] ;W[mo]C[Black probably made only one slow move, but it looks like white is going to live. Not only live, but also scratch the center. Of course, the big group does not have one eye yet, still very dangerous.] ;B[nl] ;W[ol] ;B[lk]C[Black's attack is at good pace, not too slow, not too harsh. Gu Li will feel satisfied if he would surround the center and the bottom side by this attacking. Next move, white need to connect, but not want to play some slow moves. It is very hard.] ;W[ml]C[This move is in agree with Ahn Jo-Young, who is watching this game beside me. Since Ahn Jo-Young is always a hard opponent for Gu Li, let's trust him.] ;B[mk] ;W[mm] ;B[nk] ;W[nm] ;B[km] ;W[rm] ;B[ro] ;W[rk] ;B[rj]C[White is still not alive yet.] ;W[jm] ;B[eq]C[Gu Li played this move without any hesitation. It feels like there is some wind stream along his hand.] ;W[ep]C[Black is extremely happy in this situation. The white group still needs to make a life.] ;B[fp] ;W[dp] ;B[fo] ;W[fq]C[White is struggling to the maximum extend. Only if white has move territory, he can start to gamble on the life and death problem of the big group. In the quarter final when Kim Ji-Seok plays Kong Jie 9P, he also won at the last by making a big group alive. ] ;B[er]C[Ha! Gu Li really played here. Han Sang-Hoon was playing variations, he doubted if this move is valid. This move, means Gu Li is showing his knife.] ;W[fr]C[If black jumps in the next move, it means compromised.] ;B[hq]C[This is a calm move.] ;W[jo] ;B[gr]C[Gu Li did not show his knife, does he want to win the game without fierce fight, as the first one? ] ;W[dr]C[Now black is not only very balanced on the whole board, but also feels some invisible power on the board.] ;B[kp] ;W[gm]C[If white can connect to the left side, he can get a considerable ammount of points there.] ;B[in]C[This move makes white feel uncomfortable. By capturing two black stone at the 88th move, white is getting considerable territories. If the big group can make a life without sacrifising too much, this is still a decently close game.] ;W[jn]C[Looking at the progress, black is definitely in advance. However, the advantage seems not that big now.] ;B[gq] ;W[es]C[When the left-center area is settled down, there will not be many complicated endgame moves.] ;B[hl] ;W[hm] ;B[im] ;W[il]C[White is in fact compromised here by cutting like this.] ;B[io] ;W[jl] ;B[kk] ;W[hj]C[Kim Ji-Seok found the critical point.] ;B[fl]C[This is a good move.] ;W[ii] ;B[gl] ;W[hk] ;B[jh]TR[gm][hm]C[White is planning to sacrifise the two stones marked as triangle to connect the big group to the left. Is there any way to save the two stones?] ;W[ek] ;B[fm]C[White sacrifised two stones, but made a fenceline on the left side. Now this game will be decided on how many points can white get on the left. Only a simple jump, white can make 10 or more points now.] ;W[gh]C[Now, black has 49 points on the bottom, 10 points at the right side, 5 points at the center. Also, some sente moves at the upper side. White: 15 points upper side, 17 at lower left corner, 15 at upper left corner. So if white can get about 15 points on the left, this game will finally have an endgame race. Now white had surround the territory to the maximum extend and the big group has gone home.] ;B[ck]C[The left side will decide who gonna win this game. This move, black is actually trying to cut the white group.] ;W[ci]C[This is calm move, demanding the 117 run back. Now let's go back to see the 49th move, the only effect is to get points at the bottom side, not really have any other good effects.] ;B[cm]C[It looks like the white is in shabby shapes, and living very dangerously during the past couple of tens moves. However, the result seems that the white had destroyed the black territory and starting getting points at left side. It seems that this game will be played to the end. This jump of black is also very calm. It looks like both the players are calmed down now and looking for the best moves on the board patiently.] ;W[cj] ;B[dk] ;W[ej]C[This is very calm of white, demanding black to connect.] ;B[ff] ;W[el] ;B[dn]C[Now the upper right corner start to be big.] ;W[re]C[This is the biggest move on the board.] ;B[qd] ;W[rc] ;B[lc]C[Yes, I admit there is some bad arji (taste) for white.] ;W[ld] ;B[pc] ;W[pb] ;B[ob] ;W[qb] ;B[lb]C[Black's purpose is to lock the center. White wants to counter-attack, but limited to the liberty, he is not able to do a lot.] ;W[kb]C[Now, black has two choices. One is to block the center space directly. The other one is try to do something at the upper left.] ;B[nb] ;W[mb] ;B[nd]C[Black chose to lock the center.] ;W[od] ;B[nf] ;W[of] ;B[og] ;W[ma]C[It is hard for black to choose to stick or take.] ;B[ng]C[Stick.] ;W[kc] ;B[fh]C[Both player are doing briefly and clearly. The game is being very close.] ;W[fi] ;B[eg]C[Yes, this move is a trouble for white. It would be good if white can block here, but... Gu Li 9P, threw a new problem to Kim Ji-Seok.] ;W[en] ;B[eo] ;W[em] ;B[do] ;W[cn] ;B[dm]C[White plays sente to clean this area, which is good.] ;W[fn] ;B[gn] ;W[dg] ;B[ln] ;W[ko] ;B[ei] ;W[dj] ;B[gi] ;W[fj] ;B[jj] ;W[ij] ;B[gb]C[It is so big to save this one stone on the upper side.] ;W[fe] ;B[ge]C[Prevent white to play "warikom" in sente. "Warikom", Wa, in Chinese, play in between two opponent's stones with only one space in a line.] ;W[oj]C[This is very big.] ;B[rg] ;W[oi] ;B[pi] ;W[rf] ;B[qf] ;W[ea] ;B[rd] ;W[sd]C[The current situation is white winning a little bit, if the endgame is played normally.] ;B[bq] ;W[bp] ;B[bn] ;W[bo]C[Black's purpose is valid.] ;B[an] ;W[ao]TR[bq]C[Black's sense of win-lose by playing the triangle move is really excellent. ] ;B[bl] ;W[sg] ;B[rh] ;W[hh] ;B[ai] ;W[bi] ;B[ak] ;W[ah] ;B[ef] ;W[ib] ;B[cr] ;W[ar] ;B[aq] ;W[br] ;B[bs] ;W[cq] ;B[as]C[These moves' purpose is to make the outside endgame point become a sente.] ;W[br] ;B[ed] ;W[ec] ;B[cc] ;W[dc] ;B[aj] ;W[ch] ;B[gg] ;W[oh] ;B[ph]C[Why white did not played here? It is 2.5 points in gote but prevented black's sente.] ;W[cs] ;B[mn] ;W[nn] ;B[jk] ;W[ik]C[White has lost more than 1 point.] ;B[nj] ;W[gs] ;B[hs]C[Now, most of the pro players in the studying room think white is going to win by 0.5 point. ] ;W[nh] ;B[sh] ;W[se] ;B[mi]C[Black should have taken the two stones before. Next move, if white play preventional gote here, it will be very big. "Preventional gote": Though it is a gote move in the endgame, but if the opponent played here, it will be his sente. Ni Shou, in Chinese.] ;W[np] ;B[nq] ;W[ic] ;B[ih] ;W[hi]C[The 226th move, connecting the upper side is a mistake. The game becomes a single ko fighting game. "Single Ko Fighting", Dan Jie Sheng Fu, who ever wins the final single point ko, wins the game.] ;B[rn]C[This is a very good move to eliminate ko threats. If Kim Ji-Seok did not connect the 226, but play the center preventional gote, he would have settled this game.] ;W[gk] ;B[hn] ;W[sj] ;B[si] ;W[sk] ;B[sm]LB[pl:A]C[Now both players start count down time. A "warikom" (Wa, at point A) is valid now.] ;W[dh] ;B[eh]LB[pl:A]C[If the warikom A is valid, white is in danger, weird.] ;W[dl] ;B[hb] ;W[ia] ;B[fs]C[White must win this ko to keep the game winning.] ;W[gp] ;B[go] ;W[gs] ;B[fa] ;W[ha] ;B[fs] ;W[cl] ;B[bk] ;W[gs]C[Gu Li's endgame, so strong!] ;B[bd]C[Is this move even a ko threat? ] ;W[fs]C[Kim Ji-Seok connected this ko. He thinks that if the 251st move is a ko threat, he is gonna to lose anyway.] ;B[bb] ;W[ac] ;B[bg] ;W[bh] ;B[ce] ;W[cd] ;B[bc]LB[ab:b][bf:a]C[If white plays a, black then play b to live... See the variation. Kim Ji-Seok must feel very disappointed. It was really hard to catch up by make the big group to live, but lose the game back here at the endgame. If white would play 209 any time before black did, or play 227 instead of 226, it is a winning game for white.] (;W[af]LB[ba:b][ca:c][da:f][ab:a][cb:d][db:e]C[This is the strongest move here. Sequence a to f, it is a ko. See variation.] (;B[bf]C[This move, although black is not gonna to live or make a ko, white has to spend moves to kill the black group, because the whole big white group has only one eye on the board...] ;W[ca] ;B[ae] ;W[ag] ;B[ba] ;W[ab] ;B[cb] ;W[fk] ;B[qk] ;W[rl] ;B[pl] ;W[pm] ;B[pk]C[By demanding white to spend moves to kill the black group, black is winning all the single point endgame points outside. The current situation is, white is already lost...] ;W[qm] ;B[sn] ;W[sf] ;B[gd]C[Black is also just enough for a 0.5 point win.] ;W[cg] ;B[be] ;W[db] ;B[mg] ;W[ad] ;B[aa] ;W[ac] ;B[kl] ;W[ad] ;B[ji]C[Kim Ji-Seok, lost this game by the most painful way, most painful difference, painfully.] ;W[ab]C[Black won by 0.5 points. Summary: This game is very interesting. The winning libra has turned to both sides. In the opening game, black has definite advantages. However, in the middle game, although black's attack feels very comfortable, black did not effectively gain territory. The game started to become complicated. White did a fantastic job on the left side and took the lead at that time. Black's 179 and 189 are brilliant endgame tesujis (Guan Zi Shou Jin), black caught up in big steps. However, at any time white play 209 before black, or play 227 instead of 226, white still should win the game. 229 is actually another brilliant endgame tesuji, not easy to find, and is the winning move. This move not only eliminate a ko threat, for the later single ko fight, but also make the 271 warikom valid later. We said Gu Li is famous for his middle game fighting, and good at the opening game at the beginning of today's comment. After this game, he will be famous for his strong endgame, too. Now that Gu Li has entered the final of the Samsung Cup 2010. The finals are also "best of 3" series, which is tentatively scheduled at Dec. 7 to 10 in Beijing. This is the end of the comment, translated by Zhang Qi. Thank you for your reading.]) (;B[ab] ;W[ba] ;B[ca] ;W[cb] ;B[db] ;W[da])) (;W[bf] ;B[ab]))