by James Sedgwick 6D
After losing Game 1 in the NAGF ProQual final Thursday afternoon, Sen Zhan had clearly thought hard overnight, and had a plan for Game 2. He played patiently through the opening, building up strength for a powerful crosscut (K13 in Dia. 1, left). The sequence played out to the position in Dia. 2 (right). When I look at this it seems that black got everything they wanted, capturing the triangled stones at the top to complete their large territory, as well as capturing the three triangled stones in the center, which took care of the weak black group on the middle left. Yet white won comfortably; how? The answer becomes clear when white plays at O4 on the bottom right, splitting black into two thin groups and, more importantly, giving white control in the larger part of the board; from here Bill used this power to close out the game. The judgement Bill showed to avoid other fights he could have chosen and to realize this is good for him is stunning. Congratulations are due both to North America’s new professional Bill Lin and to runner-up Sen Zhan; both players showed the promise of an exciting new generation of North American Go players.