White: Cornel Burzo (Romania) 6d
Black: Juyong Koh (Canada) 6d

Juyong Koh

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock.

CANADA-ROMANIA: Conjuring Ko
The big question is this game is how a guy with no ko threats winds up with five against Mr Koh. After Canada’s Juyong Koh 7d creates a ko for life in Cornel Burzo 6d of Romania’s moyo, Burzo – who chose not to attack the group more severely– manages to conjure up ko threats out of thin air. Koh, who has a chance to ignore the first threat, has no choice after responding and eventually loses the ko. However, Burzo then begins playing overly safely, according to game commentator Michael Redmond 9P, losing points in the endgame and coming up 5.5 short in the end…

The commented game in sgf format is available here.

– Ranka