Shaking the Unbreakable 9-Dan
‘……Are you really going to play the Joseki from Daesa Baekbyeon here?’
I found myself staring at Kim Eun-woo 9-dan without realizing it.
Expressionless.
The flawless pro who played harmonious Go without emotional ups and downs.
But he deviated from the Joseki on the very first move.
A very aggressive attempt.
The ‘intention’ of Kim Eun-woo 9-dan felt not like an AI's move, but a human one, which was good.
It was against me.
‘Yes, this is the Go I wanted to play.’
A smile came out.
A pleasant smile.
I was confident that I wouldn't lose to anyone in researching Daesa Baekbyeon.
I responded boldly with a strong move.
Cutting two stones in cooperation.
The move with the most variations and complexity, which pros even avoid in actual play.
Even Lu Quanyi 9-dan suffered an early disadvantage in this variation.
Yet Kim Eun-woo 9-dan responded without hesitation.
A strong extending move.
It was a preparation for the battle that would open from the side.
It felt like a resolve not to compromise.
‘Same for me.’
He placed a stone quietly.
The ripples spread like fire in a dry field.
It wasn't a localized fight.
The start was Daesa Baekbyeon, but the flames covered the entire battlefield.
Left upper, right side, lower side, and center.
All areas intertwined.
Crosses and battles.
Reading and time strategy.
Continuous shaking.
Both sides clashed with the best move without retreating.
‘……Well played.’
I admired inwardly.
The flawless player.
No mistakes, no weaknesses.
Stable and no emotional ups and downs.
Textbook completion and timing.
Didn't play risky moves, but rather judged half a move faster than me and suppressed.
Left almost no room to penetrate.
‘This is…… the domestic ranking's permanent #2.’
Some people belittled Kim Eun-woo 9-dan as the eternal #2.
But in my view, it was wrong.
It wasn't that he was weak, but that Jeong Si-hoo 9-dan was a monster.
After 67 moves.
The board was still tight.
About two points behind.
When I entered the middle game, I immediately launched a fierce shaking attempt.
But black didn't shake.
Insane flexibility.
Excellent balance sense.
Precise compromise to secure the center, and also had eyes to read the overall board.
None excessive or lacking.
Consistency in not giving room and calmly maintaining lead.
Then, starting from middle game management, finishing with endgame.
The player who wins by finishing even if middle game is close — this is Kim Eun-woo's flawless Go.
But.
‘……Even if not shaken, can be shaken.’
Creating imbalance is not just sense and intuition.
Not the Blue Spot that AI pursues.
A somewhat exaggerated-sounding word.
But since human, can try, and only humans can do it.
Calculation not possible.
Prediction not possible.
A move created by creative, creative, non-standard thinking that takes risk.
‘……Can do it.’
I slowly lifted the stone.
Not in a hurry.
Didn't hide it.
‘Look at the board situation farther and wider.’
I rewrote the entire board.
From disadvantageous position to advantageous.
To do that, create a crack.
He placed a black stone quietly.
“……!”
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan finally let out a breath.
His eyes looking into the intention of the move he played.
After quite a long time.
“Black penetrated into the lower right.”
A weakness in black.
A form that looked suspicious at a glance.
A spot no one could miss.
‘As intended.’
He voluntarily gives up his weak spot.
But not just that.
By dismantling unnecessary forms, creating a new path.
The thickness he gained.
The shape he had taken the lead first.
By creating cracks one by one, dulling his opponent's strengths.
‘……Flawlessness is also the meaning of not making mistakes in Go.’
The player who wins Go by not making mistakes.
Chooses to avoid fights with higher probability of losing rather than winnable fights.
That's Kim Eun-woo's Go.
To beat such a person, one must shake, taking risks.
In a way that calculation and prediction are not possible.
‘Exchange.’
His eyes looking at the Go stones darkened.
He eliminates the disadvantageous section, and when opportunity arises, fixes it.
This is not a fight of thickness and thickness, but a Go that changes the structure and flow itself.
He keeps overturning the board.
By exchanging once, overturning the structure and changing again in the gap.
This is the Go he is playing now.
* * *
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan.
He hated the tail that followed him.
The eternal #2.
But it wasn't always like that.
Until Jeong Si-hoo 9-dan's strong period started, he was at the peak of world Go.
He had the power to win domestic tournaments and even the four major world tournaments.
At one point, he even reached world #1 ranking.
But that was the end.
With Jeong Si-hoo 9-dan's strong period beginning, he was gradually pushed back.
His record against Jeong Si-hoo 9-dan in the last two years was 1 win 15 losses.
He had only given up eight championships in domestic finals.
Moreover, from a few years ago, the rise of Chinese players on the world stage was prominent.
Ultimately, after losing in the Ciel Bank Cup,
He was pushed out of the top 10 in world ranking for the first time in 5 years.
Some called it slump.
Some drew a line saying it's skill.
Others coldly said it's aging curve.
All were right words.
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan also instinctively felt it now.
The time to come down from the top.
He felt that the moment was approaching.
‘……Behind is a cliff. If I can't climb up from here, it's over.’
He endured.
The most meaningless word in the world of competition.
If you don't win, you are eliminated.
With that resolve, he entered the National Go Tournament.
This was the last tournament of the year, and he wanted to win the National Go Tournament, which is traditional and historical.
He also took out the challenging Joseki Daesa Baekbyeon from the beginning of the game for that reason.
But.
‘……Strong. Much stronger than what I saw in the records.’
Kim In-ha.
He was a genius.
Same age, 29 years old.
He won the Ciel Bank Cup as an amateur at a late age.
An unprecedented event in the Go world.
Irrational and alien.
Especially, in the second game of the Ciel Bank Cup finals against Lu Quanyi 9-dan,
Even though cheating was allowed twice, he still won.
‘Genius is not enough to describe it.’
That's why it's more dangerous.
More awe-inspiring and threatening.
It was fortunate that it had only just appeared.
And.
In this game too, his genius was being revealed without filter.
After Daesa Baekbyeon, the variations.
Early and middle game joseki.
And middle game shaking.
Not a standard move, but sharper and deeper than standard.
He boldly and persistently dug in.
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan maintained composure even in several crises.
‘……Shaking doesn't exist. Just play against my Go.’
The stylistic compatibility was more advantageous to him.
The philosophy of the Go he pursued was stability.
In a way, the opponent who the psychological battle doesn't work on is exactly him.
‘Two points secured.’
Even in the middle game, the shape was still advantageous.
But then.
Kim In-ha played a stone in a place he hadn't expected at all.
‘……Mistake? No, think calmly.’
He thought and thought again.
Because there might be some trap.
But the conclusion was the same.
An absurd mistake.
Without missing the chance, he penetrated into the side.
Loss.
But it didn't matter.
Looking at the gain and loss, it was clearly a gain.
A fat stone for three points.
No reason to refuse.
And eventually, he lost that game.
The situation where the thickness was further widened.
At the moment when he was confident that just solidifying would win.
‘No. This is……’
Kim In-ha neutralized the emotion he was holding by giving up the thickness.
It wasn't a simple loss.
Not a simple exchange either.
He boldly gave up the stone he was weak at.
It was an exchange that changed the shape of the board and even the structure itself.
And it was just the beginning.
No compromise.
No prediction allowed.
Playing only standard moves, but changes continue.
Continuously.
Continuously.
The board changes.
‘……Again?’
Exchange.
A structure that forces him to suffer if he doesn't respond.
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan kept calculating, kept reading moves.
But at some point, the reading couldn't follow the flow.
He neutralized the initiative.
Changed the picture.
His strengths were being dulled.
Continuous exchanges.
Not just simple shape judgment.
He was controlling the flow. Not the result, but changing the direction.
‘……This is the first time I've seen such a Go.’
The idea itself was different.
Who, what crazy guy.
A move that sacrifices thickness to give up weaknesses and intentionally dull the opponent's strengths?
Never once. Twice, three times.
Irrational genius.
A moment, a vague, scary emotion crossed.
If Kim In-ha had entered the Go world at the same age as him, what would it have been like?
He didn't want to imagine.
He didn't even want to think about it.
If Jeong Si-hoo 9-dan wasn't enough, and Kim In-ha was active in the same era.
Even the title of #2?
Would it have been possible to come back?
It was too unreasonable.
Too irrational.
‘……How can there be so many moves like this?’
A dangerous move.
A move no one would readily play.
A move possible only by betting the entire board.
But he was playing it casually like a standard move.
Not once, but continuously, repeatedly.
The entire board was exchanged, the forms, the shapes, the center axis were overturned.
And eventually, he created a comeback.
“……”
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan raised his head.
Quietly facing him.
The man staring silently at the board.
His eyes never shaken even once.
Only Go for overturning.
This Go was the Go that existed outside all the winning formulas he knew.
* * *
“……I lost.”
Kim Eun-woo 9-dan quietly placed the Go stones under the table.
The referee approached and confirmed the final resignation, then silently left the seat.
I bowed my head.
The game was over, but neither of us easily got up from our seats.
The aftertaste of the match remained thick.
A short time later, Kim Eun-woo 9-dan raised his finger and pointed to the upper right.
“I should not have responded to that exchange……”
A fight for the loss.
And the completely changed shape because of it.
He quietly continued the review, pointing out each stone one by one.
“I didn't play anywhere as you expected. The way to compensate for the disadvantage…… was different.”
A calm but heartfelt voice.
I nodded and quietly met his eyes.
And slowly spoke.
“……If I hadn't played that much, I wouldn't have lost.”
After taking a short breath, continued.
“I learned a lot.”
With those words, Kim Eun-woo's eyes widened slightly.
A look of surprise for a moment.
But soon, his expression relaxed somewhere. A face as if something had been sorted out.
“I wish I could have played such a Go with you a bit earlier……”
He lowered his head with a small smile and got up from his seat.
And silently left the studio.
Alone, I took a moment to breathe.
As I tried to remove my body from the chair back while relaxing.
- Beep!
The system notification sound rang.
You have advanced to the quarterfinals of the 60th DN Automobile National Go Tournament.
You have defeated the ‘Unbreakable Divine Entry’.
The system is confirming the evolutionary potential of your talent ‘Go’.
Congratulations. The ‘Realm of Enlightenment’ has partially expanded.
The mind game talent ‘Shogi’ is budding.
Your talent ‘Shogi’ is C+ grade.
This talent is not associated with ‘Main Job’ or ‘Talent Maintenance Conditions’.