Alejo's Tenuki

To capture on a large scale means to limit a group’s development or eyespace till he dies but from the distance.

On the side we have a sample. Black B stone hasn’t got enough space to develop and get eyespace, it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to escape from that white moyo; so, in fact, this stone is dead, though he has 4 liberties left.

This is a very easy sample to see and to apply to real games, but usually black won’t leave B lonely on the side and let you play A. He is going to try to escape or create eyespace.

The important point of this technique is that it can be applied to lots of games from all levels, from the real beginners to pros. The difficulty this technique has relies on the “when?” and realising it before your opponent does.

This easy sample may make you believe this technique is easy to use and to apply on real games. Here I’ll explain you what has happened me during the last games and I’ll show you another sample of a real-world situation.

Recently I’ve found myself playing a few complicated games, basically due to my lack of skills on fuseki… which leads me to this incredible fighting situations in the center of the board. It’s an all-in game. If I kill, I win; if he lives, he wins.

This is one sample of them, as you can see, there is a white dead group on the upper side, and a black group about to die in the center… or not??

If you were white what would you have done?

I guess most of you saw the point at H11. Black group dies. Making a rough estimation, you are back by around 80 points.

The game ended up with black resigning. You have dream BIG. Now, go back to the diagram and explore it, being a little more greedy, try capturing at a larger scale…. Any idea?

Now black is going to have a hard time trying to save his group. If black doesn’t save his cutting stones at M8, you win. Down here you can see the whole game, with both of us making lots of mistakes. I think black tried too badly to save that group and didn’t care about the M8 (which would have ruined the game for me once again).

Related posts:

1. Capturing on a large scale (2nd part)