The “Tsinghua Weiqi Foundation Cup European Pro Championship” was won by Andrii Kravets 3p, and in the last round he played a game that I found very instructive. I was travelling by train between Stockholm and Malmö, and my headphones had discharged, so when I streamed the European Go Federation’s stream on Twitch, I did it with no sound, so as not to disturb my co-passengers. When I logged in, the game had already reached move 66 (see the game below) and I started out by counting how many safe points both sides had. It seemed that Black was leading by some margin, on points. Then I looked at the whole-board situation, and I realized that Black had two (perhaps even three) weak groups, and that White was in the process of separating and attacking them.

I have been working on my own game quite a lot in the autumn, and it has shown in my games. Still, these situations, when my opponents take lots of “safe” points, and then proceed to invade, are what I find most hard to deal with in games with shorter time. I still lack the right feeling for where to play, and from what direction to push my opponent’s stones. Watching and analyzing games like the one below is the way forward, for me: