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by James Sedgwick 6D

We entered Day 3 at the 2024 NAGF Pro Qualification Tournament with the playoff picture starting to clarify, but with potential for changes if anyone could score an upset against one of the players looking to move on. In group one Michael Xu got a solid win against Joel Kenny, locking down the second spot behind Bill Lin. In group 2, Guanyu Song, Eric Yoder, and Sen Zhan were tied at 3-1, and after the morning battles they all moved fairly smoothly to 4-1.  Guanyu in particular put on his first really impressive showing of the tournament, with a severe killing attack using a central ponnuki that could be in the textbook for a picture of "attacking power".  Sen and
Eric didn't put on quite as dramatic a show, but they both secured their wins in good order.

All of this was clearly just a warmup for the afternoon drama.  Guanyu got the random draw to move on in second place in the group. Good to move to the playoffs without knockout match, but tough in that he gets Bill Lin in the semi-finals.

The stage was set for Sen Zhan and Eric Yoder to battle it out for elimination. This game was close all the way, and was decided in the endgame, with some difficult judgements about the size of moves.  Perhaps the first turning point came when Sen, playing white, needed to choose A or B, both really large moves. In diagram 1 (left) A is worth a lot on the edge, and has some bonus value in threatening black's eyes. B seems to gain only six points from capturing three stones, but it turns out there is a large hidden value: once black plays C, saving the three stones, they get the T15 placement, which destroys all the seven triangle points! So B was actually much bigger than it looks, and when Sen chose A, Eric's lead stretched out to about five points.  

But, twenty moves later, it was Eric’s turn for a tough test. In diagram 2 (right), where is the key point for black, A or B?  A defends against some scary aji in the center, but in fact white can't get more than perhaps three points. When white plays B and black extends to the to the edge in response, white scores much more, wedging at C in sente. This secures the two triangles points for white, and eliminates the two triangled points from black’s territory, for nearly six points in sente, moving the game to within a half point. Eric would need not only to win the final ko, but also play the final neutral point to win. In the end, while he could manage to win the ko, he didn't have the threats to also play the final dame. All he could do was congratulate Sen and look forward to next year. But as spectators we are very grateful for the show these two put on with this exciting game today!