|
Fattening a sacrifice often costs nothing and can help keep control of the game - sente if nothing else.
White (Pak Chong-yeol) played what was called an "amazing" move at 142 in a 1987 game. He had spotted a way to wrap up the game with a "heads I win, tails you lose" strategy. He could have just abandoned his group on the centre right and taken territory at the top, but would then be in gote and have to face Black (Paek Seong-ho) playing forcing moves there to expand his centre. Black would be in control of the game. Pak realised that, with the position elsewhere more or less played out, he could afford to add stones to his centre-right group, safe in the knowledge that there would be no negative impact elsewhere, whereas there would be a definite positive impact in one of two ways. By setting up a potential capturing race with the Black stones in the upper right, he could get either get lucky and win the race, or, at the very least, he could use threats against Black to make territory at the top in sente (and also deny Black territory there). In the end he did not need the lucky option. He lost an enormous group but with no harm done and picked up enough (especially the ko compensation in the lower right) to finish up with an unassailable lead of around five points, which is why Black resigned in the position below. Other comments: White 26 was considered an appropriate reduction. White 88 was well timed. Black 111 was too impatient. Black 131 looks robust enough, but he hadn't spotted 142.
The full game in sgf form: © John Fairbairn & T Mark Hall (GoGoD), London 2007. |
