This is one of the semi-final games of the 21th World Fujitsu in Tokyo. Although his performance is not as impressive as a few years ago, Lee 9p is still arguably one of the strongest pros in the world. Liu Xing 7p from China also performed well in Chinese domestic tournaments this year. Hard to predict the outcome of this game.
Liu Xing 7p often plays very unusual moves. In this game, he chose to play at 5 instead of L3 for the miniature Chinese opening. White 6 is very solid, and black 7 is speedy.
It seems like white 12 is a commonly used pincer now. People used to play at C12 or D11.
After playing the joseki at the upper-left corner. White tried to develop his moyo with 24. However, black immediately invaded with 25. The game became difficult at this point.
It appeared that the ladder at A was favorable for white. However, black 35 was a very nice move. It aims at both A and B, forcing white to give up one or another.
After careful consideration, white gave up the left side in exchange of territory on the upper-side. However, most pro observers seemed to agree the game was favorable for black now.
After black protected his territory with 47, white had to invade black’s moyo with 48. The exchanges from black 49 to white 54 are not really necessary, but not bad either. Black returned to attack with 55, also a rare move.
White gave up two stones in exchange of 70 and 72. However, if black’s right side became territory, white would trail by a large margin of points. Therefore, white played at 76, a very deep and risky invasion.
(to be continued…)
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