This is a game between Jiang Weijie and Na Hyun from the 17th LG Cup. It was played on June 20, 2012. Jiang Weijie plays black and Na Hyun plays white.
Jiang Weijie vs Na Hyun
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Transcript of the video
Translated by Oh Chimin 7d for GoGameGuru.com
Edited by David Ormerod 5d.
Hello! This is a special broadcast for the 17th LG cup.
It's a game between Na Hyun 2p and the defending champion Jiang Weijie 9p.
The commentator is Cho Daehyun 9p.
In the previous round, Korean players performed well against Chinese players.
Yes, previously, they've lost many games against Chinese players at crucial stages.
However, this time Korean players won 9 out of 10 games in the round of 32,
so I think they've shown good results so far.
Yes, I wish all the best for Korean players.
Na Hyun is a young player, so he's got a lot of potential for the future.
Jiang Weijie, the winner of the 16th LG cup, is one of the top players.
The last competition led Jiang to stardom,
so, it's interesting to see how he performs now.
Let's see some scenes from the game.
The venue: Gonjiam resort in Korea.
Jiang Weijie 9p from China.
Na Hyun 2p from Korea.
Jiang Weijie plays black, Na Hyun plays white.
Jiang's success in the last LG Cup was a surprise,
because he faced Lee Changho 9p in the final.
Many expected Lee to win, breaking his streak of runner up results.
But Jiang defeated Lee in the final.
Since Jiang's victory, he's been ranked number 4 in China.
Even though Na Hyun 2p became a professional player a few years ago,
his strength has improved very quickly since last year.
He advanced to the semifinal of last year's Samsung Cup.
He lost to Gu Li 9p from China, but it was enough to see his potential.
Recently, there are many strong teenaged players in the Go community.
Some from Korea, but we can see more from China.
For instance, Dang Yifei, who participated in the BC Card Cup,
as an ordinary teenaged player, made through the final.
Na Hyun is a very young player, so he has infinite potential.
Even though there aren't many players who were born in 90's from Korea,
they've got superb strength.
When Jiang participated in the last LG Cup, no one anticipated his success.
Even the Chinese Go community didn't foresee his victory against Lee Changho.
Up to here, Na Hyun concentrates on shape,
while Jiang Weijie secures territory.
Jiang's style is territory oriented, and he's good at controlling the situation.
His moves are low so far, aiming at taking points.
Some people said recently that Korea is lagging behind China in skill during the opening.
It's because Chinese players have studied together for a long time.
When new moves are developed, they've studied the pattern and already reached a conclusion.
As a result, their opening has become stronger than before.
Black was bound to get all the corners, white takes the upper left corner.
Na Hyun defeated Dang Yifei in the round of 32.
Dang Yifei's age and strength are similar to Na Hyun's.
It was a great victory.
Dang is also a rising star who emerged last year.
The flow of the opening is calm.
Let's look at the game so far.
Normally white's first move is in one of the left corners.
This variation is not played very often recently.
Playing atari here is the first instinct.
This sequence was considered natural before.
In this case though, black's shape is ideal and efficient.
Now white has to find a good way to reduce black's framework.
Is it too simple?
Yes, white has to play for a variation instead.
In the game, black chose a newly developed move.
The atari from this direction.
What if white comes out like this?
If black plays atari here, it will be the same.
But black will atari from the other direction.
The ladder is important here. Even if the ladder works for white,
White's influence isn't as good as black's corner.
White usually connects and this progression is normal.
It's a new move.
If black comes out, this will be almost the same shape as the one I showed before.
But black doesn't follow this variation in the game.
Since black saves this stone, white has to sacrifice its stone in the corner.
Depending on the situation, black can also play like this, which is tesuji.
But this can be risky, so Jiang plays here instead.
Without this exchange, white will apply pressure with an atari here.
We can see Jiang's territory oriented style here.
White builds good shapes on the side, creating balance with the left side.
A simple joseki here.
The theme of this game is now clear. Black with territory, and a framework for white.
There's no need to play in the lower left. White should approach black's corner instead.
Normally, white attaches here to get a base.
It is a common sequence.
What would make white reluctant to play this variation?
If white follows this joseki, it's gote for white,
and the framework on the right will be erased.
Young professional players prefer unusual openings, rather than simple ones.
For these reasons, white attaches on the outside.
What happens if black plays atari?
White will play a counter-atari.
After this, black has to connect.
But there's no good move when white goes comes out here.
Black can't cut white because of this attachment.
Therefore, black has to extend here.
White usually peeps here, and it's a well known sequence.
Why doesn't white make this exchange?
If black connects, it would be a good exchange,
but white is worried about black's counter attack.
That's one of the normal variations.
Now it's difficult for white to play.
One would want to play somewhere in the center, but white's moyo is not secure.
Instead of invading, can black simply jump into white's area?
Yes, it's possible, because black can still reduce white's territory from the center.
White's strategy is to protect its area first and
attack when black comes into white's framework.
What's the intention of this move?
Black wants white to answer submissively. If white attacks,
black will play a shoulder hit with a one-space jump here.
However, I feel this is a little deep.
This move lets white decide whether to attack or not.
Depending on the next move, the flow of the game will change. Let's look at the game.
White shows fighting spirit, and begins attacking black.
This is the first instinct for moving out.
Black moves its group from the other side.
Connecting like this is the proper move for white.
White captures the 3 stones, attacking the group above.
Are those stones completely dead?
Black can utilize them a little later, but there's no way to rescue the group.
Instead of running away, black makes an invasion.
Many players fear being captured in such situations.
White looks thick, but has some weaknesses too.
This move is sharp and white wants to see how black responds first.
Now white has to decide whether to connect here or attack black.
Black successfully advanced into the center.
In exchange for this, black had to sacrifice the 2 stones.
Pushing without connecting on the bottom is a strong move.
I expected black to connect itself, but instead he played wildly.
If this move works well, black can take control of the game.
Does Jiang think he's behind?
Well, black forces white to cut with an empty triangle.
It's inevitable, though.
Jiang 9p has two nicknames. One is 'small giant man' and the other one is 'old man'.
After he won the LG cup, people gave him these nicknames.
The latter is not because he's old, but because he's shrewd.
The game is going to be complicated. Let's look at some variations for the middle game.
As you've seen, white attacked black severely after the deep reduction here.
The diagonal move is the easiest response.
It's the simplest way to play.
We rarely see such a move in pro games.
Professional players wouldn't countenance this.
It's only the middle game, so giving way so easily is unacceptable.
This move is also no good.
Black doesn't run away directly. What does it mean?
This intends to force white to push once, which is good for black.
White would normally approach here.
Locally it's a bad exchange, but white can attack black more powerfully.
Black looks fine with this shoulder hit.
If black pushes here, this group will become quite flexible.
Black seems safe now.
White has to play here, it's a vital point.
Yes, this looks excellent.
Black keeps going into white's area.
Normal players would want to move out in this situation.
White's group on the upper side is getting thin. Therefore, something must be done.
Yes, because of these vital points, white has to defend itself.
White shouldn't let black move towards the upper side.
Black has no choice but to move out.
White captures the 3 stones because there's no proper way attack the group above.
It's such a deep invasion.
It's not easy to come up with. A brave move.
Without deep reading, this is very dangerous.
This group can simply escape, but black thinks that's not good enough.
Why doesn't black take the simple option? Does Jiang think he's behind?
Well, probably not. Black will deal with the situation based on white's answer.
If white makes a mistake, black will gain a lot of profit here.
This move is interesting.
What if white answers here?
White can't cut. White would be in huge trouble.
White would want to cut here, but when black extends, white has to manage both groups.
So Na Hyun 2p has to be patient for the time being.
If black connects here, it's quite a simple sequence.
This looks so easy.
White can't separate black here, because he's not strong enough to do so.
Overall, black's counter attack seems to be successful.
With the sacrifice of the 2 stones, black continues strongly.
This attachment aims to make a knight's move here.
Can black block off white's escape like this?
With hane on top, white can easily get a good shape in black's area.
Now, black plays an asking move.
White pushes through, with fighting spirit.
Black may as well answer here.
Black has aji to rescue the 3 stones. Though it's not easy to do so right now.
After white advances into the center, black has to handle its baseless group well.
Na Hyun is attacking Jiang fiercely. How will the game continue?
The venue of the 17th LG Cup.
Jiang Weijie 9p
Na Hyun 2p
The previous promising player was Park Junghwan 9p.
Now he's one of the strongest players.
I hope Na Hyun follows Park 9p's path.
He's now among the very top class players.
Black doesn't have an easy way to manage this group.
Who's leading on territory?
I think black has a slight lead on points.
But the big group in the center is unstable.
White has to make up the difference by attacking.
White has to take care of the group to the right.
Jiang 9p likes territory and is good at managing weak groups.
Let's see if he does so in this game.
White's right side group has no eyes either,
so both sides have to take good care of their groups.
Because white is weak, white can't cut off the center.
White's base on the right is not yet secure.
Jiang 9p is well known for his efforts in Go.
It's the right move order for black.
Recently young players study very hard, however, Jiang is superb among them.
Na Hyun has drawn a lot of attention from many
people since becoming a professional player.
In Park Junghwan's case, it was anticipated that he would become
one of the top players earlier. He won his first international tournament last year.
Yes, it was the Fujitsu cup.
Park broke the world record as the youngest international champion by winning it.
The former record holder was Park Younghun 9p, but
Park Junghwan shortened the record by 2 years.
The board is getting complicated.
It is hard for white to cut black because of shortage of liberties and weak points.
White just attaches on the bottom.
Both players now have a lot of experience in world championships,
so their moves are very calm and stable.
White is about to connect.
Since white's alive, black has to find way to live too.
Because white has some weak points, black's big group is hard to capture.
White has to defend the center.
We often face a crossroads where we can choose to attack, or stop doing so to take profit.
We have to consider the circumstances.
If white keeps attacking black, the center group could be in danger.
Even though it looks strange, this is black's only move.
Nothing else?
No.
By exploiting white's weaknesses, black gets out of danger.
There's a cutting point. But Na Hyun 2p doesn't play there and lets black live.
White can't cut black, because white is too weak here.
Both sides successfully save their troubled groups.
The outline of the territory is now visible.
This game is going to reach the endgame soon.
Black still has to keep an eye on the cutting point.
White ensures the life of the center group.
The endgame will start soon. Let's review the middle game.
Black uses a leaning strategy, because the group on the right is very weak.
If white descends here, black will counter attack with this hane.
If white pushes and cuts here, too many weak points are exposed.
Because of those weaknesses, this idea is no good.
Black still has a critical weakness in the center.
White falls back, because he can't cut immediately.
Black has a good forcing move here, so white's group will be blocked.
A capturing race is expected and black seems to have more liberties.
That result is unacceptable for white.
For this reason, white just captured the single stone.
With the exchange here, black fixes its shape.
At last, black connects here.
Surprisingly, white's right side group is also without a base.
White just descends here.
Black can't cut here, due to a lot of weaknesses.
The hane is not a good idea here, because white will attach like this.
How about the attachment without the exchange below?
Then black will keep going through.
If white extends, black will make a net after pushing.
The attachment on top is rash.
Yes. White overplayed there.
White decides to connect.
After that, black's floating around and is in a bit of trouble.
White attaches here, erasing the weak point.
This cutting point is tempting.
Any atari is bad here.
But the problem begins when black makes an atari from this direction.
When black connects here, the life of white's top group will be under severe threat.
The double atari won't help much.
White doesn't need to take risks at this stage.
Now black plays like this. This seems to be very safe.
Can white cut here?
There are lots of forcing moves.
When black connects here, white has to block.
Then black will cut here and white is separated without any trouble.
If black strikes at the vital point, white's center group will be doomed.
This is inconceivable for white.
The purpose of this move is to defend, and to erase black's thickness.
White's switches to a territory based strategy.
Black can't miss this point.
White has to ensure the life of the center group.
From black's point of view, this cutting point is still troublesome.
It will be interesting to see what happens next. Let's have a look.
The game has been simplified.
The safety of black's big group is still uncertain.
Can Na Hyun 2p beat the defending champion Jiang Weijie 9p?
The winner will be decided in the endgame,
Since both players successfully managed their weak groups,
the endgame will decide the winner of the match.
Black defends the right side, not the left.
This one space jump seems to be very painful for black.
In my opinion, black should have secured the left side.
I'm wondering how strong Na Hyun 2p's endgame will be.
And I'm curious about the life of black's huge group.
Is there any potential for black's big group?
As soon as white plays there, black is in trouble.
Black can save the left group.
Then what about the right group?
Jiang might have made a misjudgment on the right side.
Now I'm not certain whether this big group can live or not.
Na Hyun is very calm. He could play to kill the huge group immediately.
It's quite a pleasurable point to play.
After the knight's move on the first line, black's huge group is dead.
There are no eyes on the lower side.
It's impossible to make two eyes in the right.
White captures the big group with the knight's move.
168 Moves, Na Hyun 2p wins by resignation.
The winner, Na Hyun 2p, advances to the quarter finals.
The main reason for Jiang's loss was that he overlooked the vulnerability of his group.
Commentator: Cho Daehyun 9p
Assistant Commentator: Kwon Hyojin 5pThank you!
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