by James Sedgwick 6D
Bill Lin drew the black stones to start the first game of the final. For 107 moves Sen Zhan probed for an opportunity to gain an advantage, but Bill parried every thrust, and finally crept very slightly ahead. Sen was in a difficult position, and hunted for a way to change the flow of the game. He chose the marked move (J3). If black resists, a fight will start, which can be a good opportunity for white. But in fact when black just answers at J2 and sacrifices to connect, white spending a turn in this area has become too slow; black gets the next move in the center and takes control of the game. Sen fought on, trying to find a way back, but Bill didn't give him any chances, and Sen will doubtless be thinking hard about what went wrong, and how he can turn the match around in game 2 Friday morning and take this final to the full three games.