JGC -- Day 2

This morning I played Utsunomiya Tatsuko.

She's friends with Hyodo-san (of course).  I ended up cutting off some of her stones, which was too much.  We played through the whole endgame but then she resigned instead of counting it.  Based on the schedule, I think she's only here for the one day.  Here's the game, with some commentary by Francis.

(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[Japanese]SZ[19]KM[6.50] PW[Becci]PB[Utsunomiya Tatsuko]LB[jc:2][qh:1][bj:6][nm:3][om:4][kn:5][co:7]C[White+res. Reviewed by Francis Meyer] ;B[dp] ;W[pd] ;B[cd] ;W[ec] ;B[hd] ;W[cg] ;B[ed] ;W[cj] ;B[dc] ;W[pq] ;B[po] ;W[nq] ;B[qq] ;W[qr] ;B[qp] ;W[rr] ;B[qj]C[This is far. ] (;W[qh] ;B[oj] ;W[nc] ;B[qf] ;W[rd] ;B[pg] (;W[jc] ;B[lr] ;W[fq] ;B[iq] ;W[cq] ;B[dq] ;W[cp] ;B[do] ;W[dr] ;B[er] ;W[cr] ;B[eq] ;W[cn] ;B[dn] ;W[cm] ;B[el] ;W[lq] ;B[mq] ;W[mp] ;B[mr] ;W[np] ;B[or]C[Looks like Black misread this.] ;W[nr] ;B[oq] ;W[op] ;B[pp] ;W[pr] ;B[lp] ;W[kq] ;B[kr] (;W[nm] ;B[lo] (;W[om]C[Slow.] ;B[qm]C[Easy for Black to connect.] ;W[im]C[This potentially gives Black a target. This is why it's better for White to attack on the right side to gain strength before trying to reduce this area. With a target, Black can fix her problems while attacking.] ;B[lm] ;W[gl] ;B[ej] ;W[kn] ;B[ln]LB[kn:A][ln:B][nn:C]C[This is a bad exchange for White because now Black can cut at C.] ;W[fn]C[This is a good move.] ;B[ck] (;W[bj] ;B[cl] ;W[dm] ;B[em] ;W[en] ;B[fp] ;W[eg] ;B[ds]C[(end of commentary)] (;W[co] ;B[gj] ;W[ik] ;B[ii] ;W[kk] ;B[ko] ;W[ki] ;B[gg] ;W[dj] ;B[ek] ;W[mk] ;B[nn] ;W[be] ;B[bd] ;W[hb] ;B[gc] ;W[gb] ;B[fb] ;W[je] ;B[nk] ;W[ml] ;B[on] ;W[jg] ;B[if] ;W[jf] ;B[ig] ;W[ji] ;B[ij] ;W[jk] ;B[gm] ;W[hm] ;B[gn] ;W[io] ;B[fm] ;W[bf] ;B[ne] ;W[nd] ;B[me] (;W[rf] ;B[rg] ;W[qe] ;B[sf] ;W[re] ;B[qg] ;W[so] ;B[rn] ;W[nh] ;B[mh] ;W[ni] ;B[mi] ;W[nj] ;B[mj] ;W[ok] ;B[pk] ;W[nl] ;B[oi] ;W[oh] ;B[ph] ;W[of] ;B[oe] ;W[pe] ;B[og] ;W[ng] ;B[nf] ;W[pf] ;B[mg] ;W[nk] ;B[kd] ;W[jd] ;B[md] ;W[lf] ;B[kh] ;W[jh] ;B[kf] ;W[ke] ;B[kg] ;W[le] ;B[lk] ;W[ll] ;B[lj] ;W[mf] ;B[kl] ;W[km] ;B[cs] ;W[bs] ;B[es] ;W[ar] ;B[bk] ;W[bh] ;B[pb] ;W[pc] ;B[nb] ;W[mb] ;B[ob] ;W[mc] ;B[rc] ;W[rb] ;B[sb] ;W[qc] ;B[ic] ;W[ib] ;B[hc] ;W[ip] ;B[in] ;W[hn] ;B[jn] ;W[jm] ;B[jo] ;W[ho] ;B[hq] ;W[jp] ;B[jq] ;W[kp] ;B[mo] ;W[ad] ;B[ac] ;W[ae] ;B[bc] ;W[go] ;B[fo] ;W[ei] ;B[dh] ;W[eh] ;B[dg] ;W[df] ;B[ef] ;W[ff] ;B[ee] ;W[fg] ;B[de] ;W[cf] ;B[fi] ;W[gf] ;B[jj] ;W[kj] ;B[ih] ;W[bm] ;B[hf] ;W[kb] ;B[ge] ;W[di] ;B[fh] ;W[hk] ;B[gk] ;W[eb] ;B[db] ;W[fc] ;B[ea] ;W[fa] ;B[da] ;W[hj] ;B[fd] ;W[fb] ;B[hi] ;W[pl] ;B[ql] ;W[pm] ;B[pn] ;W[gp] ;B[gq] ;W[ms] ;B[jr] ;W[ie] ;B[rq] ;W[sq] ;B[sn] ;W[sp] ;B[no] ;W[os] ;B[sr] ;W[ss] ;B[mm] ;W[jl] ;B[ro] ;W[se] ;B[sg] ;W[am] ;B[aj] ;W[ai] ;B[ak] ;W[he] ;B[ce] ;W[ls] ;B[ks] ;W[ns] ;B[fl] ;W[hl]) (;W[ph] ;B[oh] ;W[rf]C[White can connect this way.] (;B[qe] ;W[re] ;B[rg] ;W[qg] ;B[rh] ;W[pf] ;B[og] ;W[pe]) (;B[rg] ;W[qg] ;B[re] ;W[pf] ;B[sf] ;W[qe] ;B[rh] ;W[og]))) (;W[bm]C[This is possible.]) (;W[fk] ;B[ek] ;W[fi]LB[fm:A]C[White might be able to take sente and attack these stones. (Although, with the weakness at A, White might need to make some exchanges on the bottom first.)])) (;W[bk]C[This is probably better. Even if Black cuts off the top stones, White can play F2 and Black is in trouble.])) (;W[pm]C[White can go deeper. Black wil have a hard time connecting. ])) (;W[lo]C[White could play here, but Black might not respond. If White wants to play here in sente, White should not play L3 first.]) (;W[ql]C[White could also try this first. White can use the R12 stone. Idea: White should attack where Black is weak. Worry about the big strong Black area later, after White becomes strong from the attack.])) (;W[fq]C[Probably playing on the bottom or left side is bigger.]) (;W[cn]C[Hard to say which is better.])) (;W[qf]C[White might want to play back like this, ] (;B[qh]C[Then Black doesn't want to play here.]) (;B[oj]C[If Black still jumps, White doesn't need another move in the corner.])))

Here I am with Pete and Mika:

Mika has a rather unusual situation.  She's been here with us through all of camp and now she's a staffer at the congress, but she doesn't play Go.  She is of Japanese descent, but she was born and raised in New Zealand.  Her uncle is friends with Maeda-sensei and she is thinking of moving to Japan, so she was brought on as a translator.  For the camp, that ended up not working so well since she doesn't know Go.  But she's been a central person for us anyway...  a "mood-maker" as Fukami-san says.  :)  Speaking of which Fukami-san is at camp today:

In addition to running all the behind-the-scenes stuff, Maeda-sensei is also front-and-center, doing running commentary on a Chinese city league relay match.

Francis has been translating the commentary into English.  At one point he said something about there being a "live performance" during the break in the game.  "A live performance of what?" we wondered.  Then they came out:

We had been hearing about this famous all-female Takarazuka Revue since before we got here.  Everyone who found out we were going to Takarazuka brought it up.  When we got here, Pete tried to buy tickets and learned that we basically would have had to buy them a year ago to see a performance.  But then we got a brief performance here at congress!



 The Go players (in the middle of their relay match) did pause to look up and take a couple of photos, but went right back to discussing their game.

Then I got interviewed by Diana Garnet for her TV show on NHK. She said she's a beginner at Go, but I guess they like to have her on TV as someone trying to learn. She's from Washington, DC and moved here to become a singer. Apparently, she's been successful as a singer for songs in anime movies.

They interviewed a lot of us from Go camp.  We're pretty conspicuous.

Later in the afternoon they held a "Teacher-Pupil Tag Match" with Kunio Ishi and Yuta Iyama on one team and Yuichi Sonoda and Toshiya Imamura on the other.  All are 9 dan pros, but Iyama Yuta is listed in the guidebook with the title "6 crowns" instead of "9dp", since he currently holds 6 of the 7 major titles in Japan.  While one team member played, the other would join the commentators.

It was the first time that everyone just sat in their seats and watched.  Usually the main room is just total mayhem.  While the game was first starting, Francis reviewed some of our games from the morning.  Since we got to know Francis and his friend Komatsu during the camp, it feels like we have our own personal pros at congress.  They hang out with our group a lot.  After the exhibition game started getting interesting we switched over to that and then we got Francis and Komatsu's commentary on the game while it was in progress.  It was definitely easier (and more fun) to follow them than to follow what was happening on the main demonstration board.  Plus we got to ask questions.  Here I am with Francis and Komatsu.

All the pros have those boutonnieres to wear so they are easily distinguishable.

There are lots of great events for the kids.  Lulu finally found what she expected our Go camp to be -- tons of kids for her kids to play with, and parents of Go-playing kids for her to talk to.

Today they had a "rally match" for the kids.  I was told this means the kids can win for most games played, most wins, etc.  They played 13x13 games for this.  And they were each given this really nice player sheet, with information about all the other kids, a place to mark the result in their game and instructions on how to greet each other in different languages.

(Taking notes for our future events back home...)

Some photos of more folks dressed up for the congress.