Shusaku Game #20

In this game's opening, B gave up the top left corner and in return built up some influence, then used this influence to attack White 's top stone. White decide to go "under" and took the territory over top edge, while Black build substantial wall along the top edge, this wall gave Black not only potential to build a big center territory but also tilted the blance of power on the right side-White's stronger group became weaker while Black's lower right corner gained more confidence . While it might be too late, White decided to break out from Black wall put pressure on the top left Black dragon....But Shusaku was not one who fears fight, on one hand he expand center territory by dragging the center White group to run along, on the other hand he is more happy to reduce White 's potential on the left side-if White chase failed, White risking "much ado about nothing"...White did manage to get a ko after a long chase but because Black has 3 gote eyes and ko threatsm White could not claim much a sucess. Still Black decide to remove the Ko and let White reduce some of his center territory, when Black got sente, Black change direction and started to expand his Right side territory. At this point White 's only hope was to gain some from attacking Black's lower Right corner, and when that group manged to connect back to Black's right side, game over.

Shusaku Game #19

In this game Shusaku played against his teacher, his teacher took back the handicap advantage and never lose it. Key battle started over right top corner-White managed to took the corner from inside then attack the Black wall from outside, when the Black retreated, White's group over lower right also joined the hunting and got stronger. After that Black group final out, White took the sente and started to invade the bottom. Black tried but could not do much against the invading White group down the bottom, instead White took over the whole Left side-Black had chance to start a ko down the lower Left corner, my question would be was that Black's only chance and could Black win the ko? consider White prepared a couple big ko threat down the bottom.

Shusaku Game #18

This game is almost as short as last one, Black calmly gave White left bottom edge in exchange for a thick wall and a weak White group in the middle of left edge.

The turning point is over top right corner, Shusaku played a move not only expanded B's moyo also reduced White's top influence, if White responded over the top then White would felt being taken advantage of...So White decided to expand lower Right corner and curb the possibility of large Black moyo along the right edge. This gave Black opportunity for a nice combo punches-first Black closed White over Right top corner in sente!, then Black started to attack the weak White group, and eventually cut a big tail off that group...Another good example of building influence and applied it to attacking.

Shusaku Game #17

This perhaps is the shortest game in the book, it highlighted how Shusaku used influence and how he built up influence.

The opening of the game showed both of them was planning for a long and slow game. Things started to change when White gave Black a wall over left top corner. And after White got into the big fight over top right corner, Black first built up influence from outside and then turned in top right corner into a Ko fight-further more he took advantage of White's worry of giving Black extra Ko threats, Black broke up the White group in the lower right corner.

If White wastes two moves over right top corner to clean things up, the whole lower left and lower right could be taken over by Black....so White resigned.

Shusaku Game #16

After a loss in the prior game, Shusaku obviously tried harder in this game while White was a bit over-complacent, this is shown when White chased Black dragon to the left which limited White's left top corner, but also gave Black opportunity to form territory between the dragon and the bottom left corner stone. When Black decided to capture the left bottom White stones, Shusaku must have reached the conclusion that the center Black dragon could not be killed-this sure showed the strength of his skill.

Shusaku Game #15

This is a game in which Shusaku seemed to lost his grip. White made a move at left bottom corner, to which Black decided to play somewhere else. Black used 4 moves to surround one white stone at right bottom corner which was not a good choice as White not only invaded the bottom edge also put the weak Black bottom group in his crosshair. In order to find two eyes for that weak group, Black gave White a big influence outside. And when Black tried built moyo over right top corner, White brilliantly sacrificed stoned and built another wall along right edge, gave him potential to made a huge territory in the center. After that, Black made move to invade the top of the board, White let it live but built the third wall around the center. After sacrificing a few more stones, White removed some bad Aji of the left top corner and started to work on killing the left top Black group-that group only had one and half gote eyes at best....Black resigned

Shusaku Game #14

The turning point of this game is when w tried to attack Black's left center group, instead of running, Black attacked the top center group of White. This is truely 3 birds with one stone: it indirectly help out the left center group; it strengthen the top center black group; and sure it also attacks the top center white group. During the fight around left bottom corner, black gave up 3 stones but took over the whole lower left corner. White put forward its last effort in attacking Black's top center group but because White's own center top group is weak, White didn't get much while Black not only escaped but also expanded the top right corner territory.

Shusaku Game #13

This game showed the superb ability of Shusaku is attacking, sense of balance and flexibility. From the very beginning, black built thickness over left top corner and push White groups towrds to the left edge and top edge. This thickness later on joined force with Black's left bottom group in attacking White's left center group and bottom group-White kind of sacrificed the left center group in order to kill Black's right bottom corner-but Black got a large territory around lower center in one hand, on the other hand White's left corner group became weaker, to make it even worse for White the right bottom Black corner is not that a clean kill-this provided black with much needed ko threats when the fight in the center turned into a ko fight...Over the ko fight, Black let White connect home but increased its center territory significantly. Desparately to catch up in yose, White took Black's right top corner, but pretty much gave up the center top territory in the process-talk about "much ado about nothing"!

Definition of a winner in Go battle? firstly is overall thickness, your opponent can do nothing to you unless you donate something; secondly, if your opponent kills, he would rather not kill; thirdly, when your opponent lives/escapes, he would rather ..... then you have reached a new level.

Susaku Game #12

In this game Shusaku playing against a peer, Black had a rather fast-paced opening, placed group over top edge, right edge and quite a moyo down left bottom corner. But thing start fall in Shusaku's favor when B's invasion and attack on Shusaku's left top group failed, the invasion/attack failure came side effects:

• Shusaku's left top group escaped untouched
• Black's left top group became very weak, as it later played out-only two eyes
• Shusaku's left center group got one sente eye-this change the thickness of that group a LOT
• Black also lost eye shape over the top, that group basically will have to live in gote if Black choose to
• What is worst side effect? one weak group in the center right beside the two weak stones over the right edge-if White(Shusaku) lean against(threaten to attack) one of these groups, he could probably swallow the other group in a big way!

Black choosed to give up the group over the top and strengten the center and right side groups, Shusaku played a very clean yose(end game)-reduced the left bottom white moyo, while Black took his right bottom corner, he broke into the bottom edge and created some territory in the center...while the game record saying Shusaku won by 2 pts, but I think that is 2 pts without komi for White(7-8 pts with komi).

Shusaku Game #11

KO is perhaps in the essense of a Go game, White of this game, Shusaku's teacher, started quite an attack at Shusaku's center and left bottom groups. By giving up the KO of right bottom corner, Black settled his center weak groups. And later in the game, there is another KO over the left top corner, Black hang on and forced White not to make the KO even bigger.

Shusaku Game #10

We often say Shusaku's play was solid, which does not mean he didn't put pressure on his opponent. Even when his group was running, his opponent still felt the pain-in this game, Shusaku running his left center group but dragging TWO(or should I say THREE?) groups of White along with it. After forcing White left top group into settling down with 2 eyes, Shusaku exchanged his right top corner with White's top center group....The result? the center White group became weak and had to run towards lower right corner-the same direction White's left bottom group was running towards. In the end, the right bottom White moyo evapourated, and the left bottom group of White got captured.

Shusaku Game #9

After two losses, shusaku's opponent seemed to lost his balance in this game. Not sure whether Shusaku had extensive research on Taisha Joseki before this game or not, but it feels like he gained upper hand from the conflict around right bottom corner. In this game, Shusaku showed his skill in reducing the territory of his opponent pushing opponent's group in the second line or barely survive with two eyes; also worth learning was how he took care the possible ko near the left bottom corner-capturing 6 white stones. in desperation, White tried very hard in expanding its left top moyo-and again he kind of lost his balance, the moyo become too big, a small group of Shusaku managed to find two eyes and settle down comfortablely inside the moyo which resulted the quick finish of this game...Go very much is about balance and patience, perhaps because of Shusaku's outstanding skill, his opponent first lost his balance then lost his patience in the game.

Shusaku Game #8

Shusaku's opponent, White, made some directional mistake from beginning of the game basically giving Black a big territory across the top in exchange for some small "thickness" around left top and right top, but Black had already stubs on the right edge and left edge. After some smart maneuvers, White's walls showed their cracks and ended up being chased out by Black's left and right center groups. In the middle of game, Shusaku "forced" White's left bottom group live in sente, quite puzzling to me, I guess Shusaku either hate empty triangle shape very very much or was a super strong believer of the "gote no sente" . White got a chance to attack Black right center group but Black successful settle that group down and when black was running his left center group he dragged White 's left top group along, and because the earlier donation over the top-White was now short of Territory, White could not declare a truce with Black with a seki...and had to start a KO in the center but because the bottom White group had barely 2 eyes-actually best result for White bottom group is also live by KO, White just cannot win both KOs.

Shusaku Game #7

In Go or in life, big picture is very important. Shusaku demonstrated his outstanding flexibility and judgement-he left the top right corner for white to swallow, and gave w some chance to attack his top center group while himself cleanly executed the capture of white's big left bottom group. When black's top center group settled down with two eyes, white got no choice but to resign.

Shusaku Game #6

Lessons could be learnt from this game: first when you wanted to reduce opponent's territory, you could start with attacking a weak group of your opponent-good example is how w reduced b's bottom moyo, and when you run your weak group best way is to drag a weak group of your opponent along-just as b's attacking the top right w group. While Shusaku did lose this handi game, he did show some good tactics such as at bottom right-by threatening w to live by KO, b took a stone in sente.

Shusaku Game #5

In this game, we again get the chance to see how Shusaku ability to "Trade", first he captured the bottom right White group by leaving his botton left group under attack-which result to a "KO live", then traded that group with the tail of White in the center...In the end, another win for the future KiSei.

Shusaku Game #4

In Go, mastering how to play KO is important-you need to win important KOs or at least get some exhange in return should you lose the KO. This game featured one KO at bottom and one KO over the top, and the left center became hunting ground of KO threats for white but Shusaku managed to hold up the first KO fight and didn't give up much at the second KO fight.

It is always amazing how Shusaku prefer thickness over attacking, defence over offence. Good example is how easily he gave up the 3 stones in the center..."Good warriors make their stand on ground where they cannot lose and do not overlook anything that makes the enemy prone to defeat." as Suntzu said, Shusaku followed same principle.

Shusaku Game #3

This game is rather odd, Shusaku was shodan and his opponent was 3 dan but Shusaku played a literally "rock solid" opening-or a rather slow opening and I felt that even his opponent caught some of "Shusaku influenza" and made some slow move in the middle game.

Black won this game by 4 points without komi-perhaps as we all know corners are more efficient in getting territory and Shusaku got 4 corners in this game-the small moyo of white on the left side very likely sufferred from reduction in the endgame.

Shusaku Game #2

In this game Shusaku's opponent started a ko on on the top left taking the lead and used another ko at left bottom to fortify the lead...as we obviously can see, even genius like Shusaku had a rather humble beginning and needed to learn from losses.

Shusaku Game #1

This is the starting point my journey of reviving my own Go playing-I will try to replay one game of Shusaku (Xiu Ce) every one or two days from now on.